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 voyage. Upon this being made known to us, and being well aware that seamen are of headstrong and obstinate dispositions, we conceded to their clamours, and steered next day for Cape Verd, on our return to Portugal[12].

[1] Cape Verd is about 100 miles from the southern mouth of the river Senegal; so that the voyagers probably anchored every night within sight of the scarcely known coast.

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