ment, so recently promulgated, after the decision of the
_Seccoes_ in 1854, and the expression of opinion given by the most
eminent men of Brazil (see page 282), that I ought to have the whole of
my claims--is really wonderful. But the false assertions it contains
must be met.

And first--the receipt of the 40,000 dollars for the _Imperatrice_, I
altogether deny, and can be easily convicted of untruth if my receipt
for that sum can be produced. It is worthy of note, that the date of the
decree for the payment of this sum is carefully given in the preceding
document, but the data of my acknowledgment of having received is
annulled for the sufficient reason that no acknowledgment was ever
given. The 200,000 dollars, I trust that I have sufficiently accounted
for, as well as for the vouchers sent to Rio by Captain Shepherd, whose
receipt I took for the chest containing them. But the 200,000 dollars
with which the Government charges me--even supposing the accounts to be
lost--destroyed--or purposely made away with--was not the property of
the Brazilian Government, but of the squadron, who received it only as
part payment of ten times the amount due to them! This sum though the
property of the squadron, was made to serve _as an advance of wages_, no
less than as prize-money; and does the Brazilian Government imagine that
any squadron could be sent to sea without money? Or that any reader of
common sense will acquiesce in the assertion that under such
circumstances it was not properly disbursed, even though I had not shewn
_its precise disbursement_? The Brazilian Government well knows that
the men composing the squadron were of so mutinous a character, that the
slightest deviation from their rights would have been met with instant
insubordination. Did this ever occur, even in the slightest possible
degree? It is no fault of mine, if the accounts were destroyed, as I
have no doubt they were, from pure malice towards myself, in order to
bring me into an amount of disrepute, which might justify the
withholding of my claims according to the stipulations of the Imperial
patents. By whom this infamy was perpetrated, it is impossible for me to
say--but that it was perpetrated--there cannot be the smallest possible
doubt.

It is altogether unnecessary to say another word about the 40,000
dollars for the _Imperatrice_, or the 200,000 dollars for
distribution--as the evidence adduced is sufficient to satisfy any man
not determined t