e and valuable as Brazil.

The events of 1820 in Portugal hastened the movement toward
independence. Fired by the success of their Spanish comrades, the
Portuguese liberals forthwith rose in revolt, demanded the establishment
of a limited monarchy, and insisted that the King return to his people.
In similar fashion, also, they drew up a constitution which provided for
the representation of Brazil by deputies in a future Cortes. Beyond this
they would concede no special privileges to the colony. Indeed their
idea seems to have been that, with the King once more in Lisbon, their
own liberties would be secure and those of Brazil would be reduced to
what were befitting a mere dependency. Yielding to the inevitable, the
King decided to return to Portugal, leaving the young Crown Prince to
act as Regent in the colony. A critical moment for the little country
and its big dominion oversea had indubitably arrived. John understood
the trend of the times, for on the eve of his departure he said to his
son: "Pedro, if Brazil is to separate itself from Portugal, as seems
likely, you take the crown yourself before any one else gets it!"

Pedro was liberal in sentiment, popular among the Brazilians, and
well-disposed toward the aspirations of the country for a larger
measure of freedom, and yet not blind to the interests of the dynasty of
Braganza. He readily listened to the urgent pleas of the leaders of the
separatist party against obeying the repressive mandaes of the Cortes.
Laws which abolished the central government of the colony and made
the various provinces individually subject to Portugal he declined to
notice. With equal promptness he refused to heed an order bidding him
return to Portugal immediately. To a delegation of prominent Brazilians
he said emphatically: "For the good of all and the general welfare of
the nation, I shall stay." More than that, in May, 1822, he accepted
from the municipality of Rio de Janeiro the title of "Perpetual and
Constitutional Defender of Brazil," and in a series of proclamations
urged the people of the country to begin the great work of emancipation
by forcibly resisting, if needful, any attempt at coercion.

Pedro now believed the moment had come to take the final step. While on
a journey through the province of Sao Paulo, he was overtaken on the 7th
of September, near a little stream called the Ypiranga, by messengers
with dispatches from Portugal. Finding that the Cortes had annulled
h