Others followed the beckoning leader until the place was swarming, and we retreated to the chairs at the stern, where, with breakneck naps, we spent the night, shuddering to think of the preceding night, when, preferring starlight to candles, we had gone to bed in the dark.
The sky was full of big, yellow, pulsing stars, but the Southern Cross was not visible. Orion gradually changed its angle and tilted itself almost in reverse; and Orion was a great offense to me in those low latitudes. As if one went to latitude 0° and to 6° N. and 13° N. to see one's most familiar northern constellation!
"Meh lady! Meh lady! The Holy Cross is here in the sky now," said faithful David at four o'clock, and he crossed himself as became a good Romanist, There, straightaway in our wake to southward, were two lopsided crosses, or diamonds, each outlined by four great, glowing yellow stars where the narrow cut of the Buckingham Canal exactly underlay and reflected the great southern constellation, the filmy trails of Magellan's clouds floating near.
