On the 7th of November—­four days only after the announcement of peace—­Gameiro took upon himself the execution of the spurious ministerial decree issued by Barbosa on the 27th of February, 1824, which had been abrogated by the Emperor, through the same minister, in the July following, as a prelude to my employment in the tranquillisation of the Northern provinces.  Gameiro did not venture previously to apprise me of the act lest I should resist it—­but insultingly sent an order to the officers of the Piranga to “disengage themselves from all obedience to my command.” (Se desligao de toda subordinacao a o Ex’mo S’r Marquez do Maranhao), thus unjustifiably terminating my services—­as I was on the point of returning, in obedience to the order of the Emperor.  The subjoined is the order alluded to:—­

   To Captain SHEPHERD, commanding the Piranga, still refusing
   supplies whilst I held the command.

Having received the two letters which you addressed to me on the 4th of this month, enclosing three demands for various articles for the use of the frigate, I have to reply that I persist in my resolution not to furnish anything to the frigate unless she is placed under the immediate orders of this Legation, which I shall only consider accomplished when I shall receive a reply signed by yourself, and by all the other officers, declaring that—­in compliance with the orders of His Imperial Majesty, contained in the two portarias of 37th of June and 20th of August last—­you all place yourselves under the orders of this Legation, and cast off all subordination to the Marquis of Maranhao!

   Dated London, 7th November, 1825.

   (Signed) GAMEIRO.

As this was done without the slightest motive existing or assigned, there was no doubt in my mind but that Barbosa and his colleagues in the ministry had instructed Gameiro to dismiss me from the service whenever peace was effected; indeed, he had so informed Lieutenant Shepherd by the letter before quoted.  To resist a measure—­though thus insultingly resorted to—­in the face of the Imperial order to return, was out of the question, as the instant consequence would have been a disgraceful outbreak between the Brazilian and Portuguese seamen of the Piranga, in the principal war port of England, to my own scandal, no less than to that of the Imperial government.  I had, therefore, no alternative to avert this outrage but by submitting to the forcible deposition from my authority as Commander-in-Chief.

This act of the Envoy—­based upon the deliberate falsehood that His Imperial Majesty had ordered the officers not to obey me, no such order existing in either of the Portarias mentioned—­precluded my obedience to the Imperial command to return to Rio de Janeiro, for being no longer acknowledged as “First Admiral of Brazil, and Commander-in-Chief of the National Armada,” I could only have accompanied