and is its surest guarantee.

Although our pilot had not attained to the renown of his great ancestor,
I must do him the justice to say that he understood his business, and
guided us very skilfully through the narrow mouth of the Bay. This small
entrance, commanded by a fort on a height, is tolerably well secured
from the approach of an enemy; and might, by stronger batteries, be made
wholly inaccessible, as the channel is so narrow, that a ship in working
its way in must always be within half-shot distance. We anchored near
the town, among numerous vessels of various nations, and set foot once
more on terra-firma, after being fifty-two days at sea since leaving
England.

Beautiful as this country always appears to an European eye, it has
perhaps no scene so strikingly splendid and picturesque as that which
presents itself within this Bay. The rich and novel peculiarity of the
landscape is contrasted with the handsome buildings of the town, rising
amphitheatrically round the harbour; and these again derive a curious
effect from the tall and slender palm-trees, which, thickly interspersed
among them, throw their strongly defined and waving shadows upon the
white surface of the contiguous houses; and the whole is crowned by the
numerous convents which are seen above the town, in the distance,
clinging like swallows'-nests, to the precipitous sides of the
mountains.

We had hardly reefed our sails, when the Russian Vice-Consul, Von
Kielchen, and an officer of the Brazilian government, came on board to
congratulate us on our arrival. The latter acquainted me with the order
of his Government, that every ship of war coming in should salute the
fortress with one-and-twenty guns; and in order to remove all doubt that
the compliment was designed for the Brazilian flag, he had brought one
which, during the salute, he requested us to hoist at the fore-mast.

New and unprecedented as this order was, from a state not yet
acknowledged by our government, I determined, rather than risk any
disagreement, to comply with it; and having fired the one-and-twenty
guns, received from the fortress a similar number in return. Being very
anxious not to lose the favourable season for doubling Cape Horn, I
urged the Vice-Consul to expedite as much as possible the delivery of
provisions and other necessaries to the ship; for this purpose, however,
a delay of four weeks was required, and this time I determined to employ
in astronomical observat