Bruce kept possession of the city by means of negro troops, from amongst whom he had also picked his officers, conferring upon them regular commissions; the result being, that their excesses kept the respectable inhabitants in a state of constant terror, so that my arrival was hailed with the greatest satisfaction, and addresses of congratulation were sent in from all quarters, even the ladies adopting the unusual course of sending a deputation to welcome me.

I immediately demanded from the president a report of the condition of the province; but before this was presented, memorials from every part put me in possession of the causes of disorder universally prevailing.  The general complaint was, that the president had established an autocracy, refusing the co-operation of a council, as required by the constitution, and that under his individual authority, military disorders of all kind prevailed, even to murder, whilst outrages of the most revolting nature were committed amidst cheers of “Long live His Imperial Majesty;” thus using the Imperial name as a sanction to the perpetration of acts the most unlawful and injurious.

The President Bruce was the same individual whom, on the expulsion of the Portuguese in the previous year, I had temporarily appointed President to the first provisional Junta under the Empire, which body was quickly superseded by a Government elected by the people.  Possessing influence amongst the Portuguese, of which faction—­as afterwards appeared—­he was a prominent supporter, he had contrived to get himself reinstated as head of the provincial Government, and was apparently following the policy of the Portuguese faction in power at Rio de Janeiro, viz. that of keeping his province in a state of confusion with a view to disgust the populace with the Imperial rule, and so dispose them, should opportunity offer, to favour the views of the mother country.  This policy, as has been said, was marked out by the agents of Portugal; but Bruce, with every disposition to favour the views of the parent state, was not the man to be entrusted with political strategy of this nature.  The fact being that, though possessed of a certain amount of cunning, Bruce was unfit to be entrusted with authority at all—­much less to exercise that which recognises no control—­so that the disorder which prevailed was rather a natural consequence of his own want of capacity, and arbitrary system of government.  Finding every one against him, he was gradually throwing himself on the black population for support, promoting emancipated slaves to the rank of officers; and it was generally acknowledged that had it not been for our opportune arrival, both himself and the whites who remained in the city might speedily have fallen a sacrifice to the force which had been organised for his especial protection.