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.
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.