TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. Ill 



breeze of the night, is changed into a sea of waving 

 fire. 



Great and glorious are the impressions which 

 the stranger here receives of the power and peace 

 of the elements ; but unused to the torrid zone, 

 he feels a disagreeable sensation from the moisture 

 and coolness of the morning and evening, and the 

 oppressive heat of the noon. The whole crew, 

 therefore, began to complain, in this latitude, of head- 

 ach and cholic; and only artificial means, such as 

 tartar and rhubarb, could prevent disease, in a cli- 

 mate where the rays of the sun fall perpendicular. 

 At length we came, though slowly, out of this re- 

 gion of sultry and wearisome calm, because the 

 wind which blew after the thunderstorms at noon, 

 always carried the ship a little forward; by degrees, 

 too, a faint south wind arose, varying from S.E. to 

 S.W., and diminished the temperature, in the 

 morning, at 7 o'clock, in the air, to 20.75° R., in 

 the water to 22° ; at noon, in the air, to 21.50°, in 

 the water to 22° ; in the evening, at half-past seven, 

 in the air, to 21.25°. When we had reached lon- 

 gitude 21° 21' west of Paris, and 5° 28' N. latitude, 

 the wind began to blow more -steadily from the S., 

 and fixing in S.E. and S.S.E., formed the constant 

 wind, which blowing regularly, accompanied us 

 through these latitudes. We still saw for a mo- 

 ment the polar star, a few degrees above the 

 horizon, which is here generally clouded ; on the 

 other hand the cross, and the other constellations 



