Chapter IV: Introduction (3)

Among several other plants, which we found superfluous to examine, there were many flowers, but all without smell, one excepted, which is white, and has the smell of the tuberose. We likewise found a true violet, as yellow as a jonquil. It is worth notice that we have never found any bulbous-rooted plant. Another singularity is, that in the southern part of the isle we inhabited, beyond a chain of hills which divides it from east to west, it appeared that there were hardly any of the resinous gum-plants, and that in their stead we found abundance of another plant of the same form, but of a different green, wanting the solidity of the other, and not producing any rosin, but only fine yellow flowers in the proper season. This plant, which was easily opened, consisted as the other, of shoots which all spring from the same stalk, and terminate at its surface. Coming back over the hills, we found a tall species of maiden hair; its leaves are not waved, but in the form of sword blades. From the plant arise two principal stalks, which bear their seeds on the underside, like the other species of maiden hair. There were likewise a great quantity of friable plants growing upon stones, they seemed to partake of the nature of stone, and of vegetables; they were thought to be species of lichen, but the ascertaining whether they would be of use in dying, was put off to another time.

[Sidenote: Sea plants.]

As to the submarine plants, they were more inconvenient than of any use. The whole harbour is covered with sea weeds, especially near the shore, by which means the boats found it difficult to land; they are of no other service than to break the force of the waters when the sea runs very high. We hoped to make a good use of them by employing them for a manure. The tides brought us several species of coralines, which were very much varied, and of the finest colours; these, together with the spunges and shells, have deserved places in the cabinets of the curious. All the spunges have the figure of plants, and are branched in so many different ways, that we could hardly believe them to be the work of marine insects. Their texture is so compact, and their fibres so delicate, that it is inconceivable how these animals can lodge in them.

The coasts of the Malouines have provided the collections in Europe with several new shells; the most curious of which, is that called _la poulette_. There are three sorts of this bivalve; and among them the striated one had never before been seen, except in the fossil state; this may prove the assertion, that the fossil-shells, found much below the level of the sea, are not lusus naturæ, and accidentally formed; but that they have really been inhabited by living animals, at the time when the land was covered by the water. Along with this shell, which is very common here, there are limpets[24]; esteemed on account of their fine colours; whelks[25], of several kinds; scallops[26]; great striated and smooth muscle-shells[27], and the finest mother of pearl.

[Sidenote: Animals.]

There is only a single species of quadruped upon these islands; it is a medium between the wolf and the fox. The land and water-fowls are innumerable. The sea-lions and seals are the only amphibia. All the coasts abound with fish, most of them little known. The whales keep in the open sea; some of them happen now and then to be stranded in the bays, and their remains are sometimes seen there. Some other bones of an enormous size, a good way up in the country, whither the force of the waves could never carry them, prove that either the sea is diminished, or that the soil is encreased.

The wolf-fox, (_loup-renard_) thus called, on account of its digging a kennel under ground, and having a more bushy tail than a wolf, lives upon the downs along the sea-shore. It attacks the wild fowls; and makes its roads from one bay to another, with so much sagacity, that they are always the shortest that can be devised; and, at our first landing on the isle, we had almost no doubt of their being the paths of inhabitants. It seems this animal fasts during a time of the year; for it is then vastly lean. Its size and make is that of a common shepherd’s dog; and it barks in the same manner, though not so loud. In what manner can it have been transported to these islands[28]?

The birds and fish have enemies, which endanger their tranquility. These enemies of the birds are the above kind of wolf, which destroys many of their eggs and young ones; the eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls.

The fish are still worse used; without mentioning the whales, which feeding, as is well known, upon fry only, destroy prodigious numbers; they are likewise exposed to the amphibious creatures, and to birds; some of which are always watching on the rocks, whilst others constantly skim along the surface of the sea.

It would require a great deal of time, and the eyes of an able naturalist, in order to describe the following animals well. I shall here give the most essential observations, and extend them only to such animals as were of some utility.

[Sidenote: Web-footed birds.]

Among the web-footed birds, the swan is the first in order; it only differs from the European one by its neck; which is of a velvet black, and makes an admirable contrast with the whiteness of the rest of its body; its feet are flesh-coloured. This kind of swan is likewise to be found in Rio de la Plata, and in the straits of Magalhaens.

Four species of wild-geese made part of our greatest riches. The first only feeds on dry land; and has, improperly, been called bustard[29]. Its high legs serve to elevate it above the tall grass, and its long neck to observe any danger. It walks and flies with great ease; and has not that disagreeable cackling cry, peculiar to the rest of its kind. The plumage of the male is white, mixed with black and ash-colour on the wings. The female is yellow; and its wings are adorned with changing colours; it generally lays six eggs. Its flesh is wholesome, nourishing, and palatable; it seldom happened that we had any scarcity of this kind of geese; for, besides these which are bred in the isle, they come in great flocks in autumn, with the east wind, probably from some uninhabited country. The sportsmen easily distinguish these new-comers, by the little fear they shew of men. The other three species are not so much in request; for they feed on fish, and get a trainy taste. Their figure is not so elegant as that of the first species; one of these kinds seldom rises above the water, and is very noisy. The colours of their feathers are chiefly white, black, yellow, and ash-colour. All these species, and likewise the swan, have a soft down under the feathers; which is white or grey, and very thick.

Two kinds of ducks, and two of teals, frequent the ponds and rivers. The former are but little different from those of our climate; some of those which we killed, were quite black, and others quite white. As to the teals, the one has a blue bill, and is of the size of the ducks; the other is much less. Some of them had the feathers on the belly of a flesh colour. These species are in great plenty, and of an excellent taste.

Here are two kinds of Divers, of a small size. One of them has a grey back, and white belly; the feathers on the belly are so silky, shining, and close, that we imagined these were the birds, of whose plumage the fine muffs are made: this species is here scarce[30]. The other, which is more common, is quite brown, but somewhat paler on the belly than on the back. The eyes of these creatures are like rubies. Their surprising liveliness is heightened and set off still more by the circle of white feathers that surrounds them; and has caused the name of Diver with Spectacles to be given to the bird. They breed two young ones at a time, which are probably too tender to suffer the coldness of the water, whilst they have nothing but their down; for then the mother conveys them on her back[31]. These two species have not webbed feet, as the other water-fowl; but their toes are separate, with a strong membrane on each side; in this manner, each toe resembles a leaf, which is roundish towards the claw; and the lines, which run from the toe to the circumference of the membrane, together with its green-colour and thinness, increase the resemblance.

Two species of birds, which were called by our people saw-bills[32], I know not for what reason, only differed from each other in size, and sometimes because there were now and then some with brown bellies; whereas, the general colour of that part, in other birds of the kind, was white. The rest of the feathers are of a very dark blueish-black; in consequence of their shape, and the close texture and silkiness of their vent feathers, we must rank them with the divers, though I cannot be positive in this respect. They have a pointed bill, and the feet webbed without any separation between the toes; the first toe, being the longest of the three, and the membrane which joins them, ending in nothing at the third toe, gives a very remarkable character. Their feet are flesh-coloured[33]. These birds destroy numbers of fish; they place themselves upon the rocks, join together by numerous families, and lay their eggs there. As their flesh is very good to eat, we killed two or three hundred of them at a time; and the abundance of their eggs offered another resource to supply our wants. They were so little afraid of our sportsmen, that it was sufficient to go against them with no better arms than sticks. Their enemy is a bird of prey, with webbed feet; measuring near seven feet from tip to tip, and having a long and strong bill, distinguished by two tubes of the same substance as the bill itself, which are hollow throughout. This is the bird which the Spaniards call _Quebrantahuessos_[34].

A great quantity of mews, variously and prettily marked, of gulls and of terns, almost all of them grey, and living in families, come skimming along the water, and fall upon the fish with extraordinary quickness; they were so far of use to us, that they shewed us the proper season of catching pilchards; they held them suspended in the air for a moment only, and then presently gave back entire, the fish they had swallowed just before. At other seasons they feed upon a little fish, called _gradeau_, and some other small fry. They lay their eggs in great quantities round the marshes, on some green plants, pretty like the water lily[35], and they were very wholesome food.

We found three species of penguins: the first of them is remarkable on account of its shape, and the beauty of its plumage, and does not live in families as the second species, which is the same with that described in Lord Anson’s Voyage[36]. The penguin of the first class is fond of solitude and retired places. It has a peculiar noble and magnificent appearance, having an easy gait, a long neck when singing or crying, a longer and more elegant bill than the second sort, the back of a more blueish cast, the belly of a dazzling white, and a kind of palatine or necklace of a bright yellow, which comes down on both sides of the head, as a boundary between the blue and the white, and joins on the belly[37]. We hoped to be able to bring one of them over to Europe. It was easily tamed so far as to follow and know the person that had the care of feeding it: flesh, fish, and bread, were its food; but we perceived that this food was not sufficient, and that it absorbed the fatness of the bird; accordingly, when the bird was grown lean to a certain degree, it died. The third sort of penguins live in great flocks or families like the second; they inhabit the high cliffs, where we found the saw-bills (becs-scies), and they lay their eggs there. Their distinguishing characters are, the smallness of their size, their dark yellow colour, a tuft of gold-yellow feathers, which are shorter than those of the egret[38], and which they raise when provoked, and lastly, some other feathers of the same colour, which stand in the place of eye-brows; our people called them hopping penguins, because they chiefly advance by hopping and flapping. This species carries greater air of liveliness in its countenance than the two others[39].

Three species of petrels, (alcyons) which appear but seldom, did not forebode any tempests, as those do which are seen at sea. They are however the same birds, as our sailors affirmed, and the least species has all the characters of it. Though this may be the true alcyons[40], yet so much is certain, that they build their nests on shore, whence we have had their young ones covered only with down, but perfectly like their parents in other respects. The second sort only differs from them in size, being somewhat less than a pigeon. These two species are black, with some white feathers on the belly[41]. The third sort was at first called white-pigeon, on account of its feathers being all of that colour, and its bill being red: there is reason to suppose it is a true white alcyon, on account of its conformity with the other species.

[Sidenote: Birds with cloven feet.]

Three sorts of eagles, of which the strongest have a dirty white, and the others a black plumage, with yellow and white feet, attack the snipes and little birds; neither their size nor the strength of their claws allowing them to fall upon others. A number of sparrow hawks and falcons, together with some owls, are the other enemies of the fowl. Their plumage is rich, and much varied in colour.

The snipes are the same as the European ones; they do not fly irregularly when they rise, and are easy to be shot. In the breeding season they soar to a prodigious height; and after singing and discovering their nest, which they form without precaution in the midst of the fields, on spots where hardly any plants grow, they fall down upon it from the height they had risen to before; at this season they are poor; the best time for eating them is in autumn.

In summer we saw many curlews, which were not at all different from ours.

Throughout the whole year we saw a bird pretty like a curlew on the sea-side; it was called a sea-pie[42], on account of its black and white plumage; its other characteristics are, a bill of the colour of red coral, and white feet. It hardly ever leaves the rocks, which are dry at low water, and lives upon little shrimps. It makes a whistling noise, easy to be imitated, which proved useful to our sportsmen, and pernicious to the bird.

Egrets are pretty common here; at first we took them for common herons, not knowing the value of their plumes. These birds begin to feed towards night; they have a harsh barking noise, which we often took for the noise of the wolf we have mentioned before.

Two sorts of stares or thrushes came to us every autumn; a third species remained here constantly, it was called the red bird[43]; its belly is quite covered with feathers of a beautiful fiery red, especially during winter; they might be collected, and would make very rich tippets. One of the two remaining species is yellow, with black spots on the belly, the other has the colour of our common thrushes. I shall not give any particular account of an infinite number of little birds, that are pretty like those seen in the maritime provinces of France.

[Sidenote: Amphibious creatures.]

The sea-lions and seals are already known; these animals occupy the sea-shore, and lodge, as I have before mentioned, among the tall plants, called gladioli[44]. They go up a league into the country in innumerable herds, in order to enjoy the fresh herbs, and to bask in the sun. It seems the sea-lion described in Lord Anson’s Voyage ought, on account of its snout, to be looked upon as a kind of marine elephant, especially as he has no mane; is of an amazing size, being sometimes twenty-two feet long, and as there is another species much inferior in size, without any snout, and having a mane of longer hairs than those on the rest of the body, which therefore should be considered as the true sea-lion[45]. The seal (_loup marin_) has neither mane nor snout; thus all the three species are easily distinguished. Under the hair of all these creatures, there is no such down as is found in those caught in North America and Rio de la Plata. Their grease or train oil, and their skins, might form a branch of commerce.

[Sidenote: Fish.]

We have not found a great variety of species of fish. That sort which we caught most frequently, we called mullet[46], to which it bears some resemblance. Some of them were three feet long, and our people dried them. The fish called gradeau is very common, and sometimes found above a foot long. The sardine only comes in the beginning of winter. The mullets being pursued by the seals, dig holes in the slimy ground, on the banks of the rivulets, where they take shelter, and we took them without difficulty, by taking off the layer of mud that covered their retreats. Besides these species, a number of other very small ones were taken with a hook and line, and among them was one which was called a transparent pike[47]. Its head is shaped like that of our pike, the body without scales, and perfectly diaphanous. There are likewise some congers on the rocks, and the white porpesse, called _la taupe_, or the mole, appears in the bays during the fine season. If we had had time, and men enough to spare, for the fishery at sea, we should have found many other fish, and certainly some soals, of which a few have been found, thrown upon the sands. Only a single sort of fresh water fish, without scales, has been taken; it is of a green colour, and of the size of a common trout[48]. It is true, we have made but few researches in this particular, we had but little time; and other fish in abundance.

[Sidenote: Crustaceous fish.]

Here have been found only three small sorts of crustacea; viz. the cray-fish, which is red, even before it is boiled, and is properly a prawn; the crab, with blue feet, resembling pretty much that called _tourelourou_, and a minute species of shrimp. These three crustacea, and all muscles, and other shell fish, were only picked up for curiosity’s sake, for they have not so good a taste as those in France.——This land seems to be entirely deprived of oysters.

Lastly, by way of forming a comparison with some cultivated isle in Europe, I shall quote what Puffendorf says of Ireland, which is situated nearly in the same latitude in the northern hemisphere, as the Malouines in the southern one, viz. “that this island is pleasant on account of the healthiness and serenity of the air, and because heat and cold are never excessive there. The land being well divided by lakes and rivers, offers great plains, covered with excellent pasture, has no venemous creatures, its lakes and rivers abound with fish, &c.” See the Universal History.

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Footnote 21:

As M. de Bougainville’s map of the Malouines or Falkland’s isles, is a
mere inaccurate out-line; we refer our readers to the more exact plans
of these islands, published in England. F.

Footnote 22:

Euphorbia Linn. Tithymalus Tournef. F.

Footnote 23:

Ceterae Asplenium, Linn. F.

Footnote 24:

Lepas Linn.

Footnote 25:

Buccinum Linn.

Footnote 26:

Ostreæ Pectines Linn.

Footnote 27:

Mya Linn. F.

Footnote 28:

For a navigator, of Mr. Bougainville’s experience and abilities, this
query is very extraordinary; and, still more so, for a man who has
spent so many years in Canada, near the coasts of Labrador; and who
certainly must have read accounts from Greenland, where often
land-animals, on large masses of ice fixed to the shore, and broke
loose by the sea, are driven into the ocean; and again landed on the
shores of countries, very distant from their native home. F.

Footnote 29:

In the northern parts of America is a kind of wild goose, which was
called by the French, when in possession of Canada, Outarde, or
Bustard; the English call it the Canada-goose; it has been represented
by Catesby, I.t. 92. Edward t. 151. and the Planches Enluminées, t.
346. Perhaps this may be the same species. F.

Footnote 30:

This bird, though the author calls it a Diver, seems, according to the
description of it, to be rather the Grebe; which is so plentiful on
the lake of Geneva, whose beautiful skins are drest, and made into
muffs and tippets. Br. Zool. 2. p. 396. 8vo. Ed. F.

Footnote 31:

This species seems to be the white and dusky grebe. Br. Zool. 2. p.
397, and vol. 4. f. 17. F.

Footnote 32:

Becs-scies.

Footnote 33:

As far as we can guess, from this very imperfect description, the
birds here mentioned seem to be of the kind called Guillemot. Br.
Zool. vol. 2. p. 410. and vol. 4. t. 20. F.

Footnote 34:

The _Quebrantahuessos_ is a bird belonging to the genus called by Dr.
Linnæus, _Procellaria_, or petrel; some of the sailors call it
Albatross, but then we must take care not to confound the common
albatross, represented by Mr. Edwards, tab. 88, which is not this
Quebrantahuessos, but I believe the bird described by our author to be
not yet well known by our ornithologists; and the imperfect account of
Bougainville and Dom Pernetty are far from being satisfactory to
natural historians. Our late great circumnavigators and philosophers
will probably oblige the literary world with a drawing and account of
this bird. F.

Footnote 35:

Nenuphars, Nymphæa Linn, F.

Footnote 36:

The place referred to here in Lord Anson’s Voyage is book I. chap.
vii. p. 92. edit. 14th, in 8vo. 1769; but from thence, as well as from
our author’s account, it is impossible to determine which species of
the penguin is meant. F.

Footnote 37:

The first of these penguins seems to be that described by Mr. Pennant
in the Philos. Trans. vol. lix. and represented in an accurate
drawing. F.

Footnote 38:

Aigrette, a species of heron.

Footnote 39:

This last species of penguin, or auk, seems to be the same with the
alca cirrhata of Dr. Pallas, Spicileg. Zool. Fasc. v. p. 7. tab. i. &
v. fig. 1-3. F.

Footnote 40:

The author certainly has the noted fable of the antients in view,
according to which, the alcyons had a swimming nest, and brooded at
sea at a time in winter, when the weather was calm. The few calm days
during which these birds were employed in brooding, were therefore
called alcyonia. F.

Footnote 41:

The two petrels here mentioned seem to be the little, and the
sea-swallow or frigat; the first of which is described, Br. Zool, vol.
ii. p. 434, and represented, vol. iv. t. 82. The second, or swallow
petrel, or frigat, is to be met with in Rochefort’s Voyage, t. 135.
Dr. Linnæus calls the first procellaria pelagica, the latter the
fregatta, and, if I am not mistaken, the third kind here mentioned,
is, the fulmar, Br. Zool, vol. ii. p. 431. and vol. iv. t. 82. Dr.
Linnæus’s Procellaria glacialis. F.

Footnote 42:

The sea-pie is sometimes called oyster-catcher, because this bird
forces the shells open with its bill, which are left bare on the
shore, at the recession of the tide. Br. Zool, vol. iv. p. 376, Dr.
Linnæus’s Hæmatopus Ostralegus. F.

Footnote 43:

This seems to be the American red-breast, or turdus migratorius, Linn.
and Kalm’s Voyage, vol. ii. p. 90, where likewise a figure of it is
given. F.

Footnote 44:

Glayeuls.

Footnote 45:

The animal here mentioned as the true sea-lion exceeds the sea-lion
described in Lord Anson’s Voyage; for this is twenty-five feet long,
and that in the isle of Juan Fernandes only twenty. See Voyage aux
Isles Malouines, par Dom Pernetty. F.

Footnote 46:

Muge ou mulet.

Footnote 47:

Brochet transparent.

Footnote 48:

This kind of trout has been likewise mentioned in a pamphlet published
last winter about the Falkland isles. F.

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_CHAP. V._

_Navigation from the Malouines to Rio-Janeiro; junction of the Boudeuse
with the Etoile.—Hostilities of the Portuguese against the
Spaniards. Revenues of the king of Portugal from Rio-Janeiro._

[Sidenote: 1767. June.
Departure from the Malouines for Rio-Janeiro.]

I waited, in vain, for the Etoile, at the Malouines; the months of March and April had passed, and that store-ship did not arrive. I could not attempt to traverse the Pacific Ocean with my frigate alone; as she had no more room than what would hold six months provision for the crew. I still waited for the store-ship, during May. Then seeing that I had only two months provisions, I left the Malouines the second of June, in order to go to Rio-Janeiro; which I had pointed out as a rendezvous to M. de la Giraudais, commander of the Etoile, in case some circumstances should prevent his coming to join me at the Malouines.

During this navigation, we had very fair weather. The 20th of June, in the afternoon, we saw the high head-lands of the Brasils; and, on the 21st, we discovered the entrance of Rio-Janeiro. Along the coast we saw several fishing-boats. I ordered Portuguese colours to be hoisted, and fired a cannon: upon this signal one of the boats came on board, and I took a pilot to bring us into the road. He made us run along the coast, within half a league of the isles which lie along it. We found many shoals every where. The coast is high, hilly, and woody; it is divided into little detached and perpendicular hillocks, which vary their prospect. At half an hour past five, in the afternoon, we were got within the fort of Santa-Cruz; from whence we were hailed; and at the same time a Portugueze officer came on board, to ask the reason of our entering into port. I sent the chevalier Bournand with him, to inform the count d’ Acunha, viceroy of the Brasils, of it, and to treat about the salute. At half an hour past seven, we anchored in the road, in eight fathoms water, and black muddy bottom.

[Sidenote: Discussion concerning the salute.]

The chevalier de Bournand returned soon after; and told me, that, concerning the salute, the count d’ Acunha had answered him, that if a person, meeting another in a street, took off his hat to him, he did not before inform himself, whether or no this civility would be returned; that if we saluted the place, he would consider what he should do. As this answer was not a sufficient one, I did not salute. [Sidenote: Junction with the Etoile.] I heard at the same time, by means of a canoe, which M. de la Giraudais sent to me, that he was in this port; that his departure from Rochefort, which should have been in December, had been retarded till the beginning of February; that after three months sailing, the water which his ship made, and the bad condition of her rigging, had forced him to put in at Montevideo, where he had received information concerning my voyage, by means of the Spanish frigates returning from the Malouines; and he had immediately set sail for Rio-Janeiro, where he had been at anchor for six days.

This junction enabled me to continue my expedition; though the Etoile, bringing me upwards of fifteen months salt provisions and liquor, had hardly for fifty days bread and legumes to give me. The want of these indispensable provisions, obliging me to return and get some in Rio de la Plata; as we found at Rio-Janeiro, neither biscuit, nor wheat, nor flour.

[Sidenote: Difficulties raised by the Portuguese against a Spanish
ship.]

There were, at this time, two vessels in this port which interested us; the one a French, and the other a Spanish one. The former, called l’Etoile du Matin, or the Morning Star, was the king’s ship bound for India; which, on account of its smallness, could not undertake to double the Cape of Good Hope during winter; and, therefore, came hither to wait the return of the fair season. The Spanish vessel was a man of war, of seventy-four guns, named the Diligent, commanded by Don Francesco de Medina. Having sailed from the river of Plata, with a cargo of skins and piastres; a leak which his ship had sprung, much below her water-line, had obliged him to bring her hither, in order to refit her for the voyage to Europe. He had been here eight months; and the refusal of necessary assistance, and the difficulties which the viceroy laid in his way, had prevented his finishing the repair: [Sidenote: Assistance which we gave her.] accordingly, Don Francisco sent the same evening that I arrived, to beg for my carpenters and caulkers; and the next morning I sent them to him from both the vessels.

[Sidenote: The viceroy visits us on board the frigate.]

The 22d we went in a body to pay a visit to the viceroy; he came and returned it on the 25th; and, when he left us, I saluted him with nineteen guns, which were returned from the shore. On this visit, he offered us all the assistance in his power; and even granted me the leave I asked, of buying a sloop, which would have been very useful, during the course of my expedition; and, he added, that if there had been one belonging to the king of Portugal, he would have offered it me. He likewise assured me, that he would make the most exact enquiries, in order to discover those, who, under the very windows of his palace, had murdered the chaplain of the Etoile, a few days before our arrival; and that he would proceed with them according to the utmost severity of the law. He promised justice; but the law of nations was very ineffectually executed at this place.

However, the viceroy’s civilities towards us continued for several days: he even told us his intention of giving us a _petit souper_, or collation, by the water-side, in bowers of jasmine and orange-trees; and he ordered a box to be prepared for us at the opera. We saw, in a tolerable handsome hall, the best works of Metastasio represented by a band of mulattoes; and heard the divine composition of the great Italian masters, executed by an orchestra, which was under the direction of a hump-backed priest, in his canonicals.

The favour which we enjoyed, occasioned great matter of astonishment to the Spaniards, and even to the people of the country; who told us, that their governor’s proceedings would not be the same for a long time. Indeed, whether the assistance we gave the Spaniards, and our own connections with them displeased him, or whether he could no longer feign a conduct, so diametrically opposite to his natural temper, he soon became, in regard to us, what he had been to every body else.

[Sidenote: Hostilities of the Portugueze against the Spaniards.]

The 28th of June, we heard that the Portuguese had surprised and attacked the Spaniards at Rio-Grande; that they had driven them from a station which they occupied on the left shore of that river; and that a Spanish ship, touching at the isle of St. Catherine, had been detained there. They fitted out here, with great expedition, the San Sebastiano, of sixty-four guns, built here; and a frigate, mounting forty guns, called Nossa Senhora da Gracia. This last was destined, it was said, to escort a convoy of troops and ammunition to Rio-Grande, and to the colony of Santo Sacramento. These hostilities and preparations gave us reason to apprehend that the viceroy intended to stop the Diligent; which was careening upon the isle das Cobras, and we accelerated her refitment as much as possible. [Sidenote: 1767. July.] She really was ready on the last day of June, and began to take in the skins, which were part of her lading; but on the sixth of July, when she wanted to take back her cannon, which, during the repair, had been deposited on the isle das Cobras, the viceroy forbade their being delivered; and declared, that he arrested the ship, till he had received the orders of his court, on the subject of the hostilities committed at Rio-Grande. In vain did Don Medina take all the necessary steps on this occasion; count d’Acunha would not so much as receive the letter, which the Spanish commander sent him by an officer, from on board his ship.

[Sidenote: Bad proceedings of the viceroy towards us.]

We partook of the disgrace of our allies. Having, upon the repeated leave of the viceroy, concluded the bargain for buying a snow, his excellency forbade the seller to deliver it to me. He likewise gave orders, that we should not be allowed the necessary timber out of the royal dock-yards, for which we had already agreed: he then refused me the permission of lodging with my officers, (during the time that the frigate underwent some essential repairs) in a house near the town, offered me by its proprietor: and which commodore Byron had occupied in 1765, when he touched at this port. On this account, and likewise upon his refusing me the snow and the timber, I wanted to make some remonstrances to him. He did not give me time to do it; and, at the first words I uttered, he rose in a furious passion, and ordered me to go out; and being certainly piqued, that, in spite of his anger, I remained sitting with two officers, who accompanied me, he called his guards; but they, wiser than himself, did not come, and we retired; so that nobody seemed to have been disturbed. We were hardly gone, when the guards of his palace were doubled, and orders given to arrest all the French that should be found in the streets after sun-setting. He likewise sent word to the captain of the French ship of four guns, to go and anchor under the fort of Villagahon; and the next morning I got her towed there by my boats.

[Sidenote: They determine us to leave Rio-Janeiro.]

From hence forward, I was intent upon my departure; especially as the inhabitants, with whom we had any intercourse of trade, must fear every thing from the viceroy. Two Portuguese officers became the victims of the civility they shewed us; the one was imprisoned in the citadel; the other exiled to Santa, a small town between St. Catherine and Rio-Grande. I made haste to take in our water, to get the most necessary provisions out of the Etoile, and to embark refreshments. I had been forced to enlarge our tops; and the Spanish captain furnished me with the necessary timber for that purpose, which had been refused us out of the docks. I likewise got some planks, which we could not do without; and which were sold to us secretly.

At last, on the 12th, every thing being ready, I sent an officer to let the viceroy know, I should weigh with the first fair wind. I advised M. d’Etcheveri, who commanded l’Etoile du Matin, (the Morning-Star) to stop at Rio-Janeiro as little as he could; and rather to employ the time that remained, till the favourable season for doubling the Cape of Good Hope came on, in going to survey the isles of Tristan d’Acunha, where he would find wood, water, and abundance of fish; and I gave him some memoirs I had concerning these isles. I have since heard, that he has followed my advice.

During our stay at Rio-Janeiro, we enjoyed one of the springs, which are obvious in poetical descriptions; and the inhabitants testified, in the most genteel manner, the displeasure which their viceroy’s bad proceedings against us, gave them. We were sorry, that it was not in our power to stay any longer with them. The Brasils, and the capital in it, have been described by so many authors, that I could mention nothing, without tediously repeating what has been said before. Rio-Janeiro has once been conquered by France; and is, of course, well known there. I will confine myself to give an account of the riches, of which that city is the staple[49]; and of the revenues which the king of Portugal gets from thence. I must previously mention, that M. de Commerçon, an able naturalist, who came with us on board the Etoile, in order to go on the expedition, assured me, that this was the richest country in plants he had ever met with; and that it had supplied him with whole treasures in botany.

[Sidenote: Account of the riches of Rio-Janeiro.]

Rio-Janeiro is the emporium and principal staple of the rich produce of the Brasils. The mines, which are called _general_, are the nearest to the city; being about seventy-five leagues distant. They annually bring in to the king, for his fifth part, at least one hundred and twelve arobas of gold; in 1762 they brought in a hundred and nineteen. Under the government of the general mines, are comprehended those of Rio das Mortes, of Sabara, and of Sero-frio. The last place, besides gold, produces all the diamonds that come from the Brasils. They are in the bed of a river; which is led aside, in order afterwards to separate the diamonds, topazes, chrysolites, and other stones of inferior goodness, from the pebbles, among which they ly.

[Sidenote: Regulations for examining the mines.]

All these stones, diamonds excepted, are not contraband: they belong to the possessors of the mines; but they are obliged to give a very exact account of the diamonds they find; and to put them into the hands of a surveyor[50], whom the king appoints for this purpose. [Sidenote: Mines of diamonds.] The surveyor immediately deposits them in a little casket, covered with plates of iron, and locked up by three locks. He has one of the keys, the viceroy the other, and the _Provador de Hazienda Reale_ the third. This casket is inclosed in another, on which are the seals of the three persons above mentioned, and which contains the three keys to the first. The viceroy is not allowed to visit its contents; he only places the whole in a third coffer, which he sends to Lisbon, after putting his seal on it. It is opened in the king’s presence; he chooses the diamonds which he likes out of it; and pays their price to the possessors of the mines, according to a tariff settled in their charter.

The possessors of the mines pay the value of a Spanish piastre or dollar per day to his Most Faithful Majesty, for every slave sent out to seek diamonds; the number of these slaves amounts to eight hundred. Of all the contraband trades, that of diamonds is most severely punished. If the smuggler is poor, he loses his life; if his riches are sufficient to satisfy what the law exacts, besides the confiscation of the diamonds, he is condemned to pay double their value, to be imprisoned for one year, and then exiled for life to the coast of Africa. Notwithstanding this severity, the smuggling trade with diamonds, even of the most beautiful kind, is very extensive; so great is the hope and facility of hiding them, on account of the little room they take up.

[Sidenote: Gold-mines.]

All the gold which is got out of the mines cannot be sent to Rio Janeiro, without being previously brought into the houses, established in each district, where the part belonging to the crown is taken. What belongs to private persons is returned to them in wedges, with their weight, their number, and the king’s arms stamped upon them. All this gold is assayed by a person appointed for that purpose, and on each wedge or ingot, the alloy of the gold is marked, that it may afterwards be easy to bring them all to the same alloy for the coinage.

These ingots belonging to private persons are registered in the office of _Praybuna_, thirty leagues from Rio Janeiro. At this place is a captain, a lieutenant, and fifty men: there the tax of one fifth part is paid, and further, a poll-tax of a _real_ and a half per head, of men, cattle, and beasts of burden. One half of the produce of this tax goes to the king, and the other is divided among the detachment, according to the rank. As it is impossible to come back from the mines without passing by this station, the soldiers always stop the passengers, and search them with the utmost rigour.

The private people are then obliged to bring all the ingots of gold which fall to their share, to the mint at Rio Janeiro, where they get the value of it in cash: this commonly consists of demi-doubloons, worth eight Spanish dollars. Upon each demi-doubloon, the king gets a piastre or dollar for the alloy, and for the coinage. The mint at Rio Janeiro is one of the finest buildings existing. It is furnished with all the conveniences necessary towards working with the greatest expedition. As the gold comes from the mines at the same time that the fleets come from Portugal, the coinage must be accelerated, and indeed they coin there with amazing quickness.

The arrival of these fleets, and especially of that from Lisbon, renders the commerce of Rio Janeiro very flourishing. The fleet from Porto is laden only with wines, brandy, vinegar, victuals, and some coarse cloths, manufactured in and about that town. As soon as the fleets arrive, all the goods they bring are conveyed to the custom-house, where they pay a duty of ten per cent to the king. It must be observed that the communication between the colony of Santo Sacramento and Buenos Ayres being entirely cut off at present, that duty must be considerably lessened; for the greater part of the most precious merchandizes which arrived from Europe were sent from Rio Janeiro to that colony, from whence they were smuggled through Buenos Ayres to Peru and Chili; and this contraband trade was worth a million and a half of piastres or dollars annually to the Portuguese. In short, the mines of the Brasils produce no silver, and all that which the Portuguese got, came from this smuggling trade. The negro trade was another immense object. The loss which the almost entire suppression of this branch of contraband trade occasions, cannot be calculated. This branch alone employed at least thirty coasting vessels between the Brasils and Rio de la Plata.

[Sidenote: Revenues of the king of Portugal from Rio Janeiro.]

Besides the old duty of ten per cent which is paid at the royal custom-house, there is another duty of two and a half per cent, laid on the goods as a free gift, on account of the unfortunate event which happened at Lisbon in 1755. This duty must be paid down at the custom-house immediately, whereas for the tenth, you may have a respite of six months, on giving good security.

The mines of S. Paolo and Parnagua pay the king four arrobas as his fifth, in common years. The most distant mines, which are those of Pracaton and Quiaba, depend upon the government[51] of Maragrosso. The fifth of these mines is not received at Rio Janeiro, but that of the mines of Goyas is. This government has likewise mines of diamonds, but it is forbidden to search in them.

All the expences of the king of Portugal at Rio Janeiro, for the payment of the troops and civil officers, the carrying on of the mines, keeping the public buildings in repair, and refitting of ships, amount to about six hundred thousand piastres. I do not speak of the expence he may be at in constructing ships of the line and frigates, which he has lately begun to do here.

A summary account, and the amount of the separate articles of
the king’s revenue, taken at a medium in Spanish dollars.

Dollars.
One hundred and fifty arrobas of gold, of which in
common years all the fifths amount to 1,125,000
The duty on diamonds 240,000
The duty on the coinage 400,000
Ten per cent. of the custom-house 350,000
Two and a half per cent. free gift 87,000
Poll tax, sale of employs, offices, and other
products of the mines 225,000
The duty on negroes 110,000
The duty on train-oil, salt, soap, and the tenth
on the victuals of the country 130,000
————-
Total in dollars or piasters 2,667,000
————-

From whence, if you deduct the expences above mention ed, it will appear that the king of Portugal’s revenues from Rio Janeiro, amount to upwards of ten millions of our money (livres[52]).

-----

Footnote 49:

Debouché.

Footnote 50:

Intendant.

Footnote 51:

Capitainie.

Footnote 52:

Upwards of 450,000 pounds sterling; at 4 s. and 6 d. per dollar.

-----

_CHAP. VI._

_Departure from Rio Janeiro: second voyage to Montevideo:
damage which the Etoile receives there._

The 14th of July we weighed from Rio Janeiro, but for want of wind we were obliged to come to an anchor again in the road. [Sidenote: 1767. July.] We sailed on the 15th, and two days after, the frigate being a much better sailer than the Etoile, I was obliged to unrig my top-gallant masts, as our lower masts required a careful management. [Sidenote: Departure from Rio Janeiro.] The winds were variable, but brisk, and the sea very high. In the night between the 19th and 20th, we lost our main-top-sail, which was carried away on its clue-lines. [Sidenote: Eclipse of the sun.] The 25th there was an eclipse of the sun, visible to us. I had on board my ship M. Verron, a young astronomer, who came from France in the Etoile, with a view to try, during the voyage, some methods towards finding the longitude at sea.

According to our estimation of the ship’s place, the moment of immersion, as calculated by the astronomer, was to be on the 25th, at four hours nineteen minutes in the evening. At four hours and six minutes, a cloud prevented our seeing the sun, and when we got sight of him again, at four hours thirty-one minutes, about an inch and a half was already eclipsed. Clouds successively passed over the sun’s disk, and let us see him only at very short intervals, so that we were not able to observe any of the phases of the eclipse, and consequently could not conclude our longitude from it. The sun set to us before the moment of apparent conjunction, and we reckoned that that of immersion had been at four hours twenty-three minutes.

[Sidenote: Entrance into Rio de la Plata.]

On the 26th we came into soundings; the 28th in the morning we discovered the Castilles. This part of the coast is pretty high, and is to be seen at ten or twelve leagues distance. We discovered the entrance to a bay, which probably is the harbour where the Spaniards have a fort, and where I have been told there is very bad anchorage. The 29th we entered Rio de la Plata, and saw the Maldonados. We advanced but little this day and the following. Almost the whole night between the 30th and 31st we were becalmed, and sounded constantly. The current set to the north-westward, which was pretty near the situation of the isle of Lobos. At half an hour past one after midnight, having sounded, thirty-three fathoms, I thought I was very near the isle, and gave the signal for casting anchor. At half past three we weighed, and saw the isle of Lobos in N. E. about a league and a half distant. The wind was S. and S. E. weak at first, but blew more fresh towards sun-rising, and we anchored in the bay of Montevideo the 31st in the afternoon. We had lost much time on account of the Etoile; because, besides the advantage of our being better sailers, that store-ship, which at leaving Rio Janeiro made four inches of water every hour, after a few days sail made seven inches in the same space of time, which did not allow her to crowd her sails.

[Sidenote: Second time of touching at Montevideo.]

[Sidenote: News which we hear at this place.]

We were hardly moored, when an officer came on board, being sent by the governor of Montevideo, to compliment us on our arrival, and informed us that orders had been received from Spain to arrest all the Jesuits, and to seize their effects: that the ship which brought these dispatches had carried away forty fathers of that community, destined for the missions: that the order had already been executed in the principal houses without any difficulty or resistance; and that, on the contrary, these fathers bore their disgrace with resignation and moderation. I shall soon enter into a more circumstantial account of this great transaction, of which I have been able to obtain full information, by my long stay at Buenos Ayres, and the confidence with which the governor-general Don Francisco Bukarely[53] honoured me.

[Sidenote: 1767.
August.]

As we were to stay in Rio de la Plata till after the equinox, we took lodgings at Montevideo, where we settled our workmen, and made an hospital. This having been our first care, I went to Buenos Ayres, on the 11th of August, to accelerate our being furnished with the necessary provisions, by the provider-general of the king of Spain; at the same price as he had agreed to deliver them to his Catholic Majesty. I likewise wanted to have a conference with M. de Buccarelli, on the subject of what had happened at Rio-Janeiro; though I had already, by express, sent him the dispatches from Don Francisco de Madina. I found he had prudently resolved to content himself with sending an account of the hostilities of the viceroy of the Brasils to Europe, and not to make any reprisals. It would have been easy to him, to have taken the colony of Santo Sacramento in a few days; especially as that place was in want of every necessary, and had not yet obtained, in November, the convoy of articles and ammunition that were preparing to be sent thither, when we left Rio-Janeiro.

The governor-general made every thing as convenient as possible, towards quickly making up our wants. At the end of August, two schooners, laden with biscuit and flour for us, sailed for Montevideo; whither I likewise went to celebrate the day of St. Louis. I left the chevalier du Bouchage, an under-lieutenant, at Buenos Ayres, in order to get the remainder of our provisions on board; and to take care of our affairs there till our departure; which, I hoped, would be towards the end of September. I could not foresee that an accident would detain us six weeks longer. [Sidenote: Damage which the Etoile receives.] In a hurricane, blowing hard at S. W. the San Fernando, a register-ship, which was at anchor near the Etoile, dragged her anchors, ran foul of the Etoile at night; and, at the first shock, broke her bowsprit level with the deck. Afterwards the knee and rails of her head were carried away; and it was lucky that they separated, notwithstanding the bad weather, and the obscurity of the night, without being more damaged.

[Sidenote: 1767.
September.]