Not sure what you saw around the cross, there are lots of targets in that general direction, look for Omega Centauri, the largest gobular cluster in the night sky, Centaurus A (aka the hamburger) is a Galaxy in the same ares, the large (LMC) and small magellenic clouds (SMC) are easily seen, the Tarantula nebula is part of the LMC, 47 tucannae is another nice Globular cluster near the SMC. The Jewel box is fairly easy to spot, if you have binoculars scan the area first to get a general idea where things are. Download some Star charts or a planetarium package, Stellarium is free and quite useful. download from
http://www.stellarium.org/