ed for himself and party, and
Cook also seems to have got off, but the others were hauled up to the end
of the main-yard on a boatswain's chair, and then at the sound of the
whistle dropped into the sea, an operation repeated three times. Cook
says the "ceremony was performed to about twenty or thirty, to the no
small diversion of the rest."

Whilst near the Equator, great inconvenience was felt from the damp heat;
everything was mouldy or rusty, and several of the crew were on the
sick-list with a sort of bilious complaint; but it fortunately did not
grow into a serious matter.

RECEPTION AT RIO.

They struck soundings on 6th November, and on heaving the lead again
found a difference of less than a foot in three or four hours. Land was
sighted near Cape Frio, Brazil, in latitude 21 degrees 16 minutes South,
on the 8th, and they came across a boat manned by eleven blacks who were
engaged in catching and salting fish. Banks purchased some fish, and was
surprised to find they preferred to be paid in English rather than
Spanish coin. On the 13th they arrived off Rio de Janeiro, where they
were very ungraciously received by the Viceroy. They were not permitted
to land except under a guard; some of the men who had been sent ashore on
duty were imprisoned. Mr. Hicks, who had gone to report their arrival and
ask for the services of a pilot, was detained for a time, and it was only
with difficulty, and at an exorbitant rate, that they obtained fresh food
and water. Consequently little was seen of the place, except from the
ship, and Cook took all possible observations from thence, and made a
sketch map of the harbour, to which he added all the information he was
able to pick up from the pilot. Writing to the Royal Society, he says he
is quite unable to understand the true reason of his treatment, and
contrasts it with that received by a Spanish ship which came in whilst he
was there. This Spanish ship willingly undertook to carry to Europe and
forward to the Admiralty copies of the correspondence that passed between
Cook and the Viceroy, which Cook describes as

"a paper war between me and His Excellency, wherein I had no other
advantage than the racking his invention to find reasons for treating us
in the manner he did, for he never would relax the least from any one
point."

To every remonstrance the Viceroy pleaded his instructions and the custom
of the port. He seems to have been quite unable to grasp the object of
th