While we remained off the mouth of this river, we only once saw the north
star in clear weather, and it was then so low as hardly to appear above
the height of a lance above the sea[11]. We likewise observed, in about
the same elevation, due south by the compass, a constellation of six
large bright stars, in the figure of a cross, in this form:

*
* * * *
*

We conjectured this to be the _southern chariot_, but could not expect to
observe the principal star, as we had not yet lost sight of the north
pole. In this place, on the _first_ of July, we found the night to be
eleven hours and a half long, and the day twelve hours and a half. The
climate is always hot, and I was told, that even the rain in the inland
parts falls warm, in consequence of the great heat of the air. It is true,
that there is some difference of the heat at different seasons, and when
the heat is a little diminished, the natives call it winter. The rains
begin in July, and continue till the end of October, and fall every day
about noon; at which time certain clouds arise in the N.E. by E. or E.N.E.
which are accompanied by prodigious thunder and lightning, and vast
torrents of rain. In this season, which is in the beginning of July, the
Negroes sow their grain, in the same manner with the people in Senegal.
Their provisions consist of millet, pulse, flesh and milk. There is not
so much dawn at break of day in this southern latitude as with us in
Italy; for, within half an hour after the darkness of the night begins to
dispel, the sun appears, and during all that dawn the atmosphere is
turbid, as if filled with smoke, and the moment the sun appears this mist
is dissipated. I could only account for this phenomenon, by attributing
it to the low and flat surface of this country, which is destitute of
mountains, and my companions were of a similar opinion.

On holding a consultation among the commanders of the three caravels, we
came to a resolution of proceeding about an hundred miles up the river,
in hopes of meeting with a less ferocious, and better disposed people in
the interior, than those we had encountered at the mouth of this river:
But the sailors were impatient to return home, without incurring any
farther dangers, and unanimously and loudly refused their consent to our
determination, declaring that they had already done enough for the
present vo