THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 167 
of those luminaries of heaven which we had been 
accustomed to behold in our native land, but which 
for many years had been invisible.—When the 
polar-star rose above the horizon, and Ursa-major, 
with other familiar constellations, appeared, we 
hailed them as long absent friends; and could 
not but feel that we were nearer England than 
when w r e left Tahiti, simply from beholding the 
stars that had enlivened our evening excursions 
at home. 
But although, in our present voyage, none of 
these appeared, and the southern hemishere is less 
brilliant than that of the north, it exhibited much 
to attract attention. The stars in the Fish, the. 
Ship, and the Centaur, the nebulae or magellani'c 
clouds, and, above all others, Crux, or “ Cross 
of the South,” are all peculiar to this part of the 
heavens. This latter constellation is one of the 
most remarkable in the southern hemisphere. The 
two stars forming the longest part, having nearly 
the same right ascension, it appears erect when in 
the zenith, and thus furnishes a nightly index to 
the flight of time, and a memento to the most 
sublime feelings of grateful devotion. 
With my fellow-voyagers I could enter into 
nothing like reciprocally interesting conversation 
on these subjects. Their legends of the nature 
and origin of the stars were absurd and fabu¬ 
lous; and my attempts to explain the magnitude, 
distances, or movements of the heavenly bodies, 
appeared to them unintelligible— 
Their “ souls proud science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk or milky-way.” 
The natives of the islands were, however, accus¬ 
tomed in some degree to notice the appearance 
