Maranham, March 22nd, 1825.

   MOST EXCELLENT SIR,

By the arrival of my despatches transmitted by the George and other ships, your Excellency will have been successively informed of such public transactions and occurrences as seemed to me worthy of the attention of the Imperial Government.  But notwithstanding that three months and upwards have now elapsed since the date of my first communications, I have the misfortune (for so I must call it) to be left without any precise or applicable instructions from Rio de Janeiro.  The responsibility, therefore, rests entirely on my shoulders, and I feel this the more—­being aware that not only shall I meet with no support from the majority of the Ministry itself—­but that the most powerful faction in Rio de Janeiro will represent every thing I have done—­or may do—­in the blackest colours.

I console myself, however, with the knowledge that I possess the means of exposing the falsehood of every allegation that can be brought against me.  I have acted towards His Imperial Majesty and the Brazilian nation, in the same manner as I should have done for my native Sovereign and country; and I must say—­that, had I freed the shores of England from a superior hostile force, and rescued half the country from the dominion of an enemy—­the British Government would not have left me to seek the fruit of my labours, and those of the officers and seamen who served with me, in the manner in which I have been compelled to seek them in Brazil; and would never have subjected me to the necessity of having recourse to measures capable of being so perversely represented as to obscure for a time that credit to which I am entitled for the successful conduct of the naval war.  I am, however, resolved never to be deterred, by fear of consequences, from using every endeavour within my power to obtain justice for all who have continued to perform their duty in the Imperial service.  And I have the less hesitation in persevering in this resolution—­because it cannot be denied that I have strictly limited the claims of the naval service to such rewards as would have been admitted to be due, under similar circumstances, in the navy of England.

I have used the freedom to say thus much to your Excellency as my friend—­because I am well aware that the old cry of the Portuguese faction in Rio will be set up against me the moment they hear that I have caused the Junta of Fazenda of this province to pay a part of the amount of the money and bills taken on the surrender of the Portuguese authorities at Maranham.  This, of course, though only one-fourth of the amount due, will be represented as an outrageous robbery; but I again say, that it is not from the Portuguese faction at Rio, that I expect either credit or justice.  Their object is sufficiently evident, namely—­the expulsion of every foreign officer from the service, by means of privation and insult, in order that they