The above were not the whole amounts paid, but they are all that a search amongst my numerous papers at present furnish; and as the original accounts, as has been previously stated, were sent to Rio de Janeiro, a more precise balance cannot here be drawn; but even this is sufficient to carry conviction to any reasonable mind, that the sums above stated were disbursed in ordinary routine, and should make the Brazilian administration ashamed to say, that “the First Admiral never sent in his accounts of the 200,000 dollars entrusted to him,” thus inducing an unworthy inference that they were not disbursed; though any man possessed of common understanding could never believe that a squadron, constituted as the Brazilian Marine was, would obey orders and cheerfully act in unison with me, knowing that their prize money was on board—­of which I unwarrantably held possession!

These explanations are more humiliating to the Brazilian administration than to myself—­though for so many years the subject of unmerited obloquy from their denial of accounts which must unquestionably have been in the possession of the Administration of 1825.  But I must carry these explanations yet farther.  With the exception of 4750 dollars for my own necessities, I took none as my share, though entitled to an eighth in all cases, and to a fourth in the absence of other ships whenever important services were performed by the flagship alone.  Neither had I received from the Imperial Government a single dollar of the customary emoluments due to me, though, had these been honestly paid according to the usages of nations and the stipulations of the Emperor’s decree of December 11, 1822, my share ought to have been more than double the whole amount entrusted to me to man the ships and satisfy the officers and men.  Still I did not appropriate the 39,000 dollars which remained, after paying the men, but determined to withhold it till I saw what course the prize tribunal at Rio de Janeiro intended to pursue; and, if that course were not satisfactory, then to appropriate it as a right, although it was wholly inadequate to the services rendered, for which I had been loaded with Imperial honours and national thanks, without a shilling of emolument, notwithstanding the capture of a hundred and twenty bona fide enemy’s ships—­the expulsion of their fleet and army—­and the annexation of more than one half the empire.  But more of this in another place.

On my return to Pernambuco, I found General Lima in quiet possession of the city, and as the Piranga had brought me instructions from His Imperial Majesty, that, as soon as order was restored, a force should proceed to Para, and depose the, General-at-Arms there nominated, I applied to General Lima for a small military detachment to effect that object; but he declined—­on the ground, that in the present state of affairs in Pernambuco, it was not practicable to diminish his force.