ear expelled the Portuguese from the province, its
welfare was a matter of interest to me, and I felt assured that were His
Majesty acquainted with the want of unity existing, authority would be
given to carry out my views.

In Maranham, as in the other Northern provinces of the empire, there had
been no amelioration whatever in the condition of the people, and
without such amelioration, it was absurd to place reliance on the
hyperbolical professions of devotion to the Emperor which were now
abundantly avowed by those who before my arrival had been foremost in
promoting and cherishing disturbance.

The condition of the province--and indeed of all the provinces--was in
no way better than they had been under the dominion of Portugal, though
they presented one of the finest fields imaginable for improvement. All
the old colonial imposts and duties remained without alteration--the
manifold hindrances to commerce and agriculture still existed--and
arbitrary power was everywhere exercised uncontrolled; so that in place
of being benefited by emancipation from the Portuguese yoke, the
condition of the great mass of the population was literally worse than
before.

To amend this state of things it was necessary to begin with the
officers of Government, of whose corruption and arbitrary conduct,
complaints--signed by whole communities--were daily arriving from every
part of the province; to such an extent, indeed, was this misrule
carried, that neither the lives nor property of the inhabitants were
safe, where revenge, or baser motives, existed for the exercise of acts
of oppression[1].

[Footnote 1: Numerous original, but lengthy, documents are in my
possession proving all these facts.]

I therefore addressed a letter to the president, warning him that such
things ought not to be tolerated; that reports of excesses committed by
those under his authority were reaching me from all quarters, the
perpetrators deserving the most severe and exemplary chastisement; that
I had determined to investigate these matters; and under the reservation
made--of personally acting under extraordinary circumstances--would
visit these cases with severe punishment, should the reality come up to
the representations made.

The recklessness of human life was amongst the more remarkable features
of these excesses. Only a short time before this, I had granted a
passport to Captain Pedro Martins, as the bearer of an offer from an
insurgent party to l