care that the officer who commanded the detachment, which returned from Spital-helds laft Saturday, fhall know my opinion. I will alfo take fuch measures as fhall, I truft, for the future, prevent any juft offence being given to the city, or its chief magiftrate. I have the honour to be, Copy of a letter to J. Ellis, efq; of Gray's-inn, from Dr. Solander, of the British Museum, now on his voyage round the world, in company with Jofeph Banks, efq; and the aftronomers fent to obferve the tranfit of Venus, by the Royal Society, at the new discovered islands in the South Seas.. fend them on board as greens and fallading for our table. Now and then we likewife botanized in company with our sheep and goats, when grais has been fent on board for them. Once I have ventured, as belonging to the watering boat, to land at the watering place, which is in the middle of the town, where happening to meet with a civil captain of the guard, and telling him I was the furgeon's mate, and should be glad to go up to fome apothecaries fhops to buy drugs, he granted me a guard; which happened to be a very good natured ferjeant, that followed me not only all round the town, but likewife a little way into the country, where I collected a few plants and infects; but I could not get fo far as the uncultivated places where the palms grow. This place is very large and well built, very regular and well paved. They reckon 37,000 white inhabitants, and above 400,000 blacks; fome Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 1, 1768. fay half a million. Their churches My dear fir, Ν IN my last from Madeira of the 18th of Sept. I only had time to let you know we were all well, and that we there met with a very good reception, which is more than I can fay of this place, where the vice-roy has been fo infernally crofs and illnatured, as to forbid us to fet our feet upon dry land. How mortifying that must be to me and Mr. Banks, you beft can feel; efpecially if you suppose yourself within a quarter of a mile of a fhore, covered with palms of feveral forts, fine large trees and fhrubs, whofe very bloffoms have had fuch an influence upon us, that we have ventured to bribe people to collect them, and are very rich, as are their numberlefs convents. The opera-house is large, but they fay the performers are indifferent. Every body that lives here cannot be called any thing elfe but a flave: none dare do any thing without the vice-roy's leave. We have, nevertheless, by fair means and foul, got about 300 fpe cies of plants, among them feveral new, and an infinite number of new fifh. We can hardly buy a plate of fhrimps, without finding a dozen of your Pennatula reniformis, or kidney-shaped fea pen, among them. This harbour fwarms with rays and fharks; among the laft, the zygæna and tiburo of Linnæus, or hammer-headed and shovel-nofe fharks, have given us a great deal of pleafure. It is never heard that fharks do any harm, but in the fea and open roads. In our voyage between England and Madeira, as well as afterwards, we have been lucky enough to meet with a great variety of mollufca, efpecially of the tribe which Dr. Peter Browne calls Thalia, but very ill defcribed by him. We have made above eight or ten new genera, and, I believe, rather two few; I think we have feen above an hundred fpecies of mollufca, especially when we were becalmed near the line; we then every day hoifted out Mr. Banks's boat, and fometimes might have caught boat-loads of what the failors called fea-blubbers, and thought they were all of one kind; but they foon became fuch good philofophers, that they even recollected the different names, and could remember what we had fhewn them, and, confequently, could look out for new ones; fome of the failors have proved very ufeful hands. Many of our fhip's company have, for a few days, been low fpirited from a billious complaint, which our furgeon generally cured in a week's time. We have loft no men yet by fick nefs. Our first mate was drowned at Madeira. If any of your friends go to Madeira, advise them to get recommendations to Dr. Heberden; he has more influence there than the governor. He is just such a philofopher as my friend, and very communicative. His many inftruments, mathematical and optical, have procured him the name of il Doctore Docto. His being a member of the Royal Society of London, has not added a little to his reputation. He procured us accefs into a nunnery; when they heard that Mr. Banks and myfelf belonged to the Royal Society, they immediately took us for men of fupernatural knowledge, and defired us to walk into their garden, and fhew were they might dig for water; they wanted to know by what figns they fhould be able to foretel tempefts, rain, and thunder and lightning. The anfwers and explanation of all this would have taken us up feveral days; but our captain would not stay for the gratification of the nuns. The governor was highly pleafed with the performance of the new electrical machine; it worked prodigiously well at Madeira, but not half fo well near the line; perhaps the air is too damp at sea. Thefe letters are fent to Europe in a Spanish king's packet, that came here in her way to Buenos Avres; there is on board of her an officer that as lived feven years in the miffions of Paraguay, which he defcribes as the finest country under the fun. It was not a little mortifying to us, to fee all the Spaniards get leave to hire a house on shore, when we were denied to land on any ifland, or other place that we defired the vice-roy might appoint, and that under a guard, the very day when our fhip was keeled for to clean her fides, fo that we could hardly make a fhift to walk. I hope Ifhall live to fee the day when conte de Azambuja, the new vice-roy of Brazil, fhall be afhamed of his impolite behaviour towards us. This letter goes in a Spanish man of war; my laft, from Madeira, was fent in an Irifh fhip. The Spanish officers are the only people that we are allowed to converfe with; they are very civil and agreeable, and feem to be unreserved. The captain has been in the South Seas, and went round round Cape Horn, which, I believe will be our route. The fruits of this country are nothing near fo good as ours are in Europe. Their pine-apples are extremely fweet, but no flavour; their grapes bad, fo are their few apples, likewise their melons; oranges are good, but rather want acid to give them flavour. Bananas, plantains, very little better than those you might have tated at Kew. Water melons very good. Mangoes are not fo good as they are described in 20., 18.; taste of a difagreeable turpentine. Their other fruits, as Iamboeira (Eugenia lambos of Linnæus), Papayas, Mammeas, &c. can no ways be equivalent to our fruits: but they have one advantage, that they have here a fucceffion of fruit the whole year round. Their few peaches are abominable; their greens tough and leafy. The country people eat almoft every fruit that grows, but very few of them would be acceptable, even to boys, in Europe. DAN. CH. SOLANDER. Narrative of captain Kennedy's lofing bis veffel at fea, and his diftreffes afterwards, communicated to bis owners. WE failed from Port Royal in Jamaica, on the 21ft day of December laft, bound for Whithaven; but the 23d day, having met with a hard galeatNorth,we were obliged to lay to under a forefail, for the. fpace of ten hours, which occafioned the veffel to make more water than the could free with both pumps. Under this fituation we fet fail, in hopes of being able to make the iland of Jamaica again, which, 4 from our reckoning, we judged lay about ten leagues to the eastward. But, in less than an hour's time, the water overflowed the lower deck, and we could scarce get into the yaul, being thirteen in number, before the veffel, funk, having only, with much difficulty, been able to take out a keg, containing about fixteen lits of bifcuit, ten lits of cheese, and two bottles of wine; with which fmall pittance we endeavoured to make the land. But the wind continuing toblow hard from the North, and the fea running high, we were obliged,after an unfuccessfulattempt of three days, to bear away for the bay of Honduras, as the wind feemed to favour us for that courfe, and it being the only visible means we had of preferving our lives. On the feventh day we made Swan's Ifland; but, being deftitute of a quadrant and other needful helps, we were uncertain what land it was. However, we went on fhore, under the flattering hopes of finding fome refreshments; but to our unfpeakable regret, and heavy disappointment, we only found a few quarts of brac kish water in the hollow of a rock, and a few wilks. Notwithstanding there was no human nor visible profpect of finding water, or any other of the neceffaries of life, it was with the utmoft reluctance the people quitted the ifland; but being at length prevailed upon, with much difficulty, and through perfuafive means, we embarked in the evening with only fix quarts of water, for the Bay of Honduras. Between the 7th and 14th days of our being in the boat, we were moft miraculously fupported, and at a time when nature was almoft exhaufted, having nothing either to eat or drink. Yet the Almighty Author of our Being furnished furnished us with fupplies, which, In the evening the wild fea-fowls hovered over our heads, and lighted on our hands when held up to receive them. Of these our people eat the flesh and drank the blood, declaring it to be as palatable as new milk: I eat twice of the flesh, and thought it very good. It may appear very remarkable, that though I neither tafted food nor drink for eight days, I did not feel the fenfations of hunger or thirst; but on the 14th, in the evening, my drought often required me to gargle my mouth with falt water, and on the 15th it increased, when, happily for us, we made land, which proved to be an ifland called Ambergris, lying at a fmall diftance from the main land, and about four-, teen leagues to the northward of St. George's Quay, where the white people refide, in the Bay of Honduras; though the want of a quadrant, and other neceffaries, left us fill in fufpence. We lept four nights on this island, and every evening picked up wilks and conks for next day's provifion, embarking every morning, and towing along the shore to the fouthward. On the first evening of our arrival here, we found a lake of fresh water, by which we lay all night, and near it buried one of our people. paft, although eaten raw, having no implements whereby to kindle a fire. From the great fupport received by this fhell-fish, I fhall for ever revere the name. On the third day after our arrival on this ifland, we buried another of our people, which, with four that died on the paffage, made fix, who perifhed through hunger and, fatigue. On the fifth day after our arrival at Ambergris, we happily discovered a fmall veffel at fome diftance, under fail, which we made for; in the evening got on board her, and in a few hours, being the 10th of January, we arrived on St. George's Quay, in a very languid ftate. I cannot conclude without making mention of the great advantage L received from foaking my clothes twice a day in falt water, and putting them on without wringing. It was a confiderable time before I could make the people comply with this meafure; though, from feeing the good effects it produced, they, of their own accord, practifed it twice a day. To this dif covery I may, with juftice, impute the prefervation of my own life, and that of fix other perfons, who must have perished but for its being put in ufe. The hint was first communicated to me from the perufal of a treatise, written by Dr. Lind, and which, I think, ought to be commonly un derftood, and recommended to all fea-faring people. There is one very remarkable circumftance, and worthy of notice, which was, that we daily made On walking along the fhore, we the fame quantity of urine, as found a few cocoa-nuts, which were if we had drank moderately of full of milk. The fubftance of the any liquid, which must be ownut we eat with the wilks, infteading to a body of water being abof bread, thinking it a delicious re forbed forbed through the pores of the skin. The faline particles remaining in our clothing became encrufted, by the heat of our bodies and that of the fun, which cut and wounded our pofteriors, and, from the intenfe pain, rendered fitting very disagreeable. But we found, upon washing out the faline particles, and frequently wetting our clothes without wringing, which we practifed twice a day, the fkin became well in a fhort time; and fo very great advantage did we derive from this practice, that the violent drought went off, the parched tongue was cured in a few minutes, after bathing and washing our clothes; at the fame time we found ourselves as much refreshed, as if we had received fome actual nourishment. Query, Whether bathing in falt THE following addrefs of the lord lieutenant and nobility, high fheriff, grand jury, gentlemen and clergy of the county of Effex, was this day prefented to his majefty by Daniel Mathew, Efq. high fheriff of the faid county, being introduced by the lord of his majesty's bed-chamber in waiting; which addrefs was moft graciously received. To the king's moft excellent majefty. The humble addrefs of the lord lieutenant and nobility, high fheriff, grand jury, gentlemen and clergy, affembled at the affizes held in Chelmsford, in and for the county of Effex, on Thurfday the fecond day of March, one thousand feven hundred and fixty-nine. Moft gracious fovereign, THILST we feel the happy ef water would not be of infinite fer- W vice in hot burning fevers, and break the too great adhesion of the blood, which is the cause of inflammatory fevers? It is to be remarked, that the four perfons who died in the boat drank large quantities of falt-water, and they all died delirious: but those who avoided drinking it had no fach fymptoms. fect, and retain in our breafts a moft grateful fenfe of the mildnefs and benignity of your majesty's government, we cannot fee, without the utmost abhorrence, the spirit of fedition and licentiousness, which hath lately manifefted itself in fuch various fhapes, with defign to leffen the refpect and affection due to your majefty, to traduce and mifrepresent your parliament, and draw into contempt the authority of the courts of juftice, which in no time were more happily or more eminently-fupplied. Every part of the conduct of thefe difturbers of the public repofe, appears to us as weak and unreafonable as it is wicked; yet we think fuch proceedings, if not timely checked, may operate to fubvert the conftitution, and deftroy that liberty which has been made the fpecious but falfe pretence for committing outrages of the most dangerous and alarming |