BRAZIL. 



81 



Krupp battery on Caju Island ; but armed 

 launches and the war ship " Libertade," from 

 whose deck Admiral Saldanha da Gama directed 

 the operations, poured in a destructive fire and 

 enabled the insurgents, re-enforced from the 

 island of Concei9ao, to hold their ground until 

 the Government troops, having spent their am- 

 munition, again fell back. The National Guard, 

 fighting admirably for raw troops, advanced 

 once more, when reserves came up, and the 

 sailors, demoralized at last, began to fire wildly 

 and break ranks. Admiral da Gama then called 

 them off, and they re-embarked without dis- 

 aster, protected by the machine guns of the 

 vessels. They had first dismantled the fort and 

 spiked the heavy guns, and it was long before the 

 Government, after re-occupying the position with 

 1,500 men, could remount the disabled batteries. 

 Peixoto's losses in the battle were said to be 550 

 killed and wounded ; and Da Gama, who was 

 severely wounded in the neck and arm. lost 

 272 men. Not long after this defeat the rebels 

 sustained the losses of the transport "Mercuric" 

 and the war ships " Venus " and " Jupiter," 

 which were sunk by shells from the Government 

 forts. After Admiral da Gama's reverse the 

 commanders in the South determined to strike 

 at Santos, the principal commercial port of that 

 part of Brazil. A portion of the National Guard 

 of Sao Paulo joined the standard of Gen. Saraiva, 

 who advanced on the city of Sao Paulo while 

 Gen. Salgado kept in check the Government 

 garrison at Porto Alegre, preventing it from 

 moving northward. An engagement was fought 

 at Itapeva, 160 miles west of Sao Paulo, in which 

 Peixoto's troops were defeated. The capital, 

 Sao Paulo, was still strongly held by the Gov- 

 ernment forces, and Santos and its outlying de- 

 fenses were strengthened against the expected 

 attack by land, while the harbor was protected 

 by torpedo mines against the " Republica " and 

 " Aquidaban," which were off the coast. 



Election of a President. Such was the 

 military situation when, on March 1, an election 

 was held for a President to succeed Peixoto on 

 Nov. 15, 1894. The rebels held that, according 

 to the Constitution, the election should have 

 taken place in October, 1893 ; but the naval 

 revolt and the declaration of martial law made 

 an election at that time impracticable. Senators 

 from most of the States met in December, 1893, 

 and placed in nomination Dr. Prudente Moraes, 

 formerly President of the Constitutional Assem- 

 bly, whose candidacy the rebels originally ap- 

 proved. Peixoto offered, on Dec. 12, 1893, to 

 resign the presidency in favor of the President 

 of the Senate, his legal successor, and take the 

 field as commander-in-chief of the forces. Mo- 

 raes at that time agreed to assume the responsi- 

 bility in the hope of ending the civil war, but 

 the leading statesmen, whom they called into 

 consultation, objected to this arrangement, which 

 would have made Moraes ineligible for the full 

 term on the same ground that incapacitated 

 Peixoto to succeed himself. When the time for 

 the election approached, other candidates were 

 put forward, among them Silveira Martins, also 

 Ruy Barbosa, who was in exile and had acted as 

 the financial agent of the insurgents and de- 

 fended them abroad against the charge of har- 

 boring monarchistic designs. President Peixoto 

 VOL. xxxiv. A 6 



suspended the state of siege, nominally at least, 

 in order that the election might take place un- 

 der constitutional forms. It was the first popu- 

 lar election held in Brazil for the presidency. 

 The newspapers exalted their favorite candidates 

 without vituperating their rivals. The voting 

 was accomplished without undue excitement or 

 disturbance, resulting in the election of Moraes 

 and of Victorino Pereira, the official candidate 

 for the vice-presidency. In Rio Grande, Parana, 

 and Santa Catarina, where the insurgents were 

 in the ascendency, no election was held, and in 

 Minas Geraes the electors seemed to favor Sil- 

 veira Martins, their State president. 



Collapse of the Rebellion. After the elec- 

 tion the state of siege was prolonged till May. 

 By a decree of Feb. 28 all crimes connected with 

 the rebellion were declared amenable to martial 

 law, even if committed by civilians. Another 

 presidential decree, issued March 2, authorized 

 the Minister of War to raise regular troops by 

 forcible conscription, just as some of the na- 

 tional guards and so-called volunteer battalions 

 had previously been raised. On March 11 Mar- 

 shal Peixoto gave forty-eight hours' notice of a 

 general engagement to the residents of Rio, and 

 the ships in the harbor were warned to get into 

 places of safety. The agreement made with the 

 foreign naval commanders that the city batteries 

 would not be used so long as the insurgent fleet 

 refrained from firing on the town was abrogated. 

 These batteries contained some heavy ordnance, 

 especially the forts of Sao Bento and Morro de 

 Castello on the water front. The whole popula- 

 tion left the city, and the poor were provided 

 with barracks and food by the Government. 



The Government fleet had assembled at Rio 

 de Janeiro on March 10. The " Nictheroy," the 

 " Piratiny " formerly called the " Destroyer " 

 and the " Aurora." a formidable European tor- 

 pedo vessel, took position opposite Fort Ville- 

 gaignon, while the " America," the " Tiradentes," 

 the " Paranhyba," the " Bahia," and 5 torpedo 

 boats purchased in Germany remained at the 

 entrance of the harbor, ready to intercept the 

 " Republica " and the " Aquidaban " should they 

 return. The vessels purchased in the United 

 States in the previous autumn were distinguished 

 for high speed and modern appliances for the 

 use of dynamite, especially the Ericsson subma- 

 rine gun. the aerial torpedo gun, the Sims-Edison. 

 Lay, and Halpine dirigible torpedoes, and How- 

 ell's automatic torpedo. Hitherto these vessels 

 had done nothing besides transporting troops, 

 nor had the insurgent vessels made a serious at- 

 tempt to engage them. For a long time they 

 had lain at anchor under the forts at Pernani- 

 buco, and afterward at Bahia. Frequent acci- 

 dents to their engines and guns gave rise to 

 suspicions of treachery among the Brazilian offi- 

 cers and crews that replaced the Americans who 

 brought the ships to Brazil. The departure of 

 Admiral de Mello from Rio harbor with the only 

 formidable battle ships of the insurgent navy at 

 the very time when Peixoto's fleet was known 

 to be concentrating there was a mysterious pro- 

 ceeding that was supposed by many to signify 

 that his aims and policy were divergent from 

 those of the Royalist commander, and that he 

 wanted to save the cause in the south without 

 regard to the situation at Rio. Already in the 



