account of its shape, and the beauty of its plumage, and does not live
in families as the second species, which is the same with that described
in Lord Anson’s Voyage[36]. The penguin of the first class is fond of
solitude and retired places. It has a peculiar noble and magnificent
appearance, having an easy gait, a long neck when singing or crying, a
longer and more elegant bill than the second sort, the back of a more
blueish cast, the belly of a dazzling white, and a kind of palatine or
necklace of a bright yellow, which comes down on both sides of the head,
as a boundary between the blue and the white, and joins on the
belly[37]. We hoped to be able to bring one of them over to Europe. It
was easily tamed so far as to follow and know the person that had the
care of feeding it: flesh, fish, and bread, were its food; but we
perceived that this food was not sufficient, and that it absorbed the
fatness of the bird; accordingly, when the bird was grown lean to a
certain degree, it died. The third sort of penguins live in great flocks
or families like the second; they inhabit the high cliffs, where we
found the saw-bills (becs-scies), and they lay their eggs there. Their
distinguishing characters are, the smallness of their size, their dark
yellow colour, a tuft of gold-yellow feathers, which are shorter than
those of the egret[38], and which they raise when provoked, and lastly,
some other feathers of the same colour, which stand in the place of
eye-brows; our people called them hopping penguins, because they chiefly
advance by hopping and flapping. This species carries greater air of
liveliness in its countenance than the two others[39].
Three species of petrels, (alcyons) which appear but seldom, did not
forebode any tempests, as those do which are seen at sea. They are
however the same birds, as our sailors affirmed, and the least species
has all the characters of it. Though this may be the true alcyons[40],
yet so much is certain, that they build their nests on shore, whence we
have had their young ones covered only with down, but perfectly like
their parents in other respects. The second sort only differs from them
in size, being somewhat less than a pigeon. These two species are black,
with some white feathers on the belly[41]. The third sort was at first
called white-pigeon, on account of its feathers being all of that
colour, and its bill being red: there is reason to suppose it is a true
white alcyon, on account of its conformity with the other species.
[Sidenote: Birds with cloven feet.]
Three sorts of eagles, of which the strongest have a dirty white, and
the others a black plumage, with yellow and white feet, attack the
snipes and little birds; neither their size nor the strength of their
claws allowing them to fall upon others. A number of sparrow hawks and
falcons, together with some owls, are the other enemies of the fowl.
Their plumage is rich, and much varied in colour.
The snipes are the same as the European ones; they do not fly
irregularly when they rise, and are easy to be shot. In the breeding
season they soar to a prodigious height; and after singing and
discovering their nest, which they form without precaution in the midst
of the fields, on spots where hardly any plants grow, they fall down
upon it from the height they had risen to before; at this season they
are poor; the best time for eating them is in autumn.
In summer we saw many curlews, which were not at all different from
ours.
Throughout the whole year we saw a bird pretty like a curlew on the
sea-side; it was called a sea-pie[42], on account of its black and white
plumage; its other characteristics are, a bill of the colour of red
coral, and white feet. It hardly ever leaves the rocks, which are dry at
low water, and lives upon little shrimps. It makes a whistling noise,
easy to be imitated, which proved useful to our sportsmen, and
pernicious to the bird.
Egrets are pretty common here; at first we took them for common herons,
not knowing the value of their plumes. These birds begin to feed towards
night; they have a harsh barking noise, which we often took for the
noise of the wolf we have mentioned before.
Two sorts of stares or thrushes came to us every autumn; a third species
remained here constantly, it was called the red bird[43]; its belly is
quite covered with feathers of a beautiful fiery red, especially during
winter; they might be collected, and would make very rich tippets. One
of the two remaining species is yellow, with black spots on the belly,
the other has the colour of our common thrushes. I shall not give any
particular account of an infinite number of little birds, that are
pretty like those seen in the maritime provinces of France.
[Sidenote: Amphibious creatures.]
The sea-lions and seals are already known; these animals occupy the
sea-shore, and lodge, as I have before mentioned, among the tall plants,
called gladioli[44]. They go up a league into the country in innumerable
herds, in order to enjoy the fresh herbs, and to bask in the sun. It
seems the sea-lion described in Lord Anson’s Voyage ought, on account of
its snout, to be looked upon as a kind of marine elephant, especially as
he has no mane; is of an amazing size, being sometimes twenty-two feet
long, and as there is another species much inferior in size, without any
snout, and having a mane of longer hairs than those on the rest of the
body, which therefore should be considered as the true sea-lion[45]. The
seal (_loup marin_) has neither mane nor snout; thus all the three
species are easily distinguished. Under the hair of all these creatures,
there is no such down as is found in those caught in North America and
Rio de la Plata. Their grease or train oil, and their skins, might form
a branch of commerce.
[Sidenote: Fish.]
We have not found a great variety of species of fish. That sort which we
caught most frequently, we called mullet[46], to which it bears some
resemblance. Some of them were three feet long, and our people dried
them. The fish called gradeau is very common, and sometimes found above
a foot long. The sardine only comes in the beginning of winter. The
mullets being pursued by the seals, dig holes in the slimy ground, on
the banks of the rivulets, where they take shelter, and we took them
without difficulty, by taking off the layer of mud that covered their
retreats. Besides these species, a number of other very small ones were
taken with a hook and line, and among them was one which was called a
transparent pike[47]. Its head is shaped like that of our pike, the body
without scales, and perfectly diaphanous. There are likewise some
congers on the rocks, and the white porpesse, called _la taupe_, or the
mole, appears in the bays during the fine season. If we had had time,
and men enough to spare, for the fishery at sea, we should have found
many other fish, and certainly some soals, of which a few have been
found, thrown upon the sands. Only a single sort of fresh water fish,
without scales, has been taken; it is of a green colour, and of the size
of a common trout[48]. It is true, we have made but few researches in
this particular, we had but little time; and other fish in abundance.
[Sidenote: Crustaceous fish.]
Here have been found only three small sorts of crustacea; viz. the
cray-fish, which is red, even before it is boiled, and is properly a
prawn; the crab, with blue feet, resembling pretty much that called
_tourelourou_, and a minute species of shrimp. These three crustacea,
and all muscles, and other shell fish, were only picked up for
curiosity’s sake, for they have not so good a taste as those in
France.——This land seems to be entirely deprived of oysters.
Lastly, by way of forming a comparison with some cultivated isle in
Europe, I shall quote what Puffendorf says of Ireland, which is situated
nearly in the same latitude in the northern hemisphere, as the Malouines
in the southern one, viz. “that this island is pleasant on account of
the healthiness and serenity of the air, and because heat and cold are
never excessive there. The land being well divided by lakes and rivers,
offers great plains, covered with excellent pasture, has no venemous
creatures, its lakes and rivers abound with fish, &c.” See the Universal
History.
-----
Footnote 21:
As M. de Bougainville’s map of the Malouines or Falkland’s isles, is a
mere inaccurate out-line; we refer our readers to the more exact plans
of these islands, published in England. F.
Footnote 22:
Euphorbia Linn. Tithymalus Tournef. F.
Footnote 23:
Ceterae Asplenium, Linn. F.
Footnote 24:
Lepas Linn.
Footnote 25:
Buccinum Linn.
Footnote 26:
Ostreæ Pectines Linn.
Footnote 27:
Mya Linn. F.
Footnote 28:
For a navigator, of Mr. Bougainville’s experience and abilities, this
query is very extraordinary; and, still more so, for a man who has
spent so many years in Canada, near the coasts of Labrador; and who
certainly must have read accounts from Greenland, where often
land-animals, on large masses of ice fixed to the shore, and broke
loose by the sea, are driven into the ocean; and again landed on the
shores of countries, very distant from their native home. F.
Footnote 29:
In the northern parts of America is a kind of wild goose, which was
called by the French, when in possession of Canada, Outarde, or
Bustard; the English call it the Canada-goose; it has been represented
by Catesby, I.t. 92. Edward t. 151. and the Planches Enluminées, t.
346. Perhaps this may be the same species. F.
Footnote 30:
This bird, though the author calls it a Diver, seems, according to the
description of it, to be rather the Grebe; which is so plentiful on
the lake of Geneva, whose beautiful skins are drest, and made into
muffs and tippets. Br. Zool. 2. p. 396. 8vo. Ed. F.
Footnote 31:
This species seems to be the white and dusky grebe. Br. Zool. 2. p.
397, and vol. 4. f. 17. F.
Footnote 32:
Becs-scies.
Footnote 33:
As far as we can guess, from this very imperfect description, the
birds here mentioned seem to be of the kind called Guillemot. Br.
Zool. vol. 2. p. 410. and vol. 4. t. 20. F.
Footnote 34:
The _Quebrantahuessos_ is a bird belonging to the genus called by Dr.
Linnæus, _Procellaria_, or petrel; some of the sailors call it
Albatross, but then we must take care not to confound the common
albatross, represented by Mr. Edwards, tab. 88, which is not this
Quebrantahuessos, but I believe the bird described by our author to be
not yet well known by our ornithologists; and the imperfect account of
Bougainville and Dom Pernetty are far from being satisfactory to
natural historians. Our late great circumnavigators and philosophers
will probably oblige the literary world with a drawing and account of
this bird. F.
Footnote 35:
Nenuphars, Nymphæa Linn, F.
Footnote 36:
The place referred to here in Lord Anson’s Voyage is book I. chap.
vii. p. 92. edit. 14th, in 8vo. 1769; but from thence, as well as from
our author’s account, it is impossible to determine which species of
the penguin is meant. F.
Footnote 37:
The first of these penguins seems to be that described by Mr. Pennant
in the Philos. Trans. vol. lix. and represented in an accurate
drawing. F.
Footnote 38:
Aigrette, a species of heron.
Footnote 39:
This last species of penguin, or auk, seems to be the same with the
alca cirrhata of Dr. Pallas, Spicileg. Zool. Fasc. v. p. 7. tab. i. &
v. fig. 1-3. F.
Footnote 40:
The author certainly has the noted fable of the antients in view,
according to which, the alcyons had a swimming nest, and brooded at
sea at a time in winter, when the weather was calm. The few calm days
during which these birds were employed in brooding, were therefore
called alcyonia. F.
Footnote 41:
The two petrels here mentioned seem to be the little, and the
sea-swallow or frigat; the first of which is described, Br. Zool, vol.
ii. p. 434, and represented, vol. iv. t. 82. The second, or swallow
petrel, or frigat, is to be met with in Rochefort’s Voyage, t. 135.
Dr. Linnæus calls the first procellaria pelagica, the latter the
fregatta, and, if I am not mistaken, the third kind here mentioned,
is, the fulmar, Br. Zool, vol. ii. p. 431. and vol. iv. t. 82. Dr.
Linnæus’s Procellaria glacialis. F.
Footnote 42:
The sea-pie is sometimes called oyster-catcher, because this bird
forces the shells open with its bill, which are left bare on the
shore, at the recession of the tide. Br. Zool, vol. iv. p. 376, Dr.
Linnæus’s Hæmatopus Ostralegus. F.
Footnote 43:
This seems to be the American red-breast, or turdus migratorius, Linn.
and Kalm’s Voyage, vol. ii. p. 90, where likewise a figure of it is
given. F.
Footnote 44:
Glayeuls.
Footnote 45:
The animal here mentioned as the true sea-lion exceeds the sea-lion
described in Lord Anson’s Voyage; for this is twenty-five feet long,
and that in the isle of Juan Fernandes only twenty. See Voyage aux
Isles Malouines, par Dom Pernetty. F.
Footnote 46:
Muge ou mulet.
Footnote 47:
Brochet transparent.
Footnote 48:
This kind of trout has been likewise mentioned in a pamphlet published
last winter about the Falkland isles. F.
-----
_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._
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote:
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.
[Sidenote: 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: [Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.