Here is a very good bay for ships to ride in, with the wind from E.S.E., to the northward and westward back to the S.W., and wind to the southward, which blows in and makes a very great sea.  At the east side coming in, standeth Point de Gloria, where is a very large fortification with a tower in the midst:  From this point the land rises gradually; about a league from hence is the city of Bahia; it is surrounded with fortifications, and equally capable of defending it against any attempts from the sea or land.

Provisions here of all kinds are excessive dear, especially fish; this we impute to the great number of whales that come into this bay, even where the ships lye at anchor; the whale-boats go off and kill sometimes seven or eight whales in a day, the flesh of which is cut up in small pieces, then brought to the market-place, and sold at the rate of a vintin per pound; it looks very much like coarse beef, but inferior to it in taste.  The whales here are not at all equal in size to the whales in Greenland, being not larger than the grampus.  After living here above four months without any relief from the governor or the inhabitants, who behaved to us as if they were under a combination to starve us, we embark’d on board the St Tubes with our good friend the captain who brought us from Rio Janeiro:  We sail’d from Bahia the 11th of September for Lisbon, in company with one of the king of Portugal’s ships of war, and two East India ships, but the St Tubes not being able to sail so well as the other ships, lost sight of them the first night.  About 70 leagues from the westward of Madeira we bent a new foresail; within two or three days afterwards, we had a very hard gale of wind, scudding under the foresail, and no danger happening to the ship during this gale.  When the wind had ceas’d, and we had fair weather, the captain, after the evening mass, made an oration to the people, telling them that their deliverance from danger in the last gale of wind, and the ship though leaky, making no more water than before, was owing to their prayers to Nuestra Senhora Boa Mortua and her intercession:  That in gratitude they ought to make an acknowledgement to that saint for standing their friend in time of need:  That he himself would shew an example by giving the new fore-sail, which was bent to the yard, to the saint their deliverer:  Accordingly one of the seamen went forward and mark’d out these words on the sail, Deal esta Trinchado pour nostra Senhora Boa Mortua, which is as much as to say, I give this foresail to our saint, the deliverer from death.  The sail and money collected on this occasion amounted to upwards of twenty moydores.