This was followed in the month of May by a formal notice from Lord Strangford, that the British Parliament had voted 980,000l. for the carrying on of the war in Portugal. In fact, England had now taken the battle into her own hands, as she had decidedly the greatest interest in opposing France; and the royal house of Braganza was at leisure to devote its whole attention to its American dominions. Several well appointed detachments were sent into different parts of the country for the purpose of repelling the Indians, whose inroads had destroyed several of the Portuguese settlements, of forming roads to connect the different provinces with each other, and, above all, of furthering the gradual civilisation of the Indian tribes. Strict orders were given the commanders to proceed peaceably, especially among the friendly Indians; but such as were refractory were to be pursued even to extermination. To further the views with which these expeditions had been formed, a proclamation was issued in the month of September, holding out to such as should become proprietors and reclaimers of land in the province of the Minas Geraes and on the banks of the Rio Doce, all the advantages of original donatories and lords paramount; and promising that every settlement that should contain twelve huts of reclaimed Indians, and ten houses of white persons, should be erected into a villa, with all its privileges. The party that was sent up the Rio Doce discovered one hundred and forty-four farms that had been ruined by the Indians, and which they restored: they formed a friendly treaty with several tribes of Puri Indians, whom they found already settled in villages, to the number of nearly a thousand. These people were gentle, and not without some of the arts and habits of industry; but they were heathens and polygamists; not that a plurality of wives was general, or even common, for there were only one hundred and thirteen wives to ninety four husbands. They do not appear to have been cannibals, though it is strongly asserted that the neighbouring Botecudos were so, and that having gained a slight advantage over the Portuguese, they had eaten four of them who fell into their hands.[29] I confess I am sceptical about these anthropophagi. That savages may eat their enemies taken in battle I do not doubt; under the circumstances of savage life revenge and retaliation are sweet: but I doubt their eating the dead found after the battle, and I doubt their hunting men, or devouring women and children. With the latter atrocities, indeed, they have not been charged in modern times; and as at the period the missionaries wrote the first histories of them, it was politic to exaggerate the difficulties these useful men had to encounter, in order to enhance their services, it is not uncharitable to believe that much exaggeration crept into the accounts of the savages, especially if we recollect the miracles ascribed in those very accounts to many of the missionaries themselves. Besides these measures concerning the Indians, other steps were taken for the good of the country of no less importance; several colonies, both of Europeans, and of islanders from the Açores, were invited and encouraged. The fisheries off the coast were attended to, and particularly that of the island of St. Catherine; and on the same island sufficient experiments were made upon the growth of hemp, to prove that time and industry only were wanting to furnish great quantities of that valuable article of a very good quality.
The year 1811 was the last of the life and ministry of the Conde de Linhares, whose views were all directed to the good of the country. Fully aware not only of its richness and fertility, he also perceived how poor and how backward it was, considering its natural advantages. In endeavouring to remedy the evils, he perhaps aimed at doing more than was possible in the short time, and under the circumstances, in which his active disposition could operate. He had formed roads and planned canals; he had invited colonies, which indeed afterwards sunk; but they left behind them some of their ingenious practice, and some seeds of improvement which have not utterly perished. The possibility of navigating both the St Matthew's river and the Gequetinhonha had been ascertained; experiments in every kind of cultivation had been made; even the tea had been introduced from China. A botanical garden had been formed, in which the spices of the East were cultivated with success; and perhaps as the greatest possible good, a public library had been formed, and its regulations framed on the most liberal principles.
Towards the end of 1811 a royal decree was issued, assigning 120,000 crusadoes per annum to be taken from the customs of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Maranham, for forty years, to the Portuguese, who had suffered during the French war; a measure regarded even then with jealousy by the northern captaincies. But they all continued tranquil for the present, and seemed to attend only to domestic improvement. New buildings, both for use and ornament, arose in the cities. Maranham and Pernambuco improved their harbours. Bahia, besides the handsome theatre opened there in 1812, paved her streets; and at Rio, a subscription of 30,000 crusadoes was raised towards beautifying the palace square, completing the public gardens, and draining the campo de Sta. Anna.
In 1813, some disputes arose between the court of Rio and England on account of the slave trade. Three ships had been captured by the British squadron off the coast of Africa, while certainly engaged in illegal slaving; remonstrances were made, and the matter continued suspended until after the congress of Vienna, when that illustrious meeting, though most of its highest and most powerful members had exclaimed loudly against the villanous practice, suffered it to be carried on. Then indeed England consented to pay 13,000l. to indemnify the Portuguese slave traders for their loss (July, 1815)!
In the same year there appears to have been some discontent manifested, or suspected in the provinces. Many of the salaries of officers, both civil and military, remained unpaid; yet there were exactions, the more grievous, because they were irregular, in every department; the administration of justice was notoriously corrupt; the clergy had fallen into disorder and disrepute; and though much that was useful had been done, yet that was forgotten, especially in the distant provinces, and such a portion of discontent existed, that various officers who had come to Rio either on private business or to remonstrate on public wrongs, were peremptorily ordered to return to their own provinces.
It was wisely done at this juncture, to take off the public attention from such vexations by a measure at once just and gratifying to the pride of the Brazilians: by an edict of the 16th of December, 1815, Brazil was raised to the dignity of a kingdom, and the style and title altered so as to place it on an equal footing with Portugal. For some months addresses of thanks and congratulation poured in to the king from various provinces, and the feasts and rejoicings on that happy occasion occupied the people to the exclusion of all other considerations.
Meantime the victories of the allies in Europe, having caused the exile of Napoleon to Elba, the necessity for an English guardian squadron at Rio had ceased; and accordingly the British establishment was broken up, and the stores sold, and the family of Braganza, again independent of foreign aid, began to renew its connections with the other courts of Europe.
These negotiations suffered some little interruption from an event which had long been expected, namely, the death of the queen, on the 20th of March, 1816, whose state, both of body and mind, had long precluded her from all share in public affairs. She was buried with great pomp in the church of the convent of the Ajuda; and, as is usual, dirges were sung for her in all the churches in the kingdom.
In the month of June, the Marquis Marialva was received at Paris as ambassador of Portugal and Brazil, and shortly afterwards the way having been prepared by an inferior minister, he went to Vienna, to negotiate a marriage between Don Pedro de Alcantara, Prince of Portugal and Brazil, and the Archduchess Maria Leopoldina, which was happily effected. On the 28th of November, she was privately contracted at Vienna to the prince. On the 17th of February following, the contract was made public, and on the 13th of May she was married by proxy, the Marquis Marialva standing for Don Pedro; but it was not until the 11th of November that she arrived at Rio. The line of battle ship Joam VI. had been sent along with two frigates for her to Trieste, the voyage was performed without accident, and the person the most important to the hopes and happiness of Brazil, was welcomed with enthusiasm by all classes of people.
In the autumn preceding, two of the Infantas of Portugal had been married to Ferdinand the 7th of Spain, and his brother the Infant Don Carlos.