[Some paragraphs, containing reasons or apologies for certain minute specifications of courses, bearings, &c. &c. are here omitted, as unnecessary where the things themselves, to which objections were anticipated, are not given. Some cuts also alluded to are of course unsuitable to this work, and the references to them are in consequence left out. Dr Hawkesworth occupies the remainder of this introduction in discussing two subjects, about which it is thought unadvisable to take up the reader's attention at present--the controversy respecting the existence of giants in Patagonia, asserted by Byron, Wallis, and Carteret; and the justifiableness of attempting discoveries, where, in prosecution of them, the lives of human beings in a savage state are of necessity sacrificed.]

AN ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, IN THE YEARS 1764, 1765, AND 1766, BY THE HONOURABLE COMMODORE BYRON, IN HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP THE DOLPHIN.

SECTION I.

The Passage from the Downs to Rio de Janeiro.

[The longitude in this voyage is reckoned from the meridian of London, west to 180 degrees, and east afterwards.]

On the 21st of June, 1764, I sailed from the Downs, with his majesty's ship the Dolphin, and the Tamar frigate, under my command. In coming down the river, the Dolphin got a-ground; I therefore put into Plymouth, where she was docked, but did not appear to have received any damage. At this place, having changed some of our men, and paid the people two months wages in advance, I hoisted the broad pendant, and sailed again on the 3d of July; on the 4th we were off the Lizard, and made the best of our way with a fine breeze, but had the mortification to find the Tamar a

very

In a well-drawn-up account of this voyage, published 1767, by an officer of the Dolphin, it is said that "her bottom was sheathed with copper, as were likewise the braces and pintles for the use of the rudder, which was the first experiment of the kind that had ever been made on any vessel." This work will be referred to occasionally, and is certainly deserving of that notice.-E.

very heavy sailer. In the night of Friday the 6th, the officer of the first watch saw either a ship on fire, or an extraordinary phenomenon which greatly resembled it, at some distance: It continued to blaze for about half an hour, and then disappeared. In the evening of July the 12th, we saw the rocks near the island of Madeira, which our people call the Deserters, from Desertes, a name which has been given them from their barren and desolate appearance: The next day we stood in for the road of Funchiale, where, about three o'clock in the afternoon, we came to an anchor. In the morning of the 14th, I waited upon the governor, who received me with great politeness, and saluted me with eleven guns, which I returned from the ship. The next day, he returned my visit at the house of the consul, upon which I saluted him with eleven guns, which he returned from the fort. I found here his majesty's ship the Crown, and the Ferret sloop, who also saluted the broad pendant.

Having completed our water, and procured all the refreshment I was able for the companies of both the ships, every man having twenty pounds weight of onions for his sea-stock, we weighed anchor on Thursday the 19th, and proceeded on our voyage. On the 21st, we made the island of Palma, one of the Canaries, and soon after examining our water, we found it would be necessary to touch at one of the Cape de Verd islands for a fresh supply. During the whole of our course from the Lizard, we observed that no fish followed the ship, which I judged to be owing to her being sheathed with copper. By the 26th, our water was become foul, and stunk intolerably, but we purified it with a machine, which had been put on board for that purpose: It was a kind of ventilator, by which air was forced through the water in a continual stream, as long as it was necessary.

In the morning of the 27th, we made the island of Sal, one of the Cape de Verds, and seeing several turtle upon the water, we hoisted out our jolly-boat, and attempted to strike them, but they all went down before our people could come within reach of them. On Monday the 30th, we came to an anchor in Port Praya bay, the principal harbour in St Jago, the largest of the Cape de Verd Islands. The rainy season was already set in, which renders this place very unsafe; a large swell that rolls in from the southward, makes a frightful surf upon the shore, and there is reason every hour to expect a tornado, of which, as it is very violent, and

blows

blows directly in, the consequences are likely to be fatal; so that after the 15th of August no ship comes hither till the rainy season is over, which happens in November; for this reason I made all possible haste to fill my water and get away. I procured three bullocks for the people, but they were little better than carrion, and the weather was so hot, that the flesh stunk in a few hours after they were killed.

On Thursday the 2d of August, we got again under sail, with a large cargo of fowls, lean goats, and monkies, which the people contrived to procure for old shirts, jackets, and other articles of the like kind. The intolerable heat, and almost incessant rain, very soon affected our health, and the men began to fall down in fevers, notwithstanding all my attention and diligence to make them shift themselves before they slept, when they were wet.

On Wednesday the 8th, the Tamar fired a gun, upon which we shortened sail till she came up: We found that she had suffered no damage but the carrying away of her topsail-yard; however, as we were obliged to make an easy sail till she had got up another, and the wind seemed to be com ing again to the southward, we lost a good deal of way. We continued, to our great mortification, to observe that no fish would come near enough to our copper bottom for us to strike, though we saw the sea as it were quickened with them at a little distance. Ships in these hot latitudes generally take fish in plenty, but, except sharks, we were not able to catch one.

On the 11th of September, we made the coast of Brazil; and on the 13th, anchored in eighteen fathom, in the great road of Rio de Janeiro. The city, which is large, and makes a handsome appearance, is governed by the viceroy of Brazil, who is perhaps, in fact, as absolute a sovereign as any upon earth. When I visited him, he received me in great form; above sixty officers were drawn up before the palace, as well as a captain's guard, who were men of a good appearance, and extremely well clothed: His excellency, with a number of persons of the first distinction, belonging to the place, met me at the head of the stairs, upon which

2 "Clothes, particularly those that are black, however mean, are here an object of ambition and vanity, rendered less necessary by the warmth of the climate."

which fifteen guns were fired from the nearest port: We then entered the room of state, and, after conversing about a quarter of an hour in French, I took my leave, and was dismissed with the same form that had been used at my reception. He offered to return my visit at a house which I had hired on shore, but this I declined, and soon after he returned it on board.

The people in my own ship, who had as much fresh meat and greens as they could eat every day, were very healthy, but there being many sick on board the Tamar, I procured a place for them on shore, where they soon recovered. As the seams of both the ships were very open, some Portuguese caulkers were engaged, who, after having worked some time, rendered them perfectly tight.3

While we lay here, Lord Clive, in the Kent Indiaman, came to the port. This ship. had sailed from England a month before us, and had not touched any where, yet she came in a month after us; so that her passage was just two months longer than ours, notwithstanding the time we lost in waiting for the Tamar, which, though the Dolphin was by no means a good sailer, sailed so much worse, that we seldom spread more than half our canvas. The Kent had many of her people down in the scurvy.

On Tuesday the 16th of October, we weighed anchor, being impatient to get to sea, for the heat here was intolerable; but we lay four or five days above the bar, waiting for the land-breeze to carry us out, for there is no getting out with the sea-breeze, and the entrance between the two first forts is so narrow, and so great a sea breaks in upon them, that it was not without much danger and difficulty we got out at last, and if we had followed the advice of the Portuguese pilot, we had certainly lost the ship. As this

narrative

3 "We had six, who were paid at the rate of six shillings sterling a day; though it is certain that one of our English caulkers would do as much in one day as they could in three; but though they are slow and inactive, they perform their work very completely, or else their vessels could not run so many voyages in a shattered condition as they frequently do."

4 The harbour of Rio de Janeiro is uncommonly good, and spacious enough for a large fleet, but the entrance is very narrow, and requires to be entered with the assistance of a sea-breeze, which fortunately blows daily from before noon till sun-set. According to Captain Krusenstern, the harbour of St Catharines in the island of that name near the Brazil coast, is "infinitely preferable to Rio Janeiro," for ships going round Cape Horn.-See his reasons in the account of his voyage p. 76.-E.

narrative is published for the advantage of future navigators, particularly those of our own nation, it is also necessary I should observe, that the Portuguese here, carrying on a great trade, make it their business to attend every time a boat comes on shore, and practise every artifice in their power to entice away the crew: if other methods do not succeed, they make them drunk, and immediately send them up the country, taking effectual care to prevent their return, till the ship to which they belong has left the place; by this practice I lost five of my men, and the Tamar nine: Mine I never recovered, but the Tamar had the good fortune to learn where her's were detained, and by sending out a party in the night, surprised them, and brought them back,

SECTION II.

Passage from Rio de Janeiro to Port Desire; with some Description of that Place.

ON Monday the 22d, being now once more at sea, I called all hands upon deck, and informed them, that I was not, as they imagined, bound immediately to the East Indies, but upon certain discoveries, which it was thought might be of great importance to our country; in consideration of which, the lords commissioners of the Admiralty had been pleased to promise them double pay, and several other advantages, if during the voyage they should behave to my satisfaction. They all expressed the greatest joy imagina ble upon the occasion, and assured me, that there was no danger or difficulty that they would not with the utmost cheerfulness undergo in the service of their country, nor any order that I could give them which they would not im plicitly and zealously obey.*

We continued our course till Monday the 29th, having frequently hard gales with sudden gusts, which obliged us

to

"We had all the reason possible to believe that we were bound to the East Indies, and that we should now steer to the Cape of Good Hope, the scheme being so well concerted by our commodore, as even to deceive Lord Clive, who pressed him with great importunity to allow him to take his passage in the Dolphin, we being in much greater readiness for sea than the Kent; but to this the commodore could not consent; but flattered his lordship with the hopes of his taking him on board on their meeting at the Cape."