BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DOM PEDRO II, EMPEROR OF BRAZIL. 



BY AISPRISO FIALHO, 



Doctor of Political and J dministrative. Science, of Brussels. 



[Translated for the Sinithsouiau lustitutiou by M. A. Heary.] 



PREFACE. 



About a year ago the telegraph announced the intention of the 

 Emperor of Brazil to visit the United States, and the countries of the 

 north of Europe he had omitted in his first tour in 1871. Remembering 

 the favorable manner in which the journals had at that time spoken 

 of the distinguished traveler and of his reign, which has lasted now 

 for forty -five years, I determined to prepare an account of both for the 

 public, although under a very abridged form. 



We offer then to the reader only a biographical sketch, for we have 

 no intention of encroaching upon the domain of future historians, par- 

 ticularly as the reign of Dom Pedro II has not yet terminated, but we 

 are happy to be able to furnish some well established facts, which may 

 serve as a foundation for a more extended work, superior to ours in 

 style and form, although not in truthfulness of statement. 



Before touching upon the place in Brazilian history occupied by the 

 reign of Dom Pedro II, let us glance rapidly over the history of Brazil, 

 from its discovery to the ascension to the throne by its present Emperor. 



INTRODUCTION. 



HISTORY OF BRAZIL FROM ITS DISCOVERY UNTIL THE ASCENSION TO 

 THE THRONE BY DOM PEDRO U. 



About the end of the year 1499 and the commencement of 1500, 

 three Spanish navigators, Alonzo de Hojeda, Vicente Yanes de Pin§on, 

 Diogo de Lepe, and the Portuguese admiral, Pedro Alvares Cabral, 

 lauded successively at different points of the coast of Brazil, whose ex- 

 istence at that time was entirely unknown. Although Cabral had been 

 preceded by the three Spanish navigators, and owed his discovery 

 only to the circumstance of having involuntarily wandered from the 



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