And first—the receipt of the 40,000 dollars for the Imperatrice, I altogether deny, and can be easily convicted of untruth if my receipt for that sum can be produced. It is worthy of note, that the date of the decree for the payment of this sum is carefully given in the preceding document, but the data of my acknowledgment of having received is annulled for the sufficient reason that no acknowledgment was ever given. The 200,000 dollars, I trust that I have sufficiently accounted for, as well as for the vouchers sent to Rio by Captain Shepherd, whose receipt I took for the chest containing them. But the 200,000 dollars with which the Government charges me—even supposing the accounts to be lost—destroyed—or purposely made away with—was not the property of the Brazilian Government, but of the squadron, who received it only as part payment of ten times the amount due to them! This sum though the property of the squadron, was made to serve as an advance of wages, no less than as prize-money; and does the Brazilian Government imagine that any squadron could be sent to sea without money? Or that any reader of common sense will acquiesce in the assertion that under such circumstances it was not properly disbursed, even though I had not shewn its precise disbursement? The Brazilian Government well knows that the men composing the squadron were of so mutinous a character, that the slightest deviation from their rights would have been met with instant insubordination. Did this ever occur, even in the slightest possible degree? It is no fault of mine, if the accounts were destroyed, as I have no doubt they were, from pure malice towards myself, in order to bring me into an amount of disrepute, which might justify the withholding of my claims according to the stipulations of the Imperial patents. By whom this infamy was perpetrated, it is impossible for me to say—but that it was perpetrated—there cannot be the smallest possible doubt.
It is altogether unnecessary to say another word about the 40,000 dollars for the Imperatrice, or the 200,000 dollars for distribution—as the evidence adduced is sufficient to satisfy any man not determined to be unconvinced.
I now come to the amount alleged to have been received from the Junta of Maranham, viz. 217,659 dollars, "at different times," which I have no doubt is perfectly correct, though that portion of it under the title of "indemnification for prizes"—is incorrect, the amount being 106,000 dollars—minus the discount, and not 108,736 dollars as represented. The difference is not, however, worth notice. Deducting this sum from the total of 217,659 dollars, would leave 108,923 dollars to be accounted for otherwise than as "indemnifieation." This also is, no doubt, correct. The inhabitants of Maranham cheerfully agreed to pay and subsist the squadron, provided it remained amongst them to preserve the order which had been restored, and the offer was accepted by me. The 108,923 dollars thus went for the pay and subsistence of the squadron during many months of disturbance; and if it prove any thing, it is the economy with which the wants of the squadron were satisfied, despite the corruption of the authorities, in paying double for provisions, because the merchants could only get paid at all, except by bribes to their debtors. Does the Brazilian Government mean to tell the world that it sent a squadron to put down revolution in a territory as large as half Europe, without receiving a penny in the shape of wages, except their own 200,000 dollars of prize-money—that it never considered it necessary to send to the squadron a single dollar of pay whilst the work was in process—and that it now considers it just to charge the whole expenses to me as Commander-in-Chief, though the expedition did not cost the Government any thing? Yet this is precisely that which the Brazilian Administration has done—with what justice let the world decide. I aver that the accounts were faithfully transmitted. The Imperial Government of the present day, says that the accounts are not in existence—not that I did not transmit them! Surely they ought to blame their predecessors, not me. Let this history decide which of the two is deserving of reprobation.
I now come to the 108,736 dollars—or rather 106,000 dollars received from the Junta of Maranham as "indemnification,"—respecting which the Commission unjustly asserts that "no division appears to have been made!" The untruth of this imputation, the most atrocious of all, is very easily met by the publication of every receipt connected with the matter; and to this I now proceed, requesting the reader to bear in mind that in my letter to the Minister of Marine (see page 209), I announced my intention of retaining for my own justification all original documents, sending to the Government, copies or duplicates. The whole of the subjoined receipts are now in my possession, and I demand from the Brazilian Government their verification, by its Ministerial or Consular representatives in Great Britain.
RECEIPTS OF OFFICERS,
And others for their proportion of 106,000 dollars paid by the Junta of Fazenda of Maranham in commutation of 425,000 dollars—the value of prize property left for the use of the Province on its acquisition from Portugal in 1823; the duplicates having been sent by me to the Imperial Government, the originals now remaining in my possession.
5,000 000.
Received from the Right Hon. Lord Cochrane, Marquis of Maranhaõ, and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Armada, the sum of five thousand milreis, being four thousand one hundred and thirty-seven, or one-third of the Admiral's share of prize-money; and eight hundred and sixty three to account of double pay for services on shore.
DAVID JOWETT,
Maranhaõ, 19th March, 1825. Chief of Division.