_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 Maranhaõ!_
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 the _Piranga_ as a passenger, or rather _quasi_ prisoner; and to this, in either capacity, it was impossible, without degradation, to submit. I had no inclination to place myself at the mercy of men who had taken advantage of a spurious decree to dismiss me--now that--in spite of their opposition--the destiny of the Empire had been irrevocably decided by my having counteracted their _anti-national_ views whilst carrying out the intentions of His Imperial Majesty.