We now caught the trade wind, that blows from the east, and is anxiously desired by all sailors.
In the night of the 9-10th we entered the tropics.

We were now in daily expectation of greater heat and a clearer sky, but met with neither.

The atmosphere was dull and hazy, and even in our own raw fatherland the sky could not have been so overcast, except upon some days in November.

Every evening the clouds were piled upon one another in such a way that we were continually expecting to see a water-spout; it was generally not before midnight that the heavens would gradually clear up, and allow us to admire the beautiful and dazzling constellations of the South.
The captain told us that this was the fourteenth voyage he had made to the Brazils, during which time he had always found the heat very easily borne, and had never seen the sky otherwise than dull and lowering.

He said that this was occasioned by the damp, unhealthy coast of Guinea, the ill effects of which were perceptible much further than where we then were, although the distance between us was 350 miles.
In the tropics the quick transition from day to night is already very perceptible; 35 or 40 minutes after the setting of the sun the deepest darkness reigns around.