ne, Francisco Villala Barboza. If your excellency considers that
gentleman in the light of a "rapporteur," or talebearer, it is not for
me to object; but the imputation of being a listener to or encourager
of talebearers, so rashly advanced by your excellency against me,
is without foundation in truth. It may be necessary for ministers
of state to have their eavesdroppers and informers, but mine is a
straightforward course, which needs no such precautions. And if there
be any who volunteer information or advice, I can appreciate the value
of it, and the motives of those who offer it. Those who know me much
better than your excellency does, will admit that I am in the habit of
thinking for myself, and not apt to act on the suggestions of others,
especially if officiously tendered.

As to the successive appointment and removal of incompetent auditors
of marine, for which your excellency gives credit to the council,
I can only say that the benefit of such repeated changes is by no
means apparent. And to revert again to the difficulty of decision, for
which your excellency intimates there is sufficient cause, I beg leave
to ask your excellency what just reason can exist for not condemning
these prizes to the captors. Can it be denied that the orders
under which I sailed for the blockade of Bahia authorized me to act
hostilely against the ships and property of the crown and subjects of
Portugal? Can it be denied that war was regularly declared between
the two nations? Was it not even promulgated under the sanction of his
Imperial Majesty in a document giving to privateers certain privileges
which it is admitted were possessed by the ships of war in the making
and sale of captures? And yet did not the Prize Tribunal (consisting
chiefly, as I before observed, of Portuguese), on the return of the
squadron, eight months afterwards, pretend to be ignorant whether his
Imperial Majesty was at war or at peace with the kingdom of Portugal?
And did they not under that pretence avoid proceeding to adjudication?
Was not this pretence a false one, or is it one of those well-founded
causes of difficulty to which your excellency alludes? Can it be
denied that the squadron sailed and acted in the full expectation,
grounded on the assurance and engagements of the Government, that all
captures made under the flag of the enemy, whether ships of war or
merchant vessels, were to be prize to the captors? and yet when
the prize judges were at leng