As several articles of our stock and provisions now began to fall short, I determined to put into Rio de Janeiro, rather than at any port in Brazil or Falkland’s Islands, knowing that it could better supply as with what we wanted, and making no doubt but that we should be well received.

On the 8th, at day-break, we saw the coast of Brazil, and about ten o’clock we brought-to, and spoke with a fishing-boat; the people on board told us that the land which we saw, lay to the southward of Santo Espirito, but belonged to the captainship of that place.

Mr Banks and Dr Solander went on board this vessel; in which they found eleven men, nine of whom were blacks; they all fished with lines, and their fresh cargo, the chief part of which Mr Banks bought, consisted of dolphins, large pelagic scombers of two kinds, sea-bream, and some of the fish which in the West Indies are called Welshmen.  Mr Banks had taken Spanish silver with him, which he imagined to be the currency of the continent, but to his great surprise the people asked him for English shillings; he gave them two, which he happened to have about him, and it was not without some dispute that they took the rest of the money in pistereens.  Their business seemed to be to catch large fish at a good distance from the shore, which they salted in bulk, in a place made for that purpose; in the middle of their boat:  Of this merchandise they had about two quintals on board, which they offered for about fifteen shillings, and would probably have sold for half the money.  The fresh fish, which was bought for about nineteen shillings and sixpence, served the whole ship’s company; the salt was not wanted.

The sea-provision of these fishermen consisted of nothing more than a cask of water, and a bag of Cassada flour, which they called Farinha de Pao, or wooden flour, which indeed is a name which very well suits its taste and appearance.  Their water-cask was large, as wide as their boat, and exactly fitted a place that was made for it in the ballast; it was impossible therefore to draw out any of its contents by a tap, the sides being, from the bottom to the top, wholly inaccessible; neither could any be taken out by dipping a vessel in at the head, for an opening sufficiently wide for that purpose would have endangered the loss of great part of it by the rolling of the vessel:  Their expedient to get at their water, so situated, was curious; when one of them wanted to drink, be applied to his neighbour, who accompanied him to the water-cask with a hollow cane about three feet long, which was open at both ends; this he thrust into the cask through a small hole in the top, and then, stopping the upper end with the palm of his hand, drew it out; the pressure of the air against the other end keeping in the water which it contained; to this end the person who wanted to drink applied his mouth, and the assistant then taking his hand from the other, and admitting the air above, the cane immediately parted with its contents, which the drinker drew off till he was satisfied.[71]