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Your Excellency ought not therefore to be surprised, if threatened as I am with this portaria I should provide beforehand against a contingency which might hereafter arise from an occasion happily so nigh, as seems to be the restoration of peace and amity between His Imperial Majesty and his royal father.
This decree nullified the unjustifiable portaria issued by Barbosa, limiting my services to the period of the war, which, in reality, had been ended by my expulsion of the Portuguese from Bahia and Maranham.
Shortly afterwards, a portaria, dated on the same day, was sent to me, explanatory of the commission which had given rise to so much trouble, and detailing my future pay as agreed upon. By the same document I was ordered to take command of the squadron, and an intimation was given that a formal commission as "First Admiral" would forthwith be made out.
Lastly, by a portaria of the 20th of December, 1825, it was decreed that all his muniments and rights should be suspended, and he was dismissed by a decree of the 10th April, 1827.
The best proof of this is the fact which will be apparent in the course of this chapter, viz. that although the province of Pernambuco was in open revolt, the Administration contrived to delay the sailing of the squadron for six months beyond the events just narrated. On the 24th of February, the following extraordinary portaria was transmitted to me by the Minister of Marine:
On the 19th of March, a direct insult was offered me by Severiano da Costa, now first minister, by an intimation to attend in the Imperial chapel for the purpose of assisting at the ceremony of swearing to the Constitution, but I was distinctly told that I should not be permitted to swear; the reason no doubt being, that, by a clause therein contained, military officers who swore to it, could not be dismissed without trial, and sentence of court martial; so that the not permitting me to swear coupled with Barbosa's portaria limiting my command to the duration of the war indirectly gave power to the Administration to dismiss me at their option, whenever they might deem it expedient so to do.
Having failed in inducing the Administration to withdraw the portaria issued with a view to nullify the commissions conferred upon me by His Imperial Majesty, I waited upon the Emperor to beg his interference in a matter no less derogatory to his authority, than unjust to myself.
The audacity of this portaria setting aside the stipulations of His Majesty and his late ministers in my commission, thus rendering it null and void without my consent was only equalled by its hypocrisy. As a "further testimony of the high estimation in which I was held," &c.
Edinburgh, Oct. 1, 1825. I have this day been favoured with your letter containing a copy of a portaria dated June 27th, wherein His Imperial Majesty, through his Minister of Marine, directs my immediate return from Maranham to Rio de Janeiro, leaving only the small vessels there; which order you will observe I had anticipated on the 20th of May, when I left the Imperial brig-of-war Cacique and the schooner Maria in that port.
Again, the Commission declares that I was dismissed the service on the 10th of April, 1827; whereas I have given the letter of Gameiro, dismissing me, on the 7th of November, 1825, and the portaria of the Imperial Government, dismissing me, on the 30th of December, in the same year!
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