n, and asked me to make a moderate
valuation of the prize property taken in the late campaign,
ascertaining, at the same time, if the seamen were willing to accept a
specific sum in compensation of their claims? On asking His Majesty what
assurance could be given that the administration would carry out such an
arrangement, he replied that he would give me his own assurance, and
ordering me to sit down beside him, wrote _with his own hand_ the
following proposal--now in my possession:--

"_The Government is ready to pay to the squadron, the value of the
prizes which have been, or may be judged bad, the value thereof being
settled by arbitrators jointly chosen, and to pay the proprietors
their losses and damages; that in the number of the said prizes, the
frigate Imperatrice is not included, but the Government, as a
remuneration for her capture, will immediately give from the public
treasury the sum of 40,000 milreis to the captors; that the value of
the prizes already declared bad, shall be immediately paid, this
stipulation relating to all captures up to the present date, February
12th, and that henceforth captures shall be adjudged with more
dispatch, the Government being about to decree a provisional
arrangement, remedying all errors and omissions that may have
occurred._"

Nothing can be more clear than the above stipulations in His Majesty's
own handwriting, to pay the squadron immediately the value of their
prizes despite the Court of Admiralty, to pay 40,000 milreis for the
_Imperatrice_, and that even the value of the prizes _adjudged bad_
should be paid, His Majesty thus rightly estimating the conduct and
motives of the Court of Admiralty. _Not one of these conditions was ever
complied with!_

On the 1st of March, His Majesty, through his minister, Francisco
Villela Barbosa, informed me that he had assigned 40,000 milreis in
recompense for the acquisition of the frigate _Imperatrice_; stating
that, with regard to the other prizes made at Para, they must be
sentenced by the tribunal, in order that their value might be paid by
the public treasury--the said treasury taking upon itself to satisfy all
costs and damages on captures judged illegal; but that with regard to my
assertion, that there were amongst them no illegal prizes, the
Government could not itself decide the question.

That His Majesty gave the order for payment of 40,000 milreis, as
compensation for the _Imp