hey should assemble at
the rendezvous appointed.

It is requisite to enter into some detail relative to the distribution
of prize money thus of necessity substituted as an advance of wages: it
being impossible to get the requisite numbers of foreign seamen for the
_Pedro Primiero_ without such advance; and although the frigates which
had sailed, manned for the most part with Portuguese or Brazilian crews,
relied upon _me_ for payment of their prize money, the foreign seamen
refused even to remain on board the flagship without the usual advance;
the officers also were in want of everything, and the men--indebted to
tavern keepers--clamorous for payment.

As the necessity was urgent, I did not choose that the flagship, under
my immediate command, should leave port in a discreditable manner, I
therefore took upon myself--notwithstanding His Majesty's suggestion to
withhold payment till we were at sea--to accommodate the officers and
satisfy the crew by the advance demanded; a step, in my judgment, the
more necessary, since, as had been the case in the former campaign, I
should mainly have to depend upon the foreign officers and seamen of my
own ship, for the execution of plans which might become requisite--the
best way, therefore, to ensure their zealous co-operation throughout the
voyage, was to establish harmony at its commencement by complying with
their just demand.

The following were the principal sums disbursed on this occasion, as
appears from my private memoranda, the vouchers themselves being
afterwards transmitted to the Minister of Marine through Captain
Shepherd, as will subsequently appear:--

Dollars.
To Myself 85,000
Paid Messrs. May and Lukin, Prize Agents,
for Admiralty Court expenses, and
commission, at 5 per cent 15,000

Advanced to Squadron generally 23,000

Ditto to Captain Crosbie 5,000

Ditto, to other Officers 3,750

Disbursed at Rio, 70,750

This sum, about L.14,000, may appear trivial to the English reader,
accustomed to lavish expenditure in all naval expeditions as the most
economical way of securing their future efficiency--and hence the
mention of such an amount may be deemed superfluous. That this is not
the case will presently appear.

The reader must not however imagine that I am about to inflict on him an
accoun