WOA Image: "The night was so exquisite that I was content to rest without sleeping."

It was a delightful night. The moon was only a hemisphere, yet I think she gave more light than ours at the full. The night was so exquisite that I was content to rest without sleeping; the Babel noises of fowls and men had ceased, and there were only quiet sounds of rippling water, and the occasional cry of a sea-bird as we slipped through the waveless sea. When the moon set, the sky was wonderful with its tropic purple and its pavement and dust of stars. I have become quite fond of the Southern Cross, and don't wonder that the early navigators prostrated themselves on deck when they first saw it. It is not an imposing constellation, but it is on a part of the sky which is not crowded with stars, and it always lies aslant and obvious. It has become to me as much a friend as is the Plough of the northern regions.

Selangor, Malaysia, 1879

Source: Isabella Bird, The Golden Chersonese And The Way Thither, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1883

Further links:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3412

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/the-rocky-mountains-a-ladys-life-less-ordinary-9268475.html

http://spartacus-educational.com/WWbirdbishop.htm

http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/british-and-irish-history-biographies/isabella-lucy-bird-bishop