A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels | Page 8

procured a place for them on shore, where they
soon recovered. As the seams of both the ships were very open, some
Portuguese caulkers were engaged, who, after having worked some
time, rendered them perfectly tight.[9] While we lay here, Lord Clive,
in the Kent Indiaman, came to the port. This ship had sailed from
England a month before us, and had not touched any where, yet she
came in a month after us; so that her passage was just two months
longer than ours, notwithstanding the time we lost in waiting for the
Tamar, which, though the Dolphin was by no means a good sailer,
sailed so much worse, that we seldom spread more than half our canvas.
The Kent had many of her people down in the scurvy.
[Footnote 9: "We had six, who were paid at the rate of six shillings
sterling a day; though it is certain that one of our English caulkers
would do as much in one day as they could in three; but though they
are slow and inactive, they perform their work very completely, or else
their vessels could not run so many voyages in a shattered condition as

they frequently do."]
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.[10] 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 practise every artifice in their power to entice away the crew:
if other methods do not succeed, they make them drunk, and
immediately send 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.
[Footnote 10: The harbour of Rio de Janeiro is uncommonly good, and
spacious enough for a large fleet, but the entrance is very narrow, and
requires to be entered with the assistance of a sea-breeze, which
fortunately blows daily from before noon till sun-set. According to
Captain Krusenstern, the harbour of St Catharines in the island of that
name near the Brazil coast, is "infinitely preferable to Rio Janeiro," for
ships going round Cape Horn.--See his reasons in the account of his
voyage p. 76.--E.]
SECTION II.
_Passage from Rio de Janeiro to Port Desire; with some Description of
that Place._
On Monday the 22d, being now once more at sea, I called all hands
upon deck, and informed them, that I was not, as they imagined, bound

immediately to the East Indies, but upon certain discoveries, which it
was thought might be of great importance to our country; in
consideration of which, the lords commissioners of the Admiralty had
been pleased to promise them double pay, and several other advantages,
if during the voyage they should behave to my satisfaction. They all
expressed the greatest joy imaginable upon the occasion, and assured
me, that there was no danger or difficulty that they would not with the
utmost cheerfulness undergo in the service of their country, nor any
order that I could give them which they would not implicitly and
zealously obey.[11]
[Footnote 11: "We had all the reason possible to believe that we were
bound to the East Indies, and that we should now steer to the Cape of
Good Hope, the scheme being so well concerted by our commodore, as
even to deceive Lord Clive, who pressed him with great importunity to
allow him to take his passage in the Dolphin, we being in much greater
readiness for sea than the Kent; but to this the commodore could not
consent; but flattered his lordship with the hopes of his taking him on
board on their meeting at the Cape."]
We continued our course till Monday the 20th, having frequently hard
gales with sudden gusts, which obliged us to strike our
top-gallant-masts, and get up our stumps; but this day it blew a storm,