556 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



the Crown of Portugal, and now became tired of its yoke. The same sen- 

 timent pervaded the neighbouring provinces, and the North of Brazil was 

 placed in imminent danger. 



In the beginning of March, 1817, these discontents broke into open 

 revolt, by the murder of two military officers ; and in the subsequent 

 affair a few people lost their lives ; but the leaders no sooner began to act, 

 act, than they showed themselves utterly incapable even of contemplating, 

 much less were they able to manage that body which they had set in mo- 

 tion. They not only neglected the supplies, and the means of defence, which 

 common prudence might have told them would become necessary, but 

 seemed to court resistance, and, in mockery to the Government in Rio, 

 sent the expelled Governor thither, to carry the news and tell his own 

 tale. At that period the Conde dos Arcos, whose vigour of mind and 

 promptitude in action place him among the first men of Brazil, was 

 Governor of Bahia ; so soon as the news reached him he dispatched two 

 vessels of war, to blockade the port of Pernambuco, and thus inter- 

 cepted the supplies of the place, and rendered the scarcity of provisions 

 which prevailed still more distressing. He dispatched also, by land, a 

 body of troops, whose advanced guard took possession of Pedras on the 

 24th of April, and Tramendere on the 29th ; the main body arrived on 

 the 3rd and the 5th of May; a slight skirmish ensued, in which the 

 rebels were routed and their four leaders taken. Thus terminated, in a 

 little more than ten days, and almost without a struggle, the wild projects 

 of a drunken coward, a profligate priest, a mad assassin, and a cunning 

 knave. 



It was impossible that these things should be speedily known in 

 Rio. The exiled Governor, who brought intelligence of the revolt, 

 arrived there on Sunday evening, the 25th of March. The tale was so 

 unexpected and incredible, and his want of discretion in communicating 

 it so great, as to ensure his safe lodgement in the State Prison. The 

 consternation excited by this event was undoubtedly very great, and, in 

 the midst of it, the first exclamation of the King was so impassioned, 

 uttered so openly, and flowed so directly from the heart, as fully to 



