Chap. V
Navigation from the Malouines to Rio-Janeiro; junction of the Boudeuse with the Etoile.—Hostilities of the Portuguese against the Spaniards. Revenues of the king of Portugal from Rio-Janeiro.
1767. June. Departure from the Malouines for Rio-Janeiro.
I waited, in vain, for the Etoile, at the Malouines; the months of March and April had passed, and that store-ship did not arrive. I could not attempt to traverse the Pacific Ocean with my frigate alone; as she had no more room than what would hold six months provision for the crew. I still waited for the store-ship, during May. Then seeing that I had only two months provisions, I left the Malouines the second of June, in order to go to Rio-Janeiro; which I had pointed out as a rendezvous to M. de la Giraudais, commander of the Etoile, in case some circumstances should prevent his coming to join me at the Malouines.
During this navigation, we had very fair weather. The 20th of June, in the afternoon, we saw the high head-lands of the Brasils; and, on the 21st, we discovered the entrance of Rio-Janeiro. Along the coast we saw several fishing-boats. I ordered Portuguese colours to be hoisted, and fired a cannon: upon this signal one of the boats came on board, and I took a pilot to bring us into the road. He made us run along the coast, within half a league of the isles which lie along it. We found many shoals every where. The coast is high, hilly, and woody; it is divided into little detached and perpendicular hillocks, which vary their prospect. At half an hour past five, in the afternoon, we were got within the fort of Santa-Cruz; from whence we were hailed; and at the same time a Portugueze officer came on board, to ask the reason of our entering into port. I sent the chevalier Bournand with him, to inform the count d’ Acunha, viceroy of the Brasils, of it, and to treat about the salute. At half an hour past seven, we anchored in the road, in eight fathoms water, and black muddy bottom.
Discussion concerning the salute.
The chevalier de Bournand returned soon after; and told me, that, concerning the salute, the count d’ Acunha had answered him, that if a person, meeting another in a street, took off his hat to him, he did not before inform himself, whether or no this civility would be returned; that if we saluted the place, he would consider what he should do. As this answer was not a sufficient one, I did not salute. |Junction with the Etoile.| I heard at the same time, by means of a canoe, which M. de la Giraudais sent to me, that he was in this port; that his departure from Rochefort, which should have been in December, had been retarded till the beginning of February; that after three months sailing, the water which his ship made, and the bad condition of her rigging, had forced him to put in at Montevideo, where he had received information concerning my voyage, by means of the Spanish frigates returning from the Malouines; and he had immediately set sail for Rio-Janeiro, where he had been at anchor for six days.
This junction enabled me to continue my expedition; though the Etoile, bringing me upwards of fifteen months salt provisions and liquor, had hardly for fifty days bread and legumes to give me. The want of these indispensable provisions, obliging me to return and get some in Rio de la Plata; as we found at Rio-Janeiro, neither biscuit, nor wheat, nor flour.
Difficulties raised by the Portuguese against a Spanish ship.
There were, at this time, two vessels in this port which interested us; the one a French, and the other a Spanish one. The former, called l’Etoile du Matin, or the Morning Star, was the king’s ship bound for India; which, on account of its smallness, could not undertake to double the Cape of Good Hope during winter; and, therefore, came hither to wait the return of the fair season. The Spanish vessel was a man of war, of seventy-four guns, named the Diligent, commanded by Don Francesco de Medina. Having sailed from the river of Plata, with a cargo of skins and piastres; a leak which his ship had sprung, much below her water-line, had obliged him to bring her hither, in order to refit her for the voyage to Europe. He had been here eight months; and the refusal of necessary assistance, and the difficulties which the viceroy laid in his way, had prevented his finishing the repair: |Assistance which we gave her.| accordingly, Don Francisco sent the same evening that I arrived, to beg for my carpenters and caulkers; and the next morning I sent them to him from both the vessels.
The viceroy visits us on board the frigate.
The 22d we went in a body to pay a visit to the viceroy; he came and returned it on the 25th; and, when he left us, I saluted him with nineteen guns, which were returned from the shore. On this visit, he offered us all the assistance in his power; and even granted me the leave I asked, of buying a sloop, which would have been very useful, during the course of my expedition; and, he added, that if there had been one belonging to the king of Portugal, he would have offered it me. He likewise assured me, that he would make the most exact enquiries, in order to discover those, who, under the very windows of his palace, had murdered the chaplain of the Etoile, a few days before our arrival; and that he would proceed with them according to the utmost severity of the law. He promised justice; but the law of nations was very ineffectually executed at this place.
However, the viceroy’s civilities towards us continued for several days: he even told us his intention of giving us a petit souper, or collation, by the water-side, in bowers of jasmine and orange-trees; and he ordered a box to be prepared for us at the opera. We saw, in a tolerable handsome hall, the best works of Metastasio represented by a band of mulattoes; and heard the divine composition of the great Italian masters, executed by an orchestra, which was under the direction of a hump-backed priest, in his canonicals.
The favour which we enjoyed, occasioned great matter of astonishment to the Spaniards, and even to the people of the country; who told us, that their governor’s proceedings would not be the same for a long time. Indeed, whether the assistance we gave the Spaniards, and our own connections with them displeased him, or whether he could no longer feign a conduct, so diametrically opposite to his natural temper, he soon became, in regard to us, what he had been to every body else.
Hostilities of the Portugueze against the Spaniards.
The 28th of June, we heard that the Portuguese had surprised and attacked the Spaniards at Rio-Grande; that they had driven them from a station which they occupied on the left shore of that river; and that a Spanish ship, touching at the isle of St. Catherine, had been detained there. They fitted out here, with great expedition, the San Sebastiano, of sixty-four guns, built here; and a frigate, mounting forty guns, called Nossa Senhora da Gracia. This last was destined, it was said, to escort a convoy of troops and ammunition to Rio-Grande, and to the colony of Santo Sacramento. These hostilities and preparations gave us reason to apprehend that the viceroy intended to stop the Diligent; which was careening upon the isle das Cobras, and we accelerated her refitment as much as possible. |1767. July.| She really was ready on the last day of June, and began to take in the skins, which were part of her lading; but on the sixth of July, when she wanted to take back her cannon, which, during the repair, had been deposited on the isle das Cobras, the viceroy forbade their being delivered; and declared, that he arrested the ship, till he had received the orders of his court, on the subject of the hostilities committed at Rio-Grande. In vain did Don Medina take all the necessary steps on this occasion; count d’Acunha would not so much as receive the letter, which the Spanish commander sent him by an officer, from on board his ship.
Bad proceedings of the viceroy towards us.
We partook of the disgrace of our allies. Having, upon the repeated leave of the viceroy, concluded the bargain for buying a snow, his excellency forbade the seller to deliver it to me. He likewise gave orders, that we should not be allowed the necessary timber out of the royal dock-yards, for which we had already agreed: he then refused me the permission of lodging with my officers, (during the time that the frigate underwent some essential repairs) in a house near the town, offered me by its proprietor: and which commodore Byron had occupied in 1765, when he touched at this port. On this account, and likewise upon his refusing me the snow and the timber, I wanted to make some remonstrances to him. He did not give me time to do it; and, at the first words I uttered, he rose in a furious passion, and ordered me to go out; and being certainly piqued, that, in spite of his anger, I remained sitting with two officers, who accompanied me, he called his guards; but they, wiser than himself, did not come, and we retired; so that nobody seemed to have been disturbed. We were hardly gone, when the guards of his palace were doubled, and orders given to arrest all the French that should be found in the streets after sun-setting. He likewise sent word to the captain of the French ship of four guns, to go and anchor under the fort of Villagahon; and the next morning I got her towed there by my boats.
They determine us to leave Rio-Janeiro.
From hence forward, I was intent upon my departure; especially as the inhabitants, with whom we had any intercourse of trade, must fear every thing from the viceroy. Two Portuguese officers became the victims of the civility they shewed us; the one was imprisoned in the citadel; the other exiled to Santa, a small town between St. Catherine and Rio-Grande. I made haste to take in our water, to get the most necessary provisions out of the Etoile, and to embark refreshments. I had been forced to enlarge our tops; and the Spanish captain furnished me with the necessary timber for that purpose, which had been refused us out of the docks. I likewise got some planks, which we could not do without; and which were sold to us secretly.
At last, on the 12th, every thing being ready, I sent an officer to let the viceroy know, I should weigh with the first fair wind. I advised M. d’Etcheveri, who commanded l’Etoile du Matin, (the Morning-Star) to stop at Rio-Janeiro as little as he could; and rather to employ the time that remained, till the favourable season for doubling the Cape of Good Hope came on, in going to survey the isles of Tristan d’Acunha, where he would find wood, water, and abundance of fish; and I gave him some memoirs I had concerning these isles. I have since heard, that he has followed my advice.
During our stay at Rio-Janeiro, we enjoyed one of the springs, which are obvious in poetical descriptions; and the inhabitants testified, in the most genteel manner, the displeasure which their viceroy’s bad proceedings against us, gave them. We were sorry, that it was not in our power to stay any longer with them. The Brasils, and the capital in it, have been described by so many authors, that I could mention nothing, without tediously repeating what has been said before. Rio-Janeiro has once been conquered by France; and is, of course, well known there. I will confine myself to give an account of the riches, of which that city is the staple49; and of the revenues which the king of Portugal gets from thence. I must previously mention, that M. de Commerçon, an able naturalist, who came with us on board the Etoile, in order to go on the expedition, assured me, that this was the richest country in plants he had ever met with; and that it had supplied him with whole treasures in botany.
Account of the riches of Rio-Janeiro.
Rio-Janeiro is the emporium and principal staple of the rich produce of the Brasils. The mines, which are called general, are the nearest to the city; being about seventy-five leagues distant. They annually bring in to the king, for his fifth part, at least one hundred and twelve arobas of gold; in 1762 they brought in a hundred and nineteen. Under the government of the general mines, are comprehended those of Rio das Mortes, of Sabara, and of Sero-frio. The last place, besides gold, produces all the diamonds that come from the Brasils. They are in the bed of a river; which is led aside, in order afterwards to separate the diamonds, topazes, chrysolites, and other stones of inferior goodness, from the pebbles, among which they ly.
Regulations for examining the mines.
All these stones, diamonds excepted, are not contraband: they belong to the possessors of the mines; but they are obliged to give a very exact account of the diamonds they find; and to put them into the hands of a surveyor50, whom the king appoints for this purpose. |Mines of diamonds.| The surveyor immediately deposits them in a little casket, covered with plates of iron, and locked up by three locks. He has one of the keys, the viceroy the other, and the Provador de Hazienda Reale the third. This casket is inclosed in another, on which are the seals of the three persons above mentioned, and which contains the three keys to the first. The viceroy is not allowed to visit its contents; he only places the whole in a third coffer, which he sends to Lisbon, after putting his seal on it. It is opened in the king’s presence; he chooses the diamonds which he likes out of it; and pays their price to the possessors of the mines, according to a tariff settled in their charter.
The possessors of the mines pay the value of a Spanish piastre or dollar per day to his Most Faithful Majesty, for every slave sent out to seek diamonds; the number of these slaves amounts to eight hundred. Of all the contraband trades, that of diamonds is most severely punished. If the smuggler is poor, he loses his life; if his riches are sufficient to satisfy what the law exacts, besides the confiscation of the diamonds, he is condemned to pay double their value, to be imprisoned for one year, and then exiled for life to the coast of Africa. Notwithstanding this severity, the smuggling trade with diamonds, even of the most beautiful kind, is very extensive; so great is the hope and facility of hiding them, on account of the little room they take up.
Gold-mines.
All the gold which is got out of the mines cannot be sent to Rio Janeiro, without being previously brought into the houses, established in each district, where the part belonging to the crown is taken. What belongs to private persons is returned to them in wedges, with their weight, their number, and the king’s arms stamped upon them. All this gold is assayed by a person appointed for that purpose, and on each wedge or ingot, the alloy of the gold is marked, that it may afterwards be easy to bring them all to the same alloy for the coinage.
These ingots belonging to private persons are registered in the office of Praybuna, thirty leagues from Rio Janeiro. At this place is a captain, a lieutenant, and fifty men: there the tax of one fifth part is paid, and further, a poll-tax of a real and a half per head, of men, cattle, and beasts of burden. One half of the produce of this tax goes to the king, and the other is divided among the detachment, according to the rank. As it is impossible to come back from the mines without passing by this station, the soldiers always stop the passengers, and search them with the utmost rigour.
The private people are then obliged to bring all the ingots of gold which fall to their share, to the mint at Rio Janeiro, where they get the value of it in cash: this commonly consists of demi-doubloons, worth eight Spanish dollars. Upon each demi-doubloon, the king gets a piastre or dollar for the alloy, and for the coinage. The mint at Rio Janeiro is one of the finest buildings existing. It is furnished with all the conveniences necessary towards working with the greatest expedition. As the gold comes from the mines at the same time that the fleets come from Portugal, the coinage must be accelerated, and indeed they coin there with amazing quickness.
The arrival of these fleets, and especially of that from Lisbon, renders the commerce of Rio Janeiro very flourishing. The fleet from Porto is laden only with wines, brandy, vinegar, victuals, and some coarse cloths, manufactured in and about that town. As soon as the fleets arrive, all the goods they bring are conveyed to the custom-house, where they pay a duty of ten per cent to the king. It must be observed that the communication between the colony of Santo Sacramento and Buenos Ayres being entirely cut off at present, that duty must be considerably lessened; for the greater part of the most precious merchandizes which arrived from Europe were sent from Rio Janeiro to that colony, from whence they were smuggled through Buenos Ayres to Peru and Chili; and this contraband trade was worth a million and a half of piastres or dollars annually to the Portuguese. In short, the mines of the Brasils produce no silver, and all that which the Portuguese got, came from this smuggling trade. The negro trade was another immense object. The loss which the almost entire suppression of this branch of contraband trade occasions, cannot be calculated. This branch alone employed at least thirty coasting vessels between the Brasils and Rio de la Plata.
Revenues of the king of Portugal from Rio Janeiro.
Besides the old duty of ten per cent which is paid at the royal custom-house, there is another duty of two and a half per cent, laid on the goods as a free gift, on account of the unfortunate event which happened at Lisbon in 1755. This duty must be paid down at the custom-house immediately, whereas for the tenth, you may have a respite of six months, on giving good security.
The mines of S. Paolo and Parnagua pay the king four arrobas as his fifth, in common years. The most distant mines, which are those of Pracaton and Quiaba, depend upon the government51 of Maragrosso. The fifth of these mines is not received at Rio Janeiro, but that of the mines of Goyas is. This government has likewise mines of diamonds, but it is forbidden to search in them.
All the expences of the king of Portugal at Rio Janeiro, for the payment of the troops and civil officers, the carrying on of the mines, keeping the public buildings in repair, and refitting of ships, amount to about six hundred thousand piastres. I do not speak of the expence he may be at in constructing ships of the line and frigates, which he has lately begun to do here.
A summary account, and the amount of the separate articles of the king’s revenue, taken at a medium in Spanish dollars.
| Dollars. | |
| One hundred and fifty arrobas of gold, of which in common years all the fifths amount to | 1,125,000 |
| The duty on diamonds | 240,000 |
| The duty on the coinage | 400,000 |
| Ten per cent. of the custom-house | 350,000 |
| Two and a half per cent. free gift | 87,000 |
| Poll tax, sale of employs, offices, and other products of the mines | 225,000 |
| The duty on negroes | 110,000 |
| The duty on train-oil, salt, soap, and the tenth on the victuals of the country | 130,000 |
| Total in dollars or piasters | 2,667,000 |
From whence, if you deduct the expences above mention ed, it will appear that the king of Portugal’s revenues from Rio Janeiro, amount to upwards of ten millions of our money (livres52).