While here, the commodore kept up a very strict discipline over his people; and some of his sailors being complained against as having maltreated some Indian women, he caused them to be severely punished, and would never afterwards allow them to go on shore. The Dutch and Portuguese agreed extremely well, but the governor was far from being pleased with his visitors, more especially because he had learnt from some of the deserters that the object of the expedition was to make discoveries in the south. For this reason he practised every art he could devise to hinder and distress them, and furnished them with provisions only from day to day, that they might not increase their sea-stores. He also frequently talked of there being five or six Portuguese men-of-war in Rio de Janeiro, in order to put the Dutch in fear of being attacked, and actually sent for the only ship that was there at the time, to come to St Sebastian. Roggewein perfectly understood the meaning of all this, of which he took no notice, and complied exactly with the terms of the agreement entered into with the deputy governor, saving part of the fresh provisions daily and salting them, cleaned and repaired his ship in succession, and took on board tobacco, sugar, and every thing else he wanted, till in a condition to continue the voyage. He then fully satisfied the governor for every thing procured at this place, making payment in fire-arms, hats, silk stockings, linen, stock-fish, and other European articles, and made him a considerable present besides. In return, the governor sent him some black cattle, and gave him a certificate of his honourable behaviour.

Footnote 1: [(return)]

There must be a considerable mistake here in regard to the latitude of Porto, said to be in 21° S. as Rio Janeiro is in lat. 22° 54' S. and must therefore have been eighty leagues distant. Perhaps the eight miles in the text, as the distance to Rio Janeiro, ought to have been eighty leagues or Dutch miles.E.

Footnote 2: [(return)]

This is a most inconclusive mode of expression, perhaps meaning Dutch florins, and if so, about £636,363 sterling.E.

Footnote 3: [(return)]

It is impossible to reconcile this longitude with any of the first meridians mentioned in a former note, or indeed with any known geographical principles. It is 45° 30' W. from Greenwich. If reckoned from the meridian of Teneriffe, said to be that used by the Dutch, this would place it 21° 10' too far west, as Teneriffe is 16° 40' W. from Greenwich. This place, in an island of the same name, has to be carefully distinguished from the city of St Sebastian, now more commonly known by the name of Rio de Janeiro.E.

Footnote 4: [(return)]

There is no doubt that at least some of the tribes roasted and eat their prisoners, like the Caribs of the West Indies. But certainly they had not arrived to that state of civilization as to have markets; and beef and mutton were unknown in America, till carried there from Europe.E.

Footnote 5: [(return)]

There are animals of the tyger kind in Brazil and other parts of America, and the Jaguar, Owza, or Brazilian tyger, is probably the one here meant. No elephants exist in America, and their teeth, mentioned in the text, must have come from some of the Portuguese African possessions.E.

SECTION III.

Incidents during the Voyage from Brazil to Juan Fernandez, with a Description of that Island.

Every thing being settled at St Sebastian, Roggewein set sail towards the S.W. and falling in with a desert island about three leagues from the coast, he set on shore the swabber who had attempted to murder the cook, pursuant to his sentence, as formerly related. Leaving the coast of Brazil, the commodore proposed to have visited an island called Aukes Magdeland, after the name of its supposed discoverer, who is said to have seen a light on that island about an hundred years before, but did not go on shore. This island was said to be situated in the latitude of 30° S. and as being in the route of the navigation towards the South Sea, and in a good climate, he proposed to have settled a colony there for the service of such ships as might afterwards be bound for the Southern Indies, the object he was now in search of, where they might be supplied with wood, water, and other refreshments. But after much pains, he could neither discover that nor any other island in or near the latitude of 30° S. He therefore altered his coarse, steering for those called the New Islands by the Dutch, and the Islands of St Lewis, by a French privateer who first discovered them. Keeping always within forty or fifty leagues of the American coast, the squadron prosecuted its course very happily, having always the advantage of the land and sea-breezes; whereas, if it had kept farther from land, it would infallibly have fallen in with the western trade-wind.

On the 21st December, being in lat. 40°. S. they were assailed by a hurricane, attended with thunder and lightning, during which storm the Tienhoven parted company, and did not rejoin till three months afterwards. The extreme violence of this hurricane only lasted about four hours, during which they every moment expected to have been swallowed up by the waves, which ran mountain-high. These hurricanes are extremely dangerous, and are far more frequent in the American seas than in the East Indies. They usually happen at that season of the year when the west monsoon reigns, which is from the 20th July to the 15th October, for which reason ships usually remain then in port till they think the danger is over. Yet as storms of this kind are not exactly periodical, ships that trust to such calculations are often caught, as there are some years in which there are no hurricanes, and others in which they are more frequent and violent, and at unusual periods. The ordinary, or at least the surest sign of an approaching hurricane, is very fair weather, and so dead a calm that not even a wrinkle is to be seen on the surface of the sea. A very dark cloud is then seen to rise in the air, not larger than a man's hand, and in a very little time the whole sky becomes overcast. The wind then begins to blow from the west, and in a short space of time, whirls round the compass, swelling the sea to a dreadful height; and as the wind blows now on one side and then on the other, the contrary waves beat so forcibly on the ships that they seldom escape foundering or shipwreck. On first perceiving the before-mentioned small cloud, the best thing a ship can do is to stand out to sea. It is remarkable that the hurricanes are less frequent as we approach the higher latitudes in either hemisphere, so that they are not to be feared beyond the lat. of 55° either S. or N. It is also remarked, that hurricanes rarely happen in the middle of the wide ocean, but chiefly on the coasts of such countries as abound with minerals, and off the mouths of large rivers. Another surprising phenomenon at sea is what is called a whirlwind water-spout, or syphon, which often carries up high into the air whatever comes within the circle of its force, as fish, grasshoppers, and other things, where they appear like a thick vapour or cloud. The English fire at a water-spout or whirlwind, and often succeed in stopping its progress; the circular motion ceasing, and all that it had taken up falling immediately down, when the sea becomes presently calm.