It is requisite to enter into some detail relative to the distribution of prize money thus of necessity substituted as an advance of wages:  it being impossible to get the requisite numbers of foreign seamen for the Pedro Primiero without such advance; and although the frigates which had sailed, manned for the most part with Portuguese or Brazilian crews, relied upon me for payment of their prize money, the foreign seamen refused even to remain on board the flagship without the usual advance; the officers also were in want of everything, and the men—­indebted to tavern keepers—­clamorous for payment.

As the necessity was urgent, I did not choose that the flagship, under my immediate command, should leave port in a discreditable manner, I therefore took upon myself—­notwithstanding His Majesty’s suggestion to withhold payment till we were at sea—­to accommodate the officers and satisfy the crew by the advance demanded; a step, in my judgment, the more necessary, since, as had been the case in the former campaign, I should mainly have to depend upon the foreign officers and seamen of my own ship, for the execution of plans which might become requisite—­the best way, therefore, to ensure their zealous co-operation throughout the voyage, was to establish harmony at its commencement by complying with their just demand.

The following were the principal sums disbursed on this occasion, as appears from my private memoranda, the vouchers themselves being afterwards transmitted to the Minister of Marine through Captain Shepherd, as will subsequently appear:—­

         &nb
sp;                                  Dollars. 
   To Myself 85,000
   Paid Messrs. May and Lukin, Prize Agents,
   for Admiralty Court expenses, and
   commission, at 5 per cent 15,000

Advanced to Squadron generally 23,000

Ditto to Captain Crosbie 5,000

Ditto, to other Officers 3,750

   Disbursed at Rio, 70,750

This sum, about L.14,000, may appear trivial to the English reader, accustomed to lavish expenditure in all naval expeditions as the most economical way of securing their future efficiency—­and hence the mention of such an amount may be deemed superfluous.  That this is not the case will presently appear.

The reader must not however imagine that I am about to inflict on him an account current of the expenditure of the squadron; but circumstances compel me to a precision in this respect on personal grounds:  the Brazilian Government—­though in possession of the documents and vouchers afterwards transmitted by Captain Shepherd—­publicly persisting in the statement that I never furnished accounts of the expedition to Pernambuco and Maranham—­thus leaving the public to infer that the disbursements just narrated, together with subsequent payments, had never in reality been made!  In other words, that