RIO JANEIRO. 69 



to let the country know what were the difficulties we had to 

 encounter. 



It is always difficult to calculate upon the delays that may occur 

 in a foreign port, particularly when it is necessary to employ foreign 

 workmen. Their hours, habits, and manner of working, are so 

 different from our own, that great patience is required in those who 

 employ them. The manner in which the calkers of Rio work, would 

 draw crowds around them in one of our own cities ; to see many of 

 them engaged on a single seam on the outside of the vessel, striking 

 the mallet at a signal given by their leader or overseer with his 

 whistle, is amusing. They are generally blacks, (probably slaves,) 

 and the leader a white man. The impression made upon us all was, 

 that they were an indolent set ; yet they are said to understand their 

 business well. I cannot, however, bear favourable testimony to their 

 w r ork ; the calking of my ship was certainly badly done. 



The uncertainty of the length of time I should be detained, rendered 

 it impossible for me to allow long absences from the ship. I was 

 anxious to have made some measurements of the Organ Mountains, 

 and that our parties should extend their researches beyond them to the 

 Campos. 



Dr. Pickering and Mr. Brackenridge succeeded in making the 

 trip to the Organ Mountains on a botanical excursion ; but the outfits 

 and duties connected with the vessels and observations, made it 

 impossible for me to spare any officers to make the measurement of 

 their height, or to go myself. These gentlemen set out, having taken 

 passage in the usual freight-boat, (felucca rigged,) for Estrella, 

 embarking their horses and mules in another. These boats are not 

 decked, and are of sufficient tonnage to make them safe and convenient 

 freight-boats. They generally have four or five slaves with a padron 

 to manage them. 



On leaving Rio they steered up the bay for the island of Goberna- 

 dor, round which it is necessary to pass, on their way towards the 

 river Anhumirim, aided by a fair breeze and fine weather. They 

 found the sail up the bay extremely beautiful, the islands offering a 

 constant source of interest and novelty. The mouth of the Anhu- 

 mirim river was reached in about three hours. It was found about 

 forty yards wide and quite shallow. The banks are an extensive 

 mangrove swamp. They passed up the river about eight miles, and 

 reached the port of Estrella at midday, where they took their horses 

 and pursued the main road to the mines, which crosses to the west- 

 ward of the highest peak. The distance to the base of the mountain 



