Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places, Rio de Janeiro, page 57

Page 57

Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places

Rio de Janeiro

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Rio de Janeiro (continued)

hours march to the town, which you aproach on the Back part where it is as defenceless as the Landing place; but this seems incredible yet I am inclind to beleive it of these people whose cheif policy consists in hindering people from looking about them as much as possible. It may therefore be as my informer said that the existence of such a bay is but lately found out, indeed was it not for that policy I could beleive any thing of their stupidity and ignorance, when the Governor of the town Brigadier General Don Pedro de Mendoza y Furtado ask'd the Captain of our ship whether the transit of Venus which we were going to observe was not the passing of the North star to the South pole, which he said he always understood it to be.

The river and indeed the whole coast abounds with greater variety of Fish than I have ever seen; seldom a day passd

Voyaging Accounts

© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 128, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-057.html