1 8 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



J^me 23. Yesterday the current set the ship thirty- 

 three miles out of her course, and therefore nearer the 

 coast of South America than we should have been ; so at 

 4.30 p.m. we saw the first piece of Brazilian territory, the 

 Island of Fernando de Noronha, which is the Brazilian 

 convict settlement. It has one very prominent pyramidal 

 peak which appears to stand alone, though the whole island 

 is lofty. I could not gain much information about the 

 place, for little is known, as the Brazilian Government keep 

 it all very secret. But this much I picked up : the governor 

 is changed every six months, and convicts, on obtaining a 

 good-conduct medal, are allowed to get out their wives and 

 families ; they have land granted to them, are obliged to 

 report themselves occasionally, and have to pay a certain 

 percentage of their crops, etc. 



June 26. Last night at 11.30 we came in sight of 

 the lighthouse at Abrolhos (i.e. eye-opener),* the first 

 point of the South American continent. We were in 

 shallow water. At 7 p.m. the water was 1 50 fathoms deep ; 

 sounding at 9 p.m. it was twenty fathoms; at 11.30 only 

 thirteen fathoms; then 11.45, seventeen fathoms. We 

 passed the lighthouse twenty miles off at midnight, and 

 I then retired. This morning at 11.30 I saw the first 

 piece of land (as last night it was only a light), viz. the 

 mountains round Espirito Santo, within three hundred 

 miles of Rio, which we hope to reach to-morrow. 



* Perhaps so called as it is near dangerous rocks. 



