r, and D. Jose de Souza
Continho, Conde de Redondo. The Papal Nuncio, Sir Sidney Smith, and Lord
Strangford[28], were honoured with the order of the Tower and Sword; six
English officers were named commanders of the order of the Cross, and
five others were made knights of the same.

[Note 28: Sir Sydney Smith had followed the Portuguese court to Rio,
less as commander of the British naval force in those seas, than as the
protector of the Braganzas. Lord Strangford had resumed his character of
ambassador.]

The beginning of 1809 was marked by an event of some importance. By the
treaty of Amiens, Portuguese Guiana had been given up to France, and was
now, together with French Guyana and Cayenne, governed by the infamous
Victor Hughes. It was long since France had been able to send out
succour to these colonies. The fleets of England impeded the navigation,
and the demands at home were too urgent and too great to permit much to
be hazarded for the sake of such a distant possession. The court of Rio,
therefore, resolved to send a body of troops under Colonel Manoel
Marquez, to the mouth of the Oyapok. The English ship of war, Confiance,
commanded by Captain Yeo, accompanied him, and their combined attack
forced the enemy to surrender on the 12th of January. The terms were
honourable to both parties: and among the articles I observe the 14th,
by which it is stipulated, that the botanic garden, called the
Gabrielle, shall not only be spared, but kept up in the state of
perfection in which it was given up. War is so horrible, that a trait
like this, in the midst of its evils, is too pleasing to be overlooked.

The rest of the year passed in Brazil in quiet though important
operations; many roads were opened through the still wild country in the
interior; a naval academy was instituted; a school of anatomy was
founded in the naval and military hospital; and the vaccine
establishment formed in Brazil in 1804 having declined, it was renewed
both at Bahia and Rio, and immense numbers of persons of all colours
were vaccinated.

Meanwhile the Portuguese arms were employed in another quarter of the
world. The extensive dominions of Portugal in the east had fallen off
one by one, as pearls from a broken thread. Yet Macao was still
Portuguese. For twenty years past, it, in common with the coast of
China, had been plagued with the pirates of the Yellow Sea; till, at
length, the Chinese government found it necessary to take measures