TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 145 



inspired all the Brazilians, with a patriotic feeling 

 which they had never before experienced, while in 

 the situation of a colony they were governed by 

 delegates, in the king's name. Brazil acquired in 

 the eyes of every body, a new dignity : as it pos- 

 sessed the king, and carried on diplomatic nego- 

 tiations on the other side of the ocean, it became, 

 in a manner, included in the circle of the European 

 powers. The king himself was made better ac- 

 quainted with the advantages of the country, and 

 the defects of the government. He profited by the 

 former, and thereby secured the stability of all 

 civil relations, and of property. Private credit in- 

 creased ; what was uncertain, partial, and depend- 

 ent in the administration, made room for an inde- 

 pendent order of things ; and life and energy were 

 infused into all public business. By this, and above 

 all, by the opening of the port to the mercantile 

 nations of all parts of the world, the cultivation of 

 the soil, the welfare, the riches, the civilisation of 

 the country, rapidly improved, together with the 

 intercourse and increasing commerce with foreign 

 countries. Yet it appears that, in general, the 

 change from a dependent colony to an independent 

 kingdom, was by no means considered, in Brazil 

 itself, as a blessing, so much as the reaction of this 

 event was felt as a misfortune by Portugal. Now, 

 when experience has extended their views, and 

 when the energies of this continent, called forth 

 by political changes, more rapidly develop them- 



VOL. I. L 



