2l8 " THELIFEOF 



thereupon went into the General's barge, and 

 foon reached Fort St. Pedro. 



\\ e found the Governor-General in a large 

 audience-chamber at the head of the Officers of 

 the garrifon all in full uniform. The benevo- 

 lence apparent in his countenance, his manly 

 form and the elegance of his manners filled me 

 with admiration and refpedl, and infpired me 

 with ideas of the mod favourable kind, which 

 a further knowledge amply confirmed. That 

 inimitable General, having fpent the lafl: thirty 

 years of his life entirely in the Brazils, would 

 not that day venture to fpeak to us in French, 

 as the few opporturritics he h;id enjoyed of con- 

 verfing in that language, might, he apprehended, 

 have rendered him unable to exprefs himfelf in 

 the manner he could wifli ; -but a Lieutenant- 

 Colonel of Engineers, converfant in that lan- 

 guage, was commanded by the General to en- 

 quire into our adventures, and to affure us that 

 his Excellency would give us every afliftance in 



his power. 



The Lieutenant-Colonel immediately addref- 

 fed himfelf to me ; but anxious as I was to 

 avoid, as far as might be, implicating myfelf in 

 any concerns of the officers or foldiers, I told 

 him that I had not, as he might perceive by the 

 report fent from the mouth of the river, any 

 authority or connection either with the fhip or 



the 



