Brazilian
Envoy in London, who altogether sympathised with them, chose to regard
this occurrence as an act of desertion. Lord Cochrane lost no time in
reporting his arrival and requesting to be provided with the necessary
means for refitting the _Piranga_ and preparing for a speedy return to
Rio de Janeiro. To expedite matters, he even advanced 2000_l._ out of
his own property--which was never repaid to him--for this purpose. His
repeated applications for instructions were either unheeded or only
answered with insult. He was ordered to return to Brazil at once,
towards which no assistance was given to him; and at the same time
his officers and crew were ordered to repudiate his authority and to
return without him.

Lord Cochrane had no room to doubt that by going back to Brazil he
should only expose himself to yet worse treatment than that from which
he had been suffering during nearly two years; but at the same time
he was resolved to do nothing at variance with his duty to the Emperor
from whom he had received his commission, and nothing invalidating his
claims to the recompense which was clearly due to him. At length he
was relieved from some of his perplexities, after they had lasted more
than three months. On the 3rd of November, 1825, peace was declared
between Brazil and Portugal; and thereby his relations with his
employers were materially altered. The work which he had pledged
himself to do was completed, and he was justified in resigning his
command, or at any rate in declining to resume it until the causes of
his recent troubles were removed.

This he did in a letter addressed to the Emperor Pedro I., from
London, on the 10th of November. "The gracious condescension which I
experienced from your Imperial Majesty, from the first moment of my
arrival in the Brazils, the honorary distinctions which I received
from your Majesty, and the attention with which you were pleased to
listen to all my personal representations relating to the promotion
of the naval power of your empire," he wrote, "have impressed upon
my mind a high sense of the honour which your Majesty conferred, and
forbid my entertaining any other sentiments than those of attachment
to your Majesty and devotion to your true interests. But, whilst I
express these my unfeigned sentiments towards your Imperial Majesty,
it is with infinite pain and regret that I recall to my recollection
the conduct that has been pursued towards the naval service, and t