icy
persevered in with the object of annihilating the naval force, for no
other reason than that its achievements had rendered itself obnoxious to
the Portuguese faction--the leaders of which no doubt calculated, that
if the officers and crews could be worried out of the service, the
dismemberment of the Northern provinces might yet be effected by
disunion.

On the 13th of December, I wrote to the Minister of Marine that, as the
prize vessels were daily being plundered, an immediate investigation was
necessary--they having, by order of the administration, been delivered
over to the charge of the inspector of the arsenal, the naval officers
in charge being withdrawn. One officer was put in prison for obeying my
orders to remain on board his prize till I received an answer from the
Minister of Marine. The ship he had in charge (_the Pombinho_) was
immediately afterwards given up to a Portuguese claim ant, together with
all its contents, promiscuously taken from the custom house at Maranham,
none of which ever belonged to him.

A number of additional prizes had been sent in by Captain Taylor, of the
_Nitherohy_, who had pursued the scattered ships of the enemy to the
Tagus, and there burned four vessels under the guns of the
line-of-battle ship _Don John VI_. For this he was sentenced by the
prize council to six months imprisonment, and to forfeit double the
amount of his prize money, on behalf of the owners of the property
destroyed; it being thus decided by the _quasi_ Portuguese prize
tribunal that, to destroy enemy's property, in pursuance of His
Majesty's orders, was a crime!

Captain Grenfell having arrived in the frigate _Imperatrice_--captured
at Para--bringing with him some forty thousand dollars--the ransom for
prizes there taken, as had been done at Maranham--the _Imperatrice_ was
boarded in his absence, and the money carried to the treasury, though by
His Majesty guaranteed to the captors. Captain Grenfell was afterwards
charged with acting in opposition to the Junta at Para, though only
carrying out my instructions. Upon this charge he was tried and
acquitted.

In consequence of these and other arbitrary acts, I represented to His
Majesty the necessity of forming some definite maritime code, which
should put an end to proceedings so arbitrary, and proposed the adoption
of the naval laws of England as the most experienced and complete. His
Majesty approving the suggestion, directed me to transmit a memoria