about three o'clock
It was about three o'clock of a winter 's afternoon in Tai-o-hae , the French capital and port of entry of the Marquesas Islands . The Trades blew strong and squally ; the surf roared loud on the shingle beach ; and the fifty-ton schooner of war , that carries the flag and influence of France about the islands of the cannibal group , rolled at her moorings under Prison Hill . The clouds hung low and black on the surrounding amphitheatre of mountains ; rain had fallen earlier in the day , real tropic rain , a waterspout for violence ; and the green and gloomy brow of the mountain was still seamed with many silver threads of torrent . In these hot and healthy islands winter is but a name .