RECEPTION AT RIO.

They struck soundings on 6th November, and on heaving the lead again found a difference of less than a foot in three or four hours. Land was sighted near Cape Frio, Brazil, in latitude 21 degrees 16 minutes South, on the 8th, and they came across a boat manned by eleven blacks who were engaged in catching and salting fish. Banks purchased some fish, and was surprised to find they preferred to be paid in English rather than Spanish coin. On the 13th they arrived off Rio de Janeiro, where they were very ungraciously received by the Viceroy. They were not permitted to land except under a guard; some of the men who had been sent ashore on duty were imprisoned. Mr. Hicks, who had gone to report their arrival and ask for the services of a pilot, was detained for a time, and it was only with difficulty, and at an exorbitant rate, that they obtained fresh food and water. Consequently little was seen of the place, except from the ship, and Cook took all possible observations from thence, and made a sketch map of the harbour, to which he added all the information he was able to pick up from the pilot. Writing to the Royal Society, he says he is quite unable to understand the true reason of his treatment, and contrasts it with that received by a Spanish ship which came in whilst he was there. This Spanish ship willingly undertook to carry to Europe and forward to the Admiralty copies of the correspondence that passed between Cook and the Viceroy, which Cook describes as

"a paper war between me and His Excellency, wherein I had no other advantage than the racking his invention to find reasons for treating us in the manner he did, for he never would relax the least from any one point."

To every remonstrance the Viceroy pleaded his instructions and the custom of the port. He seems to have been quite unable to grasp the object of the expedition, and Cook says his idea of the transit of Venus was, "the North Star passing through the South Pole. His own words." The crew were accused of smuggling, and it was repeatedly asserted that the Endeavour was not a king's ship. Parkinson, one of Mr. Banks's staff, says that frequently some of them let themselves down from the cabin window at midnight into a boat, and driving with the tide till they were out of hearing of the guard boat established over them, rowed ashore and made short excursions into the country, "though not so far as we could have wished to have done."

Banks, speaking of the supplies obtained at Rio, says the beef was cheap but very lean and dry; the bread tasted as if made with sawdust, and justified its name of Farinha de Pao (wooden meal); the fruits, excepting the oranges, were very indifferent, and he takes particular exception to the banana, which he had not tasted before, it was not at all to his liking. The water also was very bad, and the crew preferred what they had brought with them, though it was very stale.

M. de Bougainville reports that when he visited Rio he was at first received in a very friendly manner by this same Viceroy, but after a time the treatment was altered, and he had to put up with even greater insolence than Cook.