y this, but I was declared by the
creatures of the administration in the National Assembly, to merit
punishment as a deserter! Such was my reward for first consolidating and
afterwards preserving the Empire of Brazil.

Never dreaming of the advantage which might thus be taken by the
Administration of the act of their envoy--on the 10th of February, 1826,
I drew a bill upon the Brazilian Government for the remainder of my pay
up to the period of my dismissal by Itabayana. This was refused and
protested, as was also another afterwards drawn.

This course clearly indicated the intention of the Administration not to
pay me anything, now that they had dismissed me from the service. To
have returned then to prosecute my claims against such judges, would
have been an act of folly, if not of insanity; my only alternative being
to memorialize the Emperor, which for many successive years I did
without effect--the execution of the Imperial will unhappily depending
on the decision of his ministers, who, little more than five years
afterwards, partly forced, and partly disgusted His Majesty into an
abdication in favour of his infant son, Don Pedro de Alcantara, now
Emperor of Brazil; committing the guardianship of his family to Jose
Bonifacio de Andrada, who, like myself, had been forced into exile from
the hatred of the very men who had so bitterly persecuted me, but had
been permitted to return to Brazil from which he never ought to have
been exiled.

For more than twenty years did I unceasingly memorialize successive
Brazilian governments, but without effect. At length the Administration
which had so bitterly visited its hatred on me passed away, and it
became evident to His present Imperial Majesty, and the Brazilian
people, that I had been most shamefully treated. Nearly at the same time
I had fortunately succeeded in convincing the British Government that
the obloquy for so many years heaped upon me was unmerited; and Lord
Clarendon warmly espoused my cause, as did the Hon. Mr. Scarlett, the
British Minister at Rio de Janeiro; these excellent personages taking
the trouble to investigate the matter, a boon which I had in vain
solicited from any of their predecessors; though, had the favour
previously been granted, it would have had the effect of explaining my
conduct in Brazil as satisfactorily as, I trust, this volume has done to
the reader.

The result of this was a commission, appointed by the Brazilian
Government, to i