1768. On Monday the 5th, it being a dead calm, we weighed.
December.^ ancllor ancj towed down the bay; but, to our great aftonifh-
Monday5. Inent) when we got abreail o f Santa Cruz, the principal fortification,
two Ihot were fired at us. We immediately caft
anchor, and fent to the fort to enquire the reafon of what
had happened : our people brought us word, That the Commandant
had; received no order from the Viceroy to let us
pafs ; and that, without fuch an order, no veflel was ever fuf-
fered to go below the fort. It was now, therefore, become
necefiary that we fhould fend to the Viceroy, to enquire why
the neceflary order had not been given, as he had notice of
our-departure, and had thought fit to write me a polite letter,
wilhing me a good voyage. Our mefienger foon, returned
with an account, that the order had been written
feme days, but by aa unaccountable negligence not fent,
Wednef. 7. : We did not get under fail till the 7th; and, when we had
, palled the fort, the pilot defired to be difcharged. As foon as
he was difmifled, we were left by our guard-boat, which
had hovered about us from the firft hour of our being in this
place to the laft: and Mr. Banks, having been prevented
from going alhore at Rio de Janeiro, availed himfelf of her
departure to examine the neighbouring illands, where, particularly
on one in the mouth of the harbour .called Raza,
he gathered many fpecies of plants, and caught a variety o f
infects.
It is remarkable, that; during the laft three or four days of
•our flaying in this harbour, the air was loaded with butterflies:
they were chiefly of one fort, but in fuch pumbers
that thoufands were in v-iew in every direflion, and the
greateft part of them above our maft-head.
We lay here from the 14th of November to the 7 th of
December, fomething more than three weeks» during which
6 time
time Mr. Monkhoufe, our Surgeon, was on Ihore every day >768.
to buy our provifions; Dr. Solander was on Ihore once ; I -----™~
was feveral times on Ihore myfelf, and Mr. Banks alfo found
means to get into the country, notwithftanding the watch
that was fet over us. I lhall, therefore, with the intelligence
obtained from thefe Gentlemen, and my own obfervations,
give fome account of the town, and the country adjacent.
Rio de Janeiro, or the river o f Januarius, was probably fo
called from its having been difcovered on the feaft-day of
that faint; and the town, which is the capital of the Portu-
guefe dominions in America, derives its name from the
river, which indeed is rather an arm of the fea, for it did
not appear to receive any conliderable ftream of frelh water:
it Hands on a plain, clofe to the Ihore, on the weft fide of the
bay, at the foot of feveral high mountains which rife behind
it. It is neither ill defigned nor ill built; the houfes,
in general, are o f ftone, and two ftories high ; every houfe
having, after the manner of the Portuguefe, a little balcony
before its windows, and a lattice of wood before the balcony.
I computed its circuit to be about three miles ; for it appears
to be equal in fize to the largeft country towns in England,
Briftol and Liverpool not excepted ; the ftrcets are flraight,
■ and of a convenient breadth, interfecting each other at right
angles ; the greater part, however, lie in a line with the citadel,
called St. Sebaftian, which Hands on the top of a hill
that commands the town.
It is fupplied with water from the neighbouring hills, by
an aqueduft, which is railed upon two ftories of arches, and
is faid in fome places to be at a great height from the
ground, from which the water is conveyed by pipes into a
fountain in the great fquare that exactly fronts the Viceroy’s
palace. At this fountain great numbers of people are
Vop. Ik E ■ conti