ten o'clock in the morning
There was nothing they did that he did not want to assist in ; and they found the utmost difficulty in making him understand that they would really prefer that he did not take his turn with the others at the night-watches in the pilot-house . They quickly realised that it would be quite impossible for them to preserve from him the secret of the nature of their operations at the pearl-island ; they therefore made a virtue of necessity , and frankly told him all about the matter , merely retaining the position of the island from him . As might be expected , he exhibited the utmost interest in their plans ; promptly demanded to be made useful in the carrying out of their operations , and -- also as might be expected -- betrayed no diffidence about making the suggestion that he should be permitted to share in such good fortune as might attend their labours . The atoll was sighted a little after ten o'clock in the morning , and by eleven o'clock the ship had safely entered the lagoon , and come to anchor as nearly as possible in its centre . The islet -- which , as von Schalckenberg 's book had stated , was little more than a mere rock -- was of coral formation , and appeared to be merely a volcanic or seismic upheaval of one small portion of the oval ring of coral that formed the lagoon . Looked at broadside-on , so to speak , it bore some resemblance in appearance to a whale asleep on the water . Sand had washed up and become lodged among the inequalities of the rock-surface , and the deposits of birds had converted this into soil that , poor as it looked , sufficed to nourish a small clump of coconut palms that reared themselves from the highest point of the islet , which rose some thirty feet above the surface of the ocean .