140 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



The internal basin of Rio de Janeiro has its 

 tides as well as the ocean ; at new and full moon, 

 hiffh water, which rises fourteen or fifteen feet, 

 sets in at thirty minutes past four ; the ebb some- 

 times continues a whole day without intermission, 

 at which time the current is the strongest on the 

 west side of the bay : on the other hand, when 

 the flood begins, a whirling current is remarked on 

 the east side. The flood continues a shorter time 

 than the ebb, and usually runs at the rate of tlu'ee 

 or four sea miles in an hour ; this strong flood has 

 more than once led the captains of ships into error, 

 and caused them to cast anchor too close to the 

 shore, so that when the ebb set in they suffered 

 shipwreck, there not being a sufficient depth of 

 water for the vessels. An English ship which ar- 

 rived from Liverpool after a remarkably favorable 

 passage during our stay, and had cast anchor quite 

 close to the Ilha das Cobras, was wrecked in this 

 manner in the harbour, and the greatest exertions 



session of by Nicholas Durant de Villegagnon, who was sent 

 hither by Admiral Coligny, and erected a fort. Mem de Sa, 

 the governor-general of Brazil, having on the 15th of March, 

 1560, taken and destroyed the works erected by the French, 

 the bay came into the hands of the Portuguese, who immedi- 

 ately began to build the town on its present site. The abori- 

 gines are said to have called the bay on account of its narrow 

 entrance, Nelhero-Hy, or Nithero-Hy, that is, hidden water. 

 (Patriota, for May 1813, p. 63. ; Corografia Brasilica, ii. p. 1.) 

 Lery calls it Ganabara. 



