brought me, also, a beautiful green paroquet, the tamest,
loveliest thing, with his emerald coat, and sparkling eye, I ever
saw.[57]

[Note 57: All the parrot tribe in Brazil is beautiful: but neither
parrots nor parroquets talk well. However, no slave ship comes from
Africa without a grey parrot or two; so that in the towns they are
almost as numerous as the native birds, and much more noisy, for they
talk incessantly.]

_Sunday, 7th._--We continued to cruize opposite to Olinda and Recife,
and alarmed some of our friends on shore, by sailing round the English
bank, a thing hitherto believed impossible, for so large a ship.

_Monday, 8th._--We find to-day, on anchoring, that terms have been
entered into with the patriots, by which their deputies are to be in the
council, and take an equal share in the administration, and on the other
hand, they are to withdraw the investing troops, and leave Luis do Rego
at the head of the military department, until the arrival of the next
despatches from Lisbon. These pacific measures were brought about by the
Paraiban deputies whom we met on Wednesday.

_Tuesday, 9th._--Mr. Dance, Mr. Glennie, and I, were deputed to take
charge of a large party of midshipmen, who had not been able before to
take a run on shore, to spend the day on Cocoa-nut Island, which lies a
good way up the harbour, and within the reef of Pernambuco. As we sailed
along the rock, we observed that it is covered with echini, polypii,
barnacles, limpets, and crusted with white bivalves less than oysters or
cockles, yet containing a fish not unlike the latter in appearance, and
the former in flavour. We had not exactly calculated the effect of the
tide so far up the harbour as Cocoa-nut Island, consequently we got
aground in the outer channel, at a considerable distance from the shore.
The sailors pushed me over one flat bank in the gig, and then carried me
to the beach; the midshipmen waded, and the officers and boats with the
crews, went in search of a deeper passage, where they might approach
with our provisions. Meantime the boys and I had full leisure to examine
the island. It is perfectly flat and covered with white sand; the shore
scattered with fragments of shells and coral. As its name imports, it is
one grove of cocoa-nut trees, excepting where the present occupant has
cleared space for a market-garden and fishponds. These last are very
extensive; and as they secure a supply of fish at times when the rough