country; the
object, therefore, became to divide it. Accordingly a scheme for the
government of Brazil was framed, by which each captaincy should be ruled
by a junta, whose acts were to be totally independent on each other, and
only recognisable by the authorities in Portugal; and the Prince was
ordered home in a peremptory and indecent manner. I have mentioned in my
Journal the reception those orders had met with, and the resolution His
Royal Highness had adopted of staying in Brazil. As soon as this
resolution became known to the provinces, addresses and deputations
poured in on all sides from every town and captaincy, excepting the city
of Bahia and the province of Maranliam, which had always had a
government independent of the rest of Brazil.

In December, 1821, the King had appointed General Madeira governor of
Bahia and commander of the troops. He entered on his office in February;
and shortly afterwards the first actual warfare between the Portuguese
and Brazilians began in the city of St. Salvador, on the 6th of the
month, when the Brazilians were defeated with some loss.[95] Meantime,
the province of St. Paul's had made every exertion to raise and arm
troops; and early in February 1100 men marched towards Rio, to put
themselves at the disposal of the Prince. Some recruits for the seamen
and marine corps were raised, and a naval academy established, the
object of all which was to prevent the carrying away the Prince by
force. It was now thought advisable that the Prince should visit the two
most important provinces, St. Paul's and the Mines; and on the 26th or
27th of March he left Rio for that purpose, leaving the executive
government in the hands of the minister Jose Bonifacio. His Royal
Highness was received every where with enthusiasm, until he arrived at
the last stage, on his way to Villa Rica, the capital of the province of
Minas Geraes; there he received intelligence of a party raised to oppose
his entrance by the Juiz de Fora, supported by a captain of one of the
regiments of Cacadores. He immediately caused some troops to be
assembled and joined with those which accompanied him, and then remained
where he was, and sent to the camara of the town, to say he was able to
enter by force, but had rather come among them as a friend and
protector. Several messages passed; the conspirators discovered that the
Prince was, indeed, sufficiently strong to overpower them; and besides,
they met with no support, as t