lst military commandants and others attempting to
repress these disorders are dismissed; so that absolute authority is
established--the public money being squandered on the soldiery, in
order to support a criminal despotism.

"Your Excellency must have witnessed the state to which the
province was reduced on your arrival, the people being compelled
to have recourse to arms in order to ward off a multitude of vexations.
Your Excellency must also have observed how quickly they
laid down their arms at your summons, of which circumstance the
party of the President availed themselves to sack and plunder the
towns and villages everywhere in the country; the tears, desolation,
and misery of so many villages and estates, accompanied by the
blood of the murdered and wounded, remaining eternal monuments
of these crimes.

"The President and his followers, convinced of the abhorrence
with which such atrocities were viewed, availed themselves of the
false pretext that such acts were necessary for the Imperial service,
the people being in rebellion against him.

"At the present moment he has given out that he has three thousand
men ready to support him in the Presidency against the measures of
your Excellency, and it is a fact that, in various parts of the
province, he has troops, militia, and arms; whilst the commandants,
appointed by himself, are all ready to execute his measures.

"If your Excellency should unhappily quit the province, whilst
matters are in this state, it will be totally desolated--its commerce
annihilated--and its agriculture abandoned; confiscation and terror
will be everywhere established, accompanied by rebellion towards
the Emperor. If you will remain, we, the undersigned, undertake
to support the squadron, in the absence of funds from the Imperial
treasury.

"To terminate these evils, we beg to represent to your Excellency
that there is only one remedy. President Bruce must be deposed
and sent to Rio de Janeiro, with his coadjutors, who are well known,
in order that his acts may be lawfully investigated, and punished
as justice demands; and that, in the interim, there should be
elected by your Excellency, from amongst the more respectable
inhabitants of this province, a person to represent to His Imperial
Majesty the horrible state of things here existing, and to implore
His Imperial Majest