19 



waters than the effect of a current which bore 

 to the north-west, and which hindered us from 

 diminishing our latitude as much as we wished. 

 The force of this current augments as we ap- 

 proach the new continent ; it is modified by the 

 configuration of t he coasts of Brazil and Guiana, 

 and not by the waters of the Oroonoko and the 

 Amazons, as some naturalists pretend. 



From the time we entered the torrid zone, we 

 were never wearied with admiring, every night, 

 the beauty of the southern sky, which, as we ad- 

 vanced toward the south, opened new constella- 

 tions to our view. We feel an indescribable 

 sensation, when, on approaching the equator, 

 and particularly on passing from one hemisphere 

 to the other, we see those stars, which we have 

 contemplated from our infancy, progressively 

 sink, and finally disappear. Nothing awakens 

 in the traveller a livelier remembrance of the 

 immense distance by which he is separated from 

 his country, than the aspect of an unknown 

 firmament. The grouping of the stars of the 

 first magnitude, some scattered nebulae, rival- 

 ling in splendor the milky way, and tracks of 

 space remarkable for their extreme blackness, 

 give a particular physiognomy to the southern 

 sky. This sight fills with admiration even those, 

 who, uninstructed in the branches of accurate 

 science, feel the same emotion of delight in the 

 contemplation of the heavenly vault, as in the 



