e law, his abolition of feudal
privileges, and the firmer organization of the powers of the land which
he introduced, powerfully co-operated towards the development of the
capabilities of Brazil. Yet on the death of his king and patron in 1777,
when court intrigue forced him from his high station, he who had done so
much for his country's institutions was reviled on all hands.

The most important feature in the history of Brazil during the first
thirty years following the retirement of Pombal was the conspiracy of
Minas in 1789. The successful issue of the recent revolution of the
English colonies in North America had filled the minds of some of the
more educated youth of that province; and in imitation, a project to
throw off the Portuguese yoke was formed,--a cavalry officer, Silva
Xavier, nicknamed Tira-dentes (tooth-drawer), being the chief
conspirator. But the plot being discovered during their inactivity, the
conspirators were banished to Africa, and Tira-dentes, the leader, was
hanged. Thenceforward affairs went on prosperously; the mining districts
continued to be enlarged; the trading companies of the littoral
provinces were abolished, but the impulse they had given to agriculture
remained.

Portuguese royal family in Brazil, 1807.

Reorganization on Portuguese model.

Removed from all communication with the rest of the world except through
the mother country, Brazil remained unaffected by the first years of the
great revolutionary war in Europe. Indirectly, however, the fate of this
isolated country was decided by the consequences of the French
Revolution. Brazil is the only instance of a colony becoming the seat of
the government of its own mother country, and this was the work of
Napoleon. When he resolved upon the invasion and conquest of Portugal,
the prince regent, afterwards Dom John VI., having no means of
resistance, decided to take refuge in Brazil. He created a regency in
Lisbon, and departed for Brazil on the 29th of November 1807,
accompanied by the queen Donna Maria I., the royal family, all the great
officers of state, a large part of the nobility and numerous retainers.
They arrived at Bahia on the 21st of January 1808, and were received
with enthusiasm. The regent was requested to establish there the seat of
his government, but a more secure asylum presented itself in Rio de
Janeiro, where the royal fugitives arrived on the 7th of March. Before
leaving Bahia, Dom John took the first s