1st, that Gameiro on the delivery of the frigate to the legation obtained possession of the chest in which they were deposited, and withheld them to justify my dismissal by casting the reproach upon me of having appropriated the amount—­an act of which the Brazilian Government may judge whether he was capable; or, 2ndly, that from the same reason they were purposely withheld or destroyed by the ministers who had been so inimical to me.  The present Brazilian Administration is happily composed of men of a different stamp, and it becomes them, for the sake of the national reputation, to institute the strictest search for the documentary evidence adduced, as no man will believe that I withheld documents which could alone justify my acts.

And here I must be permitted to remark, that the documentary evidence adduced in this volume proves the history, and not the history the documents.  If any question be made as to their validity or fidelity, I hereby call upon the Brazilian Government to appoint a Commission, or authorise their Embassy to compare the extracts with the originals in my possession, so that no manner of doubt or question shall attach to them. My object in now producing them is, that I will not voluntarily go to my grave with obloquy, cast on me by men, who, at the outset of Brazilian independence, were a misfortune to the Empire no less than to myself; men who not only pursued this shameful line of conduct towards me who was unable to resist it,—­but towards His Imperial Majesty,—­who, by similar practices, was eventually disgusted into AN ABDICATION OF HIS THRONE AND AN ABANDONMENT OF THE COUNTRY—­to which he had given one of the freest Constitutions in existence—­achieved under the Imperial watchword, “Independencia ou morte.”

CHAPTER XIII.

I AM DISMISSED THE SERVICE BY THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT—­WITHOUT ANY ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY SERVICES—­INCONSISTENCY OF THIS WITH FORMER THANKS—­THOUGH DISMISSED I AM TRIED AS A DESERTER—­AND AM REFUSED ALL COMPENSATION—­REPORT OF RECENT COMMISSION ON THE SUBJECT—­FALSE REPRESENTATIONS—­BUT PARTIALLY TRUE CONCLUSIONS—­MY ORIGINAL PATENTS NEVER SET ASIDE—­UNTRUE ASSUMPTIONS AS TO MY DISMISSAL—­MY CLAIMS FOUNDED ON THE ORIGINAL PATENTS—­LESS THAN HALF THE INTEREST DUE PAID—­OPINIONS OF EMINENT BRAZILIANS THEREON—­MY SERVICES TARDILY ACKNOWLEDGED—­NO ACT OF MINE HAD ANNULLED THEM—­THE ESTATE CONFERRED, NOT CONFIRMED—­PROMISES ON ACCOUNT OF CHILI UNFULFILLED—­THE WHOLE STILL MY RIGHT.

Having been thus unceremoniously dismissed from the Imperial service—­without doubt, by order of the Brazilian Ministry to their Envoy in London, I was some months afterwards surprised by the receipt of a letter from the Imperial Government, dated December 21st, 1825, and signed “Visconde de Paranagua,” informing me that His Imperial Majesty had ordered all my pay and other claims to be suspended till I should return to Rio de Janeiro to justify myself and give an account of my commission—­this being now out of my power, as I had been deprived of command, and the frigate in which I came to England had returned, by order of the Envoy, to Rio de Janeiro.