sty 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