SOUTH AMERICA. 



187 



UNITED states' SHIP CONGRESS. 



Eio Janeiro, Feb. Qth, 1818. 



Sir, 



I have the honor to acknowledge your note of 

 the 4th inst. containing a translation of the Portuguese 

 minister's statement of an affair which took place on 

 the Sdinst. between two, of the lieutenants of this ship 

 and some officers of the Portuguese government. 



So far as relates to that part of the minister's note, 

 complaining of insults offered to a major-general and 

 an admiral in the service of the king of the Bra- 

 zils, 1 can safely assure you that none could possibly 

 have been intended, as these young men on whose 

 assertions 1 place the most explicit reliance, declare, 

 that being perfectly strangers in the place, and not 

 understanding the language of the country, they were 

 involuntarily led by a guard to the house of one or 

 both of those gentlemen, from the desire of not losing 

 sight of the seaman belonging to their boat, until they 

 saw where he was deposited. That they did not 

 know into whose presence they were ushered, neither 

 of the above officers being in uniform; nor was it 

 known to them until they were treated with great vio- 

 lence, contumely and gross abuse: one of my officers 

 having his hat snatched off his head, at the moment 

 when inadvertently he had put it on, according to the 

 custom of our country, when about to retire, and one 

 of the Portuguese officers before mentioned, clenching 

 1 his fist in the face of the other, while they were both 

 i threatened with personal violence, at the same time that 

 they were permitted to be insulted by a mob, which 

 the Portuguese officers did not attempt to repress. 

 The instructions received from my government, in- 



