A V O Y | 3 <$ A G E ROUND T H E WORLD.
decemVer, niuft be incapable of feeling for others. Subjected to a very
ftrift command, they alfo exercife a tyrannical fway over
thofe whom fortune places in their power. Accuftomed to
face an enemy, they breathe nothing but war. By force
of habit even killing is become fo much their paffion, that
we have feen many inftances during our voyage, where
they have expreffed a horrid eagernefs to fire upon the natives
on the flighted: pretences. Their way of life in
general prevents their enjoying domeftic comforts; and
grofs animal appetites fill the place of purer affedtions.
A t laft, extinil: each facial feeling, fell
And joylefs inhumanity pervades
And petrifies the heart.- ■ — T hompson.
Though they are members of a civilized fociety, they
may in fome meafure be locked upon as a body of uncivilized
men, rough, pafiionate, revengeful, but likewife
brave, fincere, and true to each other.
At noon the obfervation of the fun’s ahitude determined
our latitude to be 66° 22' fouth, fo that we were juft returned
out of the antardlic circle. We had fcarcely any
night during our flay in the frigid zone, fo that I find
feveral articles in my father’s journal,, written by the light
of the fun, within a few minutes before the hour of midnight.
The fun’s flay below the horizon was fo very
fhort this night likewife, that we had a very flrong twilight
all the time. Mahine was ftruck with the greateft aftoniiliment
A VOY AGE ROUND THE WORLD. S 37
ment at this phenomenon, and would fcarcely believe his I '17v
ienfes. All our endeavours to explain it to him mifcarried,
and he allured us he defpaired of finding belief among
his countrymen, when he fliould come back to recount the
wonders of petrified rain, and of perpetual day. The firft
Venetians who explored the northern extremes of the European
continent, were equally furprifed at the continual
appearance of the fun above the horizon, and relate that
they could only diftinguilh day from night, by the inflindl
of the fea-fowl, which went to rooft on fliore, for the fpace
of four hours *. As we were in all likelihood far diftant
from any land, this indication failed us, and we have often
Obferved numerous birds on the wing about us all the
night, and particularly great flocks of different fpecies, .fo
late as eleven o’clock.
' At fix m the evening, we counted, one hundred and five
large maffes of ice around us.from the deck, the weather
continuing .very clear, fair, and perfeffly .calm. Towards
noon the next day we were ftill in the fame flotation, with! ***'*'*'
a very drunken crew, and from the maft-head obferved
o ne hundred and fixty-eight ice-iflands, fome of which were
half a mile long, and none lefs than the hull of the fliip.
•fl.n r p n D, . ^ *uu » mueraoiy mip wrecked at the
.ne oFRoeft or Ruften, on the coaft of'Norway, under the polar circle, in Ta-
nuary ,4 32— See Navigazioni et Vlagg.1 raccolti da G. E, Ramufio. Vener
I 5 7 4 - vol. II, p,. 2e.j.('210.
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