19th July 1835

Darwin Beagle Diary
In the night anchored in the outer part of the harbor of Callao. — Our passage was a short one owing to the steady trade wind; Rolling steadily onwards with our studding sails on each side, I was reminded of the Atlantic. — But there is a great difference in the interest of the two passages. In the latter there is an ever varying & beautiful sky; the brilliant day is relieved by a cool refreshing evening & the cloudless sky is glorious. — The ocean teems with life, no one can watch the Flyingfish, Dolphin & Porpoises without pleasure. At night in the clear Heavens, the Europæan traveller views the new Constellations which foretell the new countries to which the good ship is onward driving. — Here in the Pacifick, although the water is never agitated by storms, it never is quiet, but feels through the unbroken continuity the violence which reigns in the South. Now, in the winter, a heavy dull bank of clouds intercepts during successive days even a glimpse of the sun. — The temperature is by no means warm; in approaching these low latitudes I did not experience that delicious mildness, which is known for a few days in the Spring of England, or in first entering the Tropics in the Atlantic.