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 staple[49]; 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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
surveyor[50], whom the king appoints for this purpose. [Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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 government[51] 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 (livres[52]).
-----
Footnote 49:
Debouché.
Footnote 50:
Intendant.
Footnote 51:
Capitainie.
Footnote 52:
Upwards of 450,000 pounds sterling; at 4 s. and 6 d. per dollar.
-----
_CHAP. VI._
_Departure from Rio Janeiro: second voyage to Montevideo:
damage which the Etoile receives there._
The 14th of July we weighed from Rio Janeiro, but for want of wind we
were obliged to come to an anchor again in the road. [Sidenote: 1767.
July.] We sailed on the 15th, and two days after, the frigate being a
much better sailer than the Etoile, I was obliged to unrig my
top-gallant masts, as our lower masts required a careful management.
[Sidenote: Departure from Rio Janeiro.] The winds were variable, but
brisk, and the sea very high. In the night between the 19th and 20th, we
lost our main-top-sail, which was carried away on its clue-lines.
[Sidenote: Eclipse of the sun.] The 25th there was an eclipse of the
sun, visible to us. I had on board my ship M. Verron, a young
astronomer, who came from France in the Etoile, with a view to try,
during the voyage, some methods towards finding the longitude at sea.
According to our estimation of the ship’s place, the moment of
immersion, as calculated by the astronomer, was to be on the 25th, at
four hours nineteen minutes in the evening. At four hours and six
minutes, a cloud prevented our seeing the sun, and when we got sight of
him again, at four hours thirty-one minutes, about an inch and a half
was already eclipsed. Clouds successively passed over the sun’s disk,
and let us see him only at very short intervals, so that we were not
able to observe any of the phases of the eclipse, and consequently could
not conclude our longitude from it. The sun set to us before the moment
of apparent conjunction, and we reckoned that that of immersion had been
at four hours twenty-three minutes.
[Sidenote: Entrance into Rio de la Plata.]
On the 26th we came into soundings; the 28th in the morning we
discovered the Castilles. This part of the coast is pretty high, and is
to be seen at ten or twelve leagues distance. We discovered the entrance
to a bay, which probably is the harbour where the Spaniards have a fort,
and where I have been told there is very bad anchorage. The 29th we
entered Rio de la Plata, and saw the Maldonados. We advanced but little
this day and the following. Almost the whole night between the 30th and
31st we were becalmed, and sounded constantly. The current set to the
north-westward, which was pretty near the situation of the isle of
Lobos. At half an hour past one after midnight, having sounded,
thirty-three fathoms, I thought I was very near the isle, and gave the
signal for casting anchor. At half past three we weighed, and saw the
isle of Lobos in N. E. about a league and a half distant. The wind was
S. and S. E. weak at first, but blew more fresh towards sun-rising, and
we anchored in the bay of Montevideo the 31st in the afternoon. We had
lost much time on account of the Etoile; because, besides the advantage
of our being better sailers, that store-ship, which at leaving Rio
Janeiro made four inches of water every hour, after a few days sail made
seven inches in the same space of time, which did not allow her to crowd
her sails.
[Sidenote: Second time of touching at Montevideo.]
[Sidenote: News which we hear at this place.]
We were hardly moored, when an officer came on board, being sent by the
governor of Montevideo, to compliment us on our arrival, and informed us
that orders had been received from Spain to arrest all the Jesuits, and
to seize their effects: that the ship which brought these dispatches had
carried away forty fathers of that community, destined for the missions:
that the order had already been executed in the principal houses without
any difficulty or resistance; and that, on the contrary, these fathers
bore their disgrace with resignation and moderation. I shall soon enter
into a more circumstantial account of this great transaction, of which I
have been able to obtain full information, by my long stay at Buenos
Ayres, and the confidence with which the governor-general Don Francisco
Bukarely[53] honoured me.
[Sidenote: 1767.
August.]
As we were to stay in Rio de la Plata till after the equinox, we took
lodgings at Montevideo, where we settled our workmen, and made an
hospital. This having been our first care, I went to Buenos Ayres, on
the 11th of August, to accelerate our being furnished with the necessary
provisions, by the provider-general of the king of Spain; at the same
price as he had agreed to deliver them to his Catholic Majesty. I
likewise wanted to have a conference with M. de Buccarelli, on the
subject of what had happened at Rio-Janeiro; though I had already, by
express, sent him the dispatches from Don Francisco de Madina. I found
he had prudently resolved to content himself with sending an account of
the hostilities of the viceroy of the Brasils to Europe, and not to make
any reprisals. It would have been easy to him, to have taken the colony
of Santo Sacramento in a few days; especially as that place was in want
of every necessary, and had not yet obtained, in November, the convoy of
articles and ammunition that were preparing to be sent thither, when we
left Rio-Janeiro.
The governor-general made every thing as convenient as possible, towards
quickly making up our wants. At the end of August, two schooners, laden
with biscuit and flour for us, sailed for Montevideo; whither I likewise
went to celebrate the day of St. Louis. I left the chevalier du
Bouchage, an under-lieutenant, at Buenos Ayres, in order to get the
remainder of our provisions on board; and to take care of our affairs
there till our departure; which, I hoped, would be towards the end of
September. I could not foresee that an accident would detain us six
weeks longer. [Sidenote: Damage which the Etoile receives.] In a
hurricane, blowing hard at S. W. the San Fernando, a register-ship,
which was at anchor near the Etoile, dragged her anchors, ran foul of
the Etoile at night; and, at the first shock, broke her bowsprit level
with the deck. Afterwards the knee and rails of her head were carried
away; and it was lucky that they separated, notwithstanding the bad
weather, and the obscurity of the night, without being more damaged.
[Sidenote: 1767.
September.]
This accident greatly enlarged the leaks in the Etoile, which she had
had from the beginning of her voyage. It now became absolutely necessary
to unload this vessel, if not to heave her down[54], in order to
discover and stop this leak, which seemed to lie very low, and very
forward. This operation could not be performed at Montevideo; where,
besides, there was not timber sufficient to repair the masts; I
therefore wrote to the chevalier du Bouchage, to represent our situation
to the marquis de Buccarelli; and to obtain, that by his leave the
Etoile might be allowed to come up the river, and to go into the
Encenada de Baragan; I likewise gave him orders to send timber and the
other materials, which we should want thither. The governor-general
consented to our demands; and, the 7th of September, not being able to
find any pilot, [Sidenote: Navigation from Montevideo to Baragan.] I
went on board the Etoile, with the carpenters and caulkers of the
Boudeuse, in order to sail the next morning, and undertake in person a
navigation, which we were told was very hazardous. Two register-ships;
the San-Fernando and the Carmen, provided with a pilot, were ready the
same day, to sail for Montevideo to Encenada; and I intended to follow
them; but the San-Fernando, which had got the pilot, named Philip, on
board, weighed in the night, between the seventh and eighth, purely with
a view of hiding his track from us; and left her companion in the same
distress. However, we sailed on the eighth in the morning, preceded by
our canoes; the Carman remaining to wait for a schooner to direct her
route. In the evening we reached the San-Fernando, passed by her; and,
on the tenth in the afternoon, we came to an anchor in the road of the
Encenada: Philip, who was a bad pilot, and a wicked fellow, always
steering in our water.
In this road I found the Venus frigate of twenty-six guns, and some
merchant-ships; which were bound, together with her, to sail directly
for Europe. I likewise found there la Esmeralda, and la Liebre; who were
preparing to return to the Malouines, with provisions and ammunitions of
all sorts; from whence they were to sail for the South Seas, in order to
take in the Jesuits of Chili and Peru. There was likewise the xebeck[55]
el Andaluz; which arrived from Ferrol, at the end of July, in company
with another xebeck, named el Aventurero; but the latter was lost on the
point of what is called the English-Sand; and the crew had time to save
their lives. The Andaluz was preparing to carry presents and
missionaries to the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego; the king of Spain
being desirous of testifying his gratitude to those people, for the
services they rendered the Spaniards of the ship la Concepcion, which
was lost on their coasts in 1765.
[Sidenote: The Etoile goes to be repaired there.]
I went on shore at Baragan, whither the chevalier du Bouchage had
already sent part of the timber we wanted. He found it very difficult
and expensive to collect it at Buenos Ayres, in the king’s arsenal, and
in some private timber-yards; the stores of both consisting of the
timbers of such ships as were wrecked in the river. At Baragan we found
no supplies; but, on the contrary, difficulties of many kinds; and every
thing conspired to make all operations go on very slowly. The Encenada
de Baragan is, indeed, merely a bad kind of bay, formed by the mouth of
a little river, which is about a quarter of a league broad; but the
depth of water is only in the middle, in a narrow channel; which is
constantly filling more and more; and, in which, only ships drawing no
more than twelve feet water can enter. In all the other parts of the
river, there is not six inches of water during the ebb; but as the tides
are irregular in Rio de la Plata; and the water sometimes high or low,
for eight days together, according to the winds that blow, the landing
of boats was connected with great difficulties. There are no magazines
on shore; the houses, or rather huts, are but few, made of rushes,
covered over with leather, and built without any regularity, on a barren
soil; and their inhabitants are hardly able to get their subsistance;
all which causes still more difficulties. The ships, which draw too much
water to be able to enter this creek, must anchor at the point of Lara,
a league and a half west. There they are exposed to all the winds; but
the ground being very good for anchoring, they may winter there, though
labouring under many inconveniences.
[Sidenote: 1767. October.]
I left M. de la Giraudais, at the point of Lara, to take care of what
related to his ship; and I went to Buenos Ayres, from whence I sent him
a large schooner, by which he might heave down as soon as he came into
the Encenada. For that purpose, it was necessary to unload part of the
goods she had on board; and M. de Buccarelli gave us leave to deposit
them on board the Esmeralda and the Liebre. The 8th of October the
Etoile was able to go into port; and it appeared, that her repair would
not take so much time as was at first expected. Indeed, they had hardly
begun to unload her, when her leak diminished considerably; and she did
not leak at all when she drew only eight feet of water forward. After
taking up some planks of her sheathing, they saw that the seam of her
entrance was entirely without oakum for the length of four feet and a
half, from the depth of eight feet of her draught upwards. They
discovered likewise two auger holes, into which they had not put the
bolts. All these faults and damages being quickly repaired, new railing
put on the head, a new bowsprit made and rigged, and the ship being new
caulked all over, she returned to the point of Lara on the 21st, where
she took in her lading again, from on board the Spanish frigates. In
that road she likewise stowed the wood, flour, biscuit, and different
provisions I sent her.
[Sidenote: Departure of several vessels for Europe,
and arrival of others.]
From thence, the Venus and four other vessels laden with leather, sailed
for Cadiz, at the end of September, having on board two hundred and
fifty Jesuits, and the French families from the Malouines, seven
excepted, who having no room in these ships, were obliged to wait for
another opportunity. The marquiss of Buccarelli transported them to
Buenos Ayres, where he provided them with subsistence and lodgings. At
the same time we got intelligence of the arrival of the Diamante, a
register ship, bound for Buenos Ayres, and of the San-miguel, another
register ship, bound for Lima. The situation of the last ship was very
distressing: after struggling with the winds at Cape Horn during
forty-five days, thirty-nine men of her crew being dead, and the others
attacked by the scurvy, and a sea carrying away her rudder, she was
obliged to bear away for this river, and arrived at the port of
Maldonados seven months after leaving Cadiz, having no more than three
sailors and a few officers that were able to do duty. At the request of
the Spaniards we sent an officer with some sailors to bring her into the
port of Montevideo. On the fifth of October the Spanish frigate la
Aguila arrived there, having left Ferrol in March. She touched at the
isle of St. Catherine, and the Portuguese had arrested her there at the
same time that they stopped the Diligent at Rio Janeiro.
-----
Footnote 53:
Buccarelli.
Footnote 54:
Virer en quille.
Footnote 55:
Chambekin.
-----
_CHAP. VII._
_Accounts of the missions in Paraguay, and the expulsion of the
Jesuits from that province._
Whilst we carried on our preparations for leaving Rio de la Plata, the
marquiss of Buccarelli made some on his part to go on the Uraguai. The
Jesuits had already been arrested in all the other provinces of his
department; and this governor-general intended to execute the orders of
his catholic majesty, in person, in the missions. It depended upon the
first steps that were taken, either to make the people consent to the
alterations that were going to be made, or to plunge them again into
their former state of barbarism. But before I give an account of what I
have seen of the catastrophe of this singular government, I must speak
something of its origin, progress, and form. I shall speak of it _sine
irâ & studio, quorum causas procul habeo_.
[Sidenote: Date of the establishment of the missions.]
In 1580 the Jesuits were first admitted into these fertile regions,
where they have afterwards, in the reign of Philip the third, founded
the famous missions, which in Europe go by the name of Paraguay, and in
America, with more propriety, by that of Uraguay, from the river of that
name, on which they are situated. They were always divided into
colonies, which at first were weak and few, but by gradual progress have
been encreased to the number of thirty-seven, viz. twenty-nine on the
right side of the Uraguay, and eight on the left side, each of them
governed by two Jesuits, in the habit of the order. Two motives, which
sovereigns are allowed to combine, if they do not hurt each other,
namely, religion and interest, made the Spanish monarch desirous of the
conversion of the Indians; by making them catholics, they became
civilized, and he obtained possession of a vast and abundant country;
this was opening a new source of riches for the metropolis, and at the
same time making proselytes to the true Deity. The Jesuits undertook to
fulfil these projects; but they represented, that in order to facilitate
the success of so difficult an enterprize, it was necessary they should
be independent of the governors of the province, and that even no
Spaniard should be allowed to come into the country.
[Sidenote: Conditions agreed on between the court of Spain and the
Jesuits.]