ten o'clock at night
They were festooned from base to summit with beautiful evergreen foliage ; and the entrance to the harbour of the island was to be seen within and beyond these outlying sentinels , stretching up inland towards a mass of purple mountains from a beach of yellow sand . Next , we passed to the leeward of Martinique ; and , then , towards sunset of the same day , as we approached Saint Kitts , islet after islet jumped up out of the sea in front of us , to the right hand and to the left . They were all misty at first , but changed their colours from slaty grey to green as we approached them nearer , although their shape was all pretty much the same -- tall sugar-loaf peaks surrounded by verdure sloping down in graceful curves to the water 's edge , the surf breaking against the shore of those to leeward in clouds of spray , while the waves washed the rocky feet of those on the windward side without a ripple . When the sun disappeared below the western horizon , Montserrat , Redonda , Nevis , Saint Christopher , and Saint Eustatius were all in sight around us ; and , just at ten o'clock at night , when the moon was at the full , lighting up the scene with its silvery beams as brightly almost as if it were day , we passed between Saint Eustatius and the island of Saba . We approached the latter within two miles , but when its north point bore west we steered for Dog Island , clearing the reefs somewhere about the middle watch . Soon after sunrise next morning we weathered Sombrero , the last of the Antilles , and thus got fairly out into the Atlantic , leaving the West Indies behind us as we hauled our wind and bore away for the Azores -- although a long stretch of ocean had to be crossed ere we might hope to reach this half-way port on our voyage . But I have not yet described our ship and those on board .