ent by the
heavy lead-colored rain clouds which occupied all the rest of the sky.

The inward, spiritual magnificence of that northern sunset, and the
unreserved splendor of this southern one, were in correspondence with
the different tone which runs throughout nature in each of the two
regions.

After sunset hues and rain cloud had both given way to the brilliant
night sky of that latitude, we seated ourselves, seven in number,
captain and mate included, on the extensive quarter deck of not less
than seven feet from cabin house to stern bulwarks, for a final game of
'Twenty Questions;' when our hitherto so amiable friend, the Caribbean,
suddenly flung a spiteful wave right over the quarter upon us, and put a
very unexpected extinguisher on our pastime. The ladies, who were
reclining on the deck, came in for the chief share of the compliment,
and were in some danger of an indiscriminate swash down the cabin
gangway; but the mate gallantly picked up one, and her husband the
other, and saved them from all mischief but the drenching. This sudden
interruption of amicable relations with the powers of the wave was
followed up by a night of unmerciful rocking, to which, as we had now
come under the lee of the land, was added a sweltering heat. I can stand
as much heat as any man, but for once I found the cabin too much of a
blackhole even for me, and after tossing most of the night in alternate
correspondence and contradiction to the pitching of the vessel, I got up
and went on deck, to see if a nap were any more feasible there. I found
most of our company already recumbent in this starry bedchamber. After
awhile admiring the unaccustomed brilliancy of the old familiar
constellations of our northern sky, augmented by the effulgent host
which our approach to the equator had brought into view, among all which
Venus shone like a young moon, I fell asleep also, and we slumbered in
concert, until awakened by the streaks of dawn. Soon the sun rose with a
serene magnificence, well according with the day of holy rest and
cheerful expectation which lay before us. The white haze upon the sky
rolled away from the blue, and gathered itself into fleecy masses, which
stood like pillars around the seaward horizon, brightening with a
cheerful tempered light, until, as the sun grew higher, they dissolved
away. Meanwhile, on the landward side of our vessel--which had rounded
Morant Point in the night, and was now gliding smoothly on--lay in ne