g
to do with the passing of the North Star through the South Pole. This
ignorance and suspicion caused the voyagers a great deal of annoyance
during the whole of their stay; though the viceroy could not refuse them
water and other necessaries. When, at length, these were procured, and
the Endeavour was going out of the harbour, she was fired at from the
forts of Santa Cruz. Cook immediately sent on shore to demand the cause
of this act. The excuse offered by the commandant of the port was that
he had received no orders from the viceroy to allow the ship to pass.
It appeared that the letter had been written, but that through neglect
it had not been forwarded. Through the whole of the contest with the
viceroy, Cook behaved with equal spirit and discretion. Among the
remarks which Cook makes in his journal on Brazil, is one on the fearful
expense of life at which the royal gold mines in that country were
worked. No less than forty thousand negroes were annually imported to
labour in the royal mines. In the year 1766, through an epidemic, the
number required falling short, twenty thousand more were drafted from
the town of Rio. A very similar account may be given of the silver and
other mines on the other side of the continent; while the treacherous
system which was organised to supply the demand for labour from among
the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands must be looked on with even
greater horror and indignation than that which existed for supplying
Brazil with slave labour. So strictly were the Brazilian gold mines
guarded, that no stranger was allowed to visit them, and any person
found on the roads leading to them was immediately hanged by the guards
stationed there. Altogether Cook formed a very unfavourable opinion of
the inhabitants of Brazil, though few parts of the tropics surpass it in
beauty of climate, fertility of soil, and power of production.

After a stay of three weeks in the harbour of Rio, the Endeavour put to
sea on December 7, and stood down the coast of South America. On
approaching the latitudes of the Falkland Islands, the crew, complaining
of cold, received what was called a Magellanic jacket, and a pair of
trousers made of a thick woollen stuff called Fearnought. Instead of
going through the Straits of Magellan, as was the custom in those times,
the Endeavour was steered from the Strait of Le Maire between Helen
Island and Tierra del Fuego. On her anchoring in the Bay of Good
Success