Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/93

Rh this one John Burrith, an officer in their customs, a man who has been here thirteen years, and has become so completely Portuguese that he is known by no other name than Don John; he was of service to our people, though what he did was so clogged with a suspicious fear of offending the Portuguese as rendered it disgustful. It is necessary for any one who should come here to know his character, which is mercenary, though contented with a little, as the present given to him demonstrated; it consisted of one dozen of beer, ten gallons of brandy, ten pieces of ship's beef, and as many of pork. This was what he himself asked for, and sent on board the keg for the spirit, and with this he was more than satisfied.

They have a very extraordinary method of keeping people from travelling; to hinder them, I suppose, from going into any district where gold or diamonds may be found, as there are more of such districts than they can possibly guard. There are certain bounds beyond which no man must go; these vary every month at the discretion of the viceroy, sometimes they are few, sometimes many leagues from the city. Every man must in consequence of this come to town to know where the bounds are, for if he is taken by the guards, who constantly patrol on their limits, he is infallibly put in prison, even if he is within them, unless he can tell where they are.

The inhabitants are very numerous; they consist of Portuguese, negroes, and Indians, aborigines of the country. The township of Rio, whose extent I could not learn, but was only told that it was but a small part of the capitanea, or province, is said to contain about 37,000 whites, and about 17 negroes to each white, which makes their number 629,000, and the number of inhabitants in all 666,000. As for the Indians, they do not live in this neighbourhood, though many of them are always here doing the king's work, which they are obliged to do by turns, for small pay, and for which purpose they came from their habitations at a distance. I saw many of them, as our guard-boat was constantly rowed by them; they are of a light copper colour,