This Evening wind still continued fair but very little, we now saw the Sugar Loaf very plain but could not tonight reach it, so shortend sail; we had seen for some time a small vessel under the land which seemd to steer into the harbour as well as we.

The Land all along this Coast has been exceedingly high inland except in the bay mentiond on the 7th: the mountains seen now about Rio Janeiro were immensely high so that some of our people compared them with the Pike of Tenerife, tho I do not myself think they deserve a comparison so much higher is the Pike. Notwithstanding the hills are high and begin to rise near the shore the beach is sandy and appears to be of a firm sand.

In the Course of this Evening we aproachd very near the Land and found it very cold, to our feelings at least; the Thermometer at ten O'Clock stood at 68¼#188; which gave us hopes that the countrey would be cooler than we should expect from the accounts of travellers, especially Mr Biron who says that no business is done here from 10 till 2 on account of the intense heat. [41]

The shore from Cape Frio to this place has been one uninterruptd beach of the whitest Colour I ever saw which they tell me is a white sand.

Voyaging Accounts