54 THE SOUTHERN CKOSS. 



tlicir extreme blackness, give a peculiar physiognomy to 

 the soLitliern sky. This sight fills with admiration even 

 those who, uninstructed in the several branches of physical 

 science, feel the same emotion of delight in the contempla- * 

 tion of the heavenly vault, as in the view of a beautiful 

 landscape, or a majestic site. A traveller needs not to be 

 a botanist, to recognise the torrid zone by the mere aspect 

 of its vegetation. Without having acquired any notions 

 of astronomy, without any acquaintance with the celes- ■ 

 tial charts of Flamstead and De la Caille, he feels he is 

 not in Europe, when he sees the immense constellation 

 of the Ship, or the phosphorescent Clouds of Magellan, 

 arise on the horizon. The heavens and the earth, 

 everything in the equinoctial regions, presents an exotic 

 character." 



The lower regions of the air were loaded with vapours 

 for some days. They saw distinctly for the first time 

 the Southern Cross only on the night of the 4th of July, 

 in the sixteenth degree of latitude. It was strongly in- 

 clined, and appeared from time to time between the 

 clouds, the centre of which, furrowed by uncondensed 

 lightnings, reflected a silvery light. 



The pleasure the travellers felt on discovering the 

 Southern Cross was w^armly shared by those of the crew 

 who had visited the colonies. In the solitude of the 

 seas we hail a star as a friend, from w^hom we have long 

 been separated. The Portuguese and the Spaniards are 

 peculiarly susceptible of this feeling; a religious senti- 

 ment attaches them to this constellation, the form of 

 which recalls the sign of the faith planted by their an- 

 cestors in the deserts of the New World. 



The two sfreat stars which mark the summit and the 



