d of his services.

In October 1818 he was appointed to the _Vengeur_, 74. She had been
intended to bear the flag of Rear-Admiral Otway on the Leith station.
In June 1819, however, she was ordered to join the squadron destined
for South America under the command of Sir Thomas Hardy--Nelson's
Hardy. The squadron left Spithead on September 9, having on board Mr
Thornton, H.B.M.'s minister to Brazil.

The following year was spent on the South American coast. In the
disturbed political condition of the Continent, the duties of the
British naval officers on the station were sometimes difficult and
delicate, as British ships and British subjects frequently got into
trouble with the forces of the revolted Spanish colonies. Maitland's
time was spent chiefly at Rio de Janeiro. In 1807, when Napoleon's
troops first appeared in the Tagus, the Portuguese Court had emigrated
to Brazil and had been there ever since. Maitland's journal contains
many amusing notes--not always printable--about King John VI. and his
disreputable family. "The king is very fond," he writes, "of comparing
himself to the Regent of Great Britain, and does it as follows: 'His
father is mad, so was my mother. I was Regent, so is he. I am very
fat, so is he. I hate my wife, so does he.'" One anecdote which he
tells of the king "must," he thinks, "raise him in the opinion of
every British subject. When the Count de la Rocca was Spanish
Ambassador at the Brazils, upon a rejoicing day the Portuguese ships
were dressed with the national flag at the main, the British colours
at the fore, and Spanish at the mizzen. The Count being at Court,
drew the (then) Prince to a window which commanded a view of the
harbour, and said to him, 'I have to ask your Royal Highness to look
at those ships. The British colours are at the fore and my master's at
the mizzen topmast-head. Were it only occasionally or alternately I
should not complain, but it is never otherwise, and I feel it my duty,
considering the close family connection that subsists between H.M. the
King of Spain and your Royal Highness, to represent it to you, as it
hurts my feelings in a manner I cannot express.' The King of Portugal
tapped him gently on the shoulder and said to him, 'I'll tell you
what, my friend, had it not been for that flag and the nation to whom
it belongs, neither your master nor I would have had a flag to hoist
at all.'"

That was true enough; still, the Portuguese were getting a little
tir