252 



JOHN VI. JOHN'S. 



Roi de Pologne Jean Sobieskid la Reinc Marie ('<mi- 

 mire, pend. la Camp, de f-'ienne, trad, par le Comte 

 Plater, etpubl. par N.A. de Salvandy (i'aris, 1826). 

 JOHN VI., emperor and king of Portugal, Brazil, 

 and Algnrve, born May 13, 1767. On account at 

 the mental derangement of the queen Francisca, his 

 mother, he was proclaimed director of the govern- 

 ment in Portugal, February 10, 1792. In 1807, he 

 embarked for Brazil with his family, and landed at 

 Rio de Janeiro, January 6, 1808. December 18, 

 1815, he raised Brazil to the rank of a kingdom, and 

 uniii <I all his states into one monarchy. After the 

 death of his mother, March 20, 1816, he became 

 king. In 1790, lie married the Infanta Charlotte, 

 daughter of Charles IV. of Spain. (Respecting his 

 ton Pedro, and the revolution in Brazil, see Pedro.) 

 His second daughter, Maria, first wife of king Ferdi- 

 nand VII. of Spain, died in 1818 ; a third is the wife 

 of Don Carlos, brother of Ferdinand. On account of 

 the old commercial relations between Portugal and 

 Britain, John was not in a condition to maintain a 

 strict neutrality towards France. In 1793, he had 

 sent the Spanish government a small body of soldiers 

 to aid in the defence of the Pyrenees; but, after 

 Spain had made peace (1795), and concluded an 

 alliance (1796) with France, Portugal was treated as 

 an enemy by both. John looked to Britain, there- 

 fore, for protection. Bonaparte at length induced 

 the Spanish court to make an attack in earnest upon 

 Portugal, which ended in the peace of Badajoz 

 (January 6, 1801); Oliven/a was ceded to Spain, 

 and a part of Guiana to France. After the peace of 

 Tilsit, Napoleon, not content with the vast sum of 

 money by which John had purchased his neutrality, 

 required him also to close his ports against the Brit- 

 ish, to arrest all of that nation in Portugal, and to 

 confiscate their estates. As the regent complied 

 with the first only of these requisitions (in conse- 

 quence of which a British fleet blockaded his har- 

 bours), the Moniteur declared that the house of 

 Braganza had ceased to reign (see Spain since 1808), 

 and an army composed of French and Spanish soldiers 

 marched into Portugal. The prince-regent now re- 

 solved to transfer his court to Brazil, as he had been 

 advised to do in 1800. The British ambassador, 

 Viscount Strangford, and the British admiral, Sir 

 Sidney Smith, facilitated the accomplishment of his 

 design. November 26, the prince-regent appointed 

 a junta for administering the government, and, on 

 the 27th, the royal family embarked, passed the 

 mouth of the Tagus on the 29th, with a fleet of 

 eight ships of the line, four frigates, four brigs, and 

 twenty other vessels, in sight of the advance-guard 

 of Junot's army, which entered Lisbon the next day. 

 December 1, the anniversary of the elevation of the 

 house of Braganza, the ensigns of Braganza were 

 succeeded by the French eagle. An earthquake and 

 a storm, which the Portuguese fleet encountered in 

 the view of the city and the enemy, completed the 

 submission of the Portuguese. From Rio de Janeiro, 

 May 1, 1808, the prince-regent declared all treaties 

 with France and Spain null, and formed a closer 

 union with Britain, which, powerfully supported by 

 the bravery of the Portuguese army and the ardour 

 of the people, recovered for him the possession of 

 his European kingdom. Marshal Beresford con- 

 tinued to exercise an important influence on the 

 affairs of Portugal, till August, 1820, when, by the 

 convocation of the cortes, a new political system 

 was established. In America, the Portuguese also 

 recovered the portion of Guiana which they had lost, 

 and occupied French Guiana ; the latter, however, 

 was restored to France in 1817. Meantime, the 

 enlightened ministry of the prince-regent carefully 

 attended to the improvement of Brazil. The in- 



quisition was abolished, religious freedom introduced, 

 the evils of slavery diminished, and European artists, 

 manufacturers, merchants, and agriculturists, en- 

 couraged to settle in the country. A large Swiss 

 colony, New Freyberg, was founded in 1819. John 

 took part in the transactions of the congress ot 

 Vienna. The revolution of the Spanish colonies in 

 South America (perhaps the refusal of Spain to 

 restore Olivenza) led the court of Rio de Janeiro to 

 occupy Monte-Video, and the left bank of the La 

 Plata. Spain had recourse to the intercession of 

 Austria. Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain, whose 

 declaration, directed to the marquis of Aguiar, Por- 

 tuguese secretary of state for foreign affairs (Paris, 

 March 26, 1817), induced the court of Brazil to 

 evacuate Monte-Video, on condition that Olivenza 

 should be restored. A treaty was then concluded 

 with Buenos Ayres, and the quarrel with Artigas 

 (q. v.) continued till 1820. A conspiracy against 

 the existing government was discovered at Lisbon 

 in 1817, and suppressed by the execution of those 

 engaged in it. After this, the freemasons were per- 

 secuted more severely than ever. In consequence 

 of the Portuguese revolution and the convocation of 

 the cortes, 1820, which the monarch recognised as 

 lawful, he returned, in 1821, to Portugal ; the crown- 

 prince remained in Brazil. This vast country sepa- 

 rated itself entirely from the mother country, where 

 an absolute government was, in the mean time, estab- 

 lished. John was incompetent to unite the con- 

 stitutionalists and royalists. He was himself in 

 danger of falling a victim to the intrigues of the 

 latter, when he was rescued by a British vessel in 

 the Tagus. Portugal and Brazil also assumed a 

 hostile attitude; but, August 29, 1825, by the me- 

 diation of Britain, John VI. concluded a treaty with 

 his son, the emperor Pedro I. of Brazil, in which he 

 acknowledged that country as an independent king- 

 dom, wholly separate from Portugal, and his son as 

 emperor, reserving for himself, personally, the title 

 of emperor of Brazil. This good-natured monarch, 

 who was incompetent to struggle with the troubles 

 of his age, and the political degeneracy of his nation, 

 died March 10, 1826, having previously appointed 

 his daughter Isabella regent of Portugal. See Por- 

 tugal and the Portuguese Revolution. 



JOHN'S, ST, or PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND; 

 an island in the gulf of St Lawrence, near the north 

 coast of Nova Scotia, to which government it was 

 once annexed, but it now has a separate governor. 

 Lon. 44 22' to 46 32' W.; lat. 45 46' to 47 10' N. 

 It is 117 miles long, from north-east to south-west, 

 about twenty in average breadth ; population, about 

 5000 ; chief towns, Charlotte's Town (the capital), 

 George Town, Prince's Town, &c. The north and 

 south coasts are much indented with bays. It is well 

 watered, the soil generally fertile, and the rivers 

 abound with fish, as salmon, trout, and eels. It was 

 taken from the French by the British, in 1745, when 

 it had 10,000 head of black cattle, and several of the 

 farmers raised 12,000 bushels of corn annually. 

 When possessed by the French, it was so much im 

 proved as to be called the granary of Canada. 



JOHN'S, ST, a river of New Brunswick, which 

 rises in Canada and the northern part of Maine, 

 waters the north-east part of Maine, flows south-east 

 through New Brunswick, and runs into the bay of 

 Fundy, on the west side of the city of St John's. It 

 is 350 miles long; the tide flows up about eighty 

 miles ; it is navigable for boats 200 miles, and for 

 sloops of fifty tons eighty miles. This river and its 

 branches water a large tract of excellent country, 

 much of which is settled. About thirty miles from 

 its mouth commences a fine level country of rich 

 meadow lands, well clothed with timber and wood, as 



