Downs to Rio de Janeiro
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On Tuesday the 16th of October, we weighed anchor, being impatient to get to sea, for the heat here was intolerable; but we lay four or five days above the bar, waiting for the land breeze to carry us out, for there is no getting out with the sea breeze, and the entrance between the two first forts is so narrow, and so great a sea breaks in upon them, that it was not without much danger and difficulty we got out at last, and if we had followed the advice of the Portuguese pilot, we had certainly lost the ship. As this narrative is published for the advantage of future navigators, particularly those of our own nation, it is also necessary I should observe, that the Portuguese here, carrying on a great trade, make it their business to attend every time a boat comes on shore, and practice every artifice in their power to entice away the crew: if other methods do not succeed, they make them drunk, and immediately fend them up the country, taking effectual care to prevent their return, till the ship to which they belong has left the place; by this practice I lost five of my men, and the Tamar nine: mine I never recovered, but the Tamar had the good fortune to learn where her’s were detained, and by sending out a party in the night, surprised them, and brought them back.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 7, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/045.html