During the reign of John II. the Portuguese — erected several forts, and acquired great power in the extensive regions of Guinea. Azambuja, a Portuguese captain, having obtained leave from Caramansa, a Negro Prince, to erect a fort on his territories, an unlucky accident had almost proved fatal to the discoveries [discoverers], A huge rock [lay very commodious for a quarry; the workmen began on it; but this rock,] as the Devil would have it, happened to be a negro god. the Portuguese were driven away by the enraged— worshippers, who were afterwards with difficulty pacified by a profusion of such presents as they most esteemed.
Camoëns Lusiad Page 49. Book 5th.
In the southern hemisphere, as Camoëns observes, the nights are darker than in the northern, the skies being adorned with much fewer stars.