A Voyage Round the World. Anson George
for silver with the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres, and what is brought privily to Europe and escapes the duty, amounts to near half a million more, which will make the whole annual produce of the Brazilian gold near two millions sterling, a prodigious sum to be found in a country which a few years since was not known to furnish a single grain.
I have already mentioned that besides gold this country does likewise produce diamonds. The discovery of these valuable stones is much more recent than that of gold, it being as yet scarce 20 years since the first were brought to Europe. They are found in the same manner as the gold, in the gullies of torrents and beds of rivers, but only in particular places, and not so universally spread through the country. They were often found in washing the gold before they were known to be diamonds, and were consequently thrown away with the sand and gravel separated from it; and it is very well remembered that numbers of very large stones, which would have made the fortunes of the possessors, have passed unregarded through the hands of those who now with impatience support the mortifying reflection. However, about twenty years since a person acquainted with the appearance of rough diamonds conceived that these pebbles, as they were then esteemed, were of the same kind: but it is said that there was a considerable interval between the first starting of this opinion and the confirmation of it by proper trials and examination, it proving difficult to persuade the inhabitants that what they had been long accustomed to despise could be of the importance represented by this discovery, and I have been informed that in this interval a governor of one of their places procured a good number of these stones, which he pretended to make use of at cards to mark with instead of counters. But it was at last confirmed by skilful jewellers in Europe, consulted on this occasion, that the stones thus found in Brazil were truly diamonds, many of which were not inferior, either in lustre, or any other quality, to those of the East Indies. On this determination, the Portuguese, in the neighbourhood of those places where they had first been observed, set themselves to search for them with great assiduity. And they were not without great hopes of discovering considerable masses of them, as they found large rocks of chrystal in many of the mountains, from whence the streams came which washed down the diamonds.
But it was soon represented to the King of Portugal that if such plenty of diamonds should be met with, as their sanguine conjectures seemed to indicate, this would so debase their value and diminish their estimation, that besides ruining all the Europeans who had any quantity of Indian diamonds in their possession, it would render the discovery itself of no importance, and would prevent his majesty from receiving any advantages from it, and on these considerations his majesty has thought proper to restrain the general search of diamonds, and has erected a diamond company for that purpose, with an exclusive charter. This company, in consideration of a sum paid to the king, is vested with the property of all diamonds found in Brazil: but to hinder their collecting too large quantities, and thereby reducing their value, they are prohibited from employing above eight hundred slaves in searching after them. And to prevent any of his other subjects from acting the same part, and likewise to secure the company from being defrauded by the interfering of interlopers in their trade and property, he has depopulated a large town and a considerable district round it, and has obliged the inhabitants, who are said to amount to six thousand, to remove to another part of the country; for this town being in the neighbourhood of the diamonds, it was thought impossible to prevent such a number of people who were on the spot from frequently smuggling.
In consequence of these important discoveries in Brazil, new laws, new governments, and new regulations have been established in many parts of the country. For not long since a considerable tract, possessed by a set of inhabitants who from their principal settlement were called Paulists, was almost independent of the crown of Portugal, to which it scarcely acknowledged more than a nominal allegiance. These Paulists are said to be descendants of those Portuguese who retired from the northern part of Brazil when it was invaded and possessed by the Dutch. As from the confusion of the times they were long neglected by their superiors, and were obliged to provide for their own security and defence, the necessity of their affairs produced a kind of government amongst them which they found sufficient for the confined manner of life to which they were inured. And being thus habituated to their own regulations, they at length grew fond of their independency: so that rejecting and despising the mandates of the court of Lisbon, they were often engaged in a state of downright rebellion, and the mountains surrounding their country, and the difficulty of clearing the few passages that open into it, generally put it in their power to make their own terms before they submitted. But as gold was found to abound in this country of the Paulists, the present King of Portugal (during whose reign almost the whole discoveries I have mentioned were begun and compleated) thought it incumbent on him to reduce this province, which now became of great consequence, to the same dependency and obedience with the rest of the country, which, I am told, he has at last, though with great difficulty, happily effected. And the same motives which induced his Majesty to undertake the reduction of the Paulists has also occasioned the changes I have mentioned to have taken place at the island of St. Catherine's. For the governor of Rio Grande, of whom I have already spoken, assured us that in the neighbourhood of this island there were considerable rivers which were found to be extremely rich, and that this was the reason that a garrison, a military governor, and a new colony was settled there. And as the harbour at this island is by much the securest and the most capacious of any on the coast, it is not improbable, if the riches of the neighbourhood answer their expectation, but it may become in time the principal settlement in Brazil, and the most considerable port in all South America.
Thus much I have thought necessary to insert in relation to the present state of Brazil, and of the island of St. Catherine's. For as this last place has been generally recommended as the most eligible port for our cruisers to refresh at, which are bound to the South Seas, I believed it to be my duty to instruct my countrymen in the hitherto unsuspected inconveniencies which attend that place; and as the Brazilian gold and diamonds are subjects about which, from their novelty, very few particulars have been hitherto published, I conceived this account I had collected of them would appear to the reader to be neither a trifling nor a useless digression. These subjects being thus dispatched, I shall now return to the series of our own proceedings.
When we first arrived at St. Catherine's we were employed in refreshing our sick on shore, in wooding and watering the squadron, cleansing our ships, and examining and securing our masts and rigging, as I have already observed in the foregoing chapter. At the same time Mr. Anson gave directions that the ships' companies should be supplied with fresh meat, and that they should be victualled with whole allowance of all the kinds of provision. In consequence of these orders, we had fresh beef sent on board us continually for our daily expence, and what was wanting to make up our allowance we received from our victualler the Anna pink, in order to preserve the provisions on board our squadron entire for our future service. The season of the year growing each day less favourable for our passage round Cape Horn, Mr. Anson was very desirous of leaving this place as soon as possible, and we were at first in hopes that our whole business would be done and we should be in a readiness to sail in about a fortnight from our arrival; but, on examining the Tryal's masts, we, to our no small vexation, found inevitable employment for twice that time. For, on a survey, it was found that the main-mast was sprung at the upper woulding, though it was thought capable of being secured by a couple of fishes; but the fore-mast was reported to be unfit for service, and thereupon the carpenters were sent into the woods to endeavour to find a stick proper for a fore-mast. But after a search of four days they returned without having been able to meet with any tree fit for the purpose. This obliged them to come to a second consultation about the old fore-mast, when it was agreed to endeavour to secure it by casing it with three fishes, and in this work the carpenters were employed till within a day or two of our sailing. In the meantime, the commodore, thinking it necessary to have a clean vessel on our arrival in the South Seas, ordered the Tryal to be hove down, as this would not occasion any loss of time, but might be compleated while the carpenters were refitting her masts, which was done on shore.
On the 27th of December we discovered a sail in the offing, and not knowing but she might be a Spaniard, the eighteen-oared boat was manned and armed, and sent under the command of our second lieutenant, to examine her before she arrived within the protection of the forts. She proved to be a Portuguese brigantine from Rio Grande; and though our officer, as it appeared on inquiry, had behaved with the utmost civility to the master, and had refused