persede him_; information of his proceedings having previously reached
Rio de Janeiro, so that in what had been done, I had only carried out
the intentions of His Majesty.

Nevertheless, the occasion--as affording a good opportunity to traduce
me--was afterwards eagerly seized by the Portuguese faction in the
administration. All attempts to injure me in the estimation of the
population at Rio de Janeiro--which was firmly attached to the Emperor,
and grateful to me for my services--had signally failed; but on his
arrival at Rio de Janeiro the representations of the ex-president whose
mal-administration I had summarily checked, were published in every
possible shape, whilst the Minister of Marine unwarrantably withheld my
despatches from the public, as well as from His Majesty, the consequence
of which was that the prejudicial representations of what were termed my
arbitrary acts had full effect. It was represented that I, a foreigner,
had dared, unauthorised, and on false pretences, to seize on the person
of a gentleman occupying the highest position in one of the most
important provinces, and had sent him to Rio de Janeiro as a prisoner,
whilst it was I who deserved to be brought to condign punishment for the
outrage; and had I at the moment been within reach of the Portuguese
faction at the capital, which was embittered against me for establishing
order, when to further their own anti-Imperial designs disorder was
alone wished--a summary end might have been put to my efforts for
preserving and consolidating the integrity of the Brazilian empire.

That this vituperation and hostility would be the result I well knew;
but as the Portuguese party in the administration could scarcely treat
me worse than they had done, I had made up my mind to encounter their
displeasure. Of His Majesty's approval I felt certain; and, in return
for the uninterrupted favour and reliance, which, notwithstanding the
self-interested hostility of his anti-Brazilian Ministers, I had
uniformly experienced at his hands, I had all along resolved to secure
that which I knew to be His Majesty's earnest wish--the unity of the
empire by the pacification of the Northern provinces. All attempts to
thwart this on the part of the Portuguese faction were futile, and even
unconsciously favourable to the course I was perseveringly pursuing,
though all my despatches to the minister remained unanswered, and no
instructions were sent for my guidance.

Notwithsta