of Portugal, who is
accompanied by a garrison of soldiers, and has consequently a more
extensive and better supported power than any of his predecessors:
And as he wears better cloaths, lives more splendidly, and has a much
better knowledge of the importance of money than any of them could
ever pretend to, so he puts in practice certain methods for procuring
it with which they were utterly unacquainted; yet it may be much
doubted if the inhabitants consider these methods as tending to
promote either their interests, or that of their sovereign, the king
of Portugal. This much is certain, that his behaviour cannot but be
extremely embarrassing to such British ships as touch here in their
way to the South Seas.

One of his practices was, that he placed centinels at all the avenues,
to prevent the people from selling us any refreshments, except at such
exorbitant rates as we could not afford to give. His pretence for this
extraordinary stretch of power was, that he was obliged to preserve
their provisions for upwards of an hundred families, which were daily
expected as a reinforcement to the colony. Thus he seems no novice in
his profession, by his readiness at inventing a plausible pretence
for his interested management. This circumstance, however, though
sufficiently provoking, was far from being the most exceptionable
part of his conduct; for, as by the neighbourhood of the Rio Plata, a
considerable smuggling trade is carried on between the Portuguese and
Spaniards, especially in exchanging gold for silver, by which both
princes are defrauded of their fifths; and as Don Jose was deeply
engaged in this prohibited commerce, in order to ingratiate himself
with his Spanish correspondents, he treacherously dispatched an
express to Buenos Ayres, where Pizarro then lay, with an account of
our arrival, our strength, the number, of our ships, guns, men,
and every circumstance he could suppose our enemy desirous of being
acquainted with.

This much, and what we shall have to relate in the course of our own
proceedings, may suffice as to the present state of St Catharines and
the character of its governor. But as the reader may wish to know
the reasons for the late new modelling of this settlement, it will
require, to explain this circumstance, to give a short account of the
adjacent continent of Brazil, and of the wonderful discoveries which
have been made within the last forty years, which, from a country of
but mean estimati