Is his father, King John, then
dead?"

"No, he has returned to Portugal. You know that he was driven from that
country by the French, and retired here and ruled over Brazil."

"That I know," Stephen said; "also that there were incessant plots and
insurrections."

"That was so. Well, the war being over in Europe the Portuguese wanted
their king back among them again, and last year King John returned there,
leaving Dom Pedro as his lieutenant and regent. The Portuguese having got
back their king wanted to bring Brazil back to its former position as
subject to Portugal. This provoked a great opposition in the southern
provinces, and Dom Pedro was persuaded to throw off his allegiance to his
father. In October the independence of the colony was publicly declared,
and by this time Dom Pedro has probably assumed the title of Emperor of
Brazil. How long he will maintain the title I am unable to say. Our
northern provinces of Para, Bahia, and Maranham are still Portuguese, and
are held by a large number of Portuguese troops. They have a strong navy,
which keeps the sea and compels the few ships of Dom Pedro to remain in
port under shelter of the guns of their batteries. There can be but one
end to it. The insurrection will be crushed, Dom Pedro sent to Europe as a
prisoner, and all who supported him executed, or, if their lives are
spared, all their possessions will be confiscated.

"Truly it is a sad time for Brazil. Everywhere there are two parties, the
one for independence, the other for the Portuguese; but such as hold to
the former naturally keep silent. What may happen in the future no man
knows; but at present none have any hope that the southern provinces can
resist the great force the Portuguese can bring against them, by sea and
land. The mass of the people take no interest in the struggle. The
natives, who are indeed the mass, care nothing whether they are governed
from Lisbon or from Rio; they have to pay their taxes whoever is master.
Of the whites, those families who have long been settled here are silent,
that is to say, they are for independence; while those who have relations
and connections in Portugal vehemently and loudly support its cause, and
persecute all whom they suspect of entertaining opinions to the contrary.
But all these things concern the population of the great towns; we in the
interior take but little heed of them. Here we cultivate our fields, we
say our masses, we carry on our trade, and po