As will presently be seen, it was falsely represented by Gameiro, to the Imperial Government, that I had voluntarily abandoned the service! though, from the letter just quoted—ordering the officers to "disengage themselves from all subordination to me," this subterfuge of my having dismissed myself is obviously false. I will not, therefore, trespass on the patience of the reader by dilating upon the subject; suffice it to say that, not choosing to return to Rio de Janeiro as a passenger, I had no dignified alternative but to give up the frigate to the command of the senior officer, Captain Shepherd; confiding to him all accounts of monies distributed for the Imperial service, with the vouchers for the same—taking the precaution to send however the duplicate receipts given by the officers on account of the monies paid by the Junta of Maranham—and retaining the originals in my possession, where they now remain, and will be adduced in the statement of account forming the concluding chapter of this volume.
For these accounts—which the Brazilian ministers deny ever to have received—Captain Shepherd gave me, under his own signature, the following acknowledgment—now in my possession; a photograph of which, together with photographs of other important documents has long since been sent to the Brazilian Government:—
Received from Lord Cochrane, Marquess of Maranhaõ, the key of the iron chest, in which the prize lists and receipts for the disbursement of public monies have been kept during His Excellency's command; which key and chest I engage faithfully to deliver to the accountant-general of His Imperial Majesty's navy, or to the proper authority at Rio de Janeiro, taking his receipt for the same.
On board H.I.M.'s ship Piranga, November 12th, 1825,
JA's SHEPHERD.
The denial by the Brazilian Administration—of the accounts and receipts thus acknowledged by Captain Shepherd, and the absence of any ministerial communication on the subject, forms an unworthy imputation on the memory of a gallant officer, who a short time afterwards nobly died in action in the cause of Brazil. It was utterly impossible that Captain Shepherd should have done otherwise than have delivered them, for he was a man upon whose honour no reproach could be cast. There are only two ways to account for their not having been delivered, if such be the case. 1st, that Gameiro on the delivery of the frigate to the legation obtained possession of the chest in which they were deposited, and withheld them to justify my dismissal by casting the reproach upon me of having appropriated the amount—an act of which the Brazilian Government may judge whether he was capable; or, 2ndly, that from the same reason they were purposely withheld or destroyed by the ministers who had been so inimical to me. The present Brazilian Administration is happily composed of men of a different stamp, and it becomes them, for the sake of the national reputation, to institute the strictest search for the documentary evidence adduced, as no man will believe that I withheld documents which could alone justify my acts.
And here I must be permitted to remark, that the documentary evidence adduced in this volume proves the history, and not the history the documents. If any question be made as to their validity or fidelity, I hereby call upon the Brazilian Government to appoint a Commission, or authorise their Embassy to compare the extracts with the originals in my possession, so that no manner of doubt or question shall attach to them. My object in now producing them is, that I will not voluntarily go to my grave with obloquy, cast on me by men, who, at the outset of Brazilian independence, were a misfortune to the Empire no less than to myself; men who not only pursued this shameful line of conduct towards me who was unable to resist it,—but towards His Imperial Majesty,—who, by similar practices, was eventually disgusted into AN ABDICATION OF HIS THRONE AND AN ABANDONMENT OF THE COUNTRY—to which he had given one of the freest Constitutions in existence—achieved under the Imperial watchword, "Independencia ou morte."
CHAPTER XIII.
I AM DISMISSED THE SERVICE BY THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT—WITHOUT ANY ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY SERVICES—INCONSISTENCY OF THIS WITH FORMER THANKS—THOUGH DISMISSED I AM TRIED AS A DESERTER—AND AM REFUSED ALL COMPENSATION—REPORT OF RECENT COMMISSION ON THE SUBJECT—FALSE REPRESENTATIONS—BUT PARTIALLY TRUE CONCLUSIONS—MY ORIGINAL PATENTS NEVER SET ASIDE—UNTRUE ASSUMPTIONS AS TO MY DISMISSAL—MY CLAIMS FOUNDED ON THE ORIGINAL PATENTS—LESS THAN HALF THE INTEREST DUE PAID—OPINIONS OF EMINENT BRAZILIANS THEREON—MY SERVICES TARDILY ACKNOWLEDGED—NO ACT OF MINE HAD ANNULLED THEM—THE ESTATE CONFERRED, NOT CONFIRMED—PROMISES ON ACCOUNT OF CHILI UNFULFILLED—THE WHOLE STILL MY RIGHT.
Having been thus unceremoniously dismissed from the Imperial service—without doubt, by order of the Brazilian Ministry to their Envoy in London, I was some months afterwards surprised by the receipt of a letter from the Imperial Government, dated December 21st, 1825, and signed "Visconde de Paranagua," informing me that His Imperial Majesty had ordered all my pay and other claims to be suspended till I should return to Rio de Janeiro to justify myself and give an account of my commission—this being now out of my power, as I had been deprived of command, and the frigate in which I came to England had returned, by order of the Envoy, to Rio de Janeiro.