noon
If the truth must be said , some of the emigrants began to doubt the governor 's ability to find his islands again , though none doubted of their existence . The Kannakas , however , declared that they began to smell home , and it is odd enough , that this declaration , coming as it did from ignorant men who made it merely on a fanciful suggestion , obtained more credit with most of the emigrants , than all the governor 's instruments and observations . One day , a little before noon it was , Mark appeared on deck with his quadrant , and as he cleaned the glasses of the instrument , he announced his conviction that the ship would shortly make the group of the crater . A current had set him further north than he intended to go , but having hauled up to south-west , he waited only for noon to ascertain his latitude , to be certain of his position . As the governor maintained a proper distance from his people , and was not in the habit of making-unnecessary communications to them , his present frankness told for so much the more , and it produced a very general excitement in the ship . All eyes were on the look-out for land , greatly increasing the chances of its being shortly seen . The observation came at noon , as is customary , and the governor found he was about thirty miles to the northward of the group of islands he was seeking .