"Inhabitants of Brazil! all these intentions will be frustrated if certain evil-minded persons should accomplish their fatal views, and persuade you to adopt antisocial principles, destructive of all order, and diametrically opposed to the system of liberality, which from this moment it is my intention to follow."
The ceremonies of taking leave, occupied the following day. On the 24th, the royal family embarked, and with it many of the Portuguese nobles who had followed their king into exile, and many others whose fortunes were entirely attached to the court.
But this great re-emigration produced evils of no common magnitude in Brazil. It is computed that fifty millions of crusadoes, at least, were carried out of the country by the Portuguese returning to Lisbon. A great proportion of specie had been taken up in exchange for government bills on the treasuries of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Maranham. But these provinces, from the revolution in February, had disclaimed the superiority of the government at Rio, and had owned no other than that of the Cortes at Lisbon, and above all the ministry well knew, even at the time of granting the bills, that they had refused to remit any portion of the revenue to Rio. Hence arose commercial distress of every description, and as long-standing government debts had been also paid by these bills which were all dishonoured, the evil spread far and wide, not only among the natives but the foreign merchants. It was of little avail that the Prince acknowledged the debts[36]; the treasury was left so poor, that he was obliged to delay or modify the increase of military pay promised on the King's departure, a circumstance that occasioned much disquiet in several provinces. The funds for carrying on several branches of industry, and several works of public utility were destroyed by this great and sudden drain; and thereby much that had been begun after the arrival of the court, and which it was hoped would have been of the greatest benefit to the country, was stopped. Colonies that had been invited to settle with the most liberal promises perished for want of the necessary support in the beginning of their career, and the wonder is, not that disturbances in various quarters took place after the departure of the King, but that they were not of a more fierce and fatal tendency.
The Prince who remained at the head of the government was deservedly popular among the Brazilians. His first care was to examine into and redress causes of grievances; particularly those arising from arbitrary imprisonment and vexatious methods of collecting taxes. The great duties on salt conveyed into the interior, were remitted. Something was done towards improving the condition of the barracks, hospitals, and schools. Books were allowed to be imported duty free, and every thing that could be effected under the circumstances, was done by the Prince for the advantage of the people, and to preserve or promote public tranquillity.
But the question of the independence of Brazil had now come to be publicly agitated, and out of it arose several others. Was it to be still part of the Portuguese monarchy, with a separate supreme jurisdiction civil and criminal under the Prince? or was it to return to the abject state in which it had been since its discovery, subject to all the vexatious delays occasioned by distant tribunals, by appeals beyond sea, and all that renders the state of a colony irksome or degrading? Then if independent so far, was it to form one kingdom whose capital should be at Rio, or were there to be several unconnected provinces, each with its supreme government, accountable only to the king and cortes at Lisbon? Those who had republican views, and who looked forward to a federal state, favoured the latter views, and so did those who dreaded the final separation of Brazil from the mother country; for they argued that the separate provinces might be easily controlled, but that Brazil united would overmatch any force that Portugal could send against it, should a hostile struggle between them ever take place.
The people, jealous of all, but particularly of the ministers, accused the Conde dos Arcos of treachery, and of a wish to reduce Brazil once more to the state in which it had been before 1808. They insisted on his dismissal, and on the appointment of a provisional junta, which should deliberate on the best measures of government to be adopted, until the constitution of the cortes should arrive from Lisbon, and the fifth of June, the day of his dismissal, was held as a festival.[37]
Yet, distressed as the government was by an empty treasury, and by demands increasing daily on all sides, it was impossible to remove at once all causes of discontent; and the new junta was so well aware of this, that, on the 16th of June, on publishing an invitation to all persons to send in plans and projects for improvements, and statistical notices concerning the country, they also published an exhortation to tranquillity and obedience, and patient waiting till the event of the deliberation of the cortes, now to be joined by their own deputies, should be known. That same night both the Portuguese and Brazilian troops were under arms in the city, violent jealousies had arisen between them, and it required all the authority and all the popularity of the Prince to restore order. On the morning of the 17th His Royal Highness called together the officers of both nations, and in a short speech he ordered them as soldiers, and recommended to them as citizens, to preserve the subordination of the troops they commanded, and union among those troops, bidding them remember that they had sworn to support the constitution, and that they were to trust to that for the redress of their grievances.
Meanwhile the more distant provinces had acknowledged the authority of the cortes, and had sworn to support the constitution. But Maranham in its public acts took no notice whatever of the Prince, professing only to recognise the government of Lisbon. At Villa Rica, when the constitution was proclaimed, the troops refused to acknowledge the Prince, accusing him of withholding the pay promised by the King. At St. Catherine's, though the measures were less violent, yet the refusing to admit a new governor who had been sent, was decidedly an act of insubordination; but the political agitations at St. Paul's were not only of a more serious nature, but had more important results than those of any other province.
The ostensible cause of the first public ferment in that city was the discontent of the Caçadores at not receiving the promised augmentation of pay, which, indeed, it was not then in the power of the Prince to bestow on them.
The regiment, however, took up arms on the 3d of June, and declared they would not lay them down until they received the pay demanded, and were proceeding to threaten the municipal government of the city, when they were stopped by the good sense, and presence of mind of their captain, José Joaquim dos Santos. But though the ferment was soothed for the time, it continued to agitate not only the troops, but the people, to such a degree, that the magistrates and principal inhabitants thought it necessary to take some steps at once, to rule and to satisfy them. They took advantage of the occasion furnished by the assembling of the militia, on account of a festival on the 21st, and, keeping them together, they placed them on the morning of the 23d, in the square before the town-house, where the camara held its sittings. The great bell of the camara then tolled out, the people flocked to the square, with shouts of "Viva el Re, Viva o Constituiçao, Viva o Principe Regente." They then demanded a provisional junta to be appointed for the government of the province, and that José Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, should be appointed president. This truly patriotic citizen and accomplished scholar, was a native of the country, and had now been residing in it some years, after having studied, travelled, and fought in Europe. As soon as he was named, a deputation was sent to his own dwelling, to bring him to the town-house.