APPEARANCE OF THE SOUTHERN HEAVENS AT NIGHT—HOMESICKNESS—I TAKE SEVERAL OBSERVATIONS—ASTONISHMENT OF ROGALA—FIND THAT I AM NINETY MILES SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR

At last the sun set behind the trees. Darkness came on, and the stars made their appearance one by one. Soon the heavens glittered with them. The murmur of the wind passing through the top of the trees and the gentle noise of the river gliding along the shores were all that disturbed the absolute silence of the night. I was happy to see the stars again. How beautiful they were in the blue heavens!

I gazed upon them silently for quite a while, then I said to them: "I love you, dear twinkling stars, for you are my friends and companions of the night. Without you I should be lost in this great forest. You and the moon tell me where I am. I miss you ever so much when I am without you. I feel lonely without you."

But I missed many of the stars that I loved at home. The little ship that had carried me across the ocean to those southern latitudes had taken me away from them. Many stars that were unknown to me had taken their place, and though they were beautiful and I admired them, I did not love them. The stars that twinkle and look down upon the bright glittering snow, the Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, the Alleghanies, upon our great lakes, prairies, dales, and hills, upon the pine, the oak, the beech, the elm, and the birch, upon the violets, buttercups, and goldenrods, were those I loved the best.

An uncontrollable fit of sadness seized me as I missed them. I thought of home, of friends. Tears filled my eyes, I could not help it. Fortunate was it that Rogala was not near me. He might have thought that the Oguizi was, after all, a human being.

But there were stars that were old friends. The Pleiades were there, the stars of the constellation of the Great Bear. Vega, that I loved so much at home, seemed to be right above me; so were Aldebaran and the stars of the constellation of Orion. Here the position of the stars made the sword perfectly straight.

The sky of the southern hemisphere was very unlike that of the northern. One of the most striking sights was the constellation of the Cross, commonly known by mariners as the Southern Cross, composed of four brilliant stars. The three brightest stars in the heavens, Sirius, Canopus, Centaur, filled a part of the heavens with their light.

Mars, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter were looking upon me. That part of the Milky Way between the stars Sirius and Centaur was so rich in stars and crowded nebulÆ that it seemed a perfect blaze of light.

There were the Magellanic clouds, white-looking patches, made up of countless stars unseen to the eye, and nebulÆ,—stars in formation,—shining brilliantly and revolving round the starless South Pole.

Then, looking northward, I saw the constellation of the Great Bear, which reaches its meridian altitude at about the same time as the constellations of the Cross and of the Centaur.

I gazed upon the heavens almost all of the night. I was perfectly oblivious of everything else. Stars appeared and disappeared. They were like a succession of guests coming and going.

At last I said good-night to the stars, and pulling my old panama hat over my head, to protect my eyes from the rays of the moon, I soon fell asleep on the sand, under the blue heavens and the stars twinkling over me. I dreamt of friends, of boys and girls at home, of the North Star, of snow, of strawberries, peaches, and jam. I was suddenly awakened by the sharp barking of Andekko. It was broad daylight. Rogala was cooking turtle's eggs. Ndova was looking at me. All the stars had disappeared, and the sun had risen to give life and food to the sons of men, for without the sun there would be no life, no vegetation upon the earth. I spent the day quietly, waiting impatiently for the night to take astronomical observations.

After sunset I said to Rogala: "Bring me the 'precious box.'" After he had laid it at my feet I opened it.

Rogala stood up close to me, looking on with mingled feelings of curiosity and fear. First, I took from the box two sextants—one was to determine the altitude of the stars, planets, and moon; the other the distance between them from east to west, or vice versa. Then I took out a trough, which I filled up with quicksilver to be used as an artificial horizon, on which the stars were to be reflected.

From a little copper-screwed water-tight box I took two watches out of four which all marked the seconds, a bull's-eye lantern, and other objects that excited the wonder of Rogala. Before taking the observations, I thought I would have some fun with Rogala. I placed my telescope in position for Jupiter and said to him: "In the land of the Oguizi this star is called Jupiter. Do you see little stars round it?" I meant the satellites.

"No," he replied.

"There are stars near it," said I, "but your eyes cannot see them. I will show them to you."

Then I made him look with the telescope towards Jupiter, and he saw the satellites. He looked at me with awe, then with wonder. Fortunately he knew I would not harm him, but throwing himself at my feet, he took hold of them and exclaimed: "You are a great Oguizi. My eyes have seen what no other black man's have seen before;" then he got up and in a loud voice invoked the spirits of his ancestors to protect and watch over him, and shouted, "Great indeed is the Oguizi."

When I was ready to take observations, I seated myself cross-legged before the artificial horizon. On my right was a sextant to take the distance between the moon and the lunar stars that were in position. Close by was one of the watches; also the magnifying-glass to help me to read the degrees, minutes, and seconds on the sextant.

On my left was the sextant for taking altitudes, near which was the slate with pencil to write down the figures, and the bull's-eye lantern was lighted to help me to read the sextant. Also a thermometer for ascertaining the temperature.

The most important thing was to make the observations as quickly as possible and read from the watch the space of time between them.

After spending four hours in making observations I stopped. I looked at Rogala. He was fast asleep, for he was very tired and had worked hard during the day. I awoke him, and we went to our little hut and lay down to sleep. We knew that if natives came up or down the river Andekko would warn us in time.

When I awoke, Rogala was still asleep. Ndova had his eyes shut and his head was hanging down on his breast. Andekko lay across the door, apparently asleep, but as soon as he heard me he wagged his tail and followed me to the river and remained by me until I had had a good bath.

For three days and three nights I worked very hard. I took many observations, and made calculations which showed my latitude, longitude, the day of the month and of the week, and gave me the month in which I was. I found that it was Wednesday, the 17th of August, that I was ninety miles south of the equator, and two hundred and ten miles in the interior.