give from the public treasury the sum of 40,000 milreis to the captors; that the value of the prizes already declared bad, shall be immediately paid, this stipulation relating to all captures up to the present date, February 12th, and that henceforth captures shall be adjudged with more dispatch, the Government being about to decree a provisional arrangement, remedying all errors and omissions that may have occurred.”

Nothing can be more clear than the above stipulations in His Majesty’s own handwriting, to pay the squadron immediately the value of their prizes despite the Court of Admiralty, to pay 40,000 milreis for the Imperatrice, and that even the value of the prizes adjudged bad should be paid, His Majesty thus rightly estimating the conduct and motives of the Court of Admiralty. Not one of these conditions was ever complied with!

On the 1st of March, His Majesty, through his minister, Francisco Villela Barbosa, informed me that he had assigned 40,000 milreis in recompense for the acquisition of the frigate Imperatrice; stating that, with regard to the other prizes made at Para, they must be sentenced by the tribunal, in order that their value might be paid by the public treasury—­the said treasury taking upon itself to satisfy all costs and damages on captures judged illegal; but that with regard to my assertion, that there were amongst them no illegal prizes, the Government could not itself decide the question.

That His Majesty gave the order for payment of 40,000 milreis, as compensation for the Imperatrice, there is no doubt; but not a shilling of the amount was ever paid by his ministers, nevertheless even within the past few months the present Brazilian Ministry has charged that sum against me, as having been received and not accounted for! It is quite possible, that, in ignorance of the practices common amongst their predecessors of 1824, the present ministers of Brazil may imagine that the orders of His Majesty were complied with; but if so, the 40,000 milreis never reached me or the squadron.  Had it done so, nothing can be more easy than to find my receipt for the amount, which I defy them to do.

Considering our difficulties in a fair way of now being settled, I willingly undertook to conciliate the seamen, and having made the low calculation of Rs. 650.000 milreis—­a sum scarcely one-fourth the value of the prize property—­reported to the Minister of Marine the willingness of the squadron generally to accept 600,000 dollars (about L.120,000) in compensation of their full rights; agreeing, moreover, to give up all claim on the Imperial Government on payment of one-half, and security for the remainder.