262 Terra Incognita. [MARCH, 



stood on for Rio do Janeiro with our consort alone, parting company with 

 the West India fleet. Ours was the smaller ship, and our captain the 

 junior ; so that the other was commodore, and was generally a-head: she, 

 too, was bound for Australia though that classic name was not then in 

 vogue and was laden with male convicts and a military guard. J think 



it could not have been many days after we passed Madeira, that the G 



made signal of a strange sail in sight, and both ships cleared the decks for 

 action. All the women and children were started below, and the hatches 

 were battened down ; though, I believe, that we abaft were on parole, not 

 to shew our noses above the companion-ladder. Report said that the 

 stranger was a man-of-war, and, of course, a Frenchman, and that she was 

 bearing down upon us ; but, nothing daunted, we did not run away, and, 



in the course of two hours, she had spoke the G , after shewing British 



colours and then we were enfranchised. I saw her, and she must have 

 been a line-of-battle ship for she was larger than the Polyphemus (a 

 sixty-four) : and yet we twO'Convict craft the one carrying si teen, and 

 the other twelve carronades, with not men enough in both ships to work a 

 tythe of that number had dared to clear the deck for action ! Cutlasses 

 and boarding-pikes were strewed on the quarter-deck ; so that, I suppose, 

 we were to have carried the enemy by storm ! 



After that " hair-breadth escape " " of being taken by the insolent 

 foe/* I do not remember any other " moving accident/' till we reached 

 the line ; when Neptune boarded us, and went through the ordinary cere- 

 monies of the occasion. For us younkers, his godship took fees ; so that 

 we saw the fun, without smarting from its effects. 



Nine weeks sojourn at Rio somewhat impressed the place on my 

 memory ; the noble harbour, with the magnificent-looking city the 

 batteries among the rocks the convent, perched beautifully on the high 

 south coast and the islands behind ; indeed, I think it must be very 

 much like the Gulph of Naples in its general character ; but my idea is 

 necessarily a confused one : however, the picture on my mind is, that of 

 a very fine subject, though very faintly impinged. Several English line- 

 of-battle ships lay there, under the command of Sir Sydney Smith, who 

 had his flag in the Foudroyant, or Bellerophon I forget which : both were 

 there. 



But such narrow, dirty streets ! the women, peeping through the grated 

 windows, too ! sweetmeats fruits religious processions sour and gritty 

 bread lean, carrion-looking beef; all stand, more or less, distinctly 

 marked on the picture of the city's interior. 



Just about the time we were to have sailed, some of our sailors went on 

 shore at one of the islands, it strikes me arid stole some goats, and 

 rabbits, and poultry, and brought them on board. The captain, fearing 

 that an exposure would detain him, winked at it but that would not do ; 

 it came out. The admiral (Sir Sydney) took it up ; the captain and 

 his first mate were turned out, and new ones put on board ; and all the 

 men concerned were removed to Sir Sydney's ship. I very well remember 

 the gallant and chivalrous admiral coming on board of us several times ; for 

 I had the honour of attracting his notice, and of being patted on the. head 

 by him, and more than that, too of eating oranges, which he sent on 

 board in profusion ; but, I think, they were for the convict women not 

 for me. However, " dogs and children are in every body's mess, and 

 nobody's watch." For nine long weeks, we ate lean Brazilian beef, sour 

 Brazilian bread, and were broiled by a tropical Brazilian sun ; and then 



