On this day ...
7 December 1768
Endeavour Voyage Maps
James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia
Transcript of Cook's Journal
Joseph Banks's Journal
Sydney Parkinson's Journal
Madeira to Rio de Janeiro
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Rio de Janeiro, or the river of Januarius, was probably so called from its having been discovered on the feast-day of that saint; and the town, which is the capital of the Portuguese dominions in America, derives its name from the river, which indeed is rather an arm of the sea, for it did not appear to receive any considerable stream of fresh water: it stands on a plain, close to the shore, on the west side of the bay, at the foot of several high mountains which rise behind it. It is neither ill designed nor ill built; the houses, in general, are of stone, and two stories high; every house having, after the manner of the Portuguese, a little balcony before its windows, and a lattice of wood before the balcony. I computed its circuit to be about three miles; for it appears to be equal in size to the largest country towns in England, Bristol and Liverpool not excepted; the streets are straight, and of a convenient breadth, intersecting each other at right angles; the greater part, however, lie in a line with the citadel, called St. Sebastian, which stands on the top of a hill that commands the town.
It is supplied with water from the neighbouring hills, by an aqueduct, which is raised upon two stories of arches, and is said in some places to be at a great height from the ground, from which the water is conveyed by pipes into a fountain in the great square that exactly fronts the Viceroy’s palace. At this fountain great numbers of people are continually waiting for their turn to draw water; and the soldiers, who are posted at the Governor’s door, find it very difficult to maintain any regularity among them. The water at this fountain however is so bad, that we, who had been two months at sea, confined to that in our casks, which was almost always foul, could not drink it with pleasure. Water of a better quality is laid into some other part of the town, but I could not learn by what means.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 27 - 28, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
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