Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, from Spanish and Portuguese Domi | Page 3

captured under the Imperial order, and their value--in spite of previous stipulations--refused to the captors, on the falsely assumed ground that the provinces liberated were Brazilian--though a Brazilian military force had been recently beaten in an attempt to expel the Portuguese--and though these provinces were, at the period of my assuming the command, in the uninterrupted occupation of the very Portuguese fleets and armies afterwards expelled, it was falsely pretended that the property captured was not enemy's property--though expressly described as such in numerous Imperial decrees--and more especially by the instructions given to me by His Imperial Majesty to seize or destroy it wherever found.
It was, in short, subsequently decided by a Court of Admiralty--for the most part composed of Portuguese members, acting under the influence of a Portuguese faction in the Administration--that neither myself nor the squadron were entitled to the prizes made--though most inconsistently, the same tribunal condemned the ships of war taken--as "droits" to the crown--for which, compensation was awarded to the squadron by His Imperial Majesty, but never paid by the ministers to whom the order was directed.
Not to anticipate the contents of the volume devoted to Brazilian affairs. It being found after the expulsion of the enemy, that the stipulations made with myself were too binding to be easily set aside, several futile attempts were made to evade them, but this being found impossible, the unworthy expedient was resorted to of summarily dismissing me from the service, after the establishment of peace with Portugal--an event entirely consequent on my individual services. By this expedient--of the rectitude or otherwise of which the reader will be able to judge from the documentary evidence laid before him--I was got rid of without compensation for my claims, which for thirty years were altogether repudiated; but, at the expiration of that period, fully recognised as having been due from the beginning! The Brazilian Government, however, satisfied its own sense of justice by awarding me less than one-half the simple interest of the amount stipulated in my patents; thus retaining the whole of the principal admitted to be due.
The preceding remarks form a synopsis of my career on both sides of the continent of South America; the narrative, where dispute might arise, being carefully founded on, and in all cases accompanied by documentary evidence, which admits neither dispute nor contradiction.
The trifling amount awarded by Chili, would probably not have been granted at all, but for the earnest remonstrance of Lord Palmerston, warmly seconded by the efforts of the Hon. Mr. Jerningham, British Minister to the Chilian Republic, by whose joint exertions the Government was induced to admit--that national honour was involved in fulfilling national obligations; though an infinitesimal view of either the one or the other was certainly taken when awarding me the insignificant sum previously mentioned.
In Brazil the case was somewhat different. It is to His present Imperial Majesty, Don Pedro II. that I owe any investigation of my claims, by the appointment of a Commission (Sec?oes), which reported that they ought never to have been withheld, as being my stipulated right. But even the limited amount awarded in consequence of this decision, was on the point of being further diminished one half by its projected payment in a depreciated currency--and, had it not been for the intervention of Lord Clarendon, and of the Hon. Mr. Scarlett, British Minister at Rio de Janeiro, of whose zealous exertions in my favour I cannot speak too warmly--this further injustice would have been perpetrated without the knowledge or sanction of His present Imperial Majesty.
It may be asked, why--with the clear documentary evidence in my possession--and now adduced--I have for so many years endured an amount of obloquy and injustice, which might at any time have been set aside by its publication? The reply is obvious. The withholding of my claims by the Governments of both sides the South American Continent, and the ruinous expense to which I was put on account of Chili, entailed upon me many years of pecuniary difficulty. To have told even the truth--unbacked as I then was, by the British Government--would have been to have all my claims set at defiance, so that compulsory discretion was a sufficient reason for my silence. It was long before I could induce a British Minister to satisfy himself of the rectitude of my conduct--the soundness of my claims--or the dishonesty of those who, believing me to be powerless, laughed at reiterated demands for my stipulated rights. Yet more I have never sought from those to whom I gave liberty and dominion.
There is, however, a reason for the present publication, of which I have never lost sight. Amidst all the injustice which it has been my lot to sustain, I have ever determined--for the sake of my family--to whom my character is an