NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



25 



so at every moment of leisure from duty. His patience and activity 

 Were inexhaustible ; his employment proved useful to us all. 



This boy spoke a little English and a little Portuguese ; the account 

 he gave of himself was this : — He was a native of Peru, and had been 

 at Callao, but at that period never on board any thing larger than a 

 canoa. He was one day out fishing, far from land, with his father, when 

 an English vessel hove in sight, and came towards tliem ; they endea- 

 voured to escape, but could not; the white people took all the fish out 

 of the canoe and himself, setting his father adrift. He said that he was 

 very much frightened, on board, at first, particularly as he did not 

 understand the language ; that the people gave him clothes to wear, but 

 that he had a great aversion to them, and whenever he had an opportu- 

 nity took them off and frequently tore them. He told us he was beaten 

 almost constantly on board that vessel, because he did not like to go up 

 the mast ; but added, with evident satisfaction, " I had plenty to eat." 

 He had learned that the vessel was bound to London, and showed that 

 the little he could understand about England had made a deep impression 

 upon his imagination ; for though he could never be persuaded to speak 

 well of the people who took him, and always reminded us that they 

 beat him very much, he earnestly and repeatedly solicited me to find 

 for him a place on board a ship for London. That in which he had first 

 sailed put into Rio de Janeiro, and left him there ; I sailed with him to 

 that port in 1809, from Rio Grande. He mentioned to me the name 

 of the British vessel, of the Captain and JMate ; and I afterwards found 

 that he was correct. 



During a voyage a passenger will often find amusement from the 

 sea-birds, which almost perpetually fly around him in quest of prey, 

 particularly within a moderate distance of land. They have been 

 generally so well described as to leave little room for remark in this 

 place. In Lat. 49 N. and Long. 20 W. we caught a bird unknown 

 to any person on board. It was about the size of a small blackbird. 

 Its bill was long, rather arched, and slender ; the tips of both mandibles 

 were pink; the other parts of them black. The head, neck, upper 



D 



