dollars were captured under the Imperial
order, and their value--in spite of previous stipulations--_refused to
the captors_, on the falsely assumed ground that the provinces liberated
were Brazilian--though a Brazilian military force had been recently
beaten in an attempt to expel the Portuguese--and though these provinces
were, at the period of my assuming the command, in the uninterrupted
occupation of the very Portuguese fleets and armies afterwards expelled,
it was falsely pretended that the property captured was not enemy's
property--though expressly described as such in numerous Imperial
decrees--and more especially by the instructions given to me by His
Imperial Majesty to seize or destroy it wherever found.

It was, in short, subsequently decided by a Court of Admiralty--for the
most part composed of Portuguese members, acting under the influence of
a Portuguese faction in the Administration--that neither myself nor the
squadron were entitled to the prizes made--though most inconsistently,
the same tribunal condemned the ships of war taken--as "_droits_" to the
crown--for which, compensation was awarded to the squadron by His
Imperial Majesty, but never paid by the ministers to whom the order was
directed.

Not to anticipate the contents of the volume devoted to Brazilian
affairs. It being found after the expulsion of the enemy, that the
stipulations made with myself were too binding to be easily set aside,
several futile attempts were made to evade them, but this being found
impossible, the unworthy expedient was resorted to of summarily
dismissing me from the service, after the establishment of peace with
Portugal--an event entirely consequent on my individual services. By
this expedient--of the rectitude or otherwise of which the reader will
be able to judge from the documentary evidence laid before him--I was
got rid of without compensation for my claims, which for thirty years
were altogether repudiated; but, at the expiration of that period, fully
recognised as _having been due from the beginning!_ The Brazilian
Government, however, satisfied its own sense of justice by awarding me
less than _one-half the simple interest of the amount stipulated in my
patents_; thus retaining the whole of the principal admitted to be due.

The preceding remarks form a _synopsis_ of my career on both sides of
the continent of South America; the narrative, where dispute might
arise, being carefully founded on, and in all