Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks/Chapter 2

by Joseph Banks

 

CHAPTER II

RIO DE JANEIRO

Nov. 13—Dec. 7, 1768

 

Obstacles to landing—Viceroy memorialised—Boat's crew imprisoned—Vegetation, etc.—Ship fired at—Leave Rio harbour—Description of Rio—Churches—Government—Hindrances to travellers—Population—Military—Assassinations—Vegetables—Fruits—Manufactures—Mines—Jewels—Coins—Fortifications—Climate.

 

13th November.^[1] As soon as we were well in the river, the captain sent his first lieutenant, Mr. Hicks, with a midshipman, to get a pilot: the boat returned, however, without the officers, but with a Portuguese subaltern. The coxswain informed us that the lieutenant was detained until the captain should go off. A ten-oared boat, containing about a dozen soldiers, then came off and rowed round the ship, no one in it appearing to take the slightest notice of us. A quarter of an hour later another boat came off, on board which was a Disembargador and a colonel of a Portuguese regiment. The latter asked many questions, and at first seemed to discourage our stay, but ended by being extremely civil, and assuring us that the Governor would give us every assistance in his power. The lieutenant, he said, was not detained, but had not been allowed on shore on account of the practica, but that he would be sent on board immediately.

14th. Captain Cook went on shore this morning. He returned with a Portuguese officer with him in the boat, also an Englishman, Mr. Forster, a lieutenant in the Portuguese service. We were informed that we could not have a house nor sleep on shore, and that no person except the captain and such common sailors as were required on duty would be permitted to land; we, the passengers, were particularly objected to. In spite of this we attempted to go on shore in the evening, under excuse of a visit to the Viceroy, but were stopped by the guard-boat. The captain went ashore to remonstrate with the Viceroy, but the latter said that he was acting under the King of Portugal's orders.

15th and 16th. The captain vainly remonstrated with the Viceroy against our being forbidden to land, and particularly against the sentinel placed in his boat, which was done, he was told, as an honour.

17th. The captain and I drew up written memorials complaining of his Excellency's behaviour, which to us, as a King's ship, was almost a breach of duty.

18th. Answers to our memorials were received: the captain is told that he had no reason to complain, as he had only received the usual treatment customary in all the ports of Brazil; as for me, I am informed that as I have not brought proper credentials from the court at Lisbon, it is impossible that I can be permitted to land.

19th. We sent answers to his Excellency's memorials. The lieutenant who took them had orders not to suffer a guard to be put into his boat; the guard-boat let him pass, but the Viceroy, on hearing of it, ordered sentinels to be put on the boat. The lieutenant refused to go on board unless they were taken out, whereupon he was sent on board in a guard-boat and his crew arrested. He reported that the men in our pinnace had not made the least resistance, but that they had notwithstanding been treated very roughly, being struck by the soldiers several times. The guard brought back the letters unopened.

This evening, by some mismanagement, our long-boat broke adrift, carrying with her my small boat. The yawl was sent after her, and managed to take her in tow, but in spite of all the efforts of the crew, the boats soon drifted out of sight. The yawl came back at two in the morning with the news that the other two boats were lost. We were, however, glad to find the men safe, for they had been in considerable danger.

20th. The yawl was sent ashore to seek assistance in recovering our long-boat: it returned with our pinnace and its crew, and a boat of the Viceroy, which had orders to assist us in searching for our boats.

The crew of the pinnace declared that they had been confined in a loathsome dungeon, where their company was chiefly blacks who were chained. The coxswain purchased a better apartment for seven petacks (about as many English shillings). At dark the pinnace returned with both the boats and all their contents.

21st. Letters arrived from the Viceroy; in mine he told me very politely that it was not in his power to permit me to go ashore. In the captain's he raises some doubts about our ship being a King's ship.^[2]

23rd. An answer to the captain's last memorial accuses him of smuggling.

24th. Dr. Solander went into the town as surgeon of the ship to visit a friar who had desired that the surgeon might be sent to him: he received civilities from the people.

26th. I myself went ashore this morning before daybreak, and stayed until dark night. While I was ashore I met several of the inhabitants, who were very civil to me, taking me to their houses, where I bought of them stock for the ship tolerably cheap: a middlingly fat porker for eleven shillings, a Muscovy duck for something under two shillings, etc.

The country, where I saw it, abounded with vast variety of plants and animals, mostly such as had not been described by our naturalists, as so few have had an opportunity of coming here; indeed, no one even tolerably curious that I know of has been here since Marcgrav and Piso about 1640; so it is easy to guess the state in which the natural history of such a country must be.

To give a catalogue of what I found would be a trouble very little to the purpose, as every particular is mentioned in the general catalogues of this place. I cannot, however, help mentioning some which struck me the most, and consequently gave me particular pleasure. These were chiefly the parasitic plants, especially Renealmiæ (for I was not fortunate enough to see one Epidendrum) and the different species of Bromelia, many not before described. Karratas I saw here growing on the decayed trunk of a tree sixty feet high at least, which it had so entirely covered that the whole seemed to be a tree of Karratas. The growth of the Rhizophora^[3] also pleased me much, although I had before a very good idea of it from Rumphius, who has a very good figure of the tree in his Herb. Amboin. [v. iii. tab. 71, 72]. Add to these that the whole country was covered with the beautiful blossoms of Malpighiæ, Bannisteriæ, Passifloræ, not forgetting Poinciana and Mimosa sensitiva, and a beautiful species of Clusia, of which I saw great plenty; in short, the wildest spots here were varied with a greater quantity of flowers, as well as more beautiful ones, than our best-devised gardens; a sight infinitely pleasing for a short time, though no doubt the eye would soon tire with a continuance of it.

The birds of many species, especially the smaller ones, sat in great abundance on the boughs, many of them covered with most elegant plumage. I shot Loxia brasiliensis, and saw several specimens of it. Insects also were here in great quantity, many species very fine, but much more nimble than our European ones, especially the butterflies, almost all which flew near the tops of the trees, and were very difficult to come at, except when the sea breeze blew fresh, which kept them low down among the trees where they might be taken. Humming-birds I also saw of one species, but could not shoot them.

The banks of the sea, and more remarkably all the edges of small brooks, were covered with innumerable quantities of small crabs (Cancer vocans, Linn.), one hand of which is very large. Among these were many whose two hands were remarkably small and of equal size; these my black servant told me were the females of the other, and indeed all I examined, which were many, proved to be females, but whether they were really of the same species as C. vocans, I cannot determine on so short an acquaintance.

I saw but little cultivation, and small pains seemed to be taken with that. Most of it was grass land, on which were many lean cattle; and lean they might well be, for almost all the species of grass which I observed here were creepers, and consequently so close to the ground that though there might be upon them a sufficient bite for horses or sheep, yet how horned cattle could live at all appeared extraordinary to me.

I also saw their gardens, or small patches in which they cultivate many sorts of European garden stuffs, such as cabbages, peas, beans, kidney beans, turnips, white radishes, pumpkins, etc., but all much inferior to ours, except perhaps the last. They also grow water-melons and pine-apples, the only fruits which I have seen them cultivate; the first are very good, but the pines were much inferior to those I have tasted in Europe; I have hardly had one which could be reckoned of average quality, many were worse than some I have seen sent away from table in England, where nobody would eat them. Though in general very sweet, they have not the least flavour. In these gardens grow also yams, and mandihoca or cassada, which supplies the place of bread, for as our European bread corn will not grow here, all the flour they have is brought from Portugal at great expense, too great even for the middle-class people to purchase, much less the poorer.

27th. On the boats returning from watering, we were told that men had been sent out yesterday in search of some of our people who were ashore without leave; we concluded that this referred either to Dr. Solander or myself, which made it necessary for us to go no more ashore while we stayed.

1st December. We learnt that Mr. Forster had been taken into custody, charged with smuggling. The real cause, we believe, was that he had shown some countenance to his countrymen, as we heard at the same time that five or six Englishmen residing in the town, and a poor Portuguese, who used to assist our people in bringing things to the boats, had also been put into prison without any reason being given.

2nd. This morning, thank God, we have got all we want from these illiterate, impolite gentry, so we got up our anchor and sailed to the point of Ilhoa dos Cobras, where we were to lie and wait for a fair wind, which should come every night from the land. A Spanish brig from Buenos Ayres with letters for Spain arrived about a week ago; her officers were received ashore with all possible civility, and allowed to take a house without the least hesitation. The captain, Don Antonio de Monte negro y Velasco, with great politeness offered to take our letters to Europe. Of this very fortunate circumstance we availed ourselves, and sent our letters on board this morning.

5th. We attempted to tow down with our boats, and came nearly abreast of Santa Cruz, their chief fortification, when to our great surprise the fort fired two shots at us, one of which went just over our mast; we immediately brought to, and sent ashore to inquire the reason; we were told that no order had come down to allow us to pass, and that without such no ship was ever suffered to go below that fort. We were now obliged to send to town to know the reason of such extraordinary behaviour; the answer came back about eleven that it was a mistake, for the brigadier had forgotten to send the letter, which had been written some days ago. It was, however, sent by the boat, and we had leave to proceed. We now began to weigh our anchor, which had been dropped in foul ground, when we were fired upon, but it was so fast in a rock that it could not be got up while the land breeze blew, which to-day continued almost till four in the evening. As soon as the sea breeze came we filled our sails, and carrying the ship over the anchor, tripped it, but were obliged to sail back almost as far as we had towed the ship in the morning.

This day and yesterday the air was crowded in an uncommon manner with butterflies, chiefly of one sort, of which we took as many as we pleased on board the ship; their quantity was so large that at some times I may say many thousands were in view at once in almost any direction you could look, the greater part of them far above our mast-heads.

6th. No land breeze to-day, so we are confined in our disagreeable situation without a possibility of moving; many curses were this day expended on his Excellency.

7th. Weighed and stood out to sea. As soon as we came to Santa Cruz the pilot desired to be discharged, and with him our enemy the guard-boat went off, so we were left our own masters, and immediately resolved to go ashore on one of the islands in the mouth of the harbour. There was a great swell, but we made shift to land on one called Raza, on which we gathered many species of plants and some insects. Alströmeria Salsilla was here in tolerable plenty, and Amaryllis mexicana. We stayed until about four o'clock, and then came aboard the ship heartily tired, for the desire of doing as much as we could in a short time had made us all exert ourselves, though exposed to the hottest rays of the sun just at noon-day.

Now we are got fairly to sea, and have entirely got rid of these troublesome people, I cannot help spending some time in describing them, though I was not myself once in their town; yet my intelligence coming from Dr. Solander, and Mr. Monkhouse, our surgeon, a very sensible man, who was ashore every day to buy our provisions, I think cannot err much from truth.

The town of Rio Janeiro, the capital of the Portuguese dominions in America, is situate on the banks of the river of that name, and both are so called, I apprehend, from the Roman Saint Januarius, according to the Spanish and Portuguese custom of naming their discoveries from the saint on whose feast they are made.

It is regular and well built after the fashion of Portugal, every house having before its window a lattice of wood, behind which is a little balcony. In size it is much larger than I could have expected, probably little inferior to any of our country towns in England, Bristol or Liverpool not excepted. The streets are all straight, intersecting each other at right angles, and have this peculiar convenience that the greater number lie in one direction, and are commanded by the guns of their citadel, called St. Sebastian, which is situate on the top of a hill overlooking the town.

It is supplied with water from the neighbouring hills by an aqueduct upon two stories of arches, said in some places to be very high; the water is conveyed into a fountain in the great square immediately opposite the governor's palace. This is guarded by a sentry, who has sufficient work to keep regularity and order among so many as are always in waiting here. Water is laid on in some other part of the town, but how it is brought there I could not hear; the water there is said to be better than the fountain, which is exceedingly indifferent, so much so as not to be liked by us, though we had been two months at sea, in which time our water was almost continually bad.

The churches are very fine, with more ornaments even than those in Europe, and all the ceremonies of their religion are carried on with more show; their processions in particular are very extraordinary. Every day one or other of the parishes has a solemn procession with all the insignia of its church, altar, and host, etc., through the parish, begging for whatever can be got, and praying in all forms at every corner of a street. While we were there one of the largest churches in the town was being rebuilt, and for that reason the parish had leave to walk through the whole city, which was done once a week, and much money collected for the carrying on of the edifice. At this ceremony all boys under a certain age were obliged to attend, nor were gentlemen's sons ever excused; each of these was dressed in a black cassock with a short red cloak reaching half-way down the shoulders, and carried in his hand a lantern hung on the end of a pole about six or seven feet long. The light caused by this (for there were always at least 200 lanterns) is greater than can be imagined; I myself, who saw it out of the cabin windows, called my messmates, imagining that the town was on fire. Besides this travelling religion, any one walking through the streets has opportunity enough to show his attachment to any saint in the calendar, for every corner and almost every house has before it a little cupboard in which some saint or other keeps his residence; and lest he should not see his votaries in the night, he is furnished with a small lamp which hangs before his little glass window. To these it is very customary to pray and sing hymns with all the vociferation imaginable, as may be imagined when I say that I and every one in the ship heard it very distinctly every night, though we lay at least half a mile from the town.

The government of this place seems to me to be much more despotic even than that of Portugal, although many precautions have been taken to render it otherwise. The chief magistrates are the Viceroy, the Governor of the town, and a Council, whose number I could not learn, but only that the viceroy had in this the casting vote. Without the consent of this council nothing material should be done, yet every day shows that the viceroy and governor at least, if not all the rest, do the most unjust things without consulting any one; putting a man into prison without giving him a hearing, and keeping him there till he is glad at any rate to get out, without asking why he was put in, or at best, sending him to Lisbon to be tried there without letting his family here know where he is gone, as is very common. This we experienced while here, for every one who had interpreted for our people, or who had only assisted in buying provisions for them, was put into jail, merely, I suppose, to show us their power. I should, however, except from this one John Burrith, an officer in their customs, a man who has been here thirteen years, and has become so completely Portuguese that he is known by no other name than Don John; he was of service to our people, though what he did was so clogged with a suspicious fear of offending the Portuguese as rendered it disgustful. It is necessary for any one who should come here to know his character, which is mercenary, though contented with a little, as the present given to him demonstrated; it consisted of one dozen of beer, ten gallons of brandy, ten pieces of ship's beef, and as many of pork. This was what he himself asked for, and sent on board the keg for the spirit, and with this he was more than satisfied.

They have a very extraordinary method of keeping people from travelling; to hinder them, I suppose, from going into any district where gold or diamonds may be found, as there are more of such districts than they can possibly guard. There are certain bounds beyond which no man must go; these vary every month at the discretion of the viceroy, sometimes they are few, sometimes many leagues from the city. Every man must in consequence of this come to town to know where the bounds are, for if he is taken by the guards, who constantly patrol on their limits, he is infallibly put in prison, even if he is within them, unless he can tell where they are.

The inhabitants are very numerous; they consist of Portuguese, negroes, and Indians, aborigines of the country. The township of Rio, whose extent I could not learn, but was only told that it was but a small part of the capitanea, or province, is said to contain about 37,000 whites, and about 17 negroes to each white, which makes their number 629,000, and the number of inhabitants in all 666,000. As for the Indians, they do not live in this neighbourhood, though many of them are always here doing the king's work, which they are obliged to do by turns, for small pay, and for which purpose they came from their habitations at a distance. I saw many of them, as our guard-boat was constantly rowed by them; they are of a light copper colour, with long, lank, black hair. As to their policy, or manner of living when at home, I could not learn anything.

The military here consist of twelve regiments of regulars, six Portuguese and six Creoles, and as many of provincial militia, who may be assembled upon occasion. To the regulars the inhabitants show great deference, for as Mr. Forster told me, if any of the people did not pull off their hats when they meet an officer, he would immediately knock them down, which custom renders the people remarkably civil to strangers who have at all a gentlemanlike appearance. All the officers of these regiments are expected to attend three times a day at "Sala" or the viceroy's levée, where they formally ask for commands, and are constantly answered "there is nothing new." This policy is intended, as I have been told, to prevent them from going into the country, which it most effectually does.

Assassinations are, I fancy, more frequent here than in Lisbon, as the churches still take upon themselves to give protection to criminals. One accident of the kind happened in the sight of S. Evans, our coxswain, a man whom I can depend upon. He saw two people talking together, to all appearance in a friendly manner, when one suddenly drew a knife, stabbed the other twice, and ran away pursued by some negroes who likewise saw the act. What the further event of this was I could not learn.

Of the country I know rather more than of the town, as I was ashore one whole day. In that time I saw much cleared ground, but chiefly of an indifferent quality, though doubtless there is much that is very good, as the sugar and tobacco which is sent to Europe from hence plainly testify; but all that I saw was employed in breeding cattle, of which they have great plenty, though their pastures are the worst I ever saw on account of the shortness of the grass. Consequently the beef sold in the market, though tolerably cheap, is so lean that an Englishman can hardly eat it. I likewise saw great plantations of Jatropha Manihot, which is called in the West Indies Cassada, and here Farinha de Pao or wooden meal, a very proper name, for the cakes they make with it taste as if they were made of sawdust. Yet it is the only bread which is eaten here, for European bread is sold at nearly the rate of a shilling a pound, and is exceedingly bad on account of the flour, which is generally heated in its passage from Europe.

The country produces many more articles, but as I did not see them or hear them mentioned, I shall not set them down, though doubtless it is capable of producing anything that our West Indian islands do; notwithstanding this they have neither coffee nor chocolate, but import both from Lisbon.

Their fruits, however, I must not pass over in silence. Those that were in season during our stay were pine-apples, melons, water-melons, oranges, limes, lemons, sweet lemons, citrons, plantains, bananas, mangos, mamme-apples, acajou-apples and nuts, Jambosa,^[4] another sort which bears a small black fruit, cocoanuts, palm nuts of two kinds, palm berries. Of these I must separately give my opinion, as no doubt it will seem strange to some that I should assert that I have eaten many of them, and especially pine-apples, better in England than any I have met with here. I begin, then, with the pines, as the fruit from which I expected the most, they being, I believe, natives of this country, though I cannot say I have seen or even heard of their being at this time wild anywhere in this neighbourhood. They are cultivated much as we do cabbages in Europe, or rather with less care, the plants being set between beds of any kind of garden stuff, and suffered to take their chance: the price of them in the market is seldom above, and generally under a vintain, which is three halfpence.

All that Dr. Solander and myself tasted we agreed were much inferior to those we had eaten in England, though in general they were more juicy and sweet, yet they had no flavour, but were like sugar melted in water. Their melons are still worse, to judge from the single specimen we had, which was perfectly mealy and insipid; their water-melons, however, are very good, for they have some little flavour or at least a degree of acid, which ours have not. Oranges are large and very juicy; we thought them good, doubtless better than any we had tasted at home, but probably Italy and Portugal produce as good, had we been there in the time of their being in perfection. Lemons and limes are like ours; sweet lemons are sweetish and without flavour. Citrons have a faint sickly taste, otherwise we liked them. Mangoes were not in perfection, but promised to be a very fine fruit; they are about the size of a peach, full of a yellow melting pulp, not unlike that of a summer peach, with a very grateful flavour; but the one we had was spoilt by a taste of turpentine, which I am told does not occur in the ripe fruit. Bananas are in shape and size like a small thick sausage, covered with a thick yellow rind, which is peeled off, and the fruit within is of a consistence which might be expected of a mixture of butter and flour, but a little slimy; its taste is sweet with a little perfume. Acajou or casshew is shaped like an apple, but larger; the taste is very disagreeable, sourish and bitter: the nut grows at the top of it. Plantains differ [from bananas] in being longer and thinner and less luscious in taste. Both these fruits were disagreeable to most of our people, but after some use I became tolerably fond of them. Mamme-apples are bigger than an English codlin, and are covered with a deep yellow skin: the pulp is very insipid, or rather disagreeable, and full of small round seeds covered with a thick mucilage, which continually clogs the mouth. Jambosa is the same as I saw at Madeira, a fruit calculated more to please the smell than the taste; the other kind is small and black, and resembles much our English bilberries in taste. Cocoanuts are so well known in England that I need only say I have tasted as good there as any I met with here. Palm nuts are of two sorts, one long and shaped like dates, the other round; both are roasted before their kernels are eatable, and even then they are not so good as cocoanuts. Palm berries appear much like black grapes; they are the fruit of Bactris minor, but have scarcely any pulp covering a very large stone, and what there is has nothing but a light acid to recommend it. There are also the fruits of several species of prickly pear, which are very insipid, and one peach also proved very bad.

Though this country should produce many and very valuable drugs, we could not find any in the apothecary's shops except Pareira Brava and Balsam Capivi, both of which we bought at excessively cheap prices, and very good of the sort. I fancy the drug trade is chiefly carried on to the northward, as is that of dyeing woods; at least we could hear nothing of them here.

For manufactures, I know of none carried on here except that of cotton hammocks, which are used by the people to be carried about in, as we do sedan-chairs. These hammocks are made chiefly by the Indians. But the chief riches of the country come from the mines, which are situated far up the country; indeed, no one could tell me how far, for even the situation of them is concealed as carefully as possible, and troops are continually employed in guarding the roads that lead to them; so that it is next to impossible for any one to get a sight of them, except those who are employed there. No one at least would attempt it from mere curiosity, for everybody who is found on the road without being able to give a good account of himself is hanged immediately. From these mines a great quantity of gold undoubtedly comes, but it is purchased at a vast cost of lives; 40,000 negroes are annually imported on the king's account for this purpose, and notwithstanding this the year before last they died so fast that 20,000 more were obliged to be drafted from the town of Rio.

Precious stones are also found here in very large quantities, so large that they do not allow more than a certain quantity to be collected in a year. A troop of people is sent into the country where they are found, and ordered to return when they have collected a certain quantity, which they sometimes do in a month, more or less; they then return, and after that it is death for any one to be found in the country on any pretence whatever until the following year. Diamonds, topazes of several different qualities, and amethysts, are the stones most usually found. Of the first I did not see any, but was told that the viceroy had by him large quantities, and would sell them on the King of Portugal's account, but in that case they would not be at all cheaper than those in Europe. I bought a few topazes and amethysts as specimens; the former were divided into three sorts of very different value, called here pinga d'agua qualidade premeiro and segondo, and chrystallos ormerillos. They were sold, large and small, good and bad together, by octaves, or the eighth part of an ounce: the first sort 4s. 9d., the second 2s. 4d., the third 3d.; but it was smuggling in the highest degree to have anything to do with them.

Formerly there were jewellers here who cut stones, but about fourteen months ago orders came from the King of Portugal that no more stones should be wrought here except on his account. The jewellers were immediately ordered to bring all their tools to the viceroy, and from that time to this have not been suffered to do anything for their support; there are, however, a number of slaves who cut stones for the King of Portugal.

The coin current here is either that of Portugal, especially thirty-six shilling pieces, or coin made here, which is much debased, particularly the silver. These are called petacks, of which there are two sorts, one of less value than the other, easily distinguishable by the number of reis marked on them, but they are little used. They also have copper coins like those in Portugal of five and ten rey pieces. Two of the latter are worth three halfpence; forty petacks are worth thirty-six shillings.

The harbour of Rio de Janeiro is certainly a very good one: the entrance is not wide, but the sea breeze which blows every morning makes it easy for any ship to go in before the wind, and when you get abreast of the town it increases in breadth prodigiously, so that almost any number of ships might lie in five or six fathoms of water with an oozy bottom. It is defended by many works, especially the entrance, where it is narrow, and where is their strongest fortification, Santa Cruz, and another opposite it. There is also a platform mounting about twenty-two guns, just under the Sugar-loaf on the seaside, but it seems entirely calculated to hinder the landing of an enemy in a sandy bay, from whence there is a passage to the back part of the town, which is entirely undefended, except that the whole town is open to the guns of the citadel, St. Sebastian, as I said before. Between Santa Cruz and the town are several small batteries of five or ten guns, and one fairly large one called Berga Leon. Immediately before the town is the Ilhoa dos Cobras, an island fortified all round, which seems incapable of doing much mischief owing to its immense size; at least it would take more men to defend it, even tolerably, in case of an attack, than could possibly be spared from a town totally without lines or any defence round it. Santa Cruz, their chief fortification, on which they most rely, seems quite incapable of making any great resistance if smartly attacked by shipping. It is a stone fort, mounting many guns indeed, but they lie tier above tier, and are consequently very open to the attack of a ship which may come within two cable lengths or less; besides, they have no supply of water but what they obtain from a cistern, in which they catch the rain, or, in times of drought, which they supply from the adjacent country. This cistern they have been obliged to build above ground, lest the water should become tainted by the heat of the climate, which a free access of air prevents; consequently should a fortunate shot break the cistern, the defenders would be reduced to the utmost necessity.

I was told by a person who certainly knew, and I believe meant to inform me rightly, that a little to the southward, just without the south head of the harbour, was a bay in which boats might land with all facility without obstruction, as there is no kind of work there, and that from this bay it is not above three hours' march to the town, which is approached from the back, where it is as defenceless as the landing-place; but this seems incredible. Yet I am inclined to believe it of these people, whose chief policy consists in hindering people as much as possible from looking about them. It may therefore be, as my informer said, that the existence of such a bay has been but lately discovered; indeed, were it not for that policy, I could believe anything of their stupidity and ignorance. As an example of this, the governor of the town, Brigadier-General Don Pedro de Mendozay Furtado, asked the captain of our ship whether the transit of Venus, which we were going to observe, were not the passing of the North Star to the South Pole, as he said he had always understood it to be.

The river, and indeed the whole coast, abounds with greater variety of fish than I have ever seen; seldom a day passed in which we had not one or more new species brought to us. Indeed the bay is the most convenient place for fishing I have ever seen, for it abounds with islands between which there is shallow water and proper beaches for drawing the seine. The sea also without the bay is full of dolphins, and large mackerel of several sorts, who very readily bite at the hooks which the inhabitants tow after their boats for that purpose. In short, the country is capable, with very little industry, of producing infinite plenty, both of necessaries and luxuries: were it in the hands of Englishmen we should soon see its consequence, as things are tolerably plentiful even under the direction of the Portuguese, whom I take to be, without exception, the laziest as well as the most ignorant race in the whole world.

The climate here is, I fancy, very good. During our whole stay the thermometer was never above 83°, but we had a good deal of rain, and once it blew very hard. I am inclined to think that this country has rather more rain than those in the same northern latitude are observed to have, not only from what happened during our short stay, but from Marcgrav, who gives us meteorological observations on this climate for three years. It appears that it rained here in those years almost every other day throughout the year, but more especially in May and June, when it rained almost without ceasing.^[5]

1. This account, from the 13th to the 24th November inclusive, of the treatment of Captain Cook at Rio, has been much condensed from the original "Journal."
2. "The build and general appearance of the Endeavour not being that of a man-of-war, the Portuguese authorities entertained suspicions regarding her true character, which is not altogether surprising, considering the times."—Wharton's Cook, p. 22, footnote.
3. Mangrove tree.
4. Eugenia jambos, Linn.
5. Here follows, in the manuscript, a list of 316 plants collected by Banks near Rio de Janeiro.