First
Admiral_ of the National and Imperial Armada. All which I communicate
for the information and execution of your Excellency.

God preserve your Excellency.

Palace of Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 30th, 1825.

(Signed) VISCONDE DE PARANAGUA.

To the Marquis of Maranhao.

From this extraordinary document it is plain that Gameiro had written to
the Imperial Government the same falsehood, as he had used when
endeavouring to seduce Lieut. Shepherd from his duty to me as his
Commander-in-Chief; viz. that I had voluntarily retired from the
service, because the Admiralty Court having condemned me in L.60,000
_damages, I durst not return to Rio de Janeiro!_ though I announced to
him my readiness to sail in the frigate. The Jesuitical nature of the
preceding letter amply proves its object and motive. It does not dismiss
me--but _it calls on me to come and be dismissed_! carefully addressing
me, however, as "Marquis of Maranhao," and not as First Admiral, thereby
intimating that I was _already dismissed_! As there can be no mistake
about the meaning of the document, it is not worth while to discuss
it--the reason why it is adduced being to shew that I was not only
dismissed by the Envoy Gameiro, but in a little more than a month
afterwards by the Imperial Government itself; which for thirty years
reiterated in reply to my often pressed claims--that _I dismissed myself
by abandoning the service of my own accord_!

Not a word of acknowledgment was ever given for having a second time
saved the Empire from dismemberment, though this service was entirely
extra-official, it being no part of my contract with the Brazilian
Government to put down revolution, nor to take upon myself the
responsibility and difficult labour of reducing half the Empire to the
allegiance which it had perhaps not without cause repudiated--at the
same time, of necessity, taking the management of the whole upon myself.
This had been done at the pressing personal request of His Imperial
Majesty, in face of the decree of the Court of Admiralty _that no prizes
should be made within a certain distance of the shore_; so that no
benefit, public or private--arising from the operations of war--could
result from blockade; yet I had a right to expect even greater thanks
and a more liberal amount of compensation in case of success, than from
the first expedition. Not a word of acknowledgment nor a shilling of
remuneration for that service has ever been