Finding that the Junta shewed every disposition to evade the demand, I requested a personal interview with that body, intimating that I expected all the members to be present. At this interview, I told the Junta that all the documents necessary in support of the claim had been laid before them, these being too precise to admit of dispute—that they had no right in law, justice, or precedent, to withhold the portion of the prize property left at Maranham, by the request of the provisional government, no funds of their own being then available to meet the exigencies which had arisen—and therefore they were in honour bound to restore it.
I was induced to adopt this step, not only on account of the evasive conduct experienced at the hands of the administration at Rio de Janeiro, but because I knew that negotiations were actually pending for the restitution of all the Portuguese property captured, as a basis of the projected peace between Portugal and Brazil; in other words, that the squadron—whose exertions had added to the Empire a territory larger than the whole empire as it existed previous to the complete expulsion of the Portuguese—was to be altogether sacrificed to a settlement which its own termination of the war had brought about. So barefaced a proceeding towards those whose services had been engaged on the express stipulation of a right to all captures is, perhaps, unparalleled in the history of nations; and, as both officers and men looked to me for protection, I determined to persevere in demanding from the Government of Maranham—at least a compromise of the sums which the captors had, in 1823, lent to its pressing exigencies.
No small amount of obloquy has been attached to me with regard to this act of justice, the only one the squadron was ever likely to obtain; but the transaction involved my own good faith with both officers and men, who had lent the money solely on my assurance that the Government at Rio de Janeiro could not do otherwise than refund the amount—so important was it at the time, that the pressing difficulties of the province should be promptly met. A man must have a singularly constituted mind, who, in my position, would have acted otherwise. To this subject it will be necessary to recur.
On the 7th of February, I was surprised by an intimation from Pedro José da Costa Barros, of his intention to assume the presidency of Maranham, founding his pretensions upon a letter addressed to Bruce, whom I had suspended. At first—believing that he possessed the requisite authority—I invited him to take possession of the office, but finding that he had no patent to shew for the appointment, I considered it my duty to His Majesty not to admit such pretensions till their validity was established, and therefore told Barros that he must await the official communications from Rio de Janeiro, before I could acknowledge him as president—for that tranquillity being now restored, I would not have the minds of the people again unsettled on the mere presumption of his appointment.
In this arrangement Barros appeared to acquiesce, but being a well-known partisan of the Portuguese faction, he was soon surrounded by the adherents of that party in Maranham. On the 10th of March, a series of allegations was forwarded to me by the party of Barros against the interim President, but as they were of the most insignificant nature, and unsupported by proof, I refused to pay attention to them. They were shortly afterwards followed by a letter from Barros to the same purport, but without any specific accusation against Lobo, whom he nevertheless represented as about to fly from Maranham in order to evade the punishment due to his crimes! Upon this I addressed to him the following letter demanding specific charges against the interim President:—
Maranham, 10th March, 1825.
SIR,
I have received your Excellency's letter, in which the interim President, Manuel Pellas da Silva Lobo, is charged with an intention of departing from Maranham in a sudden and clandestine manner, and in which your Excellency calls on me to adopt measures for the prevention of his flight. I must, however, represent to your Excellency that, since I have been in this province, so many reports have been made to me with the greatest confidence, impeaching the character and motives of individuals—all of which have proved unfounded—that I feel it impossible to act with any propriety on your Excellency's intimation—without being furnished with proof of the truth of the allegation.
Your Excellency, I am persuaded, is too honourable to propagate so serious a charge without believing it to be well founded, and I cannot doubt that you will have the candour to admit that I am entitled to be made acquainted with the grounds on which your Excellency's belief rests, before proceeding to any measure of severity against the party accused.
I have further to request that your Excellency will be pleased to say for what crime, or crimes, the President interino is supposed to be about to abandon—not only this province—but to flee from his native country?