Santo Antonio, the Prazeres, and the Belem, and the three frigates Principe do Brazil, Princeza do Brazil, and Nossa Senhora do Pilar,[1] as the Graça Divina is absolutely fit for nothing, and the war-ship Ajuda is almost entirely rotten. Of the small vessels only two can be made use of for the different orders which it may be necessary to convey. ········ GOD preserve Your Excellency. Rio de Janeiro, 10th March 1777.
To the Marguis de Pombal.
P.S.—Among the papers I am forwarding to Your Excellency I send a copy of the letter which I wrote to the Chief requesting him to state whether or not I had read over to him, and handed to him for his private perusal, the last orders which I received as to what the Fleet was to do at the island of St Catherine's. His reply you will see by the copy of his letter, which I also send, in which he denies those orders, but mixes up things in such a way that he confesses some and denies others. At the same time, the reply which he gave with regard to the carrying out of those orders, a copy of which I have already sent to Your Excellency, and now forward another, shows that he examined them with sufficient minuteness to be able to make
- ↑ The vessel which Captain Arthur Phillip commanded.
