174 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DOM PEDRO II. 



route he should have followed for the Indies, the king of Portugal, 

 Dom Manoel was the first to announce to Europe this important dis- 

 covery, and to take possession of the new country, to which the Portu- 

 guese gave the name of Brazil, on account of the well known wood of 

 that name which abounds there. Brazil thus became a colony of Portu- 

 gal. 



By nature rich beyond expression, and seeming only to await the 

 haud of civilized man to yield every possible profit, Brazil was for 

 Portugal an inexhaustible mine of wealth, with this important advan- 

 tage, that its great distance from all European nations shielded it from 

 invasion. 



The importance of the possession of Brazil was especially felt by 

 the royal house of Portugal, when Napoleon threatened to seize their 

 country and join it to Spain, (treaty of Fontainebleau in 1807.) This 

 circumstance determined the prince regent, Dom Juan, to intrust the 

 defense of the kingdom to England, and to embark himself for Brazil 

 with all his family, and a numerous court. Brazil thus became the seat 

 of the Portuguese royalty, and was afterwards raised to the dignity of a 

 kingdom. 



The residence of the royal family in the country was prolonged to 

 1821, that is to say, until a large party in Portugal, discontented with 

 what appeared to be a desertion of their country by their sovereign, 

 and also on account of the commercial relations Brazil entertained with the 

 rest of the world, contrary to the ancient monopoly accorded to Portu- 

 gal, excited a revolution which soon extended over the entire country, 

 and at last obliged the king to return to Portugal. On leaving for 

 Europe, Dom Juan placed at the head of the government of Brazil his 

 son Pedro, heir presumptive to the throne. 



It was not without grave apprehensions that the king quitted Brazil, 

 for there had been several attempts to attain the independence of the 

 country, and the most enlightened of its patriots still entertained hopes 

 of eventually securing its freedom. Foreseeing the impossibility of 

 subduing these revolutionary efforts sufficiently to prevent a recurrence 

 of them, and at the same time knowing the monarchical tendencies of 

 the majority of the Brazilian people, he on his departure very wisely 

 counseled his son to place himself upon the throne in case a separation 

 of Brazil from the mother country appeared inevitable. 



After the return of the royal family to Portugal, the Cortes resolved 

 to reduce Brazil to its former state of a colony, and compelled the king 

 to adopt certain reactionary measures which outraged the dignity and 

 aroused the patriotism of the Brazilians. The Cortes in fact forgot that 

 in the moral as well as the physical world it is not possible to attempt 

 to repress what is irrepressible without danger of explosion or rupture. 



The prince regent of Brazil, Dom Pedro, hardly twenty-three years of 

 age, saw these indications of discontent with uneasiness. His situation 

 became more and more embarrassing. It was difficult for him to decide 



