under his command in the blockade of
Bahia, and other services of the Empire, against the sentence given
in the case of the Nova Constitucao, _whereby costs and damages to
the amount of four times the value are decreed against the captors
of the said vessel_ (taken in the act of violating the blockade of
Bahia), in performance of duties which the law sanctioned and the
service of His Imperial Majesty required.

And further, the said Marquis of Maranhao, on behalf of himself and
the captors, does again most solemnly protest against _all sentences
of acquittal_ of vessels which violated the said blockade, or which
were seized, navigating under Portuguese flags or with Portuguese
registers--and against all proceedings to recover damages against
the said Marquis and captors _for any capture whatsoever_; His
Imperial Majesty having been graciously pleased to signify that all
expenses thus incurred in case of vessels pronounced "_malprisa_,"
shall be placed to the account of the State.

Rio de Janeiro, July 23, 1824.

The anxiety of His Majesty on account of the revolt at Pernambuco was
meanwhile utterly set at nought, neither Severiano, nor his colleague
Barbosa--though now beginning to be alarmed--shewing the slightest
disposition to carry out His Majesty's orders for the compromise with
the officers and seamen, in order that the squadron might be manned. At
length intelligence arrived from the revolted districts, of such a
nature as to appear to His Majesty fraught with immediate danger to the
integrity of the Empire, as in truth it was, for the Republican nature
of the insurrection had become an established fact, whilst the squadron
which, months before, ought to have sailed to quell the revolt, was,
from, want of men, lying idle in the port of the capital.

Setting aside all Ministerial interposition, I received His Majesty's
orders to repair at once to the palace, to decide on the best plan of
meeting these revolutionary manifestations. My advice was--at once to
put them down with a strong hand; but I called His Majesty's attention
to the ministerial contempt of his orders to satisfy the seamen, and the
consequent hopeless condition of the squadron--abandoned because no
assurance had been given that past services would be rewarded by the
adjudication of the prizes--against which adjudication the tribunal
resolutely set their faces, or, what was worse, u