ur
of pearls. These retained their lustre for some time when held in the
hand, but on pressure seemed nothing more than an earthy fat substance
like mud.

They at length crossed the line, with the loss only of one man, who
died of a high fever; and on getting into the latitude of 3 deg. S. they
fell into the true trade-wind, before which they scudded along at a
great rate. In lat. 5 deg. S. they had the sun directly vertical, so that
they were some days without any observation. In 6 deg. S. they caught
many dorados and dolphins, both, in the opinion of the author of this
voyage, being the same fish, of which the dolphin is the male and
the dorado the female. Some of these are six feet long, but not of
proportional bulk. In the water they appear excessively beautiful,
their skins shining as if streaked with burnished gold; but lose their
splendid appearance on being taken out of the water. Their flesh is
very sweet and well flavoured, so that the seamen always feast when
they can procure plenty of this fish. They saw also abundance of
sharks, many of which are ten feet long. Their flesh is hard, stringy,
and very disagreeably tasted; yet the seamen frequently hang them up
in the air for a day or two, and then eat them: Which compliment the
surviving sharks never fail to return when a seaman falls in their
way, either dead or alive, and seem to attend ships for that purpose.

SECTION II.

_Arrival in Brazil, with some Account of that Country._

Coming near the coast of Brazil, their design was to have anchored
at the island _Grande_, but finding they had passed that island, they
continued their course till off Porto, in lat. 24 deg. S. where they came
to anchor. Some of the ship's company of the commodore then got into
the boat in order to go shore, both for the purpose of procuring wood
and water and other refreshments, and in order to bury one of their
seamen who had died. Before they could get on shore, they descried a
body of Portuguese well armed moving along the coast, who seemed
to prevent them from landing, and beckoned the Dutch to keep off,
threatening to fire if they attempted to land: But, on shewing them
the dead body, they allowed them to land, and even shewed them a place
in which to inter their dead companion. Being desirous of procuring
some intelligence, the Dutch asked many questions about the country,
but could only get for answer, that Porto was an advanced port to St
Sebastian, not marked in