danger, the Prince himself. My cabin is therefore
ready. I hope they will not be forced to come afloat. The more they can
trust to the Brazilians the better for them, and for the cause of that
independence which is now so inevitable, that the only question is
whether it shall be obtained with or without bloodshed.

We have determined to have a ball on board, the day after to-morrow,
that the people may get acquainted with us,--and then if any thing
occurs to render it advisable to take refuge with us, they will know who
they are to come amongst.

_14th_.--The shops are open, and business going on as usual to-day. The
Prince is granting discharges to both officers and men of the Portuguese
regiments, who wish to remain in Brazil instead of returning to Europe.
This is stigmatised by the Portuguese as _licensing desertion_, from the
army of the King and Cortes; whatever they may call it, I am convinced
that the measure tends to the present tranquillity of the capital. The
Princess and children are gone to Santa Cruz, a country estate, formerly
belonging to the Jesuits, now to the crown, fourteen leagues on the road
towards St. Paul's.[89]

[Note 89: This journey was very disastrous, as it caused the death
of the infant Prince.]

_15th_.--Our ball went off very well: we had more foreigners than
English; and as there was excellent music from the opera-orchestra, and
a great deal of dancing, the young people enjoyed it much. I should have
done so also, but that Captain Graham was suffering with the gout so
severely, that I could have wished to put off the dance. I had
commissioned the Viscondeca do Rio Seco and some other ladies to bring
their Portuguese friends, which they did, and we had a number of pretty
and agreeable women, and several gentlemanlike men, in addition to our
English friends.

A dance on ship-board is always agreeable and picturesque: there is
something in the very contrast afforded by the furniture of the deck of
a ship of war to the company and occupation of a ball that is striking.

"The little warlike world within,
The well-reeved guns and netted canopy,"

all dressed with evergreens and flowers, waving over the heads of gay
girls and their smiling partners, furnish forth combinations in which
poetry and romance delight, and which one must be stoical indeed to
contemplate without emotion. I never loved dancing myself, perhaps
because I never excelled in it; but yet, a ball-room is to m