“a paper war between me and His Excellency, wherein I had no other advantage than the racking his invention to find reasons for treating us in the manner he did, for he never would relax the least from any one point.”

To every remonstrance the Viceroy pleaded his instructions and the custom of the port.  He seems to have been quite unable to grasp the object of the expedition, and Cook says his idea of the transit of Venus was, “the North Star passing through the South Pole.  His own words.”  The crew were accused of smuggling, and it was repeatedly asserted that the Endeavour was not a king’s ship.  Parkinson, one of Mr. Banks’s staff, says that frequently some of them let themselves down from the cabin window at midnight into a boat, and driving with the tide till they were out of hearing of the guard boat established over them, rowed ashore and made short excursions into the country, “though not so far as we could have wished to have done.”

Banks, speaking of the supplies obtained at Rio, says the beef was cheap but very lean and dry; the bread tasted as if made with sawdust, and justified its name of Farinha de Pao (wooden meal); the fruits, excepting the oranges, were very indifferent, and he takes particular exception to the banana, which he had not tasted before, it was not at all to his liking.  The water also was very bad, and the crew preferred what they had brought with them, though it was very stale.

M. de Bougainville reports that when he visited Rio he was at first received in a very friendly manner by this same Viceroy, but after a time the treatment was altered, and he had to put up with even greater insolence than Cook.

The second death.

When the stores had been received on board, the anchor was weighed in order to take up a more favourable position for making a start, but, unfortunately, shortly after the ship got underway, a man named Peter Flowers fell from the main-shrouds into the sea and was drowned before assistance could be rendered:  the second death since leaving England.  The next day the wind was contrary, but every one was so anxious to turn their backs on the place that Cook ordered out the boats to tow, but they were immediately brought up by a shot from the fort of Santa Cruz.  A remonstrance was sent ashore, and received the lame excuse that the permit for leaving had been signed but had been delayed on its way, and the officer in command could not allow the vessel to leave till it was received.  Another attempt to get away was soon after made, but the anchor fouled a rock, and there was again delay; at length, on the 7th December, they were able to make a start, discharge their pilot, and bid farewell to the guard boat which had so constantly kept watch over them.  They were informed that an Englishman, named Foster, an officer in the Portuguese service, who had been of great use to them, was imprisoned for his kind attentions.