32 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



a new ministry, composed entirely of Brazilians whose liberal 

 sentiments were universally acknowledged. This step was 

 popular, and public order was again restored, but was short 

 lived. The ministry was again changed for men who were ex- 

 tremely obnoxious to the Brazilian party. The greatest anx- 

 iety was now manifested by all classes of citizens. Expressions 

 of their indignation, warmly and publicly spoken, followed, 

 and great numbers, as if by common consent, assembled in the 

 < Campo Santa Ana,^ since called the ' Praga d^Jicclama- 

 gdo. ' A deputation was sent from them to the emperor, urging 

 him, if he wished to preserve order and avoid civil war and 

 bloodshed, to dismiss the Portuguese ministry, and reinstate 

 that which he had last deposed. In spite of the entreaties of 

 General Lima, the military commandant of the province, who 

 was in high favor with the people, and of the tears of the em- 

 press, he refused the request of the deputation, and obstinately 

 adhered to his resolution. The emperor's reply, endorsed by 

 the ministry, and the order for the mob to disperse, was 

 scarcely read, before it was torn to pieces and trampled under 

 foot ! The troops soon began to take part with the people, 

 who were now armed and prepared for the worst. An attack 

 was apparently meditated somewhere, and before ten o'clock 

 that night even the body guard at the palace had gone over 

 and joined the insurgents. The emperor found that he had been 

 deceived by his courtiers, who had relied on the support of the 

 army, and as the only possible means remaining of preventing 

 bloodshed, and restoring tranquillity, he resolved on abdica- 

 tion. In this dilemma he sought the aid of counsel from the 

 British and French legations, and received the Charges late 

 that same night at the palace. Exercising the power given 

 him by the constitution, he abdicated in favor of his son Dom 

 Pedro de Alcantara, under the title of Pedro II ! This 

 last act was received, early on the morning of the seventh of 

 April, with joyful acclamations, and the same day, before eight 

 o'clock, having hastily collected what money and valuables he 

 could, the ex-emperor, with the empress and the young queen 

 of Portugal, embarked privately on board of H. B. M. line-of- 



