o his collection by an almost endless
variety of beautiful birds and curious insects, which are to be bought
at a reasonable price, well preserved, and neatly assorted.

I shall close my account of this place by informing strangers, who may
come here, that the Portuguese reckon their money in rees, an imaginary
coin, twenty of which make a small copper piece called a 'vintin', and
sixteen of these last a 'petack'. Every piece is marked with the number
of rees it is worth, so that a mistake can hardly happen. English silver
coin has lost its reputation here, and dollars will be found preferable
to any other money.

CHAPTER VI.

The Passage from the Brazils to the Cape of Good Hope; with an Account
of the Transactions of the Fleet there.

Our passage from Rio de Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope was equally
prosperous with that which had preceded it. We steered away to the
south-east, and lost sight of the American coast the day after our
departure. From this time until the 13th of October, when we made the
Cape, nothing remarkable occurred, except the loss of a convict in the
ship I was on board, who unfortunately fell into the sea, and perished
in spite of our efforts to save him, by cutting adrift a life buoy and
hoisting out a boat. During the passage, a slight dysentery prevailed
in some of the ships, but was in no instance mortal. We were at first
inclined to impute it to the water we took on board at the Brazils, but
as the effect was very partial, some other cause was more probably the
occasion of it.

At seven o'clock in the evening of the 13th of October, we cast anchor
in Table Bay, and found many ships of different nations in the harbour.

Little can be added to the many accounts already published of the Cape
of Good Hope, though, if an opinion on the subject might be risqued, the
descriptions they contain are too flattering. When contrasted with Rio
de Janeiro, it certainly suffers in the comparison. Indeed we arrived at
a time equally unfavourable for judging of the produce of the soil and
the temper of its cultivators, who had suffered considerably from a
dearth that had happened the preceding season, and created a general
scarcity. Nor was the chagrin of these deprivations lessened by the news
daily arriving of the convulsions that shook the republic, which could
not fail to make an impression even on Batavian phlegm.

As a considerable quantity of flour, and the principal part of the liv