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ARAUJO D'AZEVEDO, ANTONIO. 



ARAUJO D'AZEVEDO, ANTONIO. 



282 



The number of commentators upon Aratus Is very great. The 

 elegance of the verse caused his work to be for a long time in circula- 

 tion among the Greeks. Petaviua gives a list of thirty-six commentaries 

 in Greek; among the authors of which are Aristarchus, Geminus, 

 Eratosthenes, and Hipparchus. The last has ccme down to us, and 

 owes its origin to the difference which Hipparchus had observed 

 between the descriptions of Aratus and his own observations. 



A full account as well of Aratus as of his commentators will be 

 found in Delambre's ' Histoire de 1'Astronomie Ancienne.' 



The ' Phenomena ' was translated into Latin by Cicero when a very 

 young man. Several fragments of this translation still exist, and are 

 given by Grotius in his edition of Aratus. It was also translated by 

 Germanicus Ca:sar and by Festus Avienus, both of which versions are 

 to be found in the same edition, which was published at Leydeii in 

 1600, and contains also the original Greek with notes. 



There are numerous editions of Aratus. J. H. Voss published a 

 critical edition of the Greek text of Aratus, at Heidelberg, 1824, 8vo., 

 and accompanied it with an excellent German poetical version. 



AHAUJO D'AZEVE'DO, ANTO'NIO, afterwards Count da Barca, 

 was born at Ponto de Lima, according to Mendo Trigoao, on the 14th 

 of May, 1754. He belonged to a family which was of noble origin, 

 but not in good circumstances. At the age of eleven he was sent to 

 Oporto, and placed under the care of his uncle Brigadier Antonio 

 Luis Pereira Pinto, under whose able instruction he became a pro- 

 ficient in the French, Italian, and English languages, while at the 

 same time he studied Latin, and also, under Professor Lany, the 

 language and literature of Greece. He attended the lectures on 

 philosophy at Coimbra for one year, but without matriculating. 

 Returning to Oporto he pursued his studies in history, mathematics, 

 and his favourite science, natural history. In 1779, about the same 

 time that the Royal Academy of Sciences was founded by the duke 

 de Lafoens, at Lisbon, Araujo assisted the Archbishop of Braga in 

 founding at Ponte do Lima an ' Economical Society of Friends of the 

 Public Good.' Araujo took an active share in a project to render the 

 river Lima navigable, and another for the planting of mulberry trees 

 on a large scale, with a view of introducing the culture and manufac- 

 ture of silk ; and his correspondence on these subjects with Coma 

 de Serra was the means of introducing him to the notice of the founders 

 of the academy, who placed him early on the list of members. This 

 circumstance encouraged Araujo, who was now beginning to think 

 seriously what course of life he should adopt, to seek hia fortune 

 in Lisbon, where the Duke de Lafoens, who was delighted with his 

 talents, introduced him to the queen Donna Maria, and in 1787 he 

 was named ambassador of Portugal to the Hague. 



His presence at his post does not seem to have been considered of 

 urgent necessity, for he spent two years after his appointment at 

 Lisbon, in the study of diplomacy ; and when in 1789 he left Portugal, 

 his first visit was to England, to make himself acquainted with arts 

 and manufactures. " In England," says his Portuguese biographer 

 Mendo T rigoso, " nine mouths passed away with the rapidity of nine 

 days." He spent every Sunday afternoon alternately in the houses of 

 Sir Joseph Banks and Lord North, and improved his knowledge of 

 politics by listening to Pitt, Fox, and Dr. Price. He kept a minute 

 journal of what he heard and saw, particularly of what related to 

 manufactures and commerce. From London he went to Paris, where 

 the constituent assembly was at that time in the midst of its momen- 

 tous proceedings, and became acquainted with Necker and Bailly, 

 Lavoisier, and Fourcroy, Delille, and Marmoutel. After this he 

 repaired to his post at the Hague, which he felt dull after London and 

 Pari*, and he set himself to collect a library, execute a Portuguese 

 translation of the odes of Horace, and to assemble around him a 

 select society of literary men, of French emigrants and of his 

 countrymen. 



Araujo was now summoned from literature to politics. The 

 Spaniards, who under the management of Godoy had rashly engaged in 

 a contest with the French republic, in which Portugal had assisted 

 them, insisted, when, after the conclusion of the treaty of Basel with 

 France, in 1795, they declared war on Great Britain, that Portugal 

 should follow them in then: change of politics. To avoid the dangers 

 with which it was menaced, Portugal submitted, and Araujo was sent 

 to Paris to negociata a peace with France. He arrived there in the 

 summer of 1797, and in the mouth of August he signed a treaty with 

 diaries Lacroix, the foreign minister of the French Directory, by 

 which peace was granted to Portugal, on what were, on the whole, 

 advantageous terms. The revolution of the 18th Fructidor put out 

 of the way Barbc'-Marbois, who was opposed to the negociatious, and 

 the French legislative body ratified the treaty on the 12th of Septem- 

 ber; but the court of Lisbon delated itsconseut, the English ministry 

 having declared that it would consider its ratification as an act of 

 hostility, and an English squadron having entered the Tagus and 

 taken possession of Fort St. Julien. The success of the French at 

 length determined the Portuguese to risk the displeasure of the 

 British government, and the ratification was signed on the 1st of 

 December, at Lisbon, more than a month previous to which the 

 directory, indignant at the delay, had cancelled the treaty, and ordered 

 Araujo co quit the territory of the republic. Ho had still however 

 remained without molestation in Paris ; and on receiving the ratifica- 

 tion, and with it a largo sum in diamonds, he was imprudent enough 



to allow it to be said in public that the French ratification was certain, 

 as the director Barras and two of his colleagues had agreed to pro- 

 cure it for a stipulated sum. So many reports of the same kind had 

 recently been in circulation, that the directors thought proper to 

 affirm their innocence by an act of severity ; and under the pretence 

 that Araujo had forfeited his diplomatic character by remaining in 

 Paris after being ordered to depart, he was sent on the 31st of Decem- 

 ber, 179", to prison in the temple. After remaining there some mouths 

 he was set at liberty, and returned unmolested to the Hague. It 

 appears that he had only been empowered to act by the prince regent 

 of Portugal and two of his cabinet, Seabra de Sylva and the Duke de 

 Lafoens, without the consent or knowledge of the foreign minister 

 Pinto ; and it was proposed in the cabinet of Lisbon to bring him to 

 trial for illegal conduct. The prince regent did not venture openly to 

 avow that Araujo had acted by his command, but he bestowed on him 

 a ' commenda,' or benefice conferred on knights of the military orders 

 which much improved his fortune. 



Araujo now obtained permission to leave the Hague and travel in 

 Germany, where he visited Hamburg, Weimar, Dresden, Freiburg, 

 and Berlin ; studied mineralogy, botany, chemistry, and the German 

 language ; and made the acquaintance of Klopstock, Wielaud, Gb'the, 

 Herder, Schiller, Kotzebue, Werner the mineralogist, Klaproth the 

 chemist, and Willdenow. ' He is mentioned at the time in Zach's 

 ' Astronomical Correspondence,' with admiration for his extensive 

 knowledge of English, French, and German literature. On his return 

 to Portugal, after more than ten years' absence, he was entrusted with 

 a mission to effect a peace with Bonaparte, then first consul ; but on 

 arriving for that purpose at L'Orient, on board a Portuguese frigate, 

 he was refused even permission to land. Bonaparte had previously 

 declared that the Portuguese should pay with tears of blood for the 

 insults they had offered the French republic. When he returned to 

 Portugal, Araujo found that his old antagonist Pinto had, by the use 

 of the same means as himself, sheer bribery, obtained a treaty of 

 peace, but a most disgraceful one, from Spain, which was signed ou 

 the 6th of June, 1801, at Badajoz, and was followed by another 

 between France and Portugal, signed at Madrid ou the 29th of Septem- 

 ber. After the peace of Amiens, Araujo was named Portuguese 

 minister at St. Petersburg, from which he was recalled in 1803 to the 

 cabinet of Lisbon as secretary of state ; and ou the death of the Count 

 de Villaverde iu 1806, he was appointed his provisional successor in 

 two departments of the ministry which he had held, so that in fact 

 Araujo was at the head of the Portuguese cabinet. 



In this situation he occupied himself in promoting the internal 

 improvements of the country, in improving the navigation of the 

 Tagus and Lima, patronising the introduction of the glass, paper, 

 cotton, and wool manufactures, and various other measures of the 

 same character, which, in more peaceful times, might have attached 

 honour to his name. He procured a decree for the formation of a 

 collection of books, models of machines, &c., for the royal chamber 

 of commerce, and became director of the school of engraving, which 

 Bartolozzi, at his recommendation, was invited over from London to 

 superintend. He patronised Brotero, the Portuguese botanist, in the 

 publication of his ' Phytographia Lusitana ; ' in return for which 

 Brotero bestowed on a new genus of Plants the name Araujia. He 

 appeared, in the meanwhile, to have totally lost sight of the dangers 

 which impended over Portugal from the ambition of Spain and the 

 still more dangerous and reckless ambition of France. In 1806, 

 Talleyrand threatened Lord Lauderdale, in the uegociations then 

 carryiug on, that if peace was not agreed upon, the French army, then 

 at Bayonne, should immediately march for the conquest of Portugal. 

 The news had no sooner reached Mr. Fox, who was then on his death- 

 bed, than orders were dispatched to Lord St. Vincent to sail for the 

 Tagus; an English army of 10,000 men intended for Sicily was counter- 

 manded, with the view of changing its destination for Portugal, and 

 the English embassy at Lisbon had orders to make offers to the Portu- 

 guese government of unlimited pecuniary aid. Araujo insisted that 

 the apprehensions of the English government were merely the effect 

 of a panic terror, and positively rejected both its military and pecuni- 

 ary assistance, on the ground that it would compromise the neutrality 

 of Portugal. Souza, cuiint de Funchal, the Portuguese ambassador at 

 London, states that he did not dare to nsk anything from the British 

 government for fear of being disavowed by the ministry at home. A 

 mere accident led to Fuuchal's obtaining permission from Canning for 

 the Portuguese to close their ports against the English if it should 

 be necessary ; and this permission, which he at ouce sent off to Lisbon, 

 arrived there about two days before, on the 12th of August, Araujo 

 was shocked by the sudden and imperious demand of Rayncval, the 

 French, and Campo-Alauge, the Spanish, ambassador, to close his 

 ports against the English, seize all of that nation then iu Portugal, 

 and declare war against it in twenty days. He delayed the order to 

 close the ports till four English convoys had sailed with all the British 

 subjects who chuse to leave the kingdom, and then availed himself of 

 the permission the English cabinet had given. It is said that Araujo, 

 one of whose offices was that of minister of war, was unaware that a 

 French invading army had entered Portugal till the 26th of November, 

 when it was close upon Lisbon. It was to Lord Strangford, the 

 English ambassador, that the Portuguese court was then indebted for 

 the news of Bonaparte's declaration, that the house of Braganza had 



