particularly jealous of the provinces of the south,
especially of Rio, which they considered as more favoured than
themselves, and they were disgusted at the payments of taxes and
contributions, by which they never profited, and which only served to
enrich the creatures of the court, while great abuses existed,
especially in the judicial part of the government, which they despaired
of ever seeing redressed. Such were the exciting causes of the
insurrection of 1817, in Pernambuco, which threatened for many months
the peace, if not the safety of Brazil. The example of the Spanish
Americans had no doubt its weight, and a regular plan for obtaining
independence was formed, troops were raised and disciplined, and Recife
being secured, fortifications were begun at Alagoas and at Penedo.

The insurgents, however, had probably miscalculated the degree of
concurrence or assistance they should meet with from their neighbours.
The people of Serinhaem as soon as the insurrection was known, namely
the middle of April, posted themselves on the Rio Formosa as a check on
that quarter, and the king's troops under Lacerda, marched immediately
from Bahia. The Pernambucan leader Victoriano, having attacked the Villa
de Pedras, received a decided check from a body of royalists, under
Major Gordilho, who had been sent forward by Lacerda, on the 21st: and
by the 29th Gordilho had occupied that post, as well as Tamandre, where
he was not long afterwards joined by Colonel Mello, with a strong
reinforcement.

Meantime the Pernambucan chief, Domingos Jose Martins, was actively
employed in collecting troops, and forming guerilla parties, in order to
harass the marches of the enemy. These parties were headed by
Cavalcante, a man of wealth and family, aided by a priest, Souto, a
bold and enterprising man, who was far from being the only
ecclesiastical partisan. On the 2d of May, a vigorous attack was made on
Serinhaem, by the famous Pernambucan division of the south, which had
hitherto received no check; but the assailants were repulsed with the
loss of their artillery and baggage, and a column under Martins coming
up met with the same fate, on which he drew off his people with those of
the south, to the ingenio of Trapiche. On the 6th of May they left that
position, and meeting the royalists under Mello, suffered a complete
defeat. Their chiefs were either killed or taken; and of the latter some
were exiled, others imprisoned, and three, Jose Lui