republics of America had a
powerful effect on the minds of the people; the King's departure was a
signal for the breaking out of revolutionary disturbances, which, though
the Crown Prince could not appease, he was, nevertheless, by means of a
strong party he had gained over, enabled to direct. In the year 1822, he
declared Brazil independent of the mother-country,--promised the people
a Constitution,--and was at last proclaimed Emperor, by the title of
Pedro the First. From the day when the nation tendered its allegiance,
the Emperor and all patriots have worn on the left arm a green cockade
inscribed with the words, "Independence or Death." At the coronation,
the order of the Southern Cross was founded, and the new national flag
hoisted: it is green, with a yellow square in the middle, on which is
represented the Earth, surrounded by thirteen stars (the number of the
provinces), and leaves of coffee and tobacco, as the produce of the
country.

The government, at the time of our residence in Brazil, was nothing less
than constitutional. This is sufficiently proved by the tumultuary
arrest of the above-mentioned three Ministers, by the arbitrary
dispersion of the Deputies from the provinces, called together
expressly to form a Constitutional Assembly, and by the expression of
the Emperor, that he required unconditional submission, even if he
should choose, like Charles the Twelfth, to send his boot to them as his
representative. It is possible that the Emperor has been in some measure
forced to these violent proceedings by the contentions of the various
parties, each of which seeks its own interest without concerning itself
about the general welfare. His personal character is much praised.

A captain of one of the Russian-American Company's ships, who had been
in Rio Janeiro, related to me the following anecdote of his benevolence.
Two sailors belonging to his crew had been ashore, and having got drunk,
were found lying senseless on the road to Corcovado. The Emperor and
Empress happening to ride that way, attended only by a few servants, saw
them, and supposed them to be sick. The Emperor immediately dismounted,
rubbed their temples with his own hand, and endeavoured to restore them
to their senses, but in vain. He then sent for his own surgeon, and
dispatched them under his care to the hospital, from whence on the
following morning, having slept off their intoxication, they were
dismissed as cured.--Another, and a di