: where the floor is not laid with wood,
a fine red brick, six to nine inches square, and three in thickness, is
used, and they are roofed with round red tiles. The houses are generally
of one story high, with a room or two above by way of a look-out house.
Under the house is generally a sort of cellar, in which the slaves live;
and really I have sometimes wondered that human beings could exist in
such.

_Friday, 2d November._--Several of our people having yielded to the
temptations of some worthless persons in the town, who induce sailors to
desert in order that they themselves may profit by the premium given for
the discovery of deserters, and having consequently swam on shore, the
frigate has been moved up the harbour as far as Bom Fim, and it is
intended to take her up still higher. I am glad of the opportunity of
seeing more of this beautiful bay, and shall endeavour to land on the
Ilha do Medo, or the point of Itaparica, where the first adventurers
from Europe underwent hardship that appear hardly credible in our modern
days. We also wish to examine the harbour within the funil or passage
between the two islands, and into which the river or creek of Nazareth,
which supplies Bahia with great part of the mandioc flour consumed
there, runs.

_Saturday, 3d November._--Our plan of proceeding farther up the harbour
is suspended for the present. The disputes between the European
Portuguese and the Brazilians in the city, seem to be about to come to a
crisis. Early this morning, we learned that troops were assembling from
all quarters, and that therefore it was advisable, for the protection of
the British property and the persons of the merchants, that the ship
should return to her station opposite to the town. The first provisional
junta has lost several of its members, two of them being gone as
delegates to Lisbon, and others being absent on account of ill health or
disgust. The party opposing this junta talk loudly of independence, and
wish at least one-half of the members of the provisional government to
be native Brazilians. They also complain bitterly, that instead of
redressing the evils they before endured, the junta has increased them
by several arbitrary acts; and assert that one of the members who has a
great grazing estate, has procured a monopoly, by which no man can
supply the market with beef without his permission, so that the city is
ill supplied. Such a ground of complaint will always excite popular
in