noon
Still assuming Barber 's story to be true , I reasoned that the fact of the stranded ship having remained so long where she was , apparently unvisited and uninterfered with -- until the Englishman 's arrival upon the scene -- argued that she was to be found on an island not only uninhabited but also very rarely visited ; and reasoning thus I was at length enabled to make a fairly shrewd guess as to the most likely direction in which to look for her ; and in that direction I accordingly headed the ship . It was about a month after our passage through Maurissa Strait that , as we were working to windward against a light and fickle breeze , land was sighted about three points on the weather bow . The time was close upon eight bells in the afternoon watch , and the land sighted was a mere dot of faintest blue showing just clear of the horizon . I had been anticipating its appearance at any moment since I had worked out my sights at noon and pricked off the ship 's position on the chart , for the spot of which we were in search was no unknown , mysterious island . Careful study of Barber 's narrative , as recorded in the late Skipper Stenson 's diary , had convinced me that the island was quite well known and had been more or less thoroughly surveyed ; and exhaustive study of the diary and the chart combined had finally led me to the conclusion that if the treasure really existed it would be found not very far from the peak that had just hove in sight . But of that I should perhaps be better able to judge when I could see a little more of it . I therefore took the ship 's telescope out of the beckets where it hung in the companion , and , slinging it over my shoulder , made my way up to the royal yard , where I seated myself comfortably and , steadying the tube of the instrument against the masthead , brought it to bear upon the land to windward .