eleven o’clock
The low coast of Tabor Island , scarcely emerging from the sea , was not more than fifteen miles distant . The head of the `` Bonadventure , '' which was a little to the south of the island , was set directly towards it , and as the sun mounted in the east , its rays fell upon one or two headlands . `` This is a much less important isle than Lincoln Island , '' observed Herbert , `` and is probably due like ours to some submarine convulsion . '' At eleven o'clock the `` Bonadventure '' was not more than two miles off , and Pencroft , while looking for a suitable place at which to land , proceeded very cautiously through the unknown waters . The whole of the island could now be surveyed , and on it could be seen groups of gum and other large trees , of the same species as those growing on Lincoln Island . But the astonishing thing was that no smoke arose to show that the island was inhabited , no signal whatever appeared on the shore ! And yet the document was clear enough ; there was a castaway , and this castaway should have been on the watch .