rvices had been engaged on the express
stipulation of a right to all captures is, perhaps, unparalleled in the
history of nations; and, as both officers and men looked to me for
protection, I determined to persevere in demanding from the Government
of Maranham--at least a compromise of the sums which the captors had, in
1823, lent to its pressing exigencies.

No small amount of obloquy has been attached to me with regard to this
act of justice, the only one the squadron was ever likely to obtain; but
the transaction involved my own good faith with both officers and men,
who had lent the money solely on my assurance that the Government at Rio
de Janeiro could not do otherwise than refund the amount--so important
was it at the time, that the pressing difficulties of the province
should be promptly met. A man must have a singularly constituted mind,
who, in my position, would have acted otherwise. To this subject it will
be necessary to recur.

On the 7th of February, I was surprised by an intimation from Pedro
Jose da Costa Barros, of his intention to assume the presidency of
Maranham, founding his pretensions upon a letter addressed to Bruce,
whom I had suspended. At first--believing that he possessed the
requisite authority--I invited him to take possession of the office, but
finding that he had no patent to shew for the appointment, I considered
it my duty to His Majesty not to admit such pretensions till their
validity was established, and therefore told Barros that he must await
the official communications from Rio de Janeiro, before I could
acknowledge him as president--for that tranquillity being now restored,
I would not have the minds of the people again unsettled on the mere
presumption of his appointment.

In this arrangement Barros appeared to acquiesce, but being a well-known
partisan of the Portuguese faction, he was soon surrounded by the
adherents of that party in Maranham. On the 10th of March, a series of
allegations was forwarded to me by the party of Barros against the
interim President, but as they were of the most insignificant nature,
and unsupported by proof, I refused to pay attention to them. They were
shortly afterwards followed by a letter from Barros to the same purport,
but without any specific accusation against Lobo, whom he nevertheless
represented as about to fly from Maranham in order to evade the
punishment due to his crimes! Upon this I addressed to him the following
letter demandin