PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
n 
a line with a hook fastened on with wire, and baited with small fish, 
for the purpose of catching baracouters. The best time is in the 
dusk of the evening, and at day-light in the morning. 
On the 29th after dinner, the governor visited the ship, with the 
ladies of his family and all the officers of the garrison, black and 
white; and on his leaving us I caused a salute qf eleven guns t£> 
be fired. He was much pleased with the attentions shown to him, 
and next day spoke of it with renewed offers of civility. I sent 
him, as well as Medina, a barrel of fiour and pork, with some other 
small articles, and in return he sent me off six fine turkeys. From 
the favourable disposition of the governor, as well as the officers 
of the government, also on account of the facility of procuring re¬ 
freshments, I would recommend Port Pray a as an excellent place 
for our ships to stop for supplies. The bay is of easy access, and 
when the anchor is once settled in the bottom, is perfectly safe; 
it is necessary, however, to give the ship half a cable before you 
check her, or the anchor is not likely to take hold, and there is 
danger of her going on the rocks of Quail Island, as was the case 
with the Portuguese frigate. 
As the governor hinted to me that a letter from me to our mi¬ 
nister at the court of Brazil would be agreeable to him, I wrote 
such a one as I thought would be flattering to him, and sent it on 
sho^e, informing him of my intentions to sail that day. A signal 
was in consequence hoisted (as he informed my officer), to permit 
us to depart. 
The governor is about 45 years of age, a man of easy and agree¬ 
able manners and friendly disposition. The utmost respect is paid 
to him by all subject to his authority. No one is ever seated in 
his presence; and, whenever he leaves his quarters, he is always 
accompanied by a guard; when on foot, he is preceded by a soldier 
bearing a halbert. 
During my stay I became acquainted with a Portuguese mer¬ 
chant, a man of considerable intellig ence and wealth, and the owner 
of property in most of the islands. He was about sending the 
before-mentioned schooner to the Brazils, with dispatches for the 
governor, for the purpose of procuring a supply from that quarter, 
•which, if they were not able to obtain, he assured me they should 
