It has ever been a custom here, that when any foreign ships
are in this harbour, a guard boat rows constantly night and day,
and when any boat from such foreign vessel goes on shore, a
soldier is put into the boat, and continues on board her during
her stay on shore: this custom is intended to prevent smuggling,
a crime which is punished here with the utmost severity; and when
any foreign officer lands, an officer from the guard is ordered
to attend him wherever he goes: this restraint, which would
certainly have been very ill relished by us, however necessary it
might have been for our own convenience to have complied with
it--was not even in the beginning offered, but every officer
permitted to walk where he pleased, except in the forts; a
liberty never granted to strangers; nor was any centinel ever
placed in any of the King's boats at landing, not even in those
of the transports; an extraordinary mark of civility and
confidence, and of which every officer in our fleet was perfectly
sensible. But when the masters of the transports went on shore, a
non-commissioned officer from the guard attended them wherever
they went, and their sailors were attended by a private
soldier.

During our stay here, we were permitted to erect a tent on the
island Enchados, (a small island about a mile and a half farther
up the harbour than where we lay with the ships,) for the purpose
of landing a few of the astronomical instruments which were
necessary for ascertaining the rate of the time-keeper; they were
put under the charge and management of Lieutenant William Dawes,
of the marines, a young gentleman very well qualified for such a
business, and who promises fair, if he pursue his studies, to
make a respectable figure in the science of astronomy.