A friar in the town having requested the assistance of our surgeon, Dr. Solander easily got admittance in that character on the 25th, and received many marks of civility from the people. On the 26th, before day-break, Mr. Banks also found means to elude the vigilance of the people in the guard-boat, and got on shore; he did not, however, go into the town, for the principal objects of his curiosity were to be found in the fields: to him also the people behaved with great civility, many of them invited him to their houses, and he bought a porker and some other things of them for the ship’s company; the porker, which was by no means lean, cost him eleven shillings, and he paid something less than two for a Muscovy duck.
On the 27th, when the boats returned from watering, the people told us there was a report in town, that search was making after some persons who had been on shore from the ship without the Viceroy’s permission: these persons we conjectured to be Dr. Solander and Mr. Banks, and therefore they determined to go on shore no more.
On the first of December, having got our water and other necessaries on board, I sent to the Viceroy for a pilot to carry us to sea, who came off to us; but the wind preventing us from getting out, we took on board a plentiful supply of fresh beef, yams, and greens for the ship’s company. On the 2d, a Spanish packet arrived, with letters from Buenos Ayres for Spain, commanded by Don Antonio de Monte Negro y Velasco, who with great politeness offered to take our letters to Europe: I accepted the favour, and gave him a packet for the secretary of the Admiralty, containing copies of all the papers that had passed between me and the Viceroy; leaving also duplicates with the Viceroy, to be by him forwarded to Lisbon.
On Monday, the 5th, it being a dead calm, we weighed anchor and towed down the bay; but, to our great astonishment, when we got abreast of Santa Cruz, the principal fortification, two shot were fired at us. We immediately cast anchor, and sent to the fort to enquire the reason of what had happened; our people brought us word, that the commandant had received no order from the Viceroy to let us pass; and that, without such an order, no vessel was ever suffered to go below the fort. It was now, therefore, become necessary, that we should send to the Viceroy, to enquire why the necessary order had not been given, as he had notice of our departure, and had thought fit to write me a polite letter, wishing me a good voyage. Our messenger soon returned with an account, that the order had been written some days, but, by an unaccountable negligence, not sent.
We did not get under sail till the 7th; and, when we had passed the fort, the pilot desired to be discharged. As soon as he was dismissed, we were left by our guard-boat, which had hovered about us from the first hour of our being in this place to the last; and Mr. Banks, having been prevented from going ashore at Rio de Janeiro, availed himself of her departure to examine the neighbouring islands, where, particularly on one in the mouth of the harbour, called Raza, he gathered many species of plants, and caught a variety of insects.
It is remarkable, that, during the last three or four days of our staying in this harbour, the air was loaded with butterflies: they were chiefly of one sort, but in such numbers that thousands were in view in every direction, and the greatest part of them above our mast-head.
We lay here from the 14th of November to the 7th of December, something more than three weeks, during which time Mr. Monkhouse, our surgeon, was on shore every day to buy our provisions; Dr. Solander was on shore once; I was several times on shore myself, and Mr. Banks also found means to get into the country, notwithstanding the watch that was set over us. I shall, therefore, with the intelligence obtained from these gentlemen, and my own observations, give some account of the town, and the country adjacent.
Rio de Janeiro, or the river of Januarius, was probably so called from its having been discovered on the feast-day of that saint; and the town, which is the capital of the Portuguese dominions in America, derives its name from the river, which, indeed, is rather an arm of the sea, for it did not appear to receive any considerable stream of fresh water: it stands on a plain, close to the shore, on the west side of the bay, at the foot of several high mountains which rise behind it. It is neither ill designed nor ill built: the houses, in general, are of stone, and two stories high; every house having, after the manner of the Portuguese, 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 size to the largest country towns in England, Bristol and Liverpool not excepted: the streets are straight, and of a convenient breadth, intersecting each other at right angles; the greater part, however, lie in a line with the citadel called St. Sebastian, which stands on the top of a hill that commands the town.
It is supplied with water from the neighbouring hills, by an aqueduct, which is raised upon two stories of arches, and is said in some places to be at a great height from the ground, from which the water is conveyed by pipes into a fountain in the great square that exactly fronts the Viceroy’s palace. At this fountain great numbers of people are continually waiting for their turn to draw water; and the soldiers, who are posted at the governor’s door, find it very difficult to maintain any regularity among them. The water at this fountain, however, is so bad, that we, who had been two months at sea, confined to that in our casks, which was almost always foul, could not drink it with pleasure. Water of a better quality is laid into some other part of the town, but I could not learn by what means.
The churches are very fine, and there is more religious parade in this place than in any of the Popish countries in Europe: there is a procession of some parish every day, with various insignia, all splendid and costly in the highest degree: they beg money, and say prayers in great form, at the corner of every street.