About noon
He accordingly took the direction of things into his own hands : the wind , which had moderated , was still from the west , and he put the boat before it , and lashed the helm . The peculiar appearance of the atmosphere still continued . During the morning a number of tropic birds flew by us , the first that we had seen since our separation from the ship . About noon , two noddies alighted on the gaff , and the little native climbed the mast after them ; but though they are generally so tame , or so stupid , as to permit themselves to be approached and taken with the hand , these flew away before he could seize them . We hailed the appearance of these birds as a favourable omen , neither species being often seen at any considerable distance from land . It was , I suppose , about an hour after this , that happening to look back , I saw what appeared to be a high island , covered with tall groves of palms , some two miles distant . The elevated shores , and the green tops of the trees , were plainly visible ; but just at the point where land and water met , there was a kind of hazy indistinctness in the view .