Slave Market at Rio Janeiro.

JOURNAL

OF A

VOYAGE TO BRAZIL,

AND

RESIDENCE THERE,

DURING PART OF THE YEARS 1821, 1822, 1823.

———

By MARIA GRAHAM.

———

ONCE MORE UPON THE WATERS, YET ONCE MORE,
AND THE WAVES BOUND BENEATH ME AS A STEED
THAT KNOWS HIS RIDER.

———

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,

PATERNOSTER-ROW;

AND J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.

1824.

Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square.

PREFACE.

Although the Journal of a voyage to Brazil, and of a residence of many months in that country, was not written without a view to publication at some time; yet many unforeseen circumstances forced the writer to pause before she committed it to press, and to cancel many pages recording both public and private occurrences.

Perhaps there is even yet too much of a personal nature, but what is said is at least honest; and if the writer should suffer personally by candour, the suffering will be cheerfully borne.

As to public events, all that can be new in the Journal is the bringing together facts which have reached Europe one by one, and recording the impression produced on the spot by those occurrences which might be viewed in a very different light elsewhere. Some have, no doubt, been distorted by the interested channels through which they have reached the public; some by the ignorance of the reporters; and most by the party spirit which has viewed either with enthusiasm or malignity the acquisition of freedom in any quarter of the globe.

The writer does not pretend to perfect impartiality, for in some cases impartiality is no virtue; but knowing that no human good can be attained without a mixture of evil, she trusts that a fair picture of both has been given, although it has cost some pain in the writing.

Of the natives of the country, or of those engaged in its service, what is said, whether of those still employed or of those no longer in the empire, was written under the impression of the moment; and the writer's confidence in the good sense and justice of the Brazilian government and people is such, that she leaves the passages as they stood at the moment of writing.

The events of the last three years in Brazil have been so important, that it was thought best not to interrupt the account of them, by continuing what may be called the writer's personal narrative after she reached Chile; therefore the two visits to Brazil are printed together, along with an Introduction containing a sketch of the history of the country previous to the first visit, and a notice of the public events of the year of her absence, to connect it with the second.

The Journal of a visit to Chile will form the subject of a separate volume.

It was thought essential that the narratives concerning Spanish and Portuguese America should be kept quite separate; the countries themselves being as different in climate and productions, as the inhabitants are in manners, society, institutions, and government.

Nothing can be more interesting than the actual situation of the whole of South America. While Europe was engaged in the great revolutionary war, that country was silently advancing towards the point at which longer subjection to a foreign dominion became impossible. Circumstances, not laws, had opened the ports of the South Atlantic and the Pacific. Individuals, not nations, had lent their aid to the patriots of the New World: and more warlike instruments and ammunition had gone silently from the warehouses of the merchant to arm the natives against their foreign tyrants, than had ever issued from the arsenals of the greatest nations. But, for a period, Brazil did not openly join in the struggle for independence. The Royal Family of Portugal took refuge there; and converted it, by that step, from a colony into the seat of government, from a state of slavery to one of sovereignty. Therefore, while the court continued to reside at Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilians had no inducement to break with the mother country. But it was very different when the King returned to Lisbon, and the Cortes, forgetting the change of men's minds produced by circumstances, endeavoured to force Brazil back to the abject state from which she had arisen. Then arose the struggle, some part of which it was the fortune of the writer to witness; and concerning which she was able to collect some facts which may serve as materials for future history. She trusts that if the whole truth is not to be found in her pages, that there will be nothing but the truth.

It is with no small anxiety that the Journal is sent into the world, in the hope that it may tend to excite interest for the country by making it better known. Perhaps the writer has over-rated her powers, in attempting to record the progress of so important an event as the emancipation of such an empire from the thraldrom of the mother country. The lighter part of her task, namely, the description of the country, its inhabitants, and the manners of the different classes, both of natives and foreigners, should have been fuller; but that want of health, and sometimes want of spirits, prevented her from making use of all the means that might have been within her reach of acquiring knowledge. She trusts, however, that there is no misrepresentation of importance; and that the Journal, the writing of which has to her beguiled many a lonely and many a sorrowful hour, will not give a moment's pain to any human creature.

PLATES.

VIGNETTES.

INTRODUCTION.

SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF BRAZIL.

I judged it necessary to prefix the following sketch of the history of Brazil to the journal of my voyage thither, in order that the political events to which I was an eye-witness might be the better understood.

The early part of the history is almost entirely taken from Mr. Southey. It would have been easy for me to have referred to the Portuguese authors, as I have read nearly all that are to be found in print of Mr. Southey's authorities, and some that he does not mention; but Mr. Southey had been so faithful as well as judicious in the use he has made of his authors, that it would have been absurd, if not impertinent, to have neglected his guidance. From the time of the King's arrival in Brazil, or rather of his leaving Lisbon, I am answerable for all I have stated: it is little, but I hope that little is correct.

The circumstances of Spanish and Portuguese America were very different in every stage. In Mexico, in Peru, in Chili, the conquerors encountered a people civilised and humane; acquainted with many of the arts of polished life; agriculturists and mechanics; knowing in the things belonging to the altar and the throne, and waging war for conquest and for glory. But the savages of Brazil were hunters and cannibals; they wandered, and they made war for food: few of the tribes knew even the cultivation of the mandioc, and fewer still had adopted any kind of covering, save paint and feathers for ornament. The Spanish conquests were more quickly made, and appeared more easily settled, because in states so far advanced in civilisation the defeat of an army decides the fate of a kingdom, and the land already cultivated, and the mines already known and worked, were entered upon at once by the conquerors.

In Brazil the land that was granted by leagues was to be won by inches from the hordes of savages who succeeded each other in incalculable multitudes, and whose migratory habits rendered it a matter of course for one tribe immediately to occupy the ground from which its predecessors had been driven. Hence the history of the early settlers in Brazil presents none of those splendid and chivalresque pictures that the chronicles of the Corteses, and Pizarros, and Almagros furnish. They are plain, and often pathetic scenes of human life, full of patience, and enterprise, and endurance; but the wickedness that stains even the best of them, is the more disgusting as it is more sordid.

But the very circumstances that facilitated the settling of the Spanish colonies were also likely to accelerate their liberation. A sense and a remembrance of national honour and freedom, remained among the polished Mexicans and Peruvians. Their numbers indeed had been thinned by the cruelties of the conquerors, but enough were left to perpetuate the memory of their fathers, to hand down the prophecies uttered in the phrenzy of their dying patriots; and the Peruvian, when he visited Lima, looked round the chamber of the viceroys, as he saw niche after niche filled up with their pictures, till the fated number should be accomplished, with no common emotion[1]; and many a dreamer on the Peruvian coast, when he saw the Admiral of the Chilian squadron, was ready to hail him as the golden-haired son of light who was to restore the kingdom of the Incas.[2]

But in Brazil, what was once gained was not likely to be lost by the efforts of the natives, or at least by any recollection of their's, pointing to a better or more glorious time. They have been either exterminated, or wholly subdued. The slave hunting, which had been systematic on the first occupation of the land, and more especially after the discovery of the mines, had diminished the wretched Indians, so that the introduction of the hardier Africans was deemed necessary: they now people the Brazilian fields; and if here and there an Indian aldea is to be found, the people are wretched, with less than Negro comforts, and much less than Negro spirit or industry. Hence, while the original Mexicans and Peruvians form a real and respectable part of the assertors of the independance of their country, along with the Creole Spaniards, the Indians are nothing in Brazil; even as a mixed race, they have less part among the different casts than in the Spanish colonies; and therefore jealousies among the Portuguese themselves could alone at this period have brought affairs to their present crisis. These jealousies have taken place, and though they did not arise principally out of the causes of the emigration and return of the Royal family, they were at least quickened and accelerated by them.

In 1499, Brazil was discovered by Vicente Yañez Pinçon, a native of Palos, and one of the companions of Columbus. He and his brothers were in search of new countries, and after touching at the Cape de Verd Islands, he steered to the south-west, till he came to the coast of Brazil, near Cape St. Augustine, and coasted along as far as the river Maranham, and thence to the mouth of the Oronoco. He carried home some valuable drugs, precious stones, and Brazil wood; but had lost two of his three ships on the voyage. He made no settlement, but had claimed the country for Spain.

Meantime Pedro Alvarez Cabral was appointed by Emanuel, King of Portugal, to the command of a large fleet, destined to follow the course of Vasco de Gama in the east. Adverse winds, however, drove the expedition so far to the westward, that it fell in with the coast of Brazil, and the ships anchored in Porto Seguro on Good-Friday of the year 1500. On Easter-day the first Christian altar was raised in the new continent under a large tree, and mass was performed, at which the innocent natives assisted with pleased attention: the country was taken possession of for the crown of Portugal by the name of the land of the Holy Cross, and a stone cross was erected to commemorate the event. Cabral dispatched a small vessel to Lisbon to announce his discovery, and then, without making any settlement, proceeded to India.

On the arrival of the news in Europe, the King of Portugal invited Amerigo Vespucci from Seville, and sent him with three ships to explore the country. After a long and distressing voyage they arrived, and very early in their intercourse with the natives they discovered that they were cannibals, but nevertheless they established a friendly intercourse with some of the tribes; and after coasting along South America as far as lat. 52°, finding neither port nor inhabitants, and suffering from intolerable cold, they returned to Lisbon in 1502.

Early in the next year Amerigo sailed again with six ships; but having stood too near the coast of Africa, after passing the Cape de Verds by the orders of the commander, four of the vessels were lost, but Amerigo with the other two reached a port which they called All Saints.[3] There they remained five months, in friendship with the natives, with whom some of the party travelled forty leagues into the interior. They erected a small fort, and left twelve men with guns and provisions, and having loaded their two ships with Brazil wood, monkeys, and parrots, they returned to Lisbon early in 1504.

But as Brazil, as it now began to be called, did not promise that ample supply of gold which the Spaniards had discovered in their new countries, and which the Portuguese gained with less hazard from Africa, and from the East, the country ceased for a time to excite the attention of government, and the first actual settlements were made by private adventurers, who, on account of their trade, were desirous of having some kind of agents among the people. The first persons employed for this purpose were criminals, a sort of settlers that may do well in an unpeopled country, where there is nothing to do but to reclaim the land, but that must do ill where there are many and savage natives, because they either become degraded to the savage level themselves, if they continue friends, or, if not, they are apt to practise such cruelties and injustice as disgust the natives, render colonisation difficult, and if they teach any thing, it is all the worst part of the life of civilised nations.

But in 1508, Amerigo Vespucci having returned to the service of Spain, the King resolved to take possession of the new land which had been discovered; and founding his claims on the grant of Alexander VI., he sent Vincent Yañez Pinçon and Juan Diaz de Solis to assert them. They made Cape St Augustine's, which Pinçon had discovered, and coasted along to lat. 40° south, erecting crosses as they went; but some disputes having arisen between them, they returned to Spain: and it appears that the remonstrances of Portugal against the voyage, as an interference with her discoveries, had some weight, for it was not until 1515 that Solis was dispatched on a second voyage, and then it was with the avowed purpose of seeking a passage to the Great Pacific Sea, which had been sought and seen by Balboa in 1513.

That extraordinary but unfortunate man was the first European whose eyes rested on the broad Pacific. He had heard from the Indians of its existence, and resolutely set out to discover it, well aware of the dangers and difficulties he had to encounter. After twenty-five days of suffering and fatigue, he saw the South Sea; he heard of Peru, its mines, and its llamas, its cities and its aqueducts, and he received pearls[4] from the islands that lay in front of St. Miguel's bay, where he walked sword in hand up to his middle into the water and took possession for the King of Spain. No one in Europe now doubted that the western way to the East Indies was discovered.

Great hopes were therefore entertained from the expedition of Solis. That able navigator made the coast of Brazil far to the southward of Cape St. Augustine, where he had been with Pinçon; and on the 1st of January 1516 he discovered the harbour of Rio de Janeiro; thence he sailed still to the southward, and entered what he hoped at first would be a sea, or strait, by which he might communicate with the ocean; but it was the river La Plata, where Solis and several of his followers were murdered and devoured by the natives. The ships then put back to St. Augustines, loaded with Brazil wood, and returned to Spain.

But the King Don Emanuel claimed these cargoes, and again remonstrated against the interference of Spain so effectually, that three years afterwards, when Magalhaens touched at Rio de Janeiro, he purchased nothing but provisions.

Meantime several French adventurers had come to Brazil, and had taken in their cargoes of Brazil wood, monkies and parrots, and sometimes plundered some of the weaker Portuguese traders. In 1616, two of these adventurers entered the bay of All Saints, and had begun to trade with the Indians, when the Portuguese commander, Cristovam Jaques, sailing into the port, and examining all its coves, discovered them, and sunk the ships, crews, and cargoes. About the same time, a young Portuguese nobleman, who had been wrecked on the shoal off the entrance of the harbour[5], and who had seen half his companions drowned, and half eaten by the Indians, had contrived to conciliate the natives. He had saved a musket and some powder from the wreck, and having taken an opportunity of shooting a bird in the presence of the inhabitants, they called him Caramuru, or the man of fire; and, as he accompanied them on an expedition against their enemies the Tapuyas, he became a favourite, married at least one Indian wife, and fixed his residence at the spot now called Villa Velha, near an excellent spring, and not far from the entrance to the bay.

Caramuru, however, felt some natural longing to see his native land, and accordingly seized the opportunity afforded by the arrival of a French vessel, and taking his favourite wife, he went with her to France, where they were well received by the court, the king and queen standing sponsors at the baptism of the Brazilian lady, whose marriage was now celebrated according to the Christian form. Caramuru, however, was not permitted to go to Portugal; but by means of a young Portuguese student at Paris[6], he communicated his situation to the King Joam III., and pressed him to send an expedition to the bay of All Saints. Shortly afterwards, Caramuru returned to Bahia, having agreed to freight two ships with Brazil wood as the price of his passage, of the artillery of the ships, and of the articles necessary for trading with the natives.

Still, however, as Brazil furnished neither gold, nor that rich commerce which the Portuguese derived from their Indian trade, it was pretty much left to itself for the first thirty years after its discovery; and then the regulations adopted by the court were not, perhaps, the most advantageous for the country. The coast was divided by Joam III. into captaincies, many of which extended fifty leagues, and each captaincy was made hereditary, and granted to any one who was willing to embark with sufficient means in the adventure; and to these captains an unlimited jurisdiction, both criminal and civil, was granted.

The first person who took possession of one of these captaincies was Martim Affonso de Souza, in 1531, who sometimes claims the discovery of Rio de Janeiro as his, although it had been named by Solis fifteen years before. Souza was probably deterred from fixing on the shores of that beautiful bay, by the number and fierceness of the Indian tribes that occupied them. He therefore coasted towards the south, naming Ilha Grande dos Magos on twelfth-day, when

"Three kings, or what is more, three wise men went
Westward to seek the world's true orient."

St. Sebastian's on the 20th, and St. Vincent's on the 22d; but having proceeded as far south as the La Plata, he returned to the neighbourhood of San Vincente, where he ultimately founded his colony, and whence he named the whole captaincy.

Martim Affonso de Souza was no ordinary man: his cares for his colony did not relax even after he had been recalled, and sent as governor-general to India, where he had before highly distinguished himself. He introduced the sugar-cane from Madeira into his colony, and in it also the first cattle were bred. Thence they have spread all over the continent of South America, and have proved of more real value to it than its mines.

Pero Lopes de Souza, the brother of Martim Affonso, had his fifty leagues of coast in two allotments; one part, St. Amaro, was immediately to the north of San Vincente, and the other was Tamaraca, between Pernambuco and Paraiba.

About the same time the Fidalgo Pedro de Goes attempted a settlement at Paraiba do Sul; but after two years tolerable prosperity, he was attacked by the native tribe of Goaytacazes, and five years of warfare reduced him to the necessity of sending to Espirito Santo for vessels to remove his colonists.

Vasco Fernandez de Coutinho began to settle Espirito Santo in the same year (1531) in which the former colonies had been begun. He had amassed a great fortune in the East, and expended most of it in collecting volunteers for his new colony; sixty fidalgoes and men of the royal household accompanied him. The adventurers had a prosperous voyage. On their arrival they built a fort, which they called N. S. da Victoria, and established four sugar-works. Coutinho returned to Lisbon for recruits and implements for mining, the settlers having now obtained some indications of gold and jewels to be found in the country.

The adjoining captaincy of Porto Seguro was given to Pedro de Campo Tourinho, a nobleman and a navigator. He sold his possessions at home, and raised a large body of colonists, with which he established himself at Porto Seguro, the harbour where Cabral had first taken possession of Brazil. The history of the settlement of Porto Seguro, like that of all the others, is stained with the most atrocious cruelties; not such as soldiers in the heat of war commit, but cold calculated cruelties, exterminating men for the sake of growing canes, so waiting patiently for the fruit of crime.[7]

Ilheos, so called from its principal river, which has three islands at the mouth, was settled by Jorge de Figueredo Correa, who had a place in the treasury, under Joam III., between 1531 and 1540, and speedily became flourishing, being remarkably favourable to the sugar cultivation.

Bahia de Todo os Santos was, with its adjacent territory, given to Francisco Pereira Coutinho, a fidalgo who had made himself a name in India. He fixed his abode at Villa Velha, where Caramuru had formed his little settlement, and two of his followers married the daughters of Caramuru.

The bay, or reconcave of All Saints, is a magnificent harbour: the entrance appears to be a league in breadth; but on the right hand, on entering, there is a shoal dangerous to large vessels, called that of St. Antonio da Barre; and on the left, coral reefs running off from Itaporica. The country that surrounds it is so fertile, that it must always have been an object of desire whether to savage or civilised inhabitants; and it is not surprising that three revolutions, that is, three changes of indwellers, driven out by each other, should have been, in the memory of the Indians, before the settlement of Coutinho.

That nobleman, whose early life had been passed in the East-Indian Portuguese wars, imprudently and cruelly disturbed the peace of the rising settlement, by the murder of a son of one of the chiefs. The consequence was, that after a most disastrous warfare, in the course of which the already flourishing sugar-works were burnt, he and Caramuru were both obliged to abandon the settlement and retire to Ilheos. Soon afterwards, however, he made peace with the Indians; but on his return to the Reconcave, he was wrecked on the reef off Itaporica, where the natives murdered him, but spared Caramuru, who returned to his old dwelling.

In the settlement of Pernambuco, the first donatory, Duarte Coelho Pereira, was opposed not only by the natives, but by numbers of French, who having carried on a desultory though profitable trade on the coast, now joined the Indians in retarding those regular settlements which were likely to put an end to their commerce. The colony, however, had been planted at Olinda,[8] a situation as strong as it is beautiful, and Pereira contrived to engage some of the Indian tribes in his favour. The war was but of short continuance, and nothing farther, except the seizure of the little settlement of Garussa, in the woods and near the creek which separates Itameraca from the main land, occurred to impede the prosperity of the captaincy.

The last colony which was founded during these ten eventful years was that of Maranham. Three adventurers undertook this settlement jointly. The most celebrated was Joam de Barros, the historian; the others were Fernam Alvares de Andrada, father of the writer of the Chronicle, and Aires da Cunha.

Aires da Cunha, Barros's two sons, and nine hundred men, sailed in ten ships for their new possession, but were wrecked on the shoals of Maranham; so that it was long before any success attended the undertaking. Da Cunha was drowned, the sons of Barros slain by the Indians, and the rest of the people with difficulty survived in a very wretched condition.

Meantime the passage through Magellan's Straits had been discovered, and the Spaniards, first under Sebastian Cabot, and afterwards under Don Pedro de Mendoza, who founded Buenos Ayres, had begun to settle on the shores of the Plata, not without opposition from the Portuguese, and a more obstinate and fatal resistance from the Indians. The tribes in this neighbourhood appear to have been more civilised than those of the coast of Brazil, and consequently more formidable enemies to the rising towns. Orellana had also made his daring voyage down the mighty river that is sometimes called by his name. He had afterwards perished in an attempt to make a settlement on its shores, and nearly the same fate had attended Luiz de Mello da Silva, who made a similar attempt on the part of Portugal.

Cabeza de Vacca had also made his adventurous overland journey from St. Catherine's, and after settling himself in the government of Assumption, had conducted various expeditions of discovery, always in hopes of finding an easy way to the gold countries. In one of these he found traces of the adventurer Garcia, a Portuguese, who, under the orders of Martim Affonso de Souza, had, with five companions, undertaken to explore the interior of South America. This man had by some means so conciliated the Indians, that he was followed by a very considerable army, and is said to have penetrated even into Tarija. He is believed to have perished by the hand of one of his own followers, but no particulars were ever known of his fate.

During the next ten years, nothing remarkable occurred with regard to Brazil, except the founding of the city of St. Salvador's, by Thome de Souza, the first Captain General of Brazil, who carried out with him the first Jesuit missionaries. For the site of his new town De Souza fixed upon the hill immediately above the deepest part of the harbour of Bahia, which is defended at the back by a deep lake, and lies about half a league from the Villa Velha of Coutinho and Caramuru.

The temporal concerns of the new colony, derived inestimable advantage from the friendship and assistance of the patriarch Caramuru: as to the spiritual, it was indeed time that some rule of faith and morals should find its way to Brazil. The settlers had hitherto had no instructors but friars, whose manners were as dissolute as their own, and who encouraged in them a licentious depravity, scarcely less shocking than the cannibalism of the savages. These latter are said to have eaten the children born by their own daughters to their prisoners of war,—a thing so unnatural, that it only gains credit because the Portuguese sold as slaves even their own children by the native women. The apostle of Brazil, as he may in truth be called, and chief of the six Jesuits who accompanied Souza, was Nobrega, the cotemporary and rival in the race of disinterested services to his fellow creatures of St. Francis Xavier; and, with regard to his steady attempts to protect as well as to convert the Indians, another Las Casas.

Brazil was becoming an object of importance to the crown of Portugal. The new settlement of Bahia was established on the king's account, and at his expense 1000 persons had been sent out the first year, 1549. In four months there were 100 houses, six batteries, and a cathedral: a college for the Jesuits, a palace, and a custom-house were begun; the whole was defended by a mud wall. The next year supplies of all kinds arrived from Lisbon, and the year after that several female orphans, of noble family, were sent out as wives for the officers, with dowries in negroes, kine, and brood-mares.

About this time, a Spanish expedition destined for the river Plata miscarried; one of the ships was wrecked off St. Vincent's, and to Hans Staade, one of the crew who survived and after various adventures fell into the power of the Indians, we are indebted for the most authentic and particular account of the Brazilian Savages.[9] It is curious that the Indians of the new world, should so very far exceed all the savage tribes of the old in barbarity. But it is certain that no authentic accounts of cannibals have ever been brought from Africa; whereas, none of the early writers on Brazil and its inhabitants have failed to dwell upon their love of human flesh, as characteristic of the people.

The year 1552 is distinguished by the arrival of the first bishop in Brazil. His see was fixed at St. Salvador's, or, as it is generally called, Bahia. In the next year, Thome de Souza retired from his government, and was succeeded by Don Duarte da Costa, who was accompanied by seven jesuits, among whom was the celebrated Anchieta.[10] The chief of the order, Loyola, was still alive, he erected Brazil into a new province, and appointed Nobrega and Luis de Gran, who had been principal at Coimbra, joint provincials. From that moment the labours of the fathers for the real good of the country commenced. And whatever may be the opinions entertained, as to their politics and ultimate views, there is not a doubt but that the means they employed to reclaim and civilise the Indians, were mild, and therefore successful; that while they wrought their own purposes, they made their people happy; and that centuries will not repair the evil done by their sudden expulsion, which broke up the bands of humanised society which were beginning to unite the Indians with their fellow creatures.

In 1553, the first school was established in Brazil, by Nobrega, in the high plains of Piratininga, about thirteen leagues from the colony of San Vicente. Anchieta was the school-master. The school was opened on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and the establishment, and the infant colony rising round it, received the name of the saint. St. Paul's has since grown to be one of the most important towns in Brazil. Its rich minerals, its iron-works, and other manufactures, but, above all, the high and free spirit of its inhabitants, who have taken the lead in every effort for the good of the country, distinguish it above all the southern towns of Brazil.

Anchieta, while he taught Latin to the Portuguese and Mamalucos,[11] and Portuguese to the Brazilians, learnt from these last their own tongue, and composed a grammar and dictionary for them. He had no books for his pupils, so that he wrote on separate leaves, in four different languages, the daily lesson for each. He served as physician, as well as priest and school-master, and practised and taught the most useful domestic arts. But the colony had, like all the others, to fight for its early existence; it was attacked by the Mamalucos of the neighbouring settlement of St. André, who regarded the instruction of the Indians as a step towards abolishing their slavery, and exclaimed against it as an infringement of what they called their right to the services of the natives. They engaged by other pretences some of the neighbouring tribes to assist them, but they were met and defeated by those of St. Paul's.

Meantime some disputes having arisen between the Governor and the Bishop, the latter resolved to return to Lisbon, but was wrecked on the coast at a place called the Baixos de San Francisco, and there seized, and with one hundred other white persons put to death by the Cahetes. The revenge of the Portuguese was horrible, the Cahetes were hunted, slaughtered, and all but exterminated.

In the year 1557, Joam III. died. His appointment of Mem de Sa, before his death, to the government of Brazil, prevented the country from immediately feeling the evils which a regency generally entails even in an established government, but which are sure to fall with tenfold weight upon a rising colony.

Mem de Sa was a man of more enlightened mind, and more humane principles than most of those to whom the government of the Brazilian provinces had been intrusted. He arrived at Bahia in 1558, and earnestly applied himself to learn the relations in which the Portuguese, the Creoles, the Indians, and the mixed race stood to each other.

His first acts were directed towards reclaiming the allied Indians from some of their most brutal practices, and to induce them to form settlements near those of the Jesuits. The selfish planters, interested in keeping up the feuds of the Indians, in order to procure slaves, exclaimed against these proceedings as violations of the freedom of the natives, and they were equally displeased at the orders issued, to set at liberty all the Indians who had been wrongfully enslaved. One powerful colonist alone refused to obey: Mem de Sa ordered his house to be surrounded and instantly levelled with the ground. Such an act was certainly calculated to inspire the Indians with confidence in his good intentions towards them, at the same time that his vigorous measures to punish them for any infraction of their engagements kept them in awe.

Meantime an adventurer of no ordinary stamp, had formed a settlement in the finest harbour of Brazil, namely, that of Rio de Janeiro. Nicholas Durand de Villegagnon was a native of Provins en Brie, and a Knight of Malta. In 1648, he had been employed by Mary of Guise, at the entreaty of the French court, to convey her daughter the young Queen of Scots to France: in 1651 he was engaged in the defence of Malta, against the Pacha Sinan and the famous Dragut Reis, and two years afterwards published an account of that campaign. Having visited Brazil in 1558, Villegagnon could not be insensible to the advantages that must arise to France from having a settlement there; and, on his return to Europe, he made such representations at court of these advantages, that Henry II. gave him two vessels, each of 200 tons, and a store ship of 100 tons, to convey the adventurers who might wish to leave France, and who at that time were numerous. Villegagnon, wishing to make use of Coligny's interest, gave out that the new settlement was to be a refuge for the persecuted Hugonots, and this answered the double purpose of securing the Admiral's friendship, and gaining a number of respectable colonists. With these he reached Rio de Janeiro, and made his first settlement in a low rock at the mouth of the harbour, where there is now a small fort called the Laje, but finding it not sufficiently elevated to resist the high tides, he pitched on an island within the harbour, where there is only one landing place, and whose form and situation is singularly adapted for safety, especially against such enemies as the Indians. Those, however, of the Rio had been long accustomed to trade with the French, who, if they had not taught them, had at least encouraged them, to hate the Portuguese, whom Villegagnon flattered himself that he should be able to keep aloof by the assistance of the Savages.

Meantime Coligny had exerted himself to send out assistance of every kind; provisions, recruits[12], and protestant ministers. But Villegagnon now imagined himself secure in his colony, and threw off the mask of toleration. He behaved so tyrannically that many of the Hugonots were obliged to return to France, and of them he made the most malicious complaints, and concluded by saying, that they were heretics worthy of the stake.

But nothing is so short-sighted as wickedness. Villegagnon's treachery was the cause of the ruin of his enterprise. Ten thousand protestants were ready to embark for Coligny, as the island, now called Villegagnon, was then named: but the report of those who had returned, stopped them, and the colony was left in a defenceless state.

At length the attention of the court of Lisbon had been drawn towards the French settlement, and orders were sent to the Captain General to examine into its state first, and then, if possible, to take it.

Accordingly, Mem de Sa, accompanied by Nobrega and two other Jesuits, attacked it in January, 1560, while Villegagnon was absent in France, and demolished the works, but had not sufficient force to attempt forming a settlement; and had Villegagnon succeeded in returning with the recruits he expected, he would have found it easy to re-establish and perhaps revenge himself. But his bad faith deterred the Hugonots from joining him, the civil war prevented the government from assisting him, and the French colony was lost.

In 1564, Estacio de Sa, nephew of Mem, was sent out from Portugal to form a settlement in Rio, but finding his means inadequate to contend with the Indians, led on by the few remaining French, he went to San Vincente for reinforcements; these, however, only enabled him to keep up the war, and to maintain himself in a post he had fortified[13], not far from the entrance of the harbour, and near the Sugar-loaf mountain, a bare and inaccessible rock, which, from a base of about four hundred feet, shoots up to a thousand in perpendicular height, on the west side of the bar. He therefore applied to his uncle for succour, who, collecting what force he could, led them in person, and arrived in the harbour on the 18th of January, 1567. On the 20th, St. Sebastian's day, the Indians and French were attacked in their strongest hold, then called Uraçumiri, and having obtained a decisive victory, the French embarked in the four ships they still possessed, and fled to the coast of Pernambuco, where they attempted to form a settlement at Recife, but were dislodged by the Portuguese of Olinda.

Mem de Sa now founded the city of St. Sebastian, more commonly called the city of Rio; and for its security the Jesuits, with their Indians, fortified both sides of the entrance to the harbour, which is about four miles distant from the city across the bay. Before these works, however, or the walls of the town were completed, the French made a vigorous effort to disturb the rising colony; but it ended in their defeat, and their guns were made use of to fortify the mouth of the harbour.

Driven from Rio, the French attempted to form a settlement at Paraiba the next year; but the Indians, with the Jesuits at their head, and a very few troops, under the commander Martim Leytam, expelled them.

Under Mem de Sa the state had been so prosperous, that though he had been Captain-general far beyond the term of his original appointment, Don Sebastian, on assuming the crown, continued him in office for two years longer, and then named Luiz de Vasconcellos to succeed him. That nobleman never reached Brazil. With him sailed a fleet of seven ships, bearing, besides the governor, sixty-nine Jesuit missionaries, and a number of orphan girls, whose parents had died of the plague, and whom the government was sending out to settle in Brazil. The fleet, in different divisions, fell in with French and English ships, and the Jesuits, save one, to use their own expression, received the crown of martyrdom, and the new governor was killed in action off Tercera. As soon as his death was known at Lisbon, Luiz de Brito de Almeida was appointed to his vacant office; and Mem de Sa just lived long enough to witness the arrival of his successor. Nobrega, who had begun that system, on which the singular government of the Jesuits in Paraguay was conducted, had died a few months before, so that Brazil was deprived nearly at once of the two ablest men that had yet been concerned in its government.

But Luiz de Brito did not succeed to the government of all Brazil. It was judged proper to divide the colony into two captaincies, Rio de Janeiro being the capital of the southern division, which included Porto Seguro and every thing to the south of it; while Bahia remained the capital of the northern districts. There Luiz de Brito fixed his residence, and Doctor Antonio Salerna was appointed governor of the south. But this division was soon found inconvenient, and the two parts were re-united[14] about 1578, the year in which a new governor, Diego Laurenço da Viega, arrived.

This was the year when the loss of Don Sebastian in Africa threw Portugal into the hands of Spain. King Philip, eager to annex that kingdom for ever to his crown, offered Brazil, with the title of King, to Braganza if he would give up his claim to the crown of Portugal. But it was reserved for his descendant to achieve the independence of Brazil, and he refused it.

The colony was at this period most flourishing, though not altogether able to do without occasional supplies from the mother country. But already the original mud-cottages, supported by frame-work and thatched with palm-leaves, of the first settlers, had given way to well built and handsome houses of stone and brick, covered with tiles as in Europe. The reconcave of Bahia had sixty-two churches, and upwards of seventy sugar-works: the land was well stocked with cattle, all the kinds of orange and lime trees introduced by Europeans had flourished. The country abounded in excellent native fruits, and the mandioc furnished never-failing stores of bread. Olinda partook of all these advantages, and was itself the best built and most populous town in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro had become a place only inferior in importance to the other two, its natural advantages being still greater, and the climate milder; nor were the other captaincies less prosperous.

But the transfer of the crown into foreign hands changed the aspect of affairs in Brazil. Inferior to the Spanish American countries in mines, it was considered only of consequence as being occupied by Spanish subjects, and so forming a barrier against the intrusion of other nations.

By this time the English had begun to trade on the coast of Brazil, and in 1577 Drake had passed through the Straits of Magellan in his memorable voyage round the world. His appearance in the southern seas alarmed Philip the Second, now King of Portugal as well as of Spain, and consequently Lord of Brazil. He attempted to form a colony and maintain a fort in the Straits, in order to prevent future navigators from passing; but of it nothing is left but the name, Port Famine, which attests the miserable fate of the colonists. The English commerce was also cut off in Brazil. Some vessels trading peaceably at San Vincente were attacked in the harbour by the Spaniards in superior force; one of the latter was sunk, and the English escaped next day. In 1686, the Earl of Cumberland fitted out an expedition, in which Raleigh served and Witherington was admiral, which entered the reconcave of Bahia and plundered it, remaining there six weeks, the city being only saved by the Indian archers. Baretto, the governor of Brazil, died the next year, and was succeeded by D. Antonio Barreiros the bishop, and Christovam de Barros as joint governors; and they were soon superseded by Francisco Giraldes: he, however, never arrived in the country, and Don Francisco de Souza was appointed in his stead.

During his captaincy some search was made after mines by a descendant of Caramuru, who offered to discover where he had found the silver of which he had services in his house and chapel, on condition of receiving the title of Marques. This Philip refused to grant, and the secret, if indeed the man had one, died with him.

Meantime the celebrated Cavendish had made one voyage round the world, and had committed such ravages on the coast of Spanish America, as not even the atrocious habits of naval warfare in those days can excuse. In 1591, he embarked in a second expedition, arrived in December on the coast of Brazil, and took Santos and burned San Vincente. The ships then sailed for the Straits, but were baffled in their attempt to pass, and returned to the coast of Brazil to obtain provisions. Cavendish, who had many great and good qualities, and who might certainly think it allowable to supply himself on an enemy's coast, made an attempt on Espiritu Santo, but by a mistake in executing his orders it failed, and he sailed for England, but died of a broken heart on the passage.

The most remarkable expedition of the English to the coast of Brazil was that of Sir James Lancaster to Pernambuco. He had the command of three small vessels of 240, 120, and 60 tons. At Cape Blanco he learned that a rich carrack from India had been wrecked near Olinda, and that her cargo was safely stowed at Recife. He therefore fitted five out of near thirty small prizes to accompany him, and built a galley frigate to land with. He was also reinforced by Captain Vernon with two ships, a pinnace, and a prize, and then sailed direct for Recife, where they arrived in March, 1595. On Good Friday of that year the town was taken with little resistance, and Lancaster permitted not the slightest disorder after the place was taken. He fortified the sandy isthmus which connects Recife with Olinda, and then proceeded at leisure to stow his ships with the goods found in the town, and hired the Dutch vessels lying in the port as store-ships. Some French privateers coming in, he also hired them with part of the booty to assist in the defence of the place, till the lading of the vessels should be completed. The Portuguese made several attempts to burn Lancaster's ships, which were all baffled by his prudence, and after remaining in possession of Recife twenty days he prepared to sail. However, on the very last day of his stay, some of his people, both English and French, having advanced too far in a sally against the Portuguese, were killed, and the enemy claimed a victory, which Lancaster being now ready for sea had no inclination to dispute. And this was the last attack made by the English on the coast of Brazil.

But the French had renewed their attempts, and under Rifault and his successor De Vaux had succeeded in forming a settlement in the island of Maranham, 1611. And shortly afterwards Henry IV. sent Daniel de la Touche, Lord of La Rivardière[15], to examine the country, in order to form a permanent colony. His report was favourable; and though on his return to France Henry was dead, an expedition of three ships, containing 500 men, was fitted out, and in 1612 they arrived on the island, speedily conciliated the natives, and the colony promised to thrive. But the court of Madrid quickly sent out orders to the governor of Brazil to attack the intruders. Various accidents prolonged the warfare, and it was not until 1618 that they were dislodged, and a permanent Portuguese colony formed. Its distance from the seat of government determined the court of Madrid to erect Maranham and Para into a separate state, of which the capital was fixed at San Luiz, a town and fort built by the French on the island.

Meantime the Dutch had formed a West Indian Company, trusting that they would thereby be able to annoy the court of Spain in their American possessions, as they had already done in the East Indies. In 1624, a fleet under Jacob Willekins and the famous Peter Heyne was fitted out for that purpose. The ships having been separated in a gale of wind, Willekins made the Morro de San Paulo, about forty miles south of Bahia, where he waited for the rest of the convoy. When it arrived he sailed boldly into the reconcave, and St. Salvador was taken almost without a struggle. Vandort, the Dutch general, immediately began to fortify the place, and proclamations being issued promising freedom and redress of wrongs to all who should submit, many Indians, negroes, and Jews instantly joined him. But the Portuguese, who had hoped that the Dutch had only come to plunder the city, seeing that they were sitting quietly down as in a permanent establishment, roused themselves, and after some little disagreement as to who should command them, pitched on the Bishop Don Marcos Texeira. He fixed his head-quarters on the Rio Vermelho. The Dutch were weakened by the departure of Willekins for Holland, and of Peter Heyne for Angola, the plan of the West India Company being to secure that settlement, in order to have a certain supply of slaves for their new conquests in Brazil. Dort had been killed, and there was no competent commander. The Bishop's troops harassed those of the city in every direction, and the Dutch were prepared to become an easy prey to Don Fadrique de Toledo, who had been sent from Spain with a strong force to recover the capital of Brazil. They capitulated, therefore, in May, 1625, and conditioned for being sent to Holland with sufficient arms and their personal baggage, leaving the city and forts as they were.

The next year, however, Peter Heyne returned to the reconcave. Every precaution was taken against him by the governor. Four large ships with men and artillery were placed to intercept him; but in his single ship, the rest of his squadron not being able to come up with him, ran in between two of them, sunk one, and compelled several others to strike: his own ship, however, grounded, and he burnt her. He added four ships to his own fleet, loaded four others with prize-goods, and burnt the rest. Nor was this his only success; for although the Dutch had been baffled in several attempts on the coast, they sent home prizes enough to be of national importance.

But a conquest of infinitely more consequence was shortly made; that of Olinda, which, in 1630, was taken after a feeble resistance on the part of Matthias de Albuquerque. The Dutch general-in-chief was Henrik Loncq, the admiral was Peter Ardian, and Wardenburg commanded the troops. The latter landed at Pao Amarello, three leagues to the north, while the ships kept up a regular fire opposite to the place; consequently the Portuguese were surprised, and the towns and forts easily taken.

But the country around continued to be the theatre of a most cruel predatory war, during which atrocious cruelties were committed by both parties, but chiefly by the Dutch; and while these things were going on, a number of negroes had escaped from time to time into the great palm-forests, about thirty leagues inland, and had multiplied so that they are said to have amounted to upwards of thirty thousand. These men were governed by a chief whom they called Zombi: they had some laws, a shadow of the Christian religion, and were agriculturists. They harassed the Portuguese, and added by their depredations to the general misery.

At length the Dutch government sent out Count Maurice of Nassau, to take the command at Pernambuco. He arrived in 1537, and carried on the war so vigorously that the Portuguese retired out of the province. He also set about reforming the abuses which existed among the Dutch themselves at Recife, and having established himself firmly there, he sent one of his officers, Jan Koin, over to the coast of Africa, who took possession of St. Jorge da Mina, by which a supply of slaves was secured, and leaving a garrison there, returned to Recife. The next year, Maurice made an unsuccessful attack on St. Salvador. His fleet anchored in the bay of Tapagipe; but though he obtained at first some important posts, he was finally repulsed and returned with loss to Pernambuco. There he occupied himself in building a new town, and making the two first bridges that had yet been built in Portuguese America, besides planting trees, and improving the fortifications. In 1640 he sent the famous sea-warrior Jol into the reconcave, to lay it waste; and he accordingly burnt the whole of the sugar-works in the bay, while the Indians who were friendly to the Dutch, fell on the land-side of the captaincy, and harassed the unhappy settlers in an equal degree.

At length the court of Madrid began to be alarmed for the safety of Brazil, and fitted out a large armament for its relief. Storms and sickness diminished it, ere it arrived, to nearly one half. That half arrived at Bahia, in 1640, under D. Jorge de Mascasentras, Marques de Monte Alvam. Before he had time either to make open war, or to negociate, the revolution in Portugal, which placed Braganza on the throne of his ancestors, took place. The viceroy, unjustly suspected of adhering to Spain, was sent home, and a commission, composed of Barbalho, Correa, and the bishop, appointed in his stead.

One of the first acts of the restored Portuguese government was to make a ten years' truce with the Seven United States. But this did not prevent the continuance of hostilities in Brazil, and the other foreign possessions of Portugal. Serigipe was surprised, Maranham conquered, and Loanda in Angola and St. Thomas's taken.

Notwithstanding these successes, the Dutch government disapproved of Count Maurice's administration. Instead of sending home either to the States or the Company all the money and produce which he had gained in Brazil, he had laid out great part of it, as well as of his private fortune, in fortifying the mouths of rivers and harbours, particularly Recife, in repairing and beautifying the towns, and in other public works, which, looking forward to the permanent establishment of the Dutch in the country, he considered as absolutely necessary. He was accordingly recalled, and returned to Holland in 1644.

After the departure of Maurice the tyranny of the Dutch became so intolerable, that the Portuguese began to rise against it almost universally.

Maranham had already been wrested from their hands at the time of his returning, and that event seemed to be the signal for the long and calamitous struggle that ensued in Pernambuco and the neighbouring Captaincies. Joam Fernandes Vieyra, a native of Madeira, had, at a very early age, left his native island in hopes of bettering his fortune in Brazil. He had succeeded, and at the time we speak of, he was one of the richest Portuguese of Pernambuco, and highly esteemed by both his countrymen and the Dutch. Against the latter, however, he was animated both by patriotism and superstition. They oppressed his people, and they were heretics. After waiting for years for a proper opportunity to attempt their destruction, he seized the first months of Nassau's absence, and communicating his plans to none but to two friends, one of whom he commissioned to apply to the government of Bahia in person for succour, he waited patiently for an answer. This man, André Vidal de Negreiros, executed his commission exactly, and shortly afterwards Antonio Diaz Cardozo, and sixty soldiers, were sent to Vieyra. He concealed them in the woods in the neighbourhood of his dwelling, called the Varzea, which was on the plain to the westward of the city, and then summoned the Indian chief Camaram and the Negro chief Henrique Diaz[16], to his assistance, and communicated his designs to his neighbours.

Early in 1645 the war began in earnest. The most shocking atrocities were committed by both parties, especially towards the Indians, who themselves as they were the most faithful allies, were also the most inveterate and cruel enemies. In the course of the struggle, which lasted until 1654, several leaders on both sides were slain, but none so remarkable as the Indian Camaram. He had been educated by the Jesuits; he understood Latin, wrote, read, and spoke Portuguese perfectly, but on all occasions of ceremony used an interpreter, that he might not in public do any thing imperfectly, and thereby derogate from the dignity of his chieftainship. When a number of Indians were taken among the Dutch, at one of the strong posts of the latter, a relation of Camaram's was found among them. These men had all been condemned to death. Camaram did not intercede for the life of his kinsman, but he saved his honour: he slew him with his own hand, and buried him decently. The rest were hanged by the common executioner, and left for the fowls of the air.

At length this horrible warfare was ended. The two battles of the Gararapes[17], had decided the fate of the Dutch in Brazil: but it was the co-operation of the fleet of the new Brazilian company that enabled Vieyra, who was the real commander in this war, although several military men of reputation, had, from time to time, had the nominal chieftainship, to reduce Recife, and on the 23d of January 1654, to present the keys of the city to the Royal Commander Francisco Beretto, and to restore to the crown of Portugal the empire of Brazil, after nine years of the most cruel war, during which the private fortune, and the determined spirit of individuals had sustained the conflict, generally without the aid, and often in direct opposition to the commands of the court. But men once determined on freedom, or on national independence, must in the end overcome all obstacles and vanquish every difficulty.

While these things were going on in the northern provinces, the Jesuits had formed their singular establishments in Paraguay, and endeavoured to stop, or at least limit the slave hunting of the Portuguese in the interior, though without effect. The best part of the colony of St. Vincent's had been removed to St. Paul's, a settlement on the plain of Piratininga, and had flourished surprisingly. The people had become hardy, if not fierce. They had distinguished themselves by the courage and perseverance with which they had explored the country in search of mines, and the activity with which they had brought in slaves for the new settlements. The consciousness of their strength begot in them a longing for independence, and seizing the opportunity of the accession of the House of Braganza to the throne of Portugal, they attempted to set up a king for themselves. Their attempt was baffled by Amador Bueno de Ribiero, the very person they intended for their monarch, who, when the people shouted "Long live king Amador," cried out "Long live Joam IV." and, being swift of foot, ran and took refuge in the Benedictine convent; and the same day, as there was no alternative, Joam IV. was proclaimed by all the people.

The low state to which Portugal was now reduced, was seen in its effects on the government of Brazil. When the appointed Governors, either on their own judgment, or in obedience to the orders of the court of Lisbon, attempted to carry any new measure into execution which the people disliked, it was seldom in their power to enforce it, and they could expect little assistance from home. The Jesuits had undertaken the defence of the Indians, and endeavoured by every means to restrain the practice of making slaves of them, and to mitigate the lot of such as were already enslaved. But the Franciscans and some other orders derived equal pecuniary benefit with the hunters from the sale of slaves, and therefore they opposed them with vehemence. Interest was on the side of the Friars, and the most disgraceful scenes took place in various captaincies between the parties, the Governors being either not able or not willing to interfere with effect.

Meantime, however, the people became accustomed to canvass and to understand public questions; their governors began to respect them as a real part of the estate; and a value for independence, and a feeling that to attain it was in their own power, grew out of these disorders.

Had it been possible to have purified their religion from some of its most superstitious observances, and to reform the moral habits of the people, the prosperity of the country would soon have been equal to its means; but wherever slavery is established it brings a twofold curse with it. It degrades both parties even where the slaves are imported. How much more then, as was the case here, when they were hunted on their own grounds, where all the details, disgusting and iniquitous as they are, of the seeking, capturing, and bending to the yoke, pass under the eye till the heart grows callous to the cry of the orphan, the grief of the widow, and the despair of the parent in being torn from whatever has been dear to them?

The history of the Jesuit Vieyra's mission to Maranham is as humiliating to human nature, as his sincere exertions in the cause of the suffering Indians is creditable to himself; but neither his exertions, nor the royal authority, could baffle the selfish cruelty and avarice of the people of that captaincy; they broke out into open rebellion in defence of their detestable practices, and even when they returned to obedience, there was a compromise between humanity and avarice, to which the Indians were again sacrificed.

Rio de Janeiro had enjoyed a greater degree of tranquillity during the eighty years since its foundation than any other settlement, and its trade had increased together with its population; but the southern part of its jurisdiction was little more peaceable than Maranham, and not at all more inclined to listen to the remonstrances of the friends of the Indians. The Paulistas were the most difficult of all to manage; they had been the most active and daring of all that hunted either for slaves or for mines, and they were not willing to participate with others, far less to resign the advantages they had gained by unwearied labour and great sacrifices. Their conduct on the restoration of Portugal had evinced a desire of more than the freedom of a colony, and their neighbours were little less disposed for independence than themselves. Santos, and even Rio, had joined them, and had shewn a disposition to depose the governor appointed by the crown; and nothing but the unimpeachable character and firm conduct of Salvador Correa de Sa e Benevides (1658) prevented him from falling a sacrifice to that disposition. Bahia continued to be the capital of the Brazilian states, and its inhabitants proceeded to beautify it with churches, and convents, and nunneries, while they defied the spirit of Christianity by the importation of African, as well as the kidnapping Indian slaves. Pernambuco was still undergoing the miserable effects of the long and desultory war it had sustained; all the bands of government had been loosed during that disastrous period; law and justice had fallen into disuse; and had there not been a redeeming virtue in the free spirit that lived on in spite of the evils among which it had sprung, its very emancipation from a foreign power might have been regretted. The negroes who had escaped to the Palmares, and whose depredations had been disregarded in comparison with the evils of a foreign government, had become a real source of ill to the Pernambucans. Although they cultivated maize, and mandioc, and plaintains, they wanted every other supply. They therefore robbed the Creoles of their cattle, their sugar, their manufactured goods, and even of their Mulatto daughters and female slaves; till at length the government resolved to free the country of them, and called in the aid of a Paulista regiment for the purpose. Ten thousand of the negroes bearing arms had assembled in their chief city, which was surrounded by wooden walls, leaving the lesser ones uninhabited. But their enemies had the advantage of cannon against them, and of supplies of every kind; yet once the negroes beat off their assailants. But numbers overpowered them, and being weakened by famine, their city was forced, and the inmates seized as slaves. Zombi, however, and the most resolute of his followers, threw themselves from a high rock when they perceived their condition desperate. The Portuguese abused their victory, and murdered the rest.

But there was an evil that affected Brazil generally—the too much and the too little power of the governors. They had too much power, if any appeal lay from them—too little, if they were absolute for the term of their government. They were also virtually free from responsibility; their opportunities, nay, their temptations to extortion were almost irresistible; and, to crown all, the corrupt administration of the laws kept pace with the vices and the irregularity of the government. In vain had the wisest regulations been made, and the most just decrees issued. The judges were in many cases parties concerned; they were so in all cases where Indians and negroes were the objects of their judgment, for they were possessors of both. Their salaries were insufficient, their fees arbitrary. What wonder then if the administration was corrupt!

The cultivation of sugar and cotton had proceeded silently amidst all this confusion. The discovery of the gold and diamond mines assisted the government, both in Brazil and in the mother country, to make a stand in the midst of the eminent peril which threatened, in consequence of the losses sustained in the east, while at home there was a scanty and impoverished population, ruined manufactures, and, above all, a neglect of agriculture, that rendered Portugal dependent on foreigners for corn. Every thing was wanted; there was nothing to return; and at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Brazil may be truly said to have saved Portugal, by covering with her precious metals the excessive balance that was against her in every branch of commerce, in every department of government.

Yet, though absolute ruin was averted, the weakness of the crown rendered it impossible to defend its foreign possessions from the attacks of a daring enemy. In 1710, a French squadron, under Duclerc, appeared off Rio de Janeiro, but not daring to pass the forts, sailed on, and after making several attempts to land a force at the different inlets, where he was deterred by the appearance of the militia of the country, succeeded at Guaratiba, between thirty and forty miles from the city, and thence he marched upon it with about one thousand marines. The governor, Francisco Castro de Moraes, made no attempt to stop him until his arrival at the city. There the first check the enemy met was from F. Francisco de Menezes, a Trinitarian friar, who appeared every where, and did what the governor, who remained quietly intrenched in a flat space, where the place of the Rosario now is, between two hills, ought to have done. The French having divided, one party attacked the palace, but the students of the college defended it successfully; and after a short, but desperate struggle, the French were overpowered, and the victory disgraced by the inhuman conduct of the Portuguese. Duclerc and his people were imprisoned and harshly treated. Duclerc himself is said to have been murdered in his bed.

The next year drew on Rio de Janeiro a signal punishment for these proceedings. The famous Duguay Trouin undertook to inflict it; and accordingly, in August, 1711, one year after Duclerc's adventure, he arrived off the coast, and taking advantage of a fog, entered the bay, notwithstanding the fire of the forts.

The Portuguese government had notice of his design, and had sent out stores and ammunition to meet the attack, and had appointed Gasper da Costa commander of the troops. But the sudden appearance of the French actually within the harbour, seems to have palsied the understanding of every person on shore, whose business it should have been to oppose them, and the forts and the city were given up almost without a struggle.

It would, however, have been impossible for the French to maintain themselves in Rio; therefore Duguay Trouin, after refreshing his people, ransomed the city for 600,000 cruzadoes. Bad weather alone prevented him from laying waste the reconcave of Bahia, as he had done Rio: but he had fulfilled the ostensible purpose of his voyage by avenging the treatment of Duclerc and his people, and returned to France early in 1712.

These circumstances had awakened the greatest anxiety on account of Brazil in the cabinet of Lisbon: and at the peace of Utrecht, 1713, every precaution was adopted by the Portuguese ministers to avoid any expression that might seem to admit of a free trade by any power whatever to Brazil, notwithstanding the agreements to that effect actually existing at the time. Disputes without end arose between Portugal and Spain concerning the colonies adjoining to the Rio de la Plata, and it was especially stipulated that no other power, particularly England, should be allowed to form settlements there on account of the facilities such settlements might afford for smuggling the precious metals out of the country. These had now become the first object in Brazil. St. Paul's had been erected into a city, and the district of the mines had been formed into a captaincy: the inhabitants of the coast flocked to the interior, where new towns were daily springing up; all were desirous of a share in that lottery where the prizes were so enormous, that the great preponderance of blanks was overlooked. Great inconvenience must have been felt by the early adventurers to the mines: for so many hands were employed in searching for gold, that few remained to cultivate the soil, and provide the necessaries of life. Yet that insatiable thirst of gold is a stimulus which has led to useful and to honourable things: it is not the love of the metal, but the possession of it gives power, and that is the real object of most men's ambition: it is certainly that of the ambition of all nations, and this object is held legitimate: we account those base or wicked who seek the means; we admire those who attain the end. The philosophic historian and the poet are alike ready to condemn the man who first dug the ore from the mine: the panegyric in prose and in verse is lavished on the hero and the patron. But gold furnished the means for the hero's conquests and the patron's liberality, and gold, or the worth of gold, is the object of both; whether in the form of continued power, or of that fame which patronage can bring. Sad indeed has been the waste of human life in searching for gold: but have all the mines together consumed more men than the single revolutionary war? And have not the religious contests among Christians, and their persecutions and mutilations and burnings cost many more? I would not justify the gold finders; their actions were horrible, their oppressions atrocious; but let them have justice: the stimulus was great; urged on by it, they performed great things, they braved cold, and hunger, and fatigue, and persecution, and death; they persevered, they opened the way to unknown lands, they laid the foundations for future civilisation in countries which will have reason to bless their discoveries, when the effect of their evil deeds, as well as the memory of the brutal customs of the savages they so unjustly oppressed, shall have passed away.

But I have neither space nor inclination to follow their adventures, and must refer to Mr. Southey's elaborate and excellent account of them. Daniel Defoe alone could have so handled the subject as to make delightful so dull and so sad a tale. I am but a looker on to whom the actions of the present are more interesting than the past, but yet am not insensible to the influence that the elder days have had upon us.

Pernambuco had during the half century which had elapsed since the expulsion of the Dutch had time to recruit. The sugar plantations had reappeared, and the commerce of Recife had become extremely important. The merchants, and especially those from Europe, had settled there, and the town had increased till it became the second of Brazil; while Olinda gradually declined, having few inhabitants besides priests and the representatives of the old families of the province, who might be called its nobility: still Recife was but a village until, in 1710, it solicited and obtained the royal assent to its becoming a town, and having a camera or municipal council to govern its internal affairs. The jealousy of the people of Olinda and the other old Brazilians was violently excited by this concession, which they conceived would raise the plebeian traders and foreigners to an equality with themselves. After several tumultuous meetings on the subject, three of the ten parishes belonging to Olinda were assigned to Recife, and the governor, fearing to set up the pillar which marks a township openly, had it erected in the night. Fresh disturbances ensued, in which some of the magistrates were concerned, and there were not wanting voices to exclaim that the Pernambucans had shown they could shake off the strong chains of the Dutch, and that they could as easily shake off others and govern themselves. The seditious magistrates were arrested and thrown into prison. The soldiers were employed to disarm the people; but they had now advanced too far to be easily reduced. The governor was fired at and dangerously wounded, and proofs were not wanting that the judge and the bishop had at least consented to the attempt on his life. The most serious disturbances followed: the inhabitants of the whole district took up arms, some blood was shed in the course of their contentions with the soldiers, and Sebastian de Castro, the governor, weakened both in body and mind, was induced to fly to Bahia for safety. Six of the chief Pernambucans were now appointed to exercise the functions of a provisional government till orders should be received from Lisbon, and all Europeans were deprived of their offices and commissions.

But the bishop, who had been at Paraiba since the time when De Castro was wounded, now returned to claim his office as governor on the removal of the former one. He began to exercise his authority in the king's name, and his first act was to declare a general pardon. But he, however appears to have been a timid man: willing yet not daring to join the party who wished to shake off the yoke of Portugal, and by his vacillating conduct betraying both his friends in that party, and the trust reposed in him by the crown. At length, in 1711, these disturbances were quieted by a new governor, Felix Jose Machado de Mendonça. Brazil was not yet ripe for independence; nor indeed could so small and ill-peopled a state as Pernambuco have maintained its freedom even for a year unconnected with the other captaincies. While these things were going on in the captaincies of Brazil, the Jesuits were labouring in the interior to reclaim the Indians, with success far beyond the apparent means, and some towns, which have since become of importance, were built on the coast and on the shores of the Plata, particularly Monte Video, in 1733; but the border war, between the Spaniards and Portuguese, which was waged on account of these settlements, disquieted the neighbourhood for a time. Its importance, however, was soon forgotten in the disturbances caused by the treaty of division between Spain and Portugal, which forcing the Indians who had been reclaimed to emigrate, roused them to a vigorous but short and useless resistance, which only began the evils that the Jesuit missions were destined to perish under.

The Portuguese government, under the administration of Carvalho, afterwards Marquis of Pombal, had begun to attend to, and attempt to reform the abuses which existed throughout Brazil, but particularly in the newly founded captaincies and settlements, when the war with France and Spain broke out in 1762. For a time defence against a foreign enemy superseded every other consideration. The first act of hostility in the western world was the seizing of the Portuguese settlement of Columbia, in the Plata, by the governor of Buenos Ayres, before the squadron despatched by the governor of Brazil, Gomez Freyre, could arrive to protect it. That squadron consisted of the Lord Clive, of 64 guns, an English ship commanded by Capt. Macnamara; the Ambuscade, of 40 guns, in which Penrose, the poet, served as lieutenant; and the Gloria, of 38 guns. The Spanish ships retired before Macnamara, and he ran under the guns of the forts of Colonia, in order to retake the place. He had nearly succeeded in silencing the batteries, when, by accident or negligence, the ship took fire; the enemy renewed their fire; three-fourths of the crew of the Lord Clive, among which was the captain, were drowned. The other ships were nearly destroyed and obliged to retreat; but owing to the neglect of the Spaniards, they were able to refit and return to Rio. And this was the most remarkable action of the war beyond the Atlantic, and the first in which the English distinguished themselves in the defence of Brazil.

Pombal, meantime, having resolved on the suppression of the order of Jesuits, overlooked, in the ardour with which he pursued that measure, the important services they had rendered, and were daily rendering, to one of his favourite objects, namely, the improvement of the condition of the Indians. Their plan of discipline, indeed, hitherto had kept their pupils rather in a state of childish innocence than of manly improvement. Their fault was, that in order to secure obedience, they had stopped short of what they might have effected. Their dominion was an Utopia; and had it been possible to shut out every European and every wild Indian, it might have lasted. But such artificial polities can never be of long duration. Some convulsions either from without or from within must end them, and that with a more complete ruin than could befal states less curiously framed. But the well-intentioned labours of the missionaries had produced one decided good effect,—the habits of savage life were abandoned, and the advantages of agriculture and manufactures had been felt. The rock on which the education of the Indians split, was the community of goods. When a man has no property, but depends for the supply of his daily wants upon the providence of others, he has no incitement to particular exertion. The stimulus to industry cannot exist where a man has no hope of growing richer, no fear of becoming poorer, no anxiety about the provision of his family. His judgment in the portioning and disposing of his property is never called forth; all the qualities and virtues that arise out of the practice of domestic economy lie dormant, and the man remains an infant. It would have been easy to remedy this, by allowing the Indians to possess private stock, and to provide for their own families after the first generation. The newly reclaimed did require to be provided for, but the children growing up in the Aldeas might have been intrusted with their own property. They would have become men; and when the removal of their spiritual fathers took place, that wide and deep desolation would not have overwhelmed them, nor would Paraguay have gone back as it has done towards a savage state.

The Jesuits of Brazil were expelled in 1760, in the most cruel and arbitrary manner. Those of the Spanish American colonies eight years later. Whatever might have been their faults, or even their crimes, in other countries, in these their conduct had been exemplary. They had been the protectors of a persecuted race, the advocates of mercy, the founders of civilisation; and their patience under their unmerited sufferings forms not the least honourable trait in their character.

The history of Brazil, for the next thirty years, is composed of the mismanagement and decay of the Jesuit establishments; the enlargement of the mining districts, particularly in the direction of Mato Grosso; some disputes with the French on the frontier of Cayenne; and the more peaceful occupations of opening roads, and the introduction of new branches of commerce, and the improvement of the old.

This tranquillity was for a moment interrupted by a conspiracy in the province of Minas Geraes, headed by an officer named Joaquim Jose de Silva Xavier, commonly called Tiradentes. The project of the conspirators was to form an independent republic in Minas, and, if possible, to induce Rio de Janeiro to unite with it. But their measures were most inadequate for the end proposed, and their conduct so imprudent, that, although there was a pretty general feeling of discontent on account of the taxes and some other grievances, the conspirators were all seized before they had formed anything like a party capable of resistance, much less of beginning the meditated revolution.

The direct effects upon Brazil of the first thirteen years of the revolutionary war in Europe were confined to some slight disputes regarding the boundaries of the Portuguese and French Guiana, and concerning the limits of which, there was an article in Lord Cornwallis's negotiations with France, or rather the peace of Amiens in 1802.

The indirect effects were greater. Being a good deal left to themselves, the colonists had leisure to discover what sort of cultivation and crops suited best with the climate, and were fittest for the market; and some branches of industry were introduced, and others improved, to the great advantage of the province. Foreign ships, and even fleets, had also begun to resort thither[18]: so that, though the ports had as yet been closed against foreign traders, the entrance of men of war, and such merchant ships as could find no others to refit in, introduced a virtual freedom, which it would afterwards have been impossible not to have confirmed.

The court of Portugal meanwhile, as if infatuated by the negotiations of France, consented to buy a disgraceful neutrality at the price of 1,000,000 of livres or 40,000l. per month, besides granting free entrance to French woollens into the kingdom.

It was in vain that frequent representations were made to the ministry at Lisbon on the subject; that the armament at Bayonne, and the refusal of Spain to forbid the passage of French troops through her territories, were pointed out. The Portuguese forces were marched to the sea-coast, as if they apprehended an invasion from England; thus leaving the kingdom defenceless on the land side, and the ports were shut against English commerce, by a proclamation, dated 20th October, 1807. But the importance of Portugal to England, as neutral ground, or, in the event of a French government in Spain, as a point whence to attack the great enemy, was such, that the resentment which at another time would certainly have been openly declared, was suppressed; but a strong squadron was always kept up off the coast, partly to watch the proceedings on shore, partly to prevent the Portuguese vessels from coming out of port, and joining the French and Spaniards.

While this system of watchfulness was kept up in Europe, the English ministry was not less attentive to the designs of France on the South American colonies. As long as Spain and Portugal continued to pay the enormous price in money for their neutrality, which France had demanded, the views of Napoleon were better answered than they could have been by the possession of all their territory and all their colonies. But the moment in which they should become unable or unwilling to pay that price, would of course be that of aggression and invasion. So early as 1796, Mr. Pitt had contemplated the advantages that must arise to Britain from the possession of a port in South America, and particularly in the Rio de la Plata, nor did he ever afterwards lose sight of it. Some circumstances occurred in December, 1804, to draw his attention, particularly towards the subject, inasmuch as he had intelligence that France was about to attempt to seize on one of the Spanish settlements on the first opportunity. But we were then at peace with Spain, and however willing to prevent such an aggression on the part of France, and to assist General Miranda in his intended expedition to South America, it was impossible to co-operate with him, as he earnestly pressed the ministry to do, although the advantage to England of securing such a market for her manufactures was clearly perceived. Among the officers who had been most confidentially consulted by Mr. Pitt, on the practicability of obtaining a settlement on the La Plata, was Sir Home Popham; and it was probably his knowledge of the views so long entertained by that minister, that induced him to take the hazardous step, of leaving the Cape of Good Hope so soon after it had been occupied by the English forces, in 1806, and taking Buenos Ayres without orders to that effect. His immediate motive was, the intelligence he had procured, that the squadron of the French admiral, Guillaumez, had intentions of touching on the coast of Brazil, entering the La Plata, and, if possible, seizing, or forming a settlement there; and some North Americans whom he had met, encouraged the undertaking, by observing, that to throw open the ports of South America would be a common benefit to all commercial nations, but particularly to England.[19]

In 1806, the demonstrations of hostilities against Portugal on the part of France were so evident, that Lord Rosslyn was despatched thither on a special mission, in which Lord St. Vincent and General Simcoe were joined with him. His instructions from Mr. Fox, then prime minister, were to lay before the ministry of Lisbon, the imminent danger which threatened the country, and to offer assistance in men, money, and stores from England, to put Portugal in a state of defence, in case the government should decide on a vigorous and effective resistance. If, on the other hand, Portugal should think itself too weak to contend with France, the idea that had once occurred to King Don Alfonso of emigrating to Brazil, and there establishing the capital of the empire, was to be revived, and promises made of assistance and protection for that purpose. If, however, Portugal insisted on rejecting assistance in either case, the troops under General Simcoe were to be landed, the strong forts on the Tagus occupied by them, and the fleet was to enter the river and secure the Portuguese ships and vessels, taking care to impress the government and people with the feeling that this was done from regard to the nation, and by no means for the sake of selfish aggrandisement on the part of England. It appears, however, that the French preparations for the invasion were not at that time so far advanced as had been imagined, and at the earnest entreaty of the court of Lisbon, the troops and the fleet were withdrawn from the Tagus.

On the 8th of August, the next year, however, (1807) Mr. Rayneval, the French chargé d'affaires at Lisbon, received orders from his court to declare to the Prince Regent of Portugal, that if by the first of September he did not declare war against England, and send back the English minister, recalling the Portuguese ambassador from London, and did not seize all the English residents, confiscate their property, and shut the ports of the kingdom against the English; and lastly, if he did not, without delay, unite his armies and fleets with those of the rest of the continent against England, he had orders to demand his passports and to declare war.

The Conde de Barca, then prime minister, was certainly aware of the preparations of the French government. But with that obstinate blindness which sometimes seems to possess men like a fate, he persisted in regarding them only as measures to intimidate and harass England. This nobleman had been ambassador at the court of St. Petersburg, and on his recall to take the first place in the cabinet at Lisbon, he was ordered to go by sea to London, and thence to Portugal, but he chose to perform the journey by way of Paris, where he saw and conversed both with Napoleon and Talleyrand. There cannot be the least doubt but that he was duped by those able men. Many considered him as a traitor. But the vanity of the Conde, who always said he had gone to judge of these men by his own eyes, though it makes him weaker, makes him less wicked, and was, perhaps, the true spring of his actions. He it was who carried the measures for the detention of the English, the confiscation of their property, and the shutting the ports against English commerce: adopting, in short, the whole of the continental system. The very day before Junot was to reach Lisbon, however, a Paris newspaper, written in anticipation of the event, announced that "The House of Braganza no longer reigned," and that its members were reduced to the common herd of ex-princes, &c., giving no very favourable description of them, and holding out no very flattering expectations for the future. This completely opened the Prince Regent's eyes, and he consented to that step, which D. John IV. and Don José had contemplated, namely, the transferring the seat of his empire to his Transatlantic possessions.

This was in the month of November, 1807, but the events of that month, the most interesting that had occurred to Portugal since the revolution that had placed Braganza on the throne of his ancestors, will be best understood by the following extracts from the despatches received by the British ministry from Lord Strangford and from Sir Sydney Smith at the time. On the 29th November, 1807, His Lordship writes, after mentioning the Prince's departure for Brazil:—

"I had frequently and distinctly stated to the cabinet of Lisbon, that in agreeing not to resent the exclusion of British commerce from the ports of Portugal, His Majesty had exhausted the means of forbearance; that in making that concession to the peculiar circumstances of the Prince Regent's situation, His Majesty had done all that friendship and the remembrance of ancient alliance could justly require; but that a single step beyond the line of modified hostility, thus most reluctantly consented to, must necessarily lead to the extremity of actual war.

"The Prince Regent, however, suffered himself for a moment to forget that, in the present state of Europe, no country could be permitted to be an enemy to England with impunity, and that however much His Majesty might be disposed to make allowance for the deficiency of means possessed by Portugal of resistance to the power of France, neither his own dignity nor the interests of his people would permit His Majesty to accept that excuse for a compliance with the full extent of her unprincipled demands. On the 8th inst. His Royal Highness was induced to sign an order for the detention of the few British subjects, and of the inconsiderable portion of British property which yet remained at Lisbon. On the publication of this order, I caused the arms of England to be removed from the gates of my residence, demanded my passports, presented a final remonstrance against the recent conduct of the court of Lisbon, and proceeded to the squadron commanded by Sir Sydney Smith, which arrived off the coast of Portugal some days after I had received my passports, and which I joined on the 17th inst.

"I immediately suggested to Sir Sydney Smith the expediency of establishing the most rigorous blockade at the mouth of the Tagus; and I had the high satisfaction of afterwards finding that I had thus anticipated the intentions of His Majesty: for despatches (which I received on the 23d) directing me to authorise that measure, in case the Portuguese government should pass the bounds which His Majesty had thought fit to set to his forbearance, and attempt to take any further step injurious to the honour or interests of Great Britain."—

----"I resolved, therefore, to proceed forthwith to ascertain the effect produced by the blockade of Lisbon, and to propose to the Portuguese government, as the only condition upon which that blockade should cease, the alternative (stated by you) either of surrendering the fleet to His Majesty, or of immediately employing it to remove the Prince Regent and his family to the Brazils."—

"I accordingly requested an audience of the Prince Regent, together with due assurances of protection and security; and upon receiving His Royal Highness's answers I proceeded to Lisbon on the 27th, in His Majesty's sloop Confiance, bearing a flag of truce. I had immediately most interesting communications with the court of Lisbon, the particulars of which shall be detailed in a future despatch. It suffices to mention in this place, that the Prince Regent wisely directed all his apprehensions to a French army, and all his hopes to a British fleet: that he received the most explicit assurances from me that His Majesty would generously overlook those acts of unwilling and momentary hostility to which His Royal Highness's consent had been extorted; and that I promised to His Royal Highness, on the faith of my sovereign, that the British squadron before the Tagus should be employed to protect his retreat from Lisbon, and his voyage to the Brazils.

"A decree was published yesterday, in which the Prince Regent announced his intention of retiring to the city of Rio de Janeiro until the conclusion of a general peace, and of appointing a regency to transact the administration of government at Lisbon, during His Royal Highness's absence from Europe."

Sir Sydney Smith writes on the first of December the following letter to the admiralty:—

His Majesty's Ship Hibernia, 22 leagues west of the Tagus, Dec. 1, 1807.

"Sir,

"In a former despatch, dated 22d November, with a postscript of the 26th, I conveyed to you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the proofs contained in various documents of the Portuguese government, being so much influenced by terror of the French arms as to have acquiesced to certain demands of France operating against Great Britain. The distribution of the Portuguese force was made wholly on the coast, while the land side was left totally unguarded. British subjects of all descriptions were detained; and it therefore became necessary to inform the "Portuguese government, that the case had arisen, which required, in obedience to my instructions, that I should declare the Tagus in a state of blockade."

(Sir Sydney then repeats part of Lord Strangford's despatch.)

"On the morning of the 29th, the Portuguese fleet came out of the Tagus with His Royal Highness the Prince of Brazil, and the whole of the royal family of Braganza on board, together with many of his faithful councillors and adherents, as well as other persons attached to his present fortunes.

"This fleet of eight sail of the line, four frigates, two brigs, and one schooner[20], with a crowd of large armed merchant ships arranged itself under the protection of that of His Majesty, while the firing of a reciprocal salute of twenty-one guns announced the friendly meeting of those, who but the day before were on terms of hostility, the scene impressing every beholder (except the French army on the hills) with the most lively emotions of gratitude to Providence, that there yet existed a power in the world able, as well as willing, to protect the oppressed.—I have, &c.

"W. SYDNEY SMITH."

Such are the public accounts transmitted by foreigners to their court of one of the most singular transactions that has occurred in the history of kingdoms and of courts. Yet such was the state of Europe at that time, so momentous the struggle between the principals in the mighty warfare that was going on, that the ancient house of Braganza left the seat of its ancestors, to seek shelter and security beyond the Atlantic, almost without notice and with less ceremony than had formerly attended an excursion to its country palaces.

The French Government had waited to invade Portugal till that unhappy country had exhausted its treasury, in the payment of the enormous sums demanded as the price of its neutrality. French influence had removed the Portuguese troops from the mountain passes, where they might have opposed the entrance of French armies, and the Prince Regent only declared his adherence to the continental system, and arrested the English on the simultaneous entrance of three Imperial and Spanish armies.

Junot invaded Algarve and passed the Zezere, at the same moment when Solano threw himself upon Oporto, and Carafa occupied Alentejo and Algarve.—Under these circumstances, the conduct of the ministry, though not courageous, was natural, and it was as natural when Lord Strangford returned to Lisbon, which, perhaps, he ought not to have left, that the last council held in that capital should decide on the emigration of the court to Brazil. Had it remained, and Portugal had become a French province, the Prince and all his family were prisoners in the hands of one who had respected no crown; and besides, England had intimated that in that case she must occupy Brazil for her own security. By emigrating to Brazil the Prince retained in his hands the largest and richest portion of his domains, and secured at least, the personal freedom and safety of his family. At the end therefore of the last meeting of his councillors the Prince called his confidential servants[22], and ordered them to prepare every thing in secret for the embarkation of the court on the next night but one. One of these had been actually ordered to provide quarters for Junot, and on the next morning to have a breakfast ready for him at a house half-way between Sacavem and Lisbon. This man had smuggled his family on board one of the ships, he had been night and day getting provisions, plate, books, jewels, whatever could be moved on board the fleet, and, remaining to the last, was again ordered to provide quarters for Junot: but he was fortunate enough to secure a boat to carry him off to the fleet, leaving papers, money, and even his hat behind him on the beach.

Such is the picture of the hasty embarkation, given by some of the attendants on the royal family.

The fleets had no sooner got off the land than they encountered a violent gale of wind, but by the 5th of December they were all collected again; on that day Sir Sidney Smith having supplied the ships with every thing necessary for their safety, and having convoyed them to lat. 37° 47' north, and long. 14° 17' west, left them to go on under the protection of the Marlborough, Capt. Moore, with a broad pennant, the London, Monarch and Bedford.[23] They proceeded without farther accident to the coast of Brazil, and landed at Bahia on the 21st of January, 1808.[24]

The Conde da Ponte was at that time governor of Bahia, and is said to have been very popular[25]: he had married a lady of high family who was not less so, and she possessed, besides the manners of the court, a considerable portion of both beauty and talent.

The reception of the royal party was rendered so agreeable to the Prince by the governor and his lady, that he remained at St. Salvador's a month, every day being a festival, and then left it with regret. In commemoration of the visit, a spot was cleared near the fortress of St. Peter's, and commanding a fine view over the whole of the beautiful bay, and there an obelisk was erected with an inscription, stating its purpose, and the surrounding ground was planted and converted into a public garden.

But, however agreeable a residence at Bahia might have been to His Royal Highness, the place is too insecure for the purposes for which he emigrated. If it is besieged by sea, and the smallest land force gets possession of the neck of land between the Cape and Rio Vermelha, it is actually without the means of subsistence. The entrance of the bay is so wide, that nothing, can prevent ships from going in when they please. Whereas, the harbour of Rio is easily defended, it not being possible for ships to enter without being exposed to the fire of the forts. Besides, it has resources which Bahia has not, being at all times able to communicate with the rich province of the Minas, which, besides the metals, abounds in corn, mandioc, cotton, coffee, cattle, hogs, and even the coarse manufactures such as cotton, &c., for the use of the slaves and for ordinary purposes.

Rio was therefore the best adapted for the asylum of the illustrious house of Braganza, and, on the 26th February, His Royal Highness sailed from Bahia, and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on the 7th March.

Meantime the French troops had occupied Portugal, and Junot, who commanded in chief, and had fixed his head-quarters at Lisbon, began by disarming the inhabitants, and war between France and Portugal was formally announced, eight days before the signature of the treaty of Fontainbleau, by which Portugal was divided into three great feoffs, which, under the King of Etruria, the Prince of Peace Godoy, and a Braganza, if he would submit to the conditions[26], were to be subject to the crown of Spain.

Junot published a proclamation flattering the people in proportion to his oppressions and exactions, and nearly ruined them by a forced war contribution of nearly 3,000,000l.—In addition to this a conscription of 40,000 men was raised, and thus the means which Portugal possessed, and which, if timely used, might have saved her from invasion were turned against her.

The first ministry appointed on the arrival of the court at Rio, consisted of Don Rodriguez de Souza Continho, Don Juan d'Almeida, the Visconde d'Anadia, and the Marquez d'Aguiar.

The first measure of the court was to publish a manifesto, setting forth the conduct of France towards Portugal, from the beginning of the revolution; the efforts of the government to preserve its neutrality; and detailing all the events which had led immediately to the emigration of the royal family. The manifesto also denied having, as the French government alleged, given any succours to the English fleet or troops in their expedition to the River Plate; and it states, that the French government having broken faith with that of Portugal, His Royal Highness considered himself at war with France, and declared that he could only make peace by consent of, and in conjunction with, his old and faithful ally the king of England; and this was all the direct interference of the Prince in the affairs of his ancient European kingdom, where a junta of five persons was appointed to govern, and where, before the end of the year (1808), the battle of Vimiera had been fought, and the convention of Cintra had been signed.

The first sensible effect of the arrival of the royal family in Brazil was the opening of its numerous ports[27]; and in the very first year (1808) ninety foreign ships entered the single harbour of Rio, and a proportional number, those of Maranham, Pernambuco, and Bahia. The effect of the residence of the court was soon felt in the city of Rio de Janeiro. It was before 1808 confined to little more than the ground it occupied when attacked by Duguay Trouen in 1712; and the beautiful bays above and below it, formed by the harbour, were unoccupied, except by a few fishermen, while the swamps and morasses which surrounded it rendered it filthy in the extreme. A spot near the church of San Francisco de Paulo had been cleared for a square, but scarcely a dozen houses had risen round it, and a muddy pond filled up the centre, into which the negroes were in the habit of throwing all the impurities from the neighbourhood. This was now filled up. On one side of the square a theatre was begun, not inferior to those of Europe in size and accommodation, and placed under the patronage of St. John; several magnificent houses rose in the immediate neighbourhood, the square was finished, and another and much larger laid out beyond it, on one side of the city, while on the other, between the foot of the mountain of the Corcovado, with its surrounding hills, and the sea, every station was occupied by delightful country-houses, and the beautiful bay of Boto Fogo, where there were before only fishermen and gipsies, soon became a populous and wealthy suburb.

It is not in my power to give a detailed account of all the transactions of this important year. The trade had naturally rapidly increased; the money brought by the emigrants from Portugal, had called forth greater exertions and speculations in commerce; and in October a public bank was chartered in Rio, with a capital of from seventy to eighty thousand pounds sterling.

The establishment of a regular gazette naturally took place, for the speedier dissemination of whatever tidings might arrive from Portugal, where lay the possessions and the interest of the court and the new people of Brazil; and though the press, of course, did not boast of much freedom, nor indeed would its freedom at that time have been of any consequence, it formed the first step towards awakening rational curiosity and that desire for reading, which has become not only a luxury, but even a necessary, in some countries, and which makes a rapid and daily progress here.

On the arrival of the court many of the old Creole families hastened to the capital to greet their sovereigns. The sons and the daughters of these married into the noble houses of Portugal; the union of the two nations became intimate and permanent; and the manners and habits of the Brazilians more polished. With the artificial wants that sprung up, new industry was excited, especially near the capital; the woods and hills were cleared, the desert islands of the bay became thriving farms, gardens sprung up every where, and the delicate table vegetables of Europe and Africa were added to the native riches of the soil and climate.

The numbers of the royal family furnished birth-days for frequent galas, the foreigners vied with the Portuguese in their feasts, so that Rio presented a scene of almost continued festivity. On the 17th of December, the birth-day of the queen, six counts were created, that is, Luiz de Vasconcellos e Souza was made Conde de Figuerio, Don Rodrigo de Souza Continho, Conde de Linhares, the Visconde d'Anadia, Conde d'Anadia, D. Joao d'Almeida de Mello e Castro, Conde das Galveas, D. Fernando Jose de Portogal, Conde d'Aguiar, and D. Jose de Souza Continho, Conde de Redondo. The Papal Nuncio, Sir Sidney Smith, and Lord Strangford[28], were honoured with the order of the Tower and Sword; six English officers were named commanders of the order of the Cross, and five others were made knights of the same.

The beginning of 1809 was marked by an event of some importance. By the treaty of Amiens, Portuguese Guiana had been given up to France, and was now, together with French Guyana and Cayenne, governed by the infamous Victor Hughes. It was long since France had been able to send out succour to these colonies. The fleets of England impeded the navigation, and the demands at home were too urgent and too great to permit much to be hazarded for the sake of such a distant possession. The court of Rio, therefore, resolved to send a body of troops under Colonel Manoel Marquez, to the mouth of the Oyapok. The English ship of war, Confiance, commanded by Captain Yeo, accompanied him, and their combined attack forced the enemy to surrender on the 12th of January. The terms were honourable to both parties: and among the articles I observe the 14th, by which it is stipulated, that the botanic garden, called the Gabrielle, shall not only be spared, but kept up in the state of perfection in which it was given up. War is so horrible, that a trait like this, in the midst of its evils, is too pleasing to be overlooked.

The rest of the year passed in Brazil in quiet though important operations; many roads were opened through the still wild country in the interior; a naval academy was instituted; a school of anatomy was founded in the naval and military hospital; and the vaccine establishment formed in Brazil in 1804 having declined, it was renewed both at Bahia and Rio, and immense numbers of persons of all colours were vaccinated.

Meanwhile the Portuguese arms were employed in another quarter of the world. The extensive dominions of Portugal in the east had fallen off one by one, as pearls from a broken thread. Yet Macao was still Portuguese. For twenty years past, it, in common with the coast of China, had been plagued with the pirates of the Yellow Sea; till, at length, the Chinese government found it necessary to take measures for suppressing them, and therefore made a treaty with the Portuguese government of Macao, signed by the following personages, on the 23d of November.

Miguel De Arriga, Judge.
Brun Da Silva.
Jose Joaquin Barros, General.
Shin Kei Chi.
Ches.
Pom.

The Portuguese were by this treaty to furnish six vessels of from sixteen to twenty-six guns, but being in want of ball and other stores they were supplied liberally by the English East India Company's factory; and the result was, that after three months' resistance, the pirates surrendered their ships, and promised to become peaceable subjects, and the people of Macao performed a Te Deum in honour of their success; but twelve months elapsed ere the happy tidings reached Brazil.

The great European interests of Brazil and its sovereign might have been forgotten in the country itself, during the year 1810, so tranquil was it, but for the packets which brought across the Atlantic the details of those desperate battles, which the strength and the treasure of England were waging in defence of them in the Peninsula. On the 19th of February, Lord Strangford and the Conde de Linhares, in behalf of their respective governments, signed a commercial treaty at Rio, by which great and reciprocal advantages were obtained, and the English were allowed the free exercise of their own form of worship, provided they built no steeples to their churches, and that they used no bells.

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.

But the frontier of Brazil to the southward now began to feel the effect of those disturbances which had long agitated Spanish South America. The chief Artigas showed a disposition to encroach on the Portuguese line, and, therefore, a corps of volunteers had been formed for the purposes of observation, and the Porte da Santa Theresa had been occupied in order to check the motions of that active leader: during the autumn of 1816, several skirmishes took place, but the arts of negotiation as well as of war were resorted to, and on the 19th of January, 1817, the keys of Montevideo were delivered up to the Portuguese general Lecor, by which the long-wished-for command of the eastern bank of the Plata was obtained.

Meantime the discontents in the northern provinces had broken out into open insurrection, in the captaincy of Pernambuco. The people of Recife, and its immediate neighbourhood, had imbibed some of the notions of democratical government from their former masters the Dutch. They remembered besides, that their own exertions, without any assistance from the government, had driven out those masters, and had restored to the crown the northern part of its richest domain. They were, therefore, disposed to be particularly jealous of the provinces of the south, especially of Rio, which they considered as more favoured than themselves, and they were disgusted at the payments of taxes and contributions, by which they never profited, and which only served to enrich the creatures of the court, while great abuses existed, especially in the judicial part of the government, which they despaired of ever seeing redressed. Such were the exciting causes of the insurrection of 1817, in Pernambuco, which threatened for many months the peace, if not the safety of Brazil. The example of the Spanish Americans had no doubt its weight, and a regular plan for obtaining independence was formed, troops were raised and disciplined, and Recife being secured, fortifications were begun at Alagoas and at Penedo.

The insurgents, however, had probably miscalculated the degree of concurrence or assistance they should meet with from their neighbours. The people of Serinhaem as soon as the insurrection was known, namely the middle of April, posted themselves on the Rio Formosa as a check on that quarter, and the king's troops under Lacerda, marched immediately from Bahia. The Pernambucan leader Victoriano, having attacked the Villa de Pedras, received a decided check from a body of royalists, under Major Gordilho, who had been sent forward by Lacerda, on the 21st: and by the 29th Gordilho had occupied that post, as well as Tamandré, where he was not long afterwards joined by Colonel Mello, with a strong reinforcement.

Meantime the Pernambucan chief, Domingos Jose Martins, was actively employed in collecting troops, and forming guerilla parties, in order to harass the marches of the enemy. These parties were headed by Cavalcante, a man of wealth and family, aided by a priest, Souto, a bold and enterprising man, who was far from being the only ecclesiastical partisan. On the 2d of May, a vigorous attack was made on Serinhaem, by the famous Pernambucan division of the south, which had hitherto received no check; but the assailants were repulsed with the loss of their artillery and baggage, and a column under Martins coming up met with the same fate, on which he drew off his people with those of the south, to the ingenio of Trapiche. On the 6th of May they left that position, and meeting the royalists under Mello, suffered a complete defeat. Their chiefs were either killed or taken; and of the latter some were exiled, others imprisoned, and three, Jose Luiz Mendonça, Domingos Jose Martins, and the priest, Miguel Joaquim de Alameida, were hanged in Bahia.

At this juncture Luiz do Rego Barreto was appointed by the government at Rio to the office of captain-general of Pernambuco. He was a native of Portugal, and had served with distinction under Lord Wellington. Of a firm and vigorous mind, and jealous of the honour of a soldier, he was perhaps too little yielding to the people and the temper of the times. The severe military punishments inflicted on this occasion certainly produced irritation, which though it did not break out immediately, was the cause of much evil afterwards, and brought an odium upon that gallant soldier himself, from which his high character in other situations could not shield him.

This year the ministry underwent a complete change. The Marquis d'Aguiar, who had succeeded to the Conde de Linhares, died in January, and the Conde da Barca in June; when the Conde de Palmela became prime minister, Bezerra became president of the treasury, the Conde dos Arcos secretary for transmarine and naval affairs, the Conde de Funchal counsellor of state, and Don Tomas Antonio de Portogal secretary to the house of Braganza.

I cannot pretend to speak of the character or measures of these or any other Portuguese or Brazilian ministers. My opportunities of information were too few; my habits as a woman and a foreigner never led me into situations where I could acquire the necessary knowledge. I wish only to mark the course of events, and in as far as they are linked with each other, the causes of those effects which took place under my own eyes.

In the early part of 1818, some additional restrictions concerning the slave trade, which had been agreed to by Conde de Palmela during the last year at London, were published at Rio, and a commission of English and Portuguese jointly was formed for the examining into and deciding on causes arising out of the treaties on that most important subject, a certain number of commissioners being appointed to reside in the different ports in Africa and Brazil, where the trade was still considered lawful. That year opened at Rio with unusual festivity. On the 22d of January, a great bull-feast was given at San Christovam, the royal country house, in honour of the young princess's birth-day; it was followed by a military dance, in which the costume of the natives of every part of the Portuguese dominions in the east and west were displayed. Portugal and Algarve, Africa and India, China and Brazil, all appeared to do homage to the illustrious stranger. Music, in which the taste of the king was unrivalled, formed a great part of the entertainment, and never perhaps had Brazil witnessed so magnificent a festival.

On the 6th of February the coronation of his majesty, John VI., took place, and these peaceful festivities gave a character to the year, which was remarkably quiet, the only public acts of note being the farther prosecution of the plans for civilising the interior, by facilitating the communications from place to place, and reclaiming the border tribes of Indians.

The following year was not less tranquil. The birth of the young princess, Donna Maria da Gloria, was an event to gratify both the court and the people of Brazil. They had now the heir of their kingdom born among them, a circumstance which they were disposed to hail as a pledge that the seat of government would not be removed from among them.

The early part of 1820 was disturbed by some irruptions of the Spanish Americans under Artigas, on the eastern side of the Plata. The Portuguese troops, however, soon repulsed him, and strengthened their line by the occupation of Taquarembo, Simar, and the Arroyo Grande.

Meantime the peace in Europe had not brought back all the tranquillity that was expected from it. In vain did the old governments expect to step back into exactly the same places they had occupied before the revolutionary war. The Cortes had assembled in Spain. Naples had been convulsed by an attempt to obtain a constitution similar to that promulgated by the Spanish Cortes; and now Portugal began to feel the universal impulse. Lisbon and Oporto were both the seats of juntas of provisional government, and both assembled Cortes to take into consideration the framing of a new constitution, and the reformation of ancient abuses. On the 21st of August the Cortes of Lisbon had sworn to adopt in part the constitution of the Spanish Cortes, but it was not until the month of November that the government of Brazil made public the recent occurrences in the mother country. Indeed it was not to be expected that Brazil should remain unconscious of the proceedings of Europe. The provinces were all more or less agitated. Pernambuco was as usual foremost in feeling, and in the expression of feeling. A considerable party had assembled at about thirty-six leagues from Olinda. They declared their grievances to be intolerable, and that nothing but a total reform in the government should reconcile them to longer subjection to the government of Rio. The royalist troops were sent out against them and were victorious, after an action of six hours, in which they lost six officers and 19 men killed, and 134 wounded. The loss on the other side was much greater, and as usual severe military executions increased the evils of the civil war, at the same time that they farther exasperated the people, and prepared them for a future and more obstinate resistance.

Bahia was far from tranquil. The old jealousy which had subsisted from the time the seat of government had been transferred from the city of St. Salvador to Rio, combined with other causes, tended to increase the desire of a constitutional government, from which all good was to be expected, and under which, it was hoped, that all abuses would be reformed. Rio itself began to manifest the same feelings. The provinces of St. Paul's and the Minas were always ready to unite in any cause that promised an increase of freedom; and the whole country seemed on the brink of revolution, if not civil war.

The court party, however, still flattered themselves that the determination of the King to remain in Brazil, instead of returning to Lisbon to put himself into the power of the Cortes, would be so grateful to the Brazilians, that they would be contented to forego the probable advantages of a constitution, for the sake of the positive good of having the seat of government fixed among themselves. But it was too late; the wish for improvement had been excited. The administration had been too corrupt, the exactions too heavy to be longer borne, when reform appeared to be within reach. The very soldiers became possessed with the same spirit, and though highly repugnant to the King's feelings, it soon became evident that a compliance with the wishes of the people and with the constituton, as declared by the Cortes at Lisbon, was inevitable.

It is said, that some of the wisest ministers hail long pressed His Majesty to a compliance with the wishes of his people, but in vain. His reluctance was unconquerable, until at length, perceiving that force would certainly be resorted to, he adopted a half measure which probably accelerated the very event he was anxious to avoid.[30] On the 18th of February, 1821, the King accepted as a junta, to take into consideration such parts of the constitution as might be applicable to the state of Brazil, the following persons:—

Marquez de Altegrete—President
Baron de St. Amaro.
Luiz José de Carvalho Mello.
Antonio Liuz Pereiro da Cunha.
Antonio Rodriguez Velloso dc Oliviera.
Joaŏ Severiano Maciel da Costa.
Camillo Maria Tonelet
Joaŏ dc Souza de Mendonça Costa Real.
José da Silva Lisboa.
Mariano José Pereira da Fonseca.
Javŏ Rodriguez Pereira de Almeida.
Francisco Xavier Pires.
José Caetano Gomez.
Procurador da Casa.
José de Oliviera Botelho Pinto Masquiera.
Secretarios.
Manoel Jacinto Noguerra de Gama.
Manoel Moreira de Figueiredo.
Secretaries Sustituti.
O Coronel Francisco Saraiva da Costa Refoios.
O Desembargador Joaŏ José dc Mendonza.

These persons were all anxious to retain the King in Brazil. Most of them Brazilians, they had felt the advantage of having the seat of government fixed among themselves, and though the King's foreign allies and his Portuguese subjects had pressed him to return to Europe, his own dread of the Cortes of Lisbon, together with their natural desire to detain him in Brazil, produced on the 21st a manifesto, describing His Majesty's affection and relianceon his Brazilian subjects, and stating, that he was resolved to send the Prince Don Pedro to Lisbon, with full powers to treat on his behalf with the Cortes, whom he seems to have considered as subjects in rebellion.

The Prince was also to consult with the Cortes concerning the drawing up of a constitution, and the King promised to adopt such parts of it as might be found applicable to existing circumstances and to the peculiar situation of Brazil. This manifesto appears to have produced an effect very different from what was intended. At four o'clock in the morning of the 26th, all the streets and squares of the city were found full of troops. Six pieces of artillery were planted at the heads of the principal streets, and the most lively sensation agitated every part of the city of Rio. As soon as this circumstance could be known at San Christovaŏ, the Prince Don Pedro, and the Infant Don Miguel, came into the city. The Camara[31] was assembled in the great saloon of the theatre.[32] The Prince, after conferring for a short time with the members of that body, appeared upon the balcony of the saloon, and read to the people and the troops, a royal proclamation, antedated the 24th, securing to them the Constitution, such as it should be framed by the Cortes of Lisbon. This was received with loud cries of Viva el Rei, Viva a Religiaŏ, Viva a constituicaŏ. The Prince then returned to the saloon, and ordered the secretary of the Camara to draw up the form of the oath to be taken to observe the constitution, and also a list of a new ministry, to be submitted to the people for their approbation. The list of ministers was first read, and each individually approved.[33]

His Royal Highness then proceeded to take the oath for his father, in the following form:—

"I swear, in the name of the King, my father and lord, veneration and respect for our holy religion; to observe, keep, and maintain for ever the constitution such as established by the cortes in Portugal." The bishop then presented to him the holy Gospels, on which he laid his right hand, and solemnly vowed, promised, and signed the same.

The Prince then took the oath in like manner for himself, and was immediately followed by his brother, the Infant Don Miguel, after whom the ministers and a multitude of other persons crowded to follow his example. Meantime the Prince rode to the King at his country seat of Boa Vista, at San Cristovaõ, to inform him of all that had passed, and to entreat his presence in the city, as the best means of securing order and confidence. His Majesty accordingly set off immediately, and arrived at the great square at about eleven o'clock, when the people took the horses from his carriage and dragged him to the palace, the troops following as on a day of gala, and forming in the square before the doors. At one of the centre windows the King presently appeared, and confirmed all that the Prince had promised in his name, declaring at the same time his perfect approbation of every thing that had been done. The troops then dispersed, and the King held a court, which was most numerously attended; and the day ended at the opera, the people again assembling to drag the King's carriage thither.

It would be curious to investigate the feelings of princes on occasions so momentous to themselves and to their people. Joam VI., passionately fond of music, was dragged by a people, grateful for a boon granted that very day, to a theatre built by himself, where all the music vocal and instrumental was selected with exquisite taste, and where the piece presented was a decided favourite.[34] Yet it may be questioned whether there existed in his wide dominions one heart less at ease than his own. All his feelings and prejudices were in favour of the ancient order of things, and this day those feelings and prejudices had been obliged to bend to the spirit of the times, to a wide-spread desire for freedom, to every thing, in short, most contrary to the ancient system of continental Europe.

The next day[35], there was nothing but joy in the city, the great saloon was again crowded with persons eager to sign the oath to the constitution, illuminations, feux de joie, and fireworks succeeded; and at the opera, Puccito's Henrique IV. was ordered in compliment to the King. But he was too much fatigued with the events of the last two days to go, and when the curtain of the royal box was drawn up, the pictures only of the king and queen appeared; but they were received with loud acclamations, as if the royal personages themselves had been present.

Thus was a most important revolution brought about without bloodshed, and almost without disturbance. The junta occupied itself seriously on the business of the constitution, and began by publishing some edicts highly favourable to the people, and, among others, one insuring the liberty of the press.

Meantime Bahia, actuated by the same spirit as Rio, had anticipated the revolution at that place. On the 10th of February the troops and people assembled in the city, the magistrates were called on to take an oath to adhere to the constitution, a provisional government was formed, and troops were raised in order to maintain the constitution, in case the court at Rio should be adverse to its adoption. Among these the most forward was a small body of artillery, formed of the students at the different colleges and schools of the city. The new government early began to manifest a determination to be no longer subordinate to Rio, and to acknowledge no other authority than that of the Cortes at Lisbon. An intimation of what had taken place at Bahia was immediately forwarded to Luiz do Rego at Pernambuco, who assembled the magistrates, the troops, and the people, on the 3d of March, in Recife, and there, along with them, solemnly took the oath to adhere to the constitution; a measure which gave universal satisfaction. About the same time, several of the towns in the Comarca of Ilheos also took the oaths to maintain the constitution; and it appeared evidently that the whole country was equally desirous of a change, in hopes of relief from the vexations it had so long suffered under.

But the agitation of the capital was by no means at an end. Disputes arose concerning the election of deputies to the cortes, which, however, ended in adopting the method laid down in the Spanish constitution. The troops found it necessary to publish a declaration, denying that they had any factious views when they assembled on the 26th of February, and alleging that they appeared as citizens anxious for the rights of the whole community. The people assembled in different places, and are said to have insulted several persons, particularly the members of the council which existed immediately before the revolution; and in order to save three of them from the fury of the mob, they were placed in confinement for three days, and then liberated, with a proclamation tending to exculpate them from all criminal charges, and explaining the motives of their arrest.

The King meanwhile had resolved on returning to Lisbon, and on the 7th of March he published a proclamation announcing his resolution, together with an order for such deputies as should be elected by the time of his departure, to go with him to attend the Cortes, and promising to find means of conveying the rest when they should be ready.

Every thing now appeared to proceed in quiet. The preparations for His Majesty's departure went on, and he resolved to take the opportunity of the assembling of the electors on the 21st of April, to choose the deputies to the Cortes, to submit to them the plan for the government of Brazil which he had laid down, in order to receive their sanction. These electors were assembled in the exchange, a handsome new building on the shore, and thither a great concourse of people had flocked, some purely from curiosity, some from a desire, imagining they had a right, to express their opinion on so important a subject. The result of that meeting was a deputation sent to the king, insisting on the adoption of the entire Spanish constitution. The decree of the assembly received the signature of the King. But the members of that assembly met again on the 22d, many of whom had no legal title to be present, and proceeded to propose to stop the ships prepared for the King's return to Portugal. Some went so far as to propose an examination of the vessels, in order to stop the exportation of the quantity of wealth known to be on board of them, and the meeting at length assumed so alarming an aspect, that His Majesty revoked his royal consent to the act passed on the 21st, and sent a body of soldiers to intimidate the assembly. Unhappily, an order proceeding from some quarter, never known or never acknowledged, caused the soldiers to fire into the exchange, where the unarmed and innocent electors, as well as the others who had crowded thither, it might be, with less pure motives, were assembled, but all were there on the faith of the royal invitation given through the judge of the district.

About thirty persons were killed, many more were wounded: and the whole city was filled with an indescribable consternation. The sudden stop that was put to this strange, unwise and cruel attack, has always been attributed to the Prince Don Pedro, who, on this as on other occasions, has well merited the title of perpetual defender of Brazil. The attack itself, perhaps unjustly, was imputed to the Conde dos Arcos by some, to other individuals by others, according as passion or party directed the suspicion: the truth is, that it seems to have been the result of ill-understood orders, given hastily in a moment of alarm, for it is impossible to think, for an instant, that any man could wantonly have so cruelly irritated the people at the very time when so much depended on their tranquillity. This shocking event, however, seems to have quickened the King's resolution to leave Brazil. That very day he made over the government of that country to the Prince, with a council to be composed of

The Conde dos Arcos, Prime Minister.
Conda da Louça, Minister of Interior.
Brigadier Caula, Minister of War.

And in case of the prince's death, the regency to remain in the hands of the Princess Maria Leopoldina.

The next day the King publicly addressed the troops, recommending to them fidelity to the crown and constitution, and obedience to the Prince Regent, and as a royal boon on leaving the army, promising a great increase of pay to all, and that the Brazilian officers should be put on the same footing as those of the Portuguese army. The ministers who advised this step, acted cruelly towards the government they left behind. The treasury was left empty at the King's departure, yet increase of pay beyond all precedent was promised, as well as other burdens on the prince's revenue. His Majesty published on the same day, a farewell to the inhabitants of Rio; and it cannot be imagined that he could leave the place which to him had been a haven of safety, during the storm in which most of his brother monarchs had suffered, without feelings of regret, if not affection.

The Prince also addressed the Brazilians on assuming the government by a proclamation, which, as it sets forth his intentions, I shall give literally:

"Inhabitants of Brazil;

"The necessity of paying attention to the general interests of the nation before every other, forces my august father to leave you, and to intrust me with the care of the public happiness of Brazil, until Portugal shall form a constitution, and confirm it.

"And, as I judge it right, in the present circumstances, that all should from this time understand what are the objects of public administration which I have principally in view, I lose no time in declaring, that strict respect for the laws, constant vigilance over the administration of the same, opposition to the quibbles by which they are discredited and weakened, will be the objects of my first attention.

"It will be highly agreeable to me to anticipate all such benefits of the constitution as shall be compatible with obedience to the laws.

"Public education, which now demands the most especial attention of the government, will be provided for by every means in my power.

"And in order that the commerce and agriculture of Brazil may be in a prosperous state, I shall not cease to encourage whatever may favour these copious sources of national riches.

"I shall pay equal attention to the interesting subject of reform, without which it will be impossible to use liberal means for the public good.

"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.

Meantime the standard of the camara had been displayed at one of the windows, and there the magistrates were placed in sight of the people. José Bonifacio appeared at another window, and addressed the people in a short, but energetic speech, calculated to give them courage, and at the same time to inspire peace and all good and orderly feeling. He then named, one by one, the members proposed by the chief citizens, to form the provisional junta, beginning with Joaŏ Carlos Augusto de Oyenhausen, to continue general of arms in the province. Each name was received with cheers.[38] The troops and people then marched in an orderly manner to the house of José Bonifacio, to install him formally as president, and thence to the cathedral where a Te Deum was sung. At night the theatre was illuminated as for a gala, the national hymn was sung repeatedly; and from that moment all remained quiet in the city, and resolved to maintain the constitution, and the Prince Regent, for whom they expressed unbounded attachment.

Nothing could have been so important to the interest of the Prince at that time. The Paulistas are among the most hardy, generous, and enlightened of the Brazilians. Their country is in the happiest climate. The mines of St. Paul's are rich, not only in the precious, but in the useful metals. Iron, so rich as to yield 93 per cent. and coal abound. The manufactures of that province are far before any others in Brazil. Corn and cattle are plenty there, as well as every other species of Brazilian produce. Agriculture is attended to, and the city by its distance from the sea, is safe from the attacks of any foreign power, while it is totally independent of external supplies.

Unfortunately, the port of Santos presented a different scene during the first days of June. The first battalion of the Caçadores assembled before the government house, and, accusing the governor and the camara of withholding their pay, seized and imprisoned them, in order to force them to give the money they demanded. Several murders were committed during the insurrection, and various robberies, both in the houses and the ships in the harbour. Some armed vessels were, however, speedily despatched from Rio, and a detachment of militia from St. Paul's. Fifty of the insurgents were killed, and two hundred and forty taken prisoners; after which, every thing returned to a state of tranquillity; and as the most conciliatory measures were adopted towards the people, the peace continued.

The next three months were spent almost entirely in establishing provisional juntas in the different capitals. Many of the captaincies had, upon swearing to maintain the constitution, spontaneously adopted that measure. Others, such as Pernambuco, had been restrained by their governors from doing so, until the Prince's edicts of the 21st of August, to that effect, reached them. These edicts were followed by another of the 19th of September, directing the juntas to communicate directly with the cortes at Lisbon; and the whole attention of the government was now directed to preserve tranquillity until the arrival of instructions from the cortes concerning the form of government to be adopted.

It was fondly hoped, that the presence of Brazilian deputies, the importance of the country, and the consideration that it had been the asylum of the government during the stormy days of the revolutionary war, would have induced the cortes to have considered it no longer as a colony, but as an equal part of the nation, and that it might have retained its separate courts, civil and criminal, and all the consequent advantages of a prompt administration of the laws.

Such was the state of Brazil, generally speaking, on our arrival in that country, on the 21st of September, 1821. Much that might be interesting I have omitted, partly because I have not so correct a knowledge of it, as to venture to write it; much, because we are too near the time of action to know the motives and springs that guided the actors; and much, because neither my sex nor situation permitted me to inform myself more especially concerning the political events in a country where the periodical publications are few, recent, and though by law free, yet, in fact, owing to the circumstances of the times, imperfect, timorous, and uncertain. What I have ventured to write is, I trust, correct as to facts and dates; it is merely intended as an introduction, without which, the journal of what passed while I was in Brazil would be scarcely intelligible.

JOURNAL.

At about six o'clock in the evening of the 31st of July, 1821, after having saluted His Majesty, George IV., who at that moment went on board the Royal George yacht, to proceed to Dublin,—we sailed in the Doris, a 42 gun frigate, for South America. After touching at Plymouth, and revisiting all the wonders of the break-water and new watering place, we sailed afresh, but when off Ushant, were driven back to Falmouth by a heavy gale of wind. There we remained till the 11th of August, when, with colours half-mast high, on account of the death of Queen Caroline, we finally left the channel, and on the 18th about noon came in sight of Porto Santo.

We passed it on the side where the town founded by Don Henry of Portugal, on the first discovery of the island, is situated, and regretted much that it was too late in the day to go in very near it. The land is high and rocky, but near the town there is a good deal of verdure, and higher up on the land, extensive woods; a considerable quantity of wine is made there, which, being a little manufactured at Funchal, passes for true Madeira. As usual in Portuguese colonial towns, the church and convent are very conspicuous. When we passed Porto Santo, and the Desertas, and anchored in Funchal roads, I was disappointed at the calmness of my own feelings, looking at these distant islands with as little emotion as if I had passed a headland in the channel. Well do I remember, when I first saw Funchal twelve years ago, the joyous eagerness with which I feasted my eyes upon the first foreign country I had ever approached, the curiosity to see every stone and tree of the new land, which kept my spirits in a kind of happy fever.

"Sweet Memory, wafted by thy gentle gale,
Oft up the stream of time I turn my sail,
To view the fairy haunts of long lost hours,
Blest with far greener shades, far fresher flow'rs." Rogers.

Now I look on them tamely, or at best only as parts of the lovely landscape, which, just at sunset, the time we anchored, was particularly beautiful. Surely the few years added to my age have not done this? May I not rather hope, that having seen lands whose monuments are all history, and whose associations are all poetry, I have a higher taste, and more discriminating eye? One object never palls—that ocean where the Almighty "Glasses himself in tempests," or over which the gentle wings of peace seem to brood. The feeling that there was a change, however, either in the scene or in me, was so strong, that I ran to my cabin and sought out a sketch I had made in 1809. I compared it with the town. Every point of the hill, every house was the same, and again Nossa Senhora da Monte, with her brilliant white towers shining from on high through the evening cloud, seemed to sanctify the scene, while a few rough voices from the shore and the neighbouring ships chaunted the Ave Maria.

Early in the morning of the 19th, we took a large party of the midshipmen on shore to enjoy the young pleasure of walking on a foreign land. To them it was new to see the palm, the cypress, and the yucca, together with the maize, banana, and sugar-cane, surrounded by vineyards, while the pine and chesnut clothe the hills. We mounted the boys on mules, and rode up to the little parish church, generally mistaken for a convent, called Nossa Senhora da Monte. My maid and I went in a bad sort of palankeen, though convenient for these roads, which are the worst I have seen; however, the view made up for the difficulty of getting to it. The sea with the Desertas bounded the prospect: below us lay the roadstead and shipping, the town and gardens, and the hill clothed with vineyards and trees of every climate, which deck the ashy tufa, or compact basalt of which the whole island seems to be composed. Purchas, who like Bowles, believes the story of the discovery of Madeira by the Englishman Masham and his dying mistress, says, that shortly after that event, the woods having taken fire burned so fiercely, that the inhabitants were forced out to sea to escape from the flames. The woods, however, are again pretty thick, and some inferior mahogany among it is used for furniture. The pine is too soft for most purposes. In the gardens we found a large blue hydrangea very common: the fuschia is the usual hedge. Mixed with that splendid shrub, aloes, prickly pear, euphorbia, and cactus, serve for the coarser fences; and these strange vegetables, together with innumerable lizards and insects, tell us we are nearing the tropics.

We spent a very happy day at the hospitable country house of Mr. Wardrope, and our cavalcade to the town at night was delightful. The boys, mounted as before, together with several gentlemen who had joined us at Mr. W.'s, enjoyed the novelty of riding home by torch-light; and as we wound down the hill, the voices of the muleteers answering each other, or encouraging their beasts with a kind of rude song, completed the scene. The evening was fine, and the star-light lovely: we embarked in two shore boats at the custom-house gate, and, after being duly hailed by the guard-boat, a strange machine mounting one old rusty 6 lb. carronade, we reached the ship in very good time.

20th. We walked a good deal about the town, and entered the cathedral with some feelings of reverence, for a part of it at least was built by Don Henry of Portugal, who founded and endowed the college adjoining. The interior of the church is in some parts gaudy, and there is a silver rail of some value. The ceiling is of cedar, richly carved, and reminds me of some of the old churches at Venice, which present a style half Gothic half Saracenic. Near the church a public garden has lately been formed, and some curious exotic trees placed there with great success.

In rambling about the town, we naturally enquired for the chapel of skulls, the ugliness of which had shocked us when here formerly, and were not sorry to find that that hideous monument of bad taste is falling fast to ruin. I cannot imagine how such fantastic horrors can ever have been sanctified, but so it is; and the Indian fakir who fastens a real skull round his neck, the Roman pilgrim who hangs a model of one to his rosary, and the friar who decks his oratory with a thousand of them, are one and all acted upon either by the same real superstition, or spiritual vanity, craving to distinguish itself even by disgusting peculiarities.

Of late years superstition has been used as an instrument of no small power in revolutions of every kind. Even here it has played its part. A small chapel, dedicated to St. Sebastian, had been removed by the Portuguese government in order to erect a market-place, where all articles of daily consumption were to be sold, a small tax being levied on the holders of stands. This innovation was of course disagreeable to the people, and on the night of the revolution, in November last, some of their leading orators accused the market-place of having, by rudely thrusting out St. Sebastian, occasioned the failure of the vineyards, and threatened the ruin of the island. The market-place was instantly devoted; it was down in a few seconds, and a chapel to St. Sebastian begun. Men, women, and children worked all night, and the walls were raised to at least two-thirds of the intended height; but day brought weariness, and perhaps the morning breeze chilled the fever of enthusiasm. The voluntary labourers worked no more, and no subscription adequate to the hire of workmen to complete it has yet been raised: so that the new St. Sebastian's stands roofless, and the officiating priest performs his masses with no other canopy than the heavens.

Other and better consequences have, however, arisen from the revolution of November. The grievances of the inhabitants of Madeira were severe. The sons of the best families were seized arbitrarily, and sent to serve in the armies of Europe or Brazil: scarcely any article, however necessary, or however coarse, was permitted to be manufactured; the very torches, made of twisted grass and resin, so necessary for travelling these mountain roads after sunset, were all sent from Lisbon, and every species of cultivation, but that of the grape, discountenanced. Thus situated, every class joined heart and hand in the revolution: deputies were sent to the Cortes; petitions respecting the state of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, were presented; and many, perhaps most, of the grievances were redressed, or at least much lightened.

Till the year 1821, there had never been a printing-press in Madeira; but the promoters of the revolution sent to England for one, which is now set up in Funchal; and on the 2d of July, 1821, the first newspaper, under the name of Patriota Funchalense, appeared. It contained a well written patriotic preface; and the first article is a declaration of the rights of citizens, and of the pretensions of the Portuguese nation, its religion, government, and royal family, as adopted by the Cortes for the basis of the constitution to be formed for its government. The paper has continued to be published twice a week: it contains a few political addresses and discourses; all foreign intelligence; some tolerable papers on distilling, agriculture, manufactures, and similar topics; some humorous pieces in prose and verse; poems on several occasions; and, at the end of the month, a table of the receipts and expenditures of government. Among the advertisements I observe one informing the public where leeches may be bought at about two shillings and sixpence a piece.

I thought it curious to observe this first dawning of literature and interest in politics in this little island. There are certainly enough anglicisms in the paper, to point out the probable country of some of the writers; and there are, as might be looked for, some traces of the residence of British troops in the colony; but on the whole, the paper is creditable to the editors, and likely to be useful to the island. I hear the articles on the making of wines and brandies very highly spoken of. Madeira, lying in the finest climate in the world, beautiful and fertile, and easy of access to foreigners, ought not to be a mere half civilised colony.

23d.—We sailed yesterday from Funchal, and soon lost sight of the

"Filha do oceano
Do undoso campo flor, gentil Madeira." Diniz.

At night, I sat a long time on the deck, listening to the sea songs with which the crew beguile the evening watch. Though the humorous songs were applauded sufficiently, yet the plaintive and pathetic seemed the favourites; and the chorus to the Death of Wolfe was swelled by many voices. Oh, who shall say that fame is not a real good! It is twice blessed—it blesses him who earns, and those who give, to parody the words of Shakspeare. Here, on the wide ocean, far from the land of Wolfe's birth, and that of his gallant death, his story was raising and swelling the hearts of rough men, and exciting love of country and of glory by the very sound of his name. Well may he be called a benefactor to his country who, by increasing the list of patriotic sailors' songs, has fostered those feelings and energies which have placed Britain's "home upon the mountain wave, and her march upon the deep."

The charms of night in a southern climate have been dwelt upon by travelled poets (for I call Madame de Stael's writings poetry), and even travelled prose writers; but Lord Byron alone has sketched with knowledge and with love, the moonlight scenery of a frigate in full sail. The life of a seaman is the essence of poetry; change, new combinations, danger, situations from almost deathlike calm, to the maddest combinations of horror—every romantic feeling called forth, and every power of heart and intellect exercised. Man, weak as he is, baffling the elements, and again seeing that miracle of his invention, the tall ship he sails in, tossed to and fro, like the lightest feather from the seabird's wing—while he can do nothing but resign himself to the will of Him who alone can stay the proud waves, and on whom heart, intellect, and feeling, all depend!

25th.—Nothing can be finer than the approach to Teneriffe[39], especially on such a day as this; the peak now appearing through the floating clouds, and now entirely veiled by them. As we drew near the coast, the bay or rather roadstead of Oratava, surrounded by a singular mixture of rocks, and woods, and scattered towns, started forth at once from beneath the mists, which seemed to separate it from the peak, whose cold blue colour formed a strong contrast to the glowing red and yellow which autumn had already spread on the lower grounds.

We anchored in forty fathoms water with our chain-cable, as the bottom is very rocky, excepting where a pretty wide river, which, though now dry, rolls a considerable body of water to the sea in the rainy season, has deposited a bed of black mud. There are many rocks in the bay, with from one to three fathoms water, and within them from nine to ten. The swell constantly setting in is very great, and renders the anchorage uncomfortable.

26th.—- I went ashore with Mr. Dance, the second lieutenant, and two of the young midshipmen, for the purpose of riding to the Villa di Oratava, which is situated where the ancient Guanche capital stood. We landed at the Puerto di Oratava, several miles from the villa: it is defended by some small batteries, at one of which is the very difficult landing-place, sheltered by a low reef of rocks that runs far out, and occasions a heavy surf. I took my own saddle ashore: and being mounted on a fine mule, we all began our journey towards the hill. The road is rough, but has evidently once been made with some pains, and paved with blocks of porous lava; but the winter rains have long ago destroyed it, and it does not seem to be any body's business to put it in repair.

The first quarter of a mile on either hand presented a scene so black and stony, that I was surprised to learn that we had been passing through corn land; the harvest was over, and the stubble burned on the ground. The produce here is scanty; but being so near the port, it repays the labour and expense of cultivation. We saw the botanical garden so much praised by Humboldt; but it is in sad disorder, having been for some time entirely neglected. However, the very establishment of such a thing brings in new plants, and perhaps naturalises them. Here, the sago-palm, platanus, and tamarind, as well as the flowers and vegetables of the north of Europe, flourish so well as to promise to add permanently to the riches of this rich island. As we ascended towards the villa the prospect improved; the vineyards appeared in greatest beauty, every other crop still standing in the luxuriant valleys, the rocky cliffs of the mountains clothed with wood, and every thing glowing with life. Wheat, barley, a few oats, maize, potatoes, and caravansas, all grow freely here. The food of the common people consists chiefly of Polenta, or maize flour, used nearly as the Scotch peasants use their oatmeal, in cakes, brose, or porridge, which last is suffered to grow cold, and then most commonly cut in slices and toasted. After the maize, potatoes are the favourite food, together with salt fish. The potatoe is always in season, being planted every month, and consequently producing a monthly crop. The fishery employs from forty-five to fifty vessels of from seventy to ninety tons' burden, from the island of Teneriffe alone; the fish are taken on the coast of Africa, and salted here.

To a stranger the sight of the long walls of black porous lava, built terrace-wise to support the vegetable mould, is very striking; but the walls cannot be called ugly, while the clustering vine and broad-spreading gourd, climb and find support on them: these, however, soon disappeared, and were replaced by field and garden enclosures. After a pleasant but hot ride, we arrived at the villa about noon, and went to the house of Señor Don Antonio de Monteverde, who accompanied us to M. Franqui's garden, to see one of the wonders of the island, the famous Dragon Tree. Humboldt has celebrated this tree in its vigour; it is now a noble ruin. In July, 1819, one half of its enormous crown fell: the wound is plaistered up, the date of the misfortune marked on it, and as much care is taken of the venerable vegetable as will ensure it for at least another century. I sat down to make a sketch of it; and while I was drawing, learned from Mr. Galway the following history of the family of its owner, which a little skill in language and a little adorning with sentiment might convert into a modern novel.—About the year 1760, the Marquis Franqui, upon some disgust, made over his estates in trust to his brother, and emigrated to France, where he remained until 1810, regularly receiving the proceeds from his estates in Teneriffe. Meantime, during the early period of the revolution, he married; and his only child, a daughter, was born. This marriage, however, was only a civil contract, such being then the law of France, and with a woman divorced from another, who was still living. But neither the validity of the union nor the legitimacy of the child was ever questioned; and the Marquis Franqui returning to his native country, brought with him his daughter, introducing and treating her as his heiress. She appeared to be received as such by his family; and at his death he appointed trustworthy guardians to her and her estates, one of whom is her husband's father. No sooner, however, was the Marquis dead, than his brother claimed his property, alleging that the church had never sanctioned the Marquis's marriage, and that the daughter consequently, as an illegitimate child, could have no claim on his estates. He therefore commenced a lawsuit against her and her guardians, and the suit is still pending. Meantime the court receives the rents; the garden, the chief ornament of the town, is running wild, and the house is deserted.

Dragon Tree and Peak of Teneriffe.

The dragon tree is the slowest of growth among vegetables; it seems also to be slowest in decay. In the 15th century, that of Oratava had attained the height and size which it boasted till 1819. It may have been in its prime for centuries before; and scarcely less than a thousand years must have elapsed, before it attained its full size. Excepting the dragon trees at Madeira, the only many-headed palm I had seen before was that at Mazagong in Bombay. It is crowned, however, with a leaf like that of the palmetto; but the tufts of the dragon tree resemble the yucca in growth. The palm tree at Mazagong, like the adansonia in Salsette, is reported to have been carried thither by a pilgrim from Africa, probably from Upper Egypt, where late travellers mention this palm.

On our return from the garden to Don Antonio's house, we were most kindly received by his wife and daughter, the latter of whom played a long and difficult piece of music most excellently. It was, however, English, in compliment to us, though we should have preferred some of her own national airs. After the music, we were conducted to a table spread in the gallery that surrounds the open court in the middle of the house, and covered with fruits, sweetmeats, and wines, which were pressed upon us most hospitably; till finding it time to return, the ladies both embraced me, and we began our journey down the hill, having first looked into the churches, which are spacious and handsome, a good deal in the style of those of Madeira, but finer.

As we rode along, we observed a large Dominican convent, the only one now on the island. The recent law passed by the Spanish Cortes for the suppression of religious houses, has been strictly enforced here. No more than one convent of each denomination is allowed to subsist, and great checks are put on the profession of new members. As to the revolution here, the inhabitants had known from authentic though not official authority of what had taken place in the mother country, three weeks before they received any notification from either court or cortes. When notice did arrive, the magistrates assembled the people, read their orders, and took their oaths to support the cortes; the people shouted, and made a bonfire: next day the forms of law and justice were declared to be changed, the tribunals proceeded accordingly, and all was over and quiet.

The Canary Islands boast of two bishoprics, both of which are now vacant, yet have not one newspaper. The only printing press has been so long in disuse that there is nobody who can work it in the country. I could not learn that there are any manufactures in Teneriffe; if there are, I conclude they must be in the neighbourhood of Laguna or Santa Cruz. Oratava appears to be the district of corn and wine.

We returned to the port by a longer road than that by which we left it. In the hedges, the boys, with no small delight, gathered fine ripe black-berries, which were growing among prickly pear and other tropical plants. The fields, vineyards, and orchards we had seen from the former road we now passed through; and as it was a fiesta, we saw the peasants in their best attire, and their little mud huts cleanly swept and garnished. They seem gentle and lively, not much darker than the natives of the south of Europe; and if there be a mixture of Guanche blood, it is said to be traced in the high cheek-bones, narrow chins, and slender hands and feet which in a few districts seem to indicate a different race of men. I regret that I had not time to see more of the people and the country; but not being travellers from curiosity, and belonging to a service that may not swerve from the strictest obedience, we dared not even think of a farther excursion.

Halfway down the hill, we entered a ravine, the dry bed of a winter torrent, where there were rue, lavender, prickly pear, hypericum, and spurge; but not a blade of grass had survived the summer's drought. We passed a heap of black ashes, which anywhere but at the base of the peak would be called a respectable mountain. It has not been cold long enough to be disguised by vegetation; and though on one side the vine is beginning to clothe its rugged surface, yet the greater part is frightfully barren. Shortly after we passed it, we arrived at Mr. Galway's garden-house, and found his lady, a Spaniard of Irish extraction, ready to receive us. As I had seen in some old Scotch houses, the best bed-chamber served as drawing-room; but the dressing-room is apart, and from the front there is an opening to a pleasant terrace, commanding a charming view. Our dinner was a mixture of English and Spanish cookery and customs: the Spanish part consisted of part of a Darter, a very fine fish, white, but resembling a salmon in taste, with sauce made of small lobsters, oil, vinegar, garlic, and pimento; some excellent stews, and mixtures of vegetables and quails roasted in vine leaves; the rest were all English; and the wines, the growth of the island, and ices[40] were delicious. Neither the pine-apple nor water-melon grow in Teneriffe, but abundance of the latter are brought from Grand Canary. All the common garden fruits of Europe flourish here; but too little attention is paid to horticulture. This island, or at least the part I have seen, evidently belongs to a state that has once been great; but is now too poor or too weak to foster its foreign possessions. Some fine houses begun are in an unfinished state, and appear to have been so for years; others, though falling, are neither rebuilt nor repaired; and the only things like present prosperity, are the neat English country-houses.

It was sunset before we reached the boats that were to convey us to the ship; and we had some difficulty both in getting off and in going alongside of the frigate, owing to the great swell. The night, however, was fine, and the scene enlivened by the lights in the fishing boats, which, like those in the Mediterranean, are used to attract the fish. On shore, the lights of the ports and villa, and the fires of the charcoal burners shining from amidst the dark hanging forests of pine, and those of the limekilns in the direction of Laguna, appeared like a brilliant illumination; and there being not a cloud, the outline of the peak was well defined on the deep blue of the nocturnal sky.

27th August. To-day, some of our new friends, both Spanish and English, came on board; but the swell was so great, that only one escaped sea-sickness. Mrs. Galway was fearful of suffering, so did not come, but she sent me some of the beads found in the sepulchres of the Guanches: they are of hard baked clay. Mr. Humboldt, whose imagination was naturally full of South America, has conjectured that they might have been used for the same purpose as the Peruvian quipos, but they are inconveniently large for that use. They are not unlike the beads Belzoni found in the mummy pits in Egypt, and they closely resemble some of the many kinds of beads with which the Bramins have counted their muntras time immemorial. The Oriental custom of dropping a bead for every prayer having been adopted by the Christians of the west, and still continuing in Roman Catholic countries, appears, on that account, too common to deserve the notice of a philosophical traveller; and therefore the Guanche shepherds, or goatherd kings, are rather supposed, like the polished Peruvians, to have recorded the annals of their reigns with clay beads, than allowed to tell them with their orisons, like the Bramins of the Ganges, the shepherds of Mesopotamia, or the anchorets of Palestine and Egypt, because the modern monk does the same. The Guanche mummies are now of very rare occurrence. During the early times of the Spanish government of the island, their sepulchres were carefully concealed by the natives; now, intermarriage with their conquerors, and consequent change of religion and habits, have rendered them careless of them, and they are, generally speaking, really forgotten, and only discovered accidentally in planting a new vineyard, or ploughing a new field.

28th. This morning left the "still vext" bay of Oratava, and before sunset saw Palma and Gomera. The Canary Islands, supposed to be the Fortunate Islands of the ancients, were discovered accidentally in 1405. Betancour, a Frenchman, took possession of them for Spain; but the natives were brave, and it cost both the Spaniards and Portuguese, who possessed them by turns, much blood and treasure to conquer the country and exterminate the people, for their wars ended in nothing less. Purchas complains that he could not obtain the reading of some travels by an Englishman who had visited the Peak; the good pilgrim's curiosity had been strongly excited by the particulars he had learnt from books, and the journals of some of his friends who had travelled, which he has carefully related: they are such as to make me regret that he has not recorded more, and that I cannot see more. We brought with us from Oratava one of the finest goats I ever saw; I presume she was a descendant of the original flock which the supreme deity of the Guanches created to be the property of the kings alone: she is brown, with very long twisted horns, a very remarkable white beard, and the largest udder I ever saw.

29th. Passed the island of Hierro or Ferro, the old first meridian; which honour, I presume, it enjoyed from having been considered as the most western land in the world until the discovery of America. We were very close to it, and all agreed that we never saw so hard-looking and inaccessible a place. We saw some fine woods, a few scattered houses, and one village perched upon a hill, at least 1500 feet above us. The Peak of Teneriffe still visible above the clouds.

Sept. 1st. The flying-fish are become very numerous, and whole fleets of medusæ have passed us; some we have picked up, besides a very beautiful purple sea-snail. This fish has four horns, like a snail, the shell is very beautifully tinted with purple, and there is a spongy substance attached to the fish which I thought assisted it to swim: it is larger in bulk than the whole fish. One of them gave out fully a quarter of an ounce of purple fluid from the lower part of the fish. A fine yellow locust and a swallow flew on board; and as we believe ourselves to be four hundred miles from the nearest land, Cape Blanco, we cannot enough admire the structure of the wings that have borne them so far.

Our school for the ship's boys is now fairly established, and does Mr. Hyslop, our school-master, great credit; that for the midshipmen is going on very well, being kept in the fore-cabin under the captain's eye. The boys have his presence, not only as a check to idleness or noise, but as an encouragement to industry. He is most anxious to make them fit to be officers and seamen in their profession, and good men and gentlemen both at sea and on shore. Happily they are all promising; but if G—— should disappoint us, I never will believe in youthful talent, industry, or goodness more. Our days pass swiftly, because busily. The regular business of the ship, the school, astronomical observations, study of history and modern languages, and nothing permitted to pass without observation, fill our time completely.

Lord Bacon says, "It is a strange thing that in sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in land travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they omit it, as if chance were fitter to be registered than observation." However, for once, his lordship has only seen, or perhaps only spoken, in part. Sea and sky must be observed before we can know the laws by which their great changes or chances are regulated. Observations on the works of man, as cities, courts, &c. may be omitted, for we know their authors, and can have recourse to them, their motives, and their history, whenever we please; but the great operations of nature are so above us, that we must humbly mark them, and endeavour to make their history a part of our experience, in order that we pass safely through their vicissitudes. Hence it is, that the commonest details of the early navigators, their sunrise and sunset, their daily portionings of food and water, are read with a deeper interest than the liveliest tour through civilised countries and populous cities; that Byron's passage through Chiloe continues to excite the most profound sympathy; while Moore's lively view of society and manners in France or Italy, are now seldom or languidly read. The uncertainty, the mystery of nature, keep up a perpetual curiosity; but I suspect that if we knew the progress and dependance of her operations, as well as we do those of an architect or brick-layer, the history of the building of a theatre or a dwelling-house might vie in interest with that of a sea voyage.

The books we intend our boys to read are,—history, particularly that of Greece, Rome, England, and France; an outline of general history, voyages, and discoveries; some poetry, and general literature, in French and English; Delolme, with the concluding chapter of Blackstone on the history of the law and the constitution of England; and afterwards the first volume of Blackstone, Bacon's Essays, and Paley. We have only three years to work in; and as the business of their life is to learn their profession, including mathematics, algebra, nautical astronomy, theory and practice of seamanship, and duty as officers, with all the technicalities belonging to it,—this is all we dare propose.

5th. We have begun to look forward to that festival of the seamen, the crossing the line. I know not whence the custom is derived, but the Arabs observe it with ceremonies not very unlike those practised by our own sailors. To-day a letter, containing a sketch of the intended festival, with thanks for permission to keep it, was sent into the cabin. I shall copy it with its answer. I find that some captains have begun to give money at the next port, instead of permitting this day of misrule. Perhaps they may be right, and perhaps in time it may be forgotten; but will it be better that it should be so? It is the sailors' only festival; and I like a festival: it gives the heart room to play. The head in one class, and the limbs in another, work every day, and in divers, if not opposite directions; but on a festival, the hearts of all beat the same way: yet I would not have them too often, for

"If every day were playing holiday,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;"