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Army, city, all 

Depends on those who rule ; when men grow vile, 
The guilt is theirs, who taught them to be wicked. 








IN the years 1765 and 1766, General Dumou- 
riez, then a captain of infantry, made the tour 
of Spain and Portugal, by order of the Duke de 
Choiseul, Minister of foreign affairs in the 
reign of Louis XV. ; and it was to that noble- 
man he transmitted his observations on the mode 
of attacking and defending Portugal, whose 
topography does not appear to have been better 
known to its neighbours the Spaniards, than to 
the rest of Europe. The Duke de Choiseul 
having been exiled in 1770, was succeeded by 
the Duke d'Aiguillon. After the dismission 
of the Duke d'Aiguillon in 1774 (who was the 
personal enemy of our Author, as well as that 
of every one who had obtained the confidence 
of the Duke de Choiseul) Dumouriez then 
added to his military observations, the various 
remarks he had made on the government, poli- 
tics, finance, commerce, manners, colonies, &c. 
of Portugal, and the whole was printed at 
Lausanne in 1775, under the title of The Staff 




of Portugal in 1776. It is a Translation of that 
work which is now offered to the public. How- 
ever, it may be proper to observe, that several 
articles have been omitted ; some of which 
contained nothing but invectives, and others 
related either to subjects of little interest, or 
whose personality must have rendered them 
offensive to a nation, which, whatever Dumou- 
riez may say to the contrary, is the friend of 
Portugal. Almost all the distances of places, 
as stated by the Author, have been rectified ; 
and the greater part of the proper names which 
he had written in the Spanish, instead of the 
Portuguese language, have been corrected ; ma- 
ny occasional notes have likewise been added : 
those which contain geographical illustrations 
will be found of great utility, and it is presumed 
that the others will prove equally deserving 

When this work first appeared, it was read 
with great avidity, and received from every 
impartial reader an unsuspected praise, its Au- 
thor being then unknown ; but it displeased 
alike the Portuguese and the Spaniards. Du- 
mouriez has told them both the truth, without 
any reserve ; his frankness, which too often 
bears the appearance of rudeness, may some- 


times be thought insulting; and the manner 
in which he introduces his correcting admoni- 
tions, is still more revolting than his censure. 
Both nations, therefore, condemned the work, 
which certainly is far less difficult than to re- 
fute it. 

His military observations are acknowledged 
to have been made with uncommon sagacity, 
and the Portuguese may derive much useful 
instruction from them ; he has pointed out all 
the resources with which a fortunate situation 
has furnished them : the territory which they 
must defend, he examined with the eye of an 
able officer ; with the same eye that could dis- 
cover, twenty-five years after, the Thermopyles 
of St. Menehoud (to use his own expression) 
where, at the head of an inferior and inexperien- 
ced body of troops, he stopped the progress of 
a Prussian army, commanded by one of the 
first generals of the age. 

This work of Monsieur Dumouriez is but 
little known in this country, whose interests 
it attacks with great virulence on every occa- 
sion ; but considering it always as our duty to 
defend them, it therefore becomes an object of 
no small importance to be apprized in what 
manner those interests are attacked. Impressed 


with this idea, together with the very imperfect 
accounts of the interior of Portugal, hitherto 
published, occasioned this Translation ; con- 
ceiving that it contains much information upon 
these subjects, which, under the present threat- 
ened circumstances of that country, may prove 
highly acceptable. 

General Dumouriez in his Preface, having 
particularly recommended a Map of Portugal, in 
six sheets, published by the late T. Jefferys, 
it should be mentioned that this Map has since 
been greatly improved ; the northern districts 
of Estremadura, together with the eastern 
portion of Alemtejo, have not only been cor- 
rected, but traced anew from manuscript sur- 
veys, made by a distinguished officer in the 
English army, during the last war in Portugal. 
All the frontiers, particularly those of the north, 
have also been rectified, from the provincial 
maps lately published at Madrid, by T. Lopez.. 

March ist, 1797. THE EDITOR. 









Entre Douro e Minho 



T'raz 03 Montis (or Trahs Monies.} 









Alemtejo - 



Algarve - - 



Conclusion - 


















Islands belonging 


to Portugal 




- 97 




Defects of the Portuguese Army - 1 03 


State of the Army. Infantry, Cavalry, 
LightTroQps,Artillery, and Fortifications TOO 


CHAP. III. Page 

Generals, the Staff, Officers, &c. Subsist- 
ence; the Minister of War - 116 


Jopography, Rivers, Mountains, Fortified 
Places - - - 123 


Historical Reflections on the War of Portu- 
gal 134 




Manners of the Portuguese; the Fidalgos; 
Women; Public Amusements, Dances, 
Bull-feasts, &c. 154 


Dress, Buildings, Police, Climate, Earth- 
quakes, Country Houses, sV. - 16$ 


Justice, Prisons, Tribunals, Councils, Ci- 
ties, Orders, Archbishoprics, Bishoprics 9 
the Patriarch, Religion, the Inquisi- 
tion, the Expulsion of the Jesuits, Schism 
f Portugal -' j66 


CHAP. IV. Page 

University of Coimbra, College ^of Nobles; 
Literature, Authors, Historians, Poets, 
Arts ' '9* 


The Government, the Marine, Commerce, 
Agriculture, and Finance - *97 


The Court - - - 208 

A Summary of the History of Portugal 2 1 3 


Anecdotes John V., Joseph /./ the 

Earthquake; the Conspiracy; the War of 
1762; the loss of the Customhouse by Fire; 
the Death of Graveron ; the Revolt of 
Brasil - ^mV 223 


Political State of Portugal 260 


Count d'Oeyr as > />, : 26 5 


JL HE Title of this Book proves with what ease 
it is composed a Work of this kind exacts 
from its Author neither strict adherence to 
chronology, method, comment, analysis, elo- 
quence, nor imagination : to speak the truth is 
all that is required of him : the severest censor 
has no right to demand more. My Work is a 
picture, which I colour to any height that suits 
my idea ; if the colour be but true to nature, 
the strength or weakness of thettint make no 
difference in its merit ; my title is then exact. 
From the circumstantial histories of Portu- 
gal I have selected some traits,* to throw light 
upon the national character-, and to elucidate 
my observations upon the present state of the 
monarchy. A minute detail of facts does not 
come within my plan. 

* History of Portugal, in French, by La Clede, in 
I volumes. 



I wish to paint Portugal as it was in 1766 : 
and to my surprise and satisfaction, I find it so 
little known, that ray book will possess com- 
pletely the merit of novelty. 

The intimate connections of Portugal with 
England, its riches, situation as a maritime 
power, the horrible convulsions of nature that 
have in this age shaken its very foundation, the 
wars it has been forced into, and above all, the 
transcendent genius of its Prime Minister,* 
ought to call forth the curiosity of all travellers, 
and excite those that visit its shores to acquire 
and communicate information on so interest- 
ing, and, I venture to say, so unknown a 

The English travellers, those diligent ob- 
servers of men and things, seem to have neg- 
lected Portugal, or to have despaired of find- 
ing in it any object that could repay their 
trouble, or satisfy their spirit of philosophic 
research. None visit Portugal but mercantile 
men, and those absorbed in commerce, confined 

* Marquis of Pombal. .'*"" 


lo their desk of exchange, see no place but 
Lisbon and Oporto, and live entirely among 
themselves ; they, therefore, can obtain but a 
scanty knowledge of the country. 

The Spaniards, though they have a thousand 
motions of policy, rivalship, and hatred, to 
urge them to a scrupulous examination of the 
neighbouring kingdom, are yet more indifferent 
than the English. They have no map of it, no 
plan of its fortresses, no account of its armed 
force, its resources, or of the character and 
temper of its inhabitants : if such exist, it can 
only be within the impenetrable scrutoires of 
ministers, out of which not even the exigencies 
of war can draw them. It must be fresh in the 
recollection of many officers how, in the cam- 
paign of 1762, while the army was encamped 
at Zamora, with the intention of penetrating 
into Portugal, the General, Marquis of Sarria, 
stood in his hall surrounded by his staff-of- 
ficers, like the figure of perplexity and diffidence, 
craving information concerning the roads of 
Portugal, from persons as ignorant as himself; 



how one man had heard from a pedlar, that be- 
tween such towns the highways were rugged ; 
another had been told, by a lady in Valladolid, 
that other roads were passable or impassable ; 
all was guess and hearsay ; no plan of a cam- 
paign was formed, because there was no topo- 
graphical knowledge ; and yet, at that very 
time lay, buried in dust and oblivion in the 
public offices, the Memoirs of the great Duke 
of Alba, the Duke of Ossuna, Don John of 
Austria, and the Marquis of Bey ; the maps 
and surveys made by their orders ; and the plans 
of Nicholas de Langres, a French engineer, 
drawn in 1640. The war of 1762 has not pro- 
duced even a tolerable map ; and Portugal is as 
little known to the Spaniards, in a military 
view, as the deserts of Arabia. 

Thomas Jefferys published an excellent map 
of Portugal *. 

The French, so remarkable for their curio- 
sity, vivacity, boldness, and acuteness of re- 
mark ; who make reflections and write upon 
An improved edition was printed in 1790. 


all subjects, have nevertheless left Portugal un- 
tried ; content, like other travellers, with a 
sight of Lisbon and Oporto, they have given 
us some speculative pamphlets on the com- 
merce of those cities, but have not extended 
their view into the heart of the kingdom. The 
French officers, who served as auxiliaries in 
the Spanish army, saw too little of the country 
to attempt a description of it ; and were be- 
sides so disgusted with the ridiculous conduct 
of the military measures, that their reflections 
may be more justly considered as bitter satires 
upon their friends, than criticisms on the ope- 
rations of the enemy. 

One great cause has powerfully operated to- 
wards the neglect with which Portugal has 
been treated by writers and travellers, and that 
is, the extreme sloth and apathy of its inhabi- 
tants ; they neither travel, write, nor commu- 
nicate with foreign nations. The wretched 
accommodations and bad roads of their own 
country, and of Spain, may be admitted as their 
excuse ; but why not visit England, their ally ? 
B 3 


why not profit of their easy communication 
by sea with all the world, to know what is 
passing in some parts of it, and to draw its at- 
tention once more to a nation which a few 
centuries ago astonished mankind by the most 
valuable discoveries, and brilliant conquests ? 

Strange to say, its government forbids the 
exertion ; while Denmark, wisely steering clear 
of the contest, sent its young officers to learn 
their hazardous trade under great generals, 
Portugal recalled those subjects whom zeal for 
glory and instruction had enticed from their 

This cloud of oblivion which covers Portu- 
gal, this national stupor, stamps a value on my 
Work ; which I shall endeavour to enhance by 
impartiality, and a steady adherence to truth. 

ACCOUNT, ire. 





1 HOSE persons who take up a book with a 
wish to be instructed, will peruse with eager 
attention the geographical details which are ne- 
cessary for understanding it, while the same 
dry statements frighten him who reads only for 
amusement. I have endeavoured to please both 
kinds of readers ; the former, by my scrupu- 
lous exactitude, the latter, by an assemblage of 
anecdotes and remarks, which will enliven the 
page, and dispel the gloom. I have given a 
state of the population of Portugal, not to be 
met with in other books. Without having ve- 
rified the account, and seen the vouchers, it is 
scarce possible to believe that its six provinces 
can bring forward so many inhabitants, yet the 
B 4 


statement is indisputable ; and there is room 
for double the number, without being distrest 
for sustenance : in the time of the Romans, 
they nourished more than five millions of in- 
habitants, and the glorious age of Don Emma- 
nuel reckoned up at least four millions. 

The whole extent of Portugal is about 
three hundred and forty British miles in length, 
and from one hundred and thirty to one hun- 
dred and forty in breadth ; it is therefore 
five times less than Spain. But the advantages 
of its situation, the assistance of England, the 
weakness of its enemy, the impervious nature 
of its approaches, and the number of its strong 
holds, will always preserve it from the ambi- 
tion of Spain, were all the rest of Europe to re- 
main an indifferent spectator of the conflict. 
With these weapons, it will always baffle the 
efforts of the Spaniards. 

Portugal is divided by geographers into six 
provinces, three of which form the department 
of the north, viz. Entre Douro e Minho, (be- 
tween Douro and Minho) Traz os Montes, (be- 
hind the mountains) and Beira ; the remaining 
three compose the southern department; viz. 
Estremadura, Alemtejo, (beyond Tagus) and 
*he kingdom of Algarve. 




THE province of Entre Douro e Minho is 
bounded on the north by Galicia in Spain and 
the river Minho ; on the east by Traz os 
Montes, from which it is separated by the moun- 
tains of Santa Caterina and Geres ; on the south 
by Beira, from which it is divided by the river 
Douro ; on the west by the ocean. Its length is 
above sixty miles from north to south, its width 
about forty, from east to west. In proportion 
to its extent, it exceeds every other province in 
the number of inhabitants. 

In it are two cities, Braga, the capital, and 
o Porto ; twenty-six towns, or walled burghs ; 
the principal of which are Viana, Guimaraens, 
Ponte de Lima, Villa de Conde, Caminha, 
Mon9ao, Barcelos, Valenca ; it reckons two 
cathedral, five collegiate, and more than five 
hundred parish churches ; it is watered by 
many rivers, which distribute fertility, and are 
crossed by more than two hundred stone bridges. 

The chief productions are corn, wine, oil, 


wool, and flax ; living is cheap ; game and 
fish abound. 

It is divided into six jurisdictions ; viz. three 
royal, called Corregedorias,* and three feudal, 
called Ouvidorias. 

Guimaraens is the first corregedoria, extend- 
ing over four towns ; its district is large and 
populous, containing 124,000 souls. The chief 
town stands between the rivers Dave and Vi- 
sela, three leagues from Braga ; it was the re- 
sidence of the early kings of Portugal, the 
birth-place of Alphonsus Henry, who first as- 
sumed the regal title. Here is a collegiate 
church ; the canons possess great riches, and 
belong to the higher class of nobility. In the 
fish-market is a ruined church, dedicated to St. 
James, which was in Pagan days the temple of 
Ceres ; the town contains 5000 inhabitants, 
and is defended by an ancient castle, built on 
an eminence. 

The second corregedoria, Viana, consists of 
nine towns; the most considerable Mo^ao 
and Ponte de Lima. It numbers 98,000 souls. 

* Corregedor is the name given to the chief civil ma- 
gistrate appointed by the king; and Ouvidor the name 
of the subordinate magistrate appointed by the lords of 
the respective towns or districts. T. 


Viana i~ situated at the mouth of the Lima, 
with a harbour once very practicable, but of 
late years the sand banks have accumulated, 
and no vessel of burden can get in ; it is well 
built, in an agreeable country, with about 7000 
inhabitants; Alphonsus III. was the founder 
in 1253. The castle of St. James, raised on a 
neck of land, with bastions cut in the rock, de- 
fends the entrance of the port. 

Ponte de Lima boasts of great antiquity, at- 
tributing its foundation to the Greeks ; it stands 
on the Lima, ten miles above Viana, and is a 
neat little town, of about 2000 souls. Moncao 
was built by Alphonsus III. about nine miles 
from Valenca, on the Minho ; contains only 
700 persons ; the fortifications might be made 
very respectable with moderate repairs. 

The third corregedoria is o Porto, (" the 
Port,") or Oporto, or Porto, in which are 
one city, three towns, and 100,000 inhabi- 
tants ; next to Lisbon Oporto claims pre-emi- 
nence, in point of value, over all Portugal ; 
its port, at the mouth of the Douro, is famous 
for its traffic, which has drawn to it a great 
concourse of people, especially within the last 
thirty years ; the effects of the tremendous 
earthquake of 1755 were but little felt here ; 


foreigners swarm at Oporto, and carry on its 
trade ; the English are the most numerous. In 
1732 this place contained only 24,000 inha- 
bitants, the number is now nearly double* : it 
is open and unfortified, except towards the sea, 
where two forts have been built. Living is 
cheaper than at Lisbon, society more agreeable. 
After the earthquake, the court had thoughts 
of removing hither. The inundations of the 
Douro frequently cover the quays and low 
quarters of the city. 

The first ouvidoria is Barcelos, containing 
seven towns, and 50,000 souls. The town of 
Barcelos gives tide of count to the house of 
Bragan$a ; it stands nine miles from Braga, 
and has a collegiate church, but only 1500 in- 

The ouvidoria of Valen9a embraces three 
towns, of which the principal one, Valenca, 
was founded on the Minho by the veteran sol- 
diers of Viriatus ; it was once regularly forti- 
fied, but the works have long been in a state of 
ruin; the present minister has directed them to- 
be restored ; Tuy, the frontier town of Ga- 
licia, is not out of cannon shot from Valen^a, 

* In 1705, it contained only four thousand. T. 


which gives title of marquis to the house of Vi- 
mioso. The population of the district does not 
exceed 26,000, that of the town amounts only 
to 900 souls. 

The ouvidoria of Braga includes that city only, 
and 34,000 inhabitants, of whom 12,400 reside 
at Braga, which is said to have been founded 
by some Greeks returning from the siege of 
Troy ; it stands in a pleasant plain, distant se- 
venteen miles from the sea, watered by two ri- 
vers ; the Cavado on the north, and the Deste 
on the south side. This city was an important 
station in the days of ancient Rome, and still 
shows, as proofs of its former grandeur, an 
aqueduct and a ruined amphitheatre ; it is 
well built ; the see of an archbishop, to whom 
its lordship belongs, who assumes the title of 
Primate of Spain, as filling the most ancient 
episcopal chair in the peninsula. Five councils 
have been holden here, and 114 prelates have 
worn its mitre, some of which are held in high 
repute for sanctity and learning ; the famous 
Bartholomew of the martyrs at their head. 

The six jurisdictions of this province con- 
tain, according to the last rates, 504,000 inha- 
bitants, who are in easier circumstances in ge- 
neral, as being more industrious and resolute 


than those of the other provinces. They are of 
a handsomer breed, robust, and agile, frank and 
loyal subjects, and esteemed the best foot sol- 
diers in the kingdom. 

Entre Douro e Minho is exposed in time of 
war to nothing more dangerous than slight de- 
sultory attacks on the frontiers, which towards 
Galicia are well covered by the Minho, and 
cut through with innumerable defiles and im- 
penetrable dells ; its people are brave, and ani- 
mated by a most ardent hatred against the Cas- 
tilians. There are besides some fortresses, es- 
pecially along the banks of the Minho, such 
as Valenca, Villanova, Lapela, Moncao, and 
Melgasso. Many large streams, tha^- run across 
the frontier from the deep recesses of the 
mountains, contribute greatly to the strength 
of the country ; every river that waters the 
inner parts of the province (viz. the Li- 
ma, Neyva, Cavado, Deste, Dave, and Gri- 
soner) directs its course from east to west, and 
consequently forms natural points of defence, 
and posts which, joined to the steep mountains, 
must render an irruption on this side very dif- 
ficult and hazardous. Near the source of the 
Lima towards the north, the entrance is wider, 
but there also are many excellent posts along the 


Vazzeas, viz. Tiar, Paraclela, Forte da Es- 
trica, and Portela de Homem. On the east side, 
the province is separated from Tras os Montes 
by the chain of Geres, Santa Caterina, and 
Maram, which is very hard to pass, and very 
easy to defend, by breaking up the ways, mak- 
ing abattis, throwing up breast- works and re- 
doubts ; upon the whole, this province, though 
tempting from its riches, is in little danger : 
the Spaniards have never made any great im- 
pression upon it ; and so well is it calculated 
to defend itself, that its safety is entrusted to its 
own militia, except two or three battalions 
placed in the garrison of Oporto. Such hitherto 
has been the arrangement, which has sufficed 
for the preservation of Oporto against hostile 
attacks. The badness of the roads, the quan- 
tity of wood, and the abruptness of the moun- 
tains that hang over this city, inspire it with 
confidence of security, and perhaps ought ra- 
ther to excite apprehensions, if the Spaniards 
understood the art of making war with light 




THE province of Traz os Montes is so deno- 
minated from its situation with regard to En- 
tre Douro e Minho, from which it is disjoined 
by the ridge of Maram and Geres on the west 
side ; to the north is Galicia ; to the east the 
kingdom of Leon, and to the south Beira. Its 
surface is mountainous and dry, but near the ri- 
vers, the narrow slips of plain are populous 
and fertile. It comprehends two cities, Braga 
and Miranda, and fifty towns ; reaches about 
eighty-six miles from east to west, and between 
sixty and seventy from north to south ; is divided 
into two corregedorias and two ouvidorias. 

The corregedoria of Torre de Moncorvo con- 
tains 26 burghs and 45,000 inhabitants. In 
1762, the Spaniards placed a detachment here, 
which did a great deal of mischief. As they 
marched to attack it, they took it for granted 
they were to meet with a fortified town, and 
it was said that a corps of 8000 Portuguese 
were to defend it. The astonishment of the 


Spaniards equalled their ignorance, when they 
found Moncorvo was but a sorry village, that, 
for the last hundred years, had had neither wall 
nor gate, nor had it seen a soldier stationed there 
during all that time. 

The corregedoria of Miranda contains an 
episcopal city, 12 burghs, and 24,000 souls. 
Miranda was fortified, but in the ancient style, 
When the Spaniards came to invest it in 1762; 
a powder magazine blew up accidentally, tore 
the castle to pieces, killed 600 men of the gar- 
rison and of the town, and laid the place open 
to the enemy. The same disaster had befallen 
it in the wars for the Spanish succession. It 
is impossible to re-establish this fortress to any 
good effect, as it is commanded by the heights ; 
yet a post here would be a great barrier against 
Leon, and be an advantageous outlet for an in- 
vasion of Spain Avith light troops. 

The ouvidoria of Braga^a comprehends a ci- 
ty, 12 towns, and 75,000 inhabitants. Bragan9a 
is the capital of the province, but the bishop's 
see has been removed to Miranda ; it stands in 
a narrow plain, near the banks of the little river 
Fervenca, only nine miles from Galicia, and 
Leon. Its founder is said to have been Brigo, 
the fourth monarch of Spain, in fabulous times ; 


but it has another full as honourable and more 
probable. A colony was settled here by Au- 
gustus, and, in honour of his great-uncle, called 
Julio* Briga. It bears the title of dutchy, and 
belongs to the reigning family. Here are some 
good manufactories of silk, velvet, and gro- 
gram. Its walls are antique, defended by 
sixteen towers ; the castle pretty strong. In 
point of relative situation to Spain, it resembles 
Miranda, and contains 2700 inhabitants. In 
1762, the Spaniards lost above 4000 soldiers in 
an hospital they had established here. 

Chaves is the most considerable town of the 
province, and the residence of the commander 
in chief of the northern department. Vespa- 
sian first settled it, and built fine baths here, 
of which some fragments remain to this day. 
Over the river Tamega is still to be seen a 
very remarkable bridge, erected by Trajan. 
There are fortifications, but all difficult to de- 
fend, being, as all the rest in the district are, 

* This is a mistake 5 the town of Juliobriga, belong- 
ing to the Cantabri, was situated at the foot of the moun- 
tains where the Ebro takes its source. Jefferys's map 
calls Braga Brigantium, which is likewise an error, the 
ancient name of that city being Bracara Augusta. Be. 
tflpcos in Galicia is the ancient Briganthtm. T, 


commanded by eminences. The royal family 
possesses the seignory. It was from Chaves 
that the Spanish general detached, in 1762, a 
corps of 3000 volunteers, that were to march 
to Oporto as avantcouriers of the army ; Alex- 
ander Oreilly*, now a lieutenant-general in 
the Spanish service, in high esteem, was put 
at their head, and was to have been supported 
by other parties. He pushed on as far as Vil- 
la Real without meeting with any resistance ; 
but there he learnt that the peasantry was arm- 
ing, and that the defiles were dangerous, upon 
which he turned back, and made a very disor- 
derly retreat ; at Villa Pou9a, and as far as 
Chaves, the peasants harassed him exceed- 
ingly, and had the glory of driving him back 
with loss and disgrace, though their number 
did not exceed 600, nor had they a single mi- 
litary man with them. This feat was highly 
celebrated in Portugal, and the particulars of 
it repeated with great pride. The failure in 
this operation occasioned the retreat of the Spa- 
nish army to Zamora, the siege of Almeida, 
and all the confusion and blunders of the cam- 

* Famous for his ill-fated expedition against Algiers 
in 1775. He died a captain-general in 1,791. T 


paign. Portugal was at that time without 
troops and planet-struck ; had the army ad- 
vanced rapidly upon Oporto it must have taken 
it without firing a gun. Great resources would 
have been found there, both in money, stores, 
and provisions, and an excellent climate ; the 
Spanish troops would not have perished as they 
did, with hunger and want of accommodations ; 
the face of affairs would have been totally 

This province is not worth an attack in a 
war between Spain and Portugal ; it is even 
dangerous for the Spaniards to penetrate into it, 
as they found to their cost in the late war ; 
40,000 men advanced to Chaves, Braganca, 
and Miranda, without magazines or provision 
of any sort, and about a fourth of their num- 
ber died there of sickness, hunger, and want, 
without a single point being carried in favour 
ef the general attack upon Portugal, 




THE province of Beira is the largest in the king- 
dom ; it borders to the north on Entre-Douro 
e Minho and Traz os Montes ; to the east on 
Leon and Spanish Estremadura ; to the south 
on the Portuguese Estremadura and Alentejo ; 
and to the west on the Atlantic. Its length 
eighty" two miles, its breadth above one hundred ; 
is divided into six corregedorias and two ouvi- 
dorias ; contains four bishopricks, viz. Coim- 
bra, Viseu, Guarda, and Lamego ; four cities, 
and 234 little towns, with 560,000 inhabitants: 
in some parts the country is fruitful in wheat and 
rye, and abounds in game, and sheep, rish, and 
fruit ; in others, an universal sterility reigns. 
The climate inclines to cold, on account of the 
quantity of mountains. In some districts near 
the sea Beira produces excellent wine and oil, 
as good as that of Andalusia ; the English buy 
most of it, as well as its lemons and oranges. 
This province is divided into upper and lower 
by a lofty ridge, called La Serra de Estrella. 


The corregedoria of Coimbra contains one 
city, many burghs, and 150,000 souls. Coim- 
bra (Conimbriga) was built by the Romans, 
about 300 years before Christ, on a spot dis- 
tant one league from the present city ; but the 
Alani having destroyed it, Ataris king of the 
country raised it anew in 415, on the banks 
of the Mondego. Coiinbra is celebrated for 
its university, founded by king Denis, which 
has seven professorships for divinity, seven for 
canon law, ten for civil law, seven for phy- 
sic, one for mathematics, and one for music. 
The city has a fine bridge over the Mondego, 
and musters 10,000 inhabitants, besides 4000 
students. The bishop is titular Count of Ar- 

The ouvidoria of Montemoro Velho contains 
30,000 inhabitants ; the ancients knew it by 
the name of Medobriga*. This town stands on 
the banks of the Mondego, thirteen miles from 
Coimbra, and has 4000 inhabitants. Aveiro, 
comprized within this district, is a seaport that 
improves daily, and with a little expence, may 

* Another-mistake : Mcidobriga, not Mcdvbriga, was 
situated near mount Hcrminius, about seventy miles to 
the south-west of Alcantara ; its remains are called no\r 
Armenha. T. 


become excellent : its situation, and the ferti- 
lity of the environs, have allured to it many 
strangers, English especially, who carry on a 
considerable traffic in oil. This is the chief 
town of the dutchy of Aveiro, and reckons 4400 

Theouvidoriaof Fcira contains 42,000 souls; 
its town, with title of county, is supposed to 
have been founded by the Asturians, in 1000, 
at the distance of twelve miles from Oporto. 
It offers nothing worthy of notice. 

The corregedoria of Viseu includes an epis- 
copal city, and 22 small towns, with a popu- 
lation of 95,000 souls. Viseu is situate in the 
centre of the province, between the waters of 
the Mondego and those of the Vouga ; it was 
founded in the time of Sertorius, by the pro- 
consul D. Brutus, and called Vicontium *. Two 
towers yet remain, of Roman construction, on 
which appear the eagle and the names of Flac- 
cus and Frontinius, probably the architects or 
overseers of the building. But the greatest cu- 

* In Jefferys's map it is called Verrunum : some Por- 
tuguese authors, 1 don't know u; on what ground, 
pretend that it was founded by the Turduli r 500 years 
before Christ, under the name of Vacca, and named 
afterwards Vicus Aquarius by the Romans. T. 


riosity is the tomb of the ill-fated Gothic kin 
Rodrigo, who, if we were to credit the ground- 
less legend of the Portuguese, escaped from the 
battle of Xeres and the destruction of his em- 
pire, became a monk at Viseu, and died long 
after in dolour of sanctity. 

Thecorrege'loria of Lainego comprehends an 
episcopal city, 33 towns, and 60,000 inhabi- 
tants. Lamego stands on the Douro, in a plain 
surrounded by mountains. Its origin is carried 
back to some fugitives of Laconia, 360 years 
before our xra ; Trajan restored it by the name 
of Urbs Lamacasnorum *. Notwithstanding 
many disasters, which at various periods have 
befallen it, the inhabitants, in number 5000, 
possess considerable wealth. Here is a great 
annual fair for horned cattle. 

In the corregedoria of Pinhel are 55 towns 
and 70,000 inhabitants. The town is fortified 
after the old fashion, and contains nothing re- 
markable. Almeida is the principal place of 
the district, and the strongest fortification in 
Portugal. It has six royal bastions of stone 
and as many ravelins ; that fronting the river 

* Its more ancient name appears to have been Lama, 
though Ptolemy attributes that town to the Vettones, 
instead of the Lusitani. T. 


Coa, which runs at the distance of a mile, is of 
a noble extent, and furnished with a cavalier, 
for the purpose of commanding the circumja- 
cent country : there is a good ditch and covered 
way. Nearly in the centre of the town, on a 
lofty mound, stands a castle, famous for its 
strength, and magazines bomb proof; within 
its walls are wells, and at a small distance a 
fine spring of water. The number of souls in 
the town 2500. The siege and surrender of 
this place to the Spaniards in 1762, caused the 
loss of a great deal of precious time, provisions, 
and treasure, without obtaining any important 
end ; the same thing will always happen when 
the same plan of a campaign shall be adopted; 
for the conquest of this fortress is of no im- 
portance with regard to the real frontier of 
Portugal ; the conqueror of Almeida is not 
more certain of penetrating to the heart of the 
kingdom, than he was before he took it. An 
absurd inveterate prejudice urges us often to 
sacrifice men and money before useless ram- 
parts, merely because the ancestors of our ene- 
mies have been such systematic fools as to for- 
tify them. 

The corregedoria of Guarda contains an epis- 
copal city, 30 burghs, and 7000 souls. The 


city of Guarda was founded in 1199, by king 
Sancho I. near the head of the Mondego, and 
at the foot of the Serra da Estrella ; its walls 
are of stone, and turreted ; its castle overlooks 
the plain. Its population 2700 persons. The 
prelate resides at Castelbranco. The plain of 
Guarda is much above the level of the whole 
province, and commands it completely ; it 
would be an excellent camp for 20,000 men. 
Lord Galway in his Memoirs decides that it is 
by far the best post that the Portuguese can 
take for the defence of Lisbon. Jt has be- 
fore it Sabugal, Penamacor, Castelbranco, 
&c. for advanced stations, commands the de- 
files that lead from them, and is defended by 
woods and swamps in front ; while the river 
Zezere covers its right flank : thus it would 
protect all Beira, and the towns both of the 
Tagus and the Douro. 

The corregedoria of Castelbranco is com- 
posed of 22 burghs, and 40,000 inhabitants. 
The town stands between two streams, the 
Liria and the Pon^ul, fifteen miles distant from 
the Tagus ; it is fortified with a double wall, 
seven towers, four gates, and an old castle once 
formidable, and contains 4000 inhabitants. Idan- 
ha a Nova (New Idanha) is a burgh, so rich and 


abounding in provisions, that the Spanish army 
lived upon what it furnished for a whole month. 
The knights of the order of Christ have the 
seignory. Penamacor, erected by Sancho I. is 
on an eminence thiry-five miles from Almei- 
xla, and on the Spanish limits ; its castle com- 
mands to great advantage the whole range from 
Castelbranco to the Coa ; but its fine position 
for defence has not been improved by any works : 
2500 inhabitants form its population. The 
conquest of Beira can only be achieved with 
ease through the Portuguese Estremadura and 
the plain of Leiria. To an enemy marching 
from the Tagus towards Coimbra, the pro- 
vince becomes an easy prey, as its natural de- 
fence of mountains, ravines, and denies, which 
guard the frontier, are by this line of march 
turned and rendered useless. A passage along 
the banks of the Tagus is easily forced, for 
there the walls and fortresses are in a state of 
neglect and ruin. 

The Portuguese, though guided in general 
by very erroneous principles in their wars with 
Spain, seem, however, to have blinded their 
enemies as to the real point of attack ; indeed, 
to all appearance, they themselves are complete* 
ly ignorant of it, for they are now working, at 



an enormous expence, and great activity, at the 
repair of that most useless fortress, Almeida ; 
they are. also lavishing great sums upon the for- 
tifications of Elvas, in order to deceive the Spa- 
niards, and induce them still to look upon those 
as the keys of Portugal ; but they do not endea- 
vour to find out what other openings the enemy 
might push through ; a line of posts might, 
with ease and with little expence, be formed 
along the mountains and the course of the rivers, 
which, by a very simple method of fortification 
and defence, would cover Lisbon and Oporto 
from insult. But to state the matter fairly, the 
Portuguese government is not so much to blame, 
as it knows the character of the Spaniards, and 
has reason to think they will always esteem 
Almeida a place of infinite consequence, and 
its reduction a sufficient reward for a whole 
campaign ; that they will always commence 
their operations by the invasion of Beira, and 
by that prejudice keep the war at a distance 
from both Lisbon and Oporto, the loss of which 
would endanger the whole kingdom. 

The reduction of a few places, which at the 
peace must be restored, whatever men and mo- 
ney they may have cost you to take and preserve, 
are nothing to throw into the balance of a ne- 


gotiation ; this truth the French have found 
out after every German war. In the present 
state of things, Portugal depends upon Spain's 
adopting a false, expensive, undecisive system 
of warfare woe to Portugal if Spain should 
discover its error, and take advantage of Por- 
tuguese ignorance and negligence. 

To return to the siege of Almeida. If the 
Spaniards undertake it, this project detains them 
far from Lisbon, gives time for decision in the 
Portuguese cabinet, and for the arrival of Eng- 
lish succours. The fortress, if well defended, 
may waste a whole campaign, and when taken 
will be of little use, by reason of its distance 
from the centre of operations ; meanwhile the 
enemy may take post in the gorges and defiles 
of Beira, entrench themselves in the fine camp 
of Guarda, and so ward off from Lisbon the 
blows of war, against which, in fact, they 
ought principally to be directed. I even affirm 
that were all the provinces of Portugal to fall 
into the hands of an invader, if Lisbon and 
Oporto be not reduced, the aspect of the war 
would not be more changed, as far as regards 
a negotiation for peace, than if nothing had 
been done ; I therefore am confident that the 
surrender of Almeida, instead of promoting, 


really retarded the progress of the war. After 
taking that fortress, the remainder of the cam- 
paign was spent in uncertain wanderings and 
countermarches ; the minister disregarded the 
advice of his general, the Count of Aranda, who, 
being on the spot, was the best qualified to take a 
decided part and proper measures. All military 
men allowed the purity of his intentions, and 
his prudence, by which alone he repaired the 
mischiefs occasioned by the disorder in the sup- 
plies and hospitals, and en-bled the army, by a 
restoration of health and order, to commence 
the following campaign under better auspices. 
His plan was to move against Coimbra, and 
also seize upon Oporto ; the only way to de- 
rive any benefit from the capture of Almeida, 
and to make amends for the lost time. It is 
clear that if Aranda could have put this project 
in execution, the war of Portugal would have 
ended in a very different manner ; but still the 
Count had discerned only a small part of the 
only plan capable of finishing the war of Por- 
tugal in two months, for he would have left 
time for the enemy to cover Lisbon, and to 
render the approaches extremely difficult. 

After taking Almeida an army advances into 
Beira, and there meets with the Serf a da Es- 


trella, forming a tremendous barrier before 
the capital. Then you must expect to have 
to encounter an army of 20,000 Portuguese, 
and 7000 British soldiers : what is to be done 
against such a force, entrenched among the 
mountains, where there is no passage for wag- 
gons and artillery, especially if you are with- 
out maps, scouts, light baggage, medicines, 
and provisions, harassed and surrounded by 
30,000 brave and desperate peasants. 



PoRTUGUESEEstremadura is bounded north by 
Beira ; east and south by Alemtejo ; west by the 
Ocean : is one hundred and twenty miles long, 
and seventy wide ; divided from east to west 
by the Tagus, which falls into the sea a little 
below Lisbon. Its soil the best in Portugal, 
produces all its different sorts of fruit , its com- 
merce very considerable, carried on, in great 


part, by the Brazil fleet. It contains two cities, 
in towns, and 660,000 inhabitants, comprised 
in six corregedorias, two ouvidorias, and 460 
parishes, exclusive of the country of Setuval, 
which contains a corregedoria and two ouvi- 

The corregedoria of Lisbon comprises only 
that metropolis and its district, but reckons 
360,000 inhabitants. 

Lisbon is situated like an amphitheatre 
along the Tagus, upon seven high hills and 
intermediate eminences. If you take in the 
suburbs, its length reaches near four miles, by 
two in width. Its latitude 38 42' 50" ; its 
longitude 9 3'. According to the fables of 
antiquaries, it was built 278 years after the 
flood, by a grandson of Noah, called Elisa ; 
then rebuilt by Ulysses, who gave it the name 
of Ulyssipona*, which is still its appellation in 
Latin. It was a municipium under the Ro- 
mans; and at present is the seat of a patriarch, 
first instituted in 1708. Its college of canons, 
who are all dignified with the title of Mon- 
signore, and are chosen from the first families 

* This name is a geographical barbarism ; the Latin 
name of Lisbon is variously written, Ufysippo, Olyssippo, 
and Olysippo; the true spelling ought to b Ofaipo. T. 


of the kingdom, is extremely rich. The pa- 
triarch, on solemn days and functions, dresses 
like the pope, and his canons like cardinals. 
The city is divided into two towns or sees ; the 
western governed by the patriarch, and the 
eastern by an archbishop, who is however sub- 
ordinate to the patriarch. The number of pa- 
rishes is thirty-seven, of convents of men thir- 
ty-two, and of nuns eighteen. 

The approach to Lisbon from the sea is de- 
fended by the forts of St. Julian and Bugfo, 
which cross their fire, and command the bar: 
the former, which stands high, and was built 
during the minority of Don Sebastian, is cut 
out of the solid stone in an irregular style, be- 
cause it was necessary to conform to the shape 
of the rocks, but is almost impregnable ; it 
consists of five irregular bastions and a ravelin 
on the land side, other works and a number'of 
batteries towards the river. South of this castle 
is the tower of Bugio, or St. Laurence, placed 
on a mound of rock and sand in the middle of 
the river, in form circular, but of small dimen- 
sions; the batteries numerous. Between these 
two forts runs the bar of Lisbon, crossed in the 
middle by a bank of stone, called Os Cachopos, 
which begins at the distance of a gun-shot from 


fort St. John, or St. Julian, and runs up above 
six miles to the S. S. W. The channel on the 
north side is called the Corredor, (or Barra Pe- 
quena) from its narrowness, and is not attempted 
without a leading wind and the tide. The south- 
ern channel, much wider, is called ACarreirada 
Alcacova. Two miles below Lisbon rises the 
tower of Bellem, near the beach, where ves- 
sels are visited by the officers of the customs. 
Don Manoel erected it by the name of St. Vin- 
cent. To the south of it stands the tower of Velha 
on a rock, its batteries traversing with those of 
Bellem. There are some batteries level with the 
water, but very ill distributed. The situation 
of the city is extraordinary, and, from its great 
tmevenness, little susceptible of regular embel- 
lishments. Since the earthquake, which over- 
whelmed thirty thousand of its inhabitants, Lis- 
bon is little better than a heap of ruins, of 
tottering palaces, and burnt churches, resem- 
bling the demolition of a fortress blown up 
with gunpowder. 

The climate is remarkably pure and salu- 
brious, but subject to violent falls of rain, 
storms, and earthquakes. The streets are full 
of filth, and as they are all uneven, hilly, and 
ill paved, the only vehicles in common use are 


calashes, drawn by two mules. The only level 
space is called the Rocio, and runs along the 
river side about a mile and a half, being near 
a mile broad ; here formerly stood the royal 
palace, overthrown to its very foundations by 
the earthquake ; the Count d'Oeyras is cover- 
ing this space once more with splendid edifices, 
and straight well-paved streets ; it will be or- 
namented with a broad quay, an arsenal, and 
a custom-house. 

The king lives at Bellem, three miles from 
Lisbon, encamped in wooden barracks, for he 
dares not sleep under a house of stone ; nor is 
he to blame ; for there have been earthquakes 
every year since 1755. And had it not been 
for the necessity of being near so fine a har- 
bour, and the enormous expence attending a 
Change, the whole court would have been re- 
moved to Oporto. 

The port of Lisbon is indisputably one of 
the finest in Europe ; it has a reach of two miles, 
sheltered from every wind, easy of access for 
any tonnage, and for any number of ships ; 
nothing is wanting but a commodious quay for 
landing and carrying goods : vessels of all na- 
tions flock hither, and a prodigious trade is 
carried on by foreign merchants ; most of it is 


in the hands of the English ; and Lisbon in fact 
may be considered as an English factory, both 
on account of the number of British subjects 
resident here in great state and affluence, and 
of the influence which the court of St. James's 
has over the politics of that of Portugal. 

The corregedoria of Torres Vedras contains 

18 towns and 40,000 souls. The town was 
an ancient Roman presidium, as its Latin name 
of Turres* Veteres denotes. 

The corregedoria of Alenquer comprizes eight 
burghs and 28,000 inhabitants. Alenquer was 
built by the Alani, and reckons 2000 souls ; it 
would be an excellent post for a corps of troops 
to awe or defend Lisbon. 

The corregedoria of Leyria is composed of 
an episcopal city, 21 towns, and 6o,oco inha- 
bitants. Leyria, a bishop's see, stands in a 
plain near the.Lis and the Lena, with a strong 
old castle, and 3600 inhabitants.- 

The corregedoria of Thomar comprehends 

19 towns and 40,000 souls. Thomar was 
built by Don Galdim Paez, grand-master of 
the Knights Templars in 1145,. a little after 

* This is a mere translation of the Portuguese name, 
and there is no Other ground' for the conjecture of the 
author, T. 


the institution of the order of Christ. In 1338, 
King Dennis and Pope John XXII. assigned 
to the latter order all the possessions belonging 
to the former, which had been destroyed in 
1312. This town contains 3600 inhabitants. 

The ouvidoria of Abrantes has but two 
burghs, and 12,000 souls. Abrantes, situated 
on the right shore of the Tagus, is a very 
ancient place. In the reign of Augustus it was 
already a municipium : John V. erected it into 
a marquisate. It may be considered as the key 
of the Tagus, and would soon become a con- 
siderable place, if the government were to for- 
tify it, and encourage the navigation of the 
river up into the country. 

The ouvidoria of Ourem is a county, belong- 
ing to the reigning branch, and reckons but 
seven burghs, 'and 10,000 souls. Ourem, on 
an eminence, has 1800 inhabitants. 

The corregedoria of Santarem contains fifteen 
towns and 50,000 souls. Santarem is built in 
the form of a crescent upon the Tagus, about 
fifty miles from Lisbon, overlooking a noble 
plain ; its walls are ancient, with six gates, and 
an old citadel, to which Alphonso VI. added 
a pitiful horn-work, without curtain or out- 
works, The Romans called this place Scala- 


bis and Presidium Julium. It has often beea 
besieged by the Moors, **nd its plains have 
frequently been the scenes of victories obtained 
over them ; often has it been the residence of 
kings, and now is very rich, containing 8000 
inhabitants, and a chapter of the order of 

The country of Setuval, on the left side of 
the Tagus, comprizes three jurisdictions ; the 
corregedoria of Almada, the ouvidoria of Setu- 
val, appertaining to the order of St. Jago, and 
the ouvidoria of Azeitao, which belonged to 
the house of Aveiro ; there are in it 20 towns, 
and 20,000 souls. Setuval, which our sailors 
have corrupted to St. Ubes, was founded by 
Alphonsos, first king of Portugal, nearly op- 
posite the site of Caetobriga, a Roman colony, 
on the other side of the river Caldao, where they 
stationed their fleet ; the place is now occupied 
by the village of Troya. Setuval exports a 
great deal of salt, oil, oranges, and wine of 
excellent quality, the greatest part of which 
goes to England. The town is well built, en- 
vironed with ancient walls and massy towers ; 
but from the increase of population a second 
town has been formed beyond this inclosure, 
and this has been fortified after the modern 


manner by John IV. with eleven bastions, 
two demi-bastions, a horn-work, a fort with 
four bastions, and another in a pentagon form. 
The place is commanded by the castle of St. 
Philip, erected by Philip III. of Spain ; in it 
is a numerous train of artillery, and a fine cis- 
tern. On the shore, about a mile off, is the 
tower of Outao, a lighthouse joined to a small 
redoubt, called As Vieiras. There are noo 
inhabitants, many of them in affluent circum- 
stances : its red wine is equal in repute to that 
of Oporto, and its muscadine wine is most ex- 

The Portuguese Estremadura ought to be, 
in all wars, a primary object with the Spa- 
niards ; this fertile province can supply an 
abundance of provisions for an army, that 
would die of hunger in any other part of Por- 
tugal. The Tagus facilitates the carriage of 
stores and ammunition to Lisbon, which is the 
point whither Spain must tend, when she means 
to make peace, to indemnify herself for her 
losses by sea, and treat upon a perfect equality 
with her inveterate foes. Her own weakness 
even, and the. fear of not succeeding in the 
other points of attack, ought to spirit her up 
to a vigorous assault on this quarter : this plan 


of warfare must be rapid, without baggage, 
and without sieges ; the event of a battle is 
doubly hazardous for the enemy ; contributions 
in kind would feed the army, and those im- 
posed in specie upon Lisbon would cover the 
expence of the campaign ; but the attack must 
be resolute and steady, the country well ex- 
plored, and the manoeuvres executed with de- 
cision and promptitude. This province, how- 
ever, is susceptible of a strong defence, by rea- 
son of its great unevenness of surface, and of 
the multitude of good positions that may be 
taken to protect the capital. Villa Velha and 
Abrantes are known to be important posts, but 
the Portuguese have never yet attempted a stand 
there. The plain of Santarem and the heights 
of Alenquer may be occupied to great advan- 
tage, as a means of defence, and the campaign 
may be rendered bloody and indecisive by de- 
sultory engagements. Even the metropolis, 
though an open place, may be defended inch 
by inch, if the Portuguese be resolute ; and its 
conquest may become a work of bloodshed and 




THE province of Alemtejo borders to the north 
upon the Portuguese Estremadura and part of 
Beira ; to the east upon Spanish Estremadura ; 
to the south upon the Algarve ; and to the west 
unon the Atlantic and part of Portuguese Estre- 
madura. It is one hundred and forty miles long, 
by eighty wide. Its soil varies greatly as to its 
productions ; in some parts it is surprisingly 
fruitful, and in others mountainous, sandy, or 
burnt up and desert. The climate very un- 
healthy, especially in summer, on account of 
the vast quantity of stagnant waters, and the 
want of springs and rivers. Its greatest pro- 
ducts are corn, wine, lemons, citrons, and 
oranges ; it has quarries of fine stone, and many 
sorts of rich marbles, such as the white of Es- 
tremoz, the green of Borba and Villa Vi9osa, 
the red and white of Setuval and Arabida ; the 
clays of Montemor o Novo and Estremoz, 
much employed in pottery ware. It is quite 
covered with fortified places, and has always 
been the theatre of war when the Castilians 


have invaded Portugal, and frequently the scene 
of their defeats. It contains four cities, up- 
wards of 100 burghs, and about 280,000 inha- 
bitants ; of which the archbishoprick of Evora 
possesses 215,000, the bishoprick of Elvas 
40,000, and the bishoprick of Portalegre 
25,000. It is divided into eight jurisdictions. 

The corregedoria of Evora contains one city 
and twelve burghs. It is a place of great an- 
tiquity, and was the abode of the famous VI- 
riatus and Sertorius, the latter of whom added 
towers to its walls, and caused its celebrated 
aqueduct to be erected, culled Agea da Praia. 
John III. made it the place of his residence, 
and strengthened it with modern fortifications. 
It is surrounded with twelve bastions and two 
demi-bastions ; to the north it has also a square 
fort, composed of four bastions and as many ra- 
velins, through which passes the aqueduct of 
Sertorius. The archbishop of Evora, Don de 
Saldanha, is the chief judge of the kingdom, 
whose revenues exceed 200,000 grusades per 
annum. This city, which contains I2,coo in- 
habitants, was taken by Don Juan of Austria,, 
son of Philip III. in 1663, and retaken by 
the Portuguese, who defeated that general at 
Ameixal. Estremoz is the residence of the 


governor of Alemtejo ; it is a very pretty town, 
situate in a very fertile country : it is surround- 
ed by ten bastions, three demi-bastions, seve- 
ral ravelins, and a covered way. The castl is 
very ancient, but it has been strengthened by 
four bastions and two demi-bastions ; it is, 
however, commanded on the south by an hill, 
upon which a square fort, called Saint Joseph, 
has been constructed, with four bastions and a 
ravelin, covered by a tenaille towards the coun- 
try. To the north there is another height at 
a considerable distance from the place, defend- 
ed by a redoubt, called Santa Barbara. Never- 
theless, with all this appearance of strength, 
Estremoz is incapable of defence, from the an- 
cient, decayed, and ill-constructed state of its 
fortifications. It contains near 10,000 inha- 

The ouvidoria of Beja comprehends a city, 
and three towns or burghs ; it is situate about 
nine miles from Evora, and about two from 
the Guadiana, in a fertile and cheerful country. 
Julius Caesar gave it the name of Pax Julia; 
it contains 5000 inhabitants. Moura is within 
a short mile of the Guadiana : its fortifica- 
tions were demolished by the Spaniards in the 
war of the succession, and they have since 


received little or no reparations, particularly 
the castle. 

The ouvidoria of Campo do Ourique con- 
tains fifteen burghs. Ourique is remarkable 
for little else than the victory which Alphonso 
Henriquez, first king of Portugal, obtained 
over five Moorish kings or governors. His 
army consisted of no more than three thousand 
men, by whom, arid the revelations of an in- 
spired crucifix, he was proclaimed king on the 
field of battle. 1 1 belongs to the order of St. J ames. 

The ouvidoria of Villa Vi9osa belongs to the 
house of Bragan9a, and contains twelve burghs ; 
Villa Vi9osa is nineteen miles to the west of El- 
vas, and situate in a very fertile plain : it is but in- 
differently fortified, though famous for a battle 
gained by the Marquis of Marialva and the 
Count of Schomberg, against the Marquis of 
Caracene, in which the Spaniards lost 15,000 
men. Here is a fine palace, and a beautiful 
park stocked with deer, belonging to the Bra- 
gan9a family. 

The corregedoria of Elvas consists of an epis- 
copal city and six burghs. Elvas is situate four- 
teen miles to the west of Badajoz. Though its 
position is elevated, it is commanded by several- 
heights, of which the two nearest to the town 


have been fortified. Its origin is attributed to 
the Gauls, about the year of the world 3009. 
The fortifications are not very important ; they 
consist of four royal bastions, as many demi- 
bastions, and a redan. On its south side is fort 
La Lippe, which the General of that name be- 
gan in 1763, and whose works are nearly finish- 
ed : it is not well calculated to defend the place, 
and demands a very strong garrison. Here is 
a very beautiful aqueduct, the maintenance of 
which is attended with great expence. This 
town was besieged in 1658, by Don Louis de 
Haro ; but the Count Cantanhede came to its 
relief, forced the lines of the Castilians, killed 
6000 of their men, and took 1000 prisoners, 
with their artillery, ammunition, and baggage. 
Olivenca is situate on the leftside of the Gua- 
diana. Its situation, seven miles from the river, 
is pleasant, particularly that of the castle ; it is 
very populous, and contains near 5000 inhabi- 
tants. Campo Mayor, situate opposite to Albur- 
querque and Badajoz, is a place of considerable 
importance to this province. Count Schomberg, 
the saviour of Portugal, strengthened this place 
with a well-constructed fort ; but the fortifica- 
tions, and a part of the town, weredestroyed 1 6th 
September, 1732, by the blowing up of a pow- 


der magazine ; which unfortunate event has 
greatly weakened as well as dispeopled the 
place, though the works have been in some 
measure repaired. At the close of the cam- 
paign of 1762, the Spaniards, in order to re- 
trieve their reputation, ordered a considerable 
detachment to take Campo Mayor; but General 
Don Gregorio de Muniara, the present minister 
of war, who commanded that expedition, hav- 
ing failed in arriving before it till it was broad 
daylight, did not think proper to hazard an 
attack, and retired without attempting any 

The corregedoria of Portalegre consists of 
one episcopal city, and twelve burghs. Port- 
alegre is situate on a gentle elevation, fifteen 
miles from Spain: its fortifications are ancient 
and incapable of defence. It contains between 
5 and 6000 inhabitants. Arronches is between 
Portalegre and Campo Mayor, at an equal 
distance from them both. It owes its founda- 
tion to the first kings of Portugal, and is for- 
tified in the ancient manner. 

The ouvidoria of Crato contains twelve 
burghs. Crato belongs to a priory of the or- 
der of Malta, and is inclosed by walls. 

The ouvidoria of Avis is composed of seve~ 


teen burghs. The town is situated on a river 
of the same name, and forms a triangle with 
Arayolos and Estremoz. It is the principal 
place of the. order of Avis, which was first 
founded at Evora : it has but few inhabitants, 
and is surrounded with ancient walls. Its ter- 
ritory extends several miles, and belongs to the 

Alemtejo has been the perpetual theatre of 
triumph to the Portuguese, and defeat to the 
Spaniards ; nor could it be otherwise. The 
Spaniards formerly maintained the ill-founded 
opinion that Alemtejo offered a passage to Lis- 
bon, because it is the post-road. The Tagus, 
furnished with an army to oppose the passage, 
cannot be crossed; an army which enters Alem- 
tejo cannot extend its hostilities beyond that 
province, or at most to Algarve. But the con- 
quest of them both would effect nothing of im- 
portance, and can never give a shock to the 
Portuguese monarchy, whose strength is to be 
found in Lisbon, Oporto, and America. The 
strong places of Alemtejo are not in a state to 
make any vigorous defence ; but, besides the 
expence employed and time lost in taking them, 
the climate is so fatal, that an army, in spite 
of every precaution, and the utmost exertions 


of medical assistance, must necessarily fall a 
prey to hunger, thirst, and epidemic diseases. 
The Portuguese cannot wish for a more fortu- 
nate circumstance, in a war with Spain, than 
that their enemies may commence and push on 
their operations in this province. 



THE kingdom of Algarve is bounded on the 
north by the province of Alemtejo; on the east 
it borders on Andalusia ; and to the south and 
west is terminated by the sea. Its length 
is about ninety miles, and its breadth from 
twenty to twenty-five. It was conquered by 
Sancho II. and has since belonged to the 
crown of Portugal, notwithstanding the ill- 
founded claims of Spain. It was afterwards 
retaken by the Moors, but Alphonso III. re- 
united it altogether to his dominions, by the 
capture of Faro. The length of coast from 
Cape St. Vincent to Almeria, with the oppo- 


site shores of Africa, comprising Ceuta and 
Tangier, then in the possession of the kings 
of Portugal, were named Algarve;* and on 
this account the sovereigns of Portugal have 
preserved the title of King of Algarve on this 
side, and beyond the sea in Africa. This small 
country possesses an uncommon degree of fer- 
tility, and is capable of nourishing four times 
the number of its present inhabitants. It pro- 
duces grain, wine, oil, and abundance of fruits, 
as figs, grapes, and sweet almonds, in which it 
carries on a considerable trade. The tunny 
fishery has been more extensive than it is at 
present, but it still continues to form a prin- 
cipal revenue of this kingdom. It contains 
four cities, twelve burghs, sixty villages, and 
65,000 inhabitants, divided into two correge- 
dorias, and one ouvidoria. 

The corregedoria of Lagos comprehends seven 
burghs and one city. Lagos is situated on the 
south-east shore of Algarve, at twenty-four 
miles from cape Saint Vincent. Its bay is secure 
from winds at N. N. E. and is capable of receiv- 
ing the largest ships (though it is not without 

* They are called so to this day, being the extremity 
of that part of Africa named by the Arabs al Garl> } or 
the West. T. 



rocks), and the entrance is protected by a battery 
of cannon. Twenty miles of the coast from La- 
gos to Sagres are defended by five forts. This 
town was first built by the Carthaginians: it is 
fortified in an irregular manner, but possesses a 
good citadel called Pinhao, which is the resi- 
dence of the governors and captains general of 
this kingdom. Lagos contains 2800 inhabi- 
tants. Villa Nova de Portimao is nine miles 
to the east of Lagos, and is seated on a river 
which forms a spacious and secure harbour, 
above a mile broad, and three fathoms deep ; 
but the entrance is dangerous, and requires 
the assistance of a pilot. This river is navi- 
gable to Sylves, with boats only, though it is 
at no greater distance than eight miles. Each 
side of the bar is defended by a fort : on the 
west is that called St. Catherine's, and on the 
east is St. John's. These two towns contain 
together about 4000 souls. 

The corregedoria of Tavira comprises a city 
and three burghs. Tavira is seated on a bay of 
the same name, about seventeen miles from Faro, 
and fifteen from Ayamonte, a frontier town of 
Andalusia. The bar is low and irregular, and the 
channel at the entrance is five fathoms deep. 
The harbour is protected by two forts, and the 


place contains about 5000 inhabitants. It is 
divided into two towns by the river Sequa, 
over which there is a fine stone bridge. Louie 
is a small town eight miles N. by W. of Faro, of 
an ancient appearance, and contains upwards 
of 4000 souls. Alcouthn is situated at sixteen 
miles from Castromarim, opposite San Lucar 
de Guadiana, and contains only 1000 inhabi- 
tants. It is the last town in Algarve on the 
side of Andalusia. 

The ouvidoria of Faro comprehends two cities, 
of which one is episcopal, a single burgh, and a 
few villages. Faro isdistant seventeen miles from 
Tavira, and thirteen from the fortress of Quar- 
teira, which defends the coast. Its bar is nar- 
row and variable. Its fortifications are modern, 
but were very much injured by the last earth- 
quake, which marie great devastation in Al- 
garve. The bishopric - of Sylves was trans-" 
ferred to Faro in 1580, and the town itself was 
burned in 1596 by the English.* It contains at 
present 7600 inhabitants, and possesses a con- 
siderable trade, many foreign merchants being 

* It had been plundered first, and the library of the 
famous bishop Osovio, or the greatest part of it, became 
the share of the Earl of Essex, who gave it to the uni- 
versity of Oxford. T. 



established there. Three times every month a 
packet-boat arrives there from Gibraltar, for 
the benefit of the English. At about three miles 
north between Faro and Louie, there is a vil- 
lage called Estoy, built on the ruins of the an- 
cient Ossobona.* 

The kingdom of Algarve is almost impene- 
trable to the Spaniards ; nor indeed would an 
entrance into it be attended with any advan- 
tage. In the various wars, therefore, between 
the two nations it has remained undisturbed, 
holding forth to the invader no other temptation 
but internal wretchedness. Its sea coast might 
be invaded, and its tunny fishery ruined ; but, 
in general, the inhabitants of Cadiz and the 
coast of Andalusia have, in that. respect, more 
to lose than to gain. The coast might be made 
to furnish good seamen, if the government en- 
couraged such a design. But, after all, this 
province is of little importance or utility to the 
Portuguese monarchy, though it is dignified 
with the pompous title of a kingdom. 

* Read Ossonoba. 





I MIGHT have extended these geographical de- 
tails, which I have in a great measure ex- 
tracted from the best authors, and which have 
been confirmed by such inhabitants of the diffe- 
rent provinces as were qualified to instruct me ; 
but I leave history to historians, local descrip- 
tion to geographers, and wander not beyond the 
limits which I have prescribed to myself. The 
curious will find nothing to satisfy them on the 
subject of natural history ; I have given the 
whole of my attention to matters of the most 
interesting nature, because it flatters, more than 
any other, the pride, the ambition, and the 
more furious passions of men, I mean the 
science of attack and defence. For war, that 
indispensable scourge, demands the study of 
almost all the branches of human knowledge, 
and the application of them to one object. 

The ignorance and want of skill which the 
Spaniards have displayed in their attacks on 
Portugal; and the Portuguese have manifested 



in their defence of it, present examples of mi- 
litary exertion, which alternately call forth our 
ridicule or compassion. At the same time, they 
prove, without a possibility of contradiction, 
that these countries, in the art of war, are at 
least two or three centuries behind the rest of 

Portugal has acquired a great share of con- 
sideration in the affairs of Europe. Several of 
its powers are connected with this kingdom, 
by the interests of commerce, and the bonds of 
alliance. When the chances of war left the 
political balance of Europe in a perfect equi- 
librium, these connections and relations did not 
require particular examination ; but at present 
it is indispensably necessary to obtain a clear 
view of them. They, however, explain each 
other, and proceed from the events of past, as 
they depend upon those of future wars. 

It is in this point of view alone, that I wish 
to unfold the situation of Portugal, that my 
countrymen, who may hereafter be employed 
iri any affairs that may relate to this kingdom, 
hitherto so little known, may be qualified with 
such information as will be useful to them. 

Spain alone is worse peopled than Portugal. 
Throughout the whole peninsula nature appears 


in its original and uncultivated state. The 
plains of Alemtejo from Ourique to Almada, 
and those of Beira, from Lisbon, Leyria, and 
Coimbra, to Oporto, are abandoned to them- 
selves by the sluggishness of their inhabitants, 
and are become sandy, burnt up, and pestilen- 

Portugal is uncommonly well watered, and 
contains upwards of an hundred and twenty 
rivers, great and small, which traverse it in all 
directions. Nevertheless the province of En- 
tre Douro e Minho alone seems toderive any con- 
siderable advantage from them. Alemtejo, with 
more than thirty rivers, and numerous springs, 
possesses a parched and barren soil, while the 
marshes and stagnant waters which the inhabi- 
tants never attempt to drain, are the perpetual 
cause of fevers, of pestilence, of famine, and 
of death. Poverty is the least of those evils, 
which the Portuguese prefer to labour: with 
little more than can just sustain nature, they 
crawl and languish through life in filth, in 
pain, in ignorance, and superstition. Their 
base and sluggish natures subject them to want, 
to pain, and disease, in the finest country in the 
world, and which would be the most whole- 
some and the happiest, if it were better peopled. 
D 4 


I except, nevertheless, from this representation, 
which is but too true, the Entre Douro e Minho, 
a part of Traz os Montes ; some small portions 
of Beira, the right bank of the Tagus, the ter- 
ritory of Lisbon, with those of Setuval, Estre- 
moz, Elvas, and Faro. The population of 
this kingdom is supposed to be as follows : 
Provinces. Inhabitants. 

Entre Douro e Minho - 504,000 
Traz os Montes 156,00* 

Beira - 560,000 

Estremadura - ' - 660,000 
Alemtejo - - 280,000 

.Algarve 65,000 

Total 2,225,000 

This is a very large number of inhabitants, 
when compared with the population of Spain, 
but by no means proportioned to the extent, 
the fertility, and the climate of Portugal ; and it 
would require an age of successive administra- 
tions equal to that of Count d'Oeyras, to place 
this kingdom in a state of power, strength, cul- 
tivation, and populousness, of which it is sus- 
ceptible, and of which the negligent and supine 
disposition of its inhabitants has hitherto de- 
prived it. 






1 HE Portuguese colonies were first acquired 
by force, and without difficulty, and the greater 
part have been lost in the same manner. The 
revolutions which have deprived the kingdom 
of Portugal of a part of its establishments, were 
the natural result of the weak condition in 
which the Portuguese power remained, after 
the catastrophe of its sovereign, Don' Sebastian, 
and its subjection to Spain; they did not even 
want to be precipitated by the irruption of other 
nations of Europe, which have so easily over- 
thrown, in every quarter of the globe, the pre- 
carious power and exaggerated glory of the 

To facilitate the consideration of the subject 
before us, I shall divide the Portuguese colo- 


nies into four chapters, under the titles of Asia, 
Africa, America, and the Portuguese islands. 
More extensive information may be acquired 
of them in the following works : Decades of 
the Indies, by J. de Barros ; the Chronology 
of America, by P. Sim. Vasconcelos; Me- 
moirs of Pernambucco, of Duarte, Albuquerque, 
Coelho, and the war of Brasil, by J. de Sta 
Theresa ; America Portuguesa de Rocha de 
Pitta : though none of these authors have been 
translated. The history of Congo, by P. Labat ; 
the history of Brasil, and the general history 
of Voyages, may also be consulted. 




THIS quarter of the globe is the ancient and 
most distinguished theatre of the glory of the 
Portuguese, and consequently the present and 
future monument of their shame and downfall : 
they were the first conquerors of the East Indies; 
'of which, for near a century, they remained 
the sole possessors, and their language still con- 
tinues to be the commercial language of the 
settlements which have long since ceased to be 
under their dominion; but when the other 
European nations, and particularly the Dutch, 
penetrated into these distant seas, the Portu- 
guese were driven from their settlements with 
the same ease as they had acquired them. 

The Portuguese historians, with the exag- 
gerating spirit of their country, have given 
strange and incredible i accounts of their Orien- 
tal conquests. Such are the incomprehensibje 
sieges of Diu and Ormuz, of Malacca and Goa. 
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied, that during 
a century they were absolute masters of the sea 


and its coasts, from the Red sea and the Persian 
gulf, to China, Japan, and the islands of Li- 
queo. So vast an empire, in the hands of a 
nation so feeble, must necessarily fall of itself, 
while it occasioned a very great depopulation 
of the mother country. It is indeed a question 
of no certain determination whether the Portu- 
guese have lost or gained by the diminution of 
their colonies. 

At present this immense empire, far more 
extensive than the conquests, and even than the 
ideas of Alexander the Great, is reduced to the 
town of Goa, and certain factories ; as those of 
Chaul, Daman, Ba^aim (Basseen), and the island 
of Macao, in China. These establishments are 
in the most miserable condition, and possess a 
very small share of commercial importance. 
One ship alone sails from Lisbon to the East 
Indies in a year, and this vessel, so far from 
adding to the royal revenues, costs the king up- 
wards of 200,000 crusades.* The trade between 
China and Portugal is earned on by the Eng- 
lish, who, from their superior skill and active 
character, make the voyage in half the time re- 
quired by the Portuguese, who have ever been 
very indifferent; navigators; a circumstance 

* About/iOj.cgo, 


which must be an invincible obstacle to the 
progress of their East Indian commerce. But 
to give a conclusive idea of the condition 
of the Portuguese colonies in Asia, or the 
East Indies, it is only necessary to add, that 
there is not more than 4500 Portuguese esta- 
blished in the five towns already named; that 
the Asiatic colonies are a burden to Portugal, 
that they draw from it its specie, and return a 
losing trade. That, after all, the king conti- 
nues to maintain them from no other motives 
but a certain political necessity, and national 

The clearest revenue of the king arises from 
the confiscation he makes every three years of 
the property and effects of the viceroys, and 
other public officers, who return from the In- 
dies. They all undergo a process, and gene- 
rally a criminal one, as soon as they arrive 
from thence, are sent to prison, and think 
themselves very happy if they preserve their 
lives, and escape the horrors of perpetual im- 
prisonment at the expence of their ill-acquired 
fortune. When the Portuguese fidalgos de- 
termine to go to India, they instantly forget 
every idea of duty and honour ; they banish 
all sense of shame, deliver themselves up to- 


the most rapacious avarice ; they no longer are 
sensible either of virtue or remorse ; they rule 
by extortion and all means are the same to 
them that procure them wealth. Hence it 
is, that the commerce of the Indies has alto- 
gether declined ; and how is it possible that it 
should exist, when instead of that protection 
and justice which it ought to receive from the 
persons employed by the king, it meets with 
nothing but vexation, venality, artifice, and 
tyranny. The king receives, at least, 5 or 
600,000 crusades from the confiscations of each 
viceroy every three years. But though crimes 
are punished, the people are not avenged ; at 
the same time commerce is ruined, and the king 
gains some present advantages by exhausting the 
sources of them. 

It has been proposed to sell the five Oriental 
settlements, already mentioned, to the English 
or the Dutch, but they are not objects of ac- 
quisition to either of those nations. The port 
of Goa is very inconvenient, the bar that crosses 
it is extremely dangerous, and its territory is 
unhealthy. Chaul, Ba9aim, and Daman are 
but small places, in bad situations, and all of 
them on the eastern coast of the Peninsula, 
'25,000 or 30,000. 


on this side of the Ganges, where those two 
powers are already in possession of more com- 
modious establishments. The Dutch are mas- 
ters of the whole coast by Calecut, Cochin, 
Cranganore, Cananore,upon the coast of Mala- 
bar ; Onore, Barcelore, and Mangalore, on the 
coast of Canara, and Vingorla, between Goa 
and Chaul, all of which they took from the 
Portuguese. The English have no other set- 
tlement in this part of India but Bombay, 
which they bought of the Portuguese, and 
which is sufficient for them as a depot for their 
trade, with Surat, Ormuz, and the Red Sea. 
Besides, the course of trade has been transferred 
from the eastern to the western side of the 
Peninsula, and the commerce of the Indies is 
absorbed by the^ English Company, established 
at Bengal and Madras, 




THE Portuguese maintain a greater degree of 
power in this part of the globe ; nevertheless 
it is not sufficient to prevent their commerce 
from declining. Indeed this commerce is al- 
most entirely annihilated, since the English, 
French, Dutch, and Danes, have established 
themselves along the coast of Guinea ; and 
particularly since the Dutch have formed the 
superb settlement of the Cape of Good Hope* 
The Portuguese colonies in Africa formerly 
extended from Tangier and Ceuta to the Red 
Sea. A few factories on the coast of Guinea, and 
that of Malagueta (or Grain coast), all of which 
are in a wretched condition ; the kingdom of 
Congo, some small forts in the Monomotapa, 
Quilimane, Qiiiloa, Melinde, Monbaca, Brava, 
and Mo9ambique, which is the residenceW a 
governor-general, are all that remain in subjec- 
tion to Portugal. The only interesting part of 
these colonies is the kingdom of Congo. This 
country has been made known by the general 


history of voyages, and a particular history of 
P. Labat. The general residence of the Por- 
tuguese governor is Saint Paul de Loanda, a 
large and populous town, which contains 5000 
white inhabitants, and 50,000 slaves or negroes. 
The king of Congo is under the protection 
of the sovereign of Portugal, to whom, though 
an independent prince, he pays a tribute. 
There are also six princes who are tributary 
to him, who are continually engaged in war 
against him, or with each other. These divi- 
sions are fomented by the Portuguese, in order 
to purchase the captives of either party. The 
Catholic religion has made a considerable pro- 
gress in this country, but blended with Pagan 
superstitions. The natives are so wicked and 
perfidious that the Portuguese have not been 
able to form any establishments in the interior 
parts of the country. They have a fort 30 
leagues from the coast, called Massengano, erect- 
ed for the purpose of preventing the barbarous 
nations of Caffreria from making irruptions 
into the kingdoms of Congo and Angola. The 
Dutch possessed themselves of the kingdom of 
Benguela, which was a part of the viceroyalty 
of Congo ; (but it belongs now to the Portuguese 
and its capital, St. Philip de Benguelaj is a very 


trading town). All these forts are peopled and 
defended by criminals condemned in Portugal to 
perpetual imprisonment. The commerce of 
Congo is in slaves, copper, white pepper, (ivory), 
and sugar. But after all, the possessions in Africa 
are rather a matter of honour than of gain to 
the king of Portugal. Though there are not 
less than fifteen African princes who are tri- 
butary to his crown, he does not receive a mil- 
lion of crusades* from the joint produce of their 
tribute, and the languishing commerce which 
is carried on by his subjects with their country : 
while his forts, &c. though they are ill kept up, 
and worse provided, cost him more than he re- 
ceives. Plence it is, that the greater part of 
these establishments are considered merely as 
prisons, to which malefactors, nobles, and dis- 
graced ministers are exiled ; particularly those 
of Massengano, in the kingdom of Angola, and 
Mazagan, (on the coast of Morocco). In the 
latter of these, the minister Diego de Mendo9a, 
the predecessor of Count d'Oeyras, finished his 
career, after having been reduced to gain his 
bread by teaching in a school, as Dionysius the 
tyrant had done before him. 

* About /5o,ooo. 




THE most valuable colony possessed by Por- 
tugal is that of Brasil. This country merits 
a very particular description, and from its si- 
tuation and character may have some influence 
on the wars carried on by the different sovereigns 
of Europe, as well as in the negotiations of the 
cabinets of Versailles, of London, of Madrid, 
and Lisbon. 

Brasil is above 600 great leagues in length, 
from north to south, and near 700 in breadth, 
from east to west. It is bounded to the north by 
the river of Amazons and Guiana ; to the east 
by the sea ; to the south by the river La Plata ; 
and to the west by the country of Amazons, 
(Peru, and several intermediary nations). It has 
1 200 leagues of coast, and is inhabited in certain 
places, and on the banks of certain rivers, to the 
distance of 400 leagues up the interior of the 
country. But the principal settlements of the 
Portuguese do not extend more than 50 leagues 
from the coast, on account of the savages ; who 


have been so cruelly treated by the European 
invaders as to become their irreconcileable ene- 
mies. But, however the Portuguese may misre- 
present the natives, they are in themselves an 
honest, honourable, and inoffensive people. We 
have the authority of the Jesuits for this character, 
who instructed them in the nature and duties 
of civil society, and formed them into the wise 
republic of Paraguay ; which is as disgraceful 
to the Portuguese and the Spaniards, as it is 
honourable to humanity, to the Jesuits, and the 
savages themselves. 

Brasil is divided into fourteen provinces, 
according to the following arrangement ; pro- 
ceeding from north to south. 

i. The capitania or province of Para occu- 
pies the northern boundary of Brasil. Its capital 
is named Nossa Senhora de Belem, (more pro- 
perly Para) it is a bishopric, situated on the 
great river of Amazons, and is defended" by a 
strongcitadel, as well as a fort, called Nossa Sen- 
hora das Merces, at the mouth of the river Muju, 
which forms the port of Para. It is guarded 
by four companies of soldiers, and the number 
of troops in this province amount to about 800 
men. This town contains from 8 to 10,000 
inhabitants ; its port is capable of receiving 


vessels of a large tonnage, and there is a par- 
ticular company established for carrying on the 
commerce of this province, and that of Ma- 
ranham. This company, however, is in a very 
declining state, because, on account of the du- 
ties that the directors have imposed on European 
commodities, and to which the colonists are 
obliged to submit, these two provinces owe 
more to the company than the country is worth. 
The Count d'Oeyras is at the head of this 
commercial corporation, and the most deeply 
interested in its success. He it is, therefore, 
that supports this ill-conceived right of impos- 
ing duties which he obtained for, or rather 
granted to, this company. 

The principal commodities which are ex- 
ported from Para are sugar, which is manufac- 
tured at upwards of thirty sugar-works in the 
interior part of the country, coffee, vanilla, 
cloves, sarsaparilla, and Brasil wood, particu- 
larly that beautiful species of it called Burape- 
mina ; and the Umiri, whose trunk distils an 
odoriferous oil, and whose bark, when burnt, 
scents as a perfume. At the distance of four 
leagues from Para, in passing down the river of 
Amazons, there is a tongue of land divided into 
several islands, the largest of which is that called 


Joannes ; it is very populous, and defended by- 
several forts. These islands belong to different 
Portuguese fidalgos, with the title of baronies. 
About a league and an half from the town is 
the burgh of St. George dos Alamos, with a re- 
gular fortress. At the distance of forty leagues 
from the mouth, and on the bank of the river, is 
another burgh, called Camuta, with the fort of 
Curupa. Along the river is the fort of Paru, 
which the French took and demolished in 1698, 
and those of Tapajos and Rio Negro. The pro- 
vince of Para is terminated to the north by Cay- 
enne, or French Guyana. Its boundary on this 
side is the North Cape, with the fort of Maca- 
pa, opposite that of Comau, and the fort of Ara- 
goariz. In this province there are four towns 
or burghs ; Para, St. George dos Alamos, Ca- 
muta, and Cahete, with about 50,000 inhabi- 
tants. The government of Para depends upon 
that of Maranham. 

The Portuguese have lately formed establish- 
ments on the Rio Negro, where they have dis- 
covered some new mines of gold and diamonds. 
In the year 1766, 400 marine soldiers, work- 
men in every branch, and several families, 
were sent out from Lisbon, with many peculiar 
privileges, to this settlement : but in time of 


\var it is very much exposed to the incursions 
of the French, as it is in the neighbourhood 
their new settlements in Guiana ; and at a great 
distance from any succour that could be afforded 
it from Bahia, or even from Para and Maran- 

This new colony of Rio Negro has been 
ve.ry injudiciously conducted by Francis Xavier 
de Mendo9a, minister of the marine depart- 
ment. The unhappy colonists not only were 
refused those advantages which were necessary 
for their success, but were deceived in the agree- 
ments originally entered into with them, re- 
specting their settlement. This colony was, 
indeed, reinforced by those French families who 
were obliged to abandon Guiana, after the fail- 
ure of those establishments which had been 
formed along the river Courou. 

2. The province of Maranham, is by no 
means well peopled, but in the island of St. 
Louis, which contains about 15,000 inhabi- 
tants. This island is twenty-six leagues in cir- 
cumference, and is very fertile. The town 
which is called St. Louis is a bishopric, de- 
fended by a citadel and several forts, and has a 
very commodious harbour. It is the residence 


of the governor-general of the three northern 

3. The province of Seara, has but one small 
fort, that defends the harbour of Seara, which 
is capable only of receiving boats. It has very 
little commerce, and does not contain more than 
10,000 souls. 

These three provinces, which would greatly 
aggrandize the French in this part of the globe, 
might be very easily conquered ; they are rich 
and fertile, and contain 80,000 inhabitants, of 
which the Portuguese do not form a sixth part. 
This is a very predominant motive to induce 
France to encourage and support the settlement 
of Guiana, which lies at the back of them. If 
the French should take the opportunity of any 
future war to fall upon these three provinces, 
they'would be easily subdued, as they are with- 
out the means of defence ; the forts being old 
and in bad condition, and the troops ill disci- 
plined. Instead of losing their time and wast- 
ing their money in founding a colony upon the 
river Courou, they would find, at the Rio Ne- 
gro, mines already formed. Besides, by the 
communications there are between Para and 
the mines of St. Paul, they would become 


masters of all the riches of Brasil. Such a. 
vigorous operation would change the whole 
system of these colonies, and influence the in- 
terests of Europe, 

4. The capitania of Rio Grande. Cidadc 
Nova, or Rio Grande do Norte, is the name 
of its capital, situate about twelve miles from 
the entrance of the river, which is defended by 
the fort Dos Reyes Magos, one of the strongest 
in all Brasil. The river flows from a lake be- 
tween thirty and forty miles in circumference, 
in which are found the finest Brasil pearls.* 
This capitania has two towns, Parantuba, 
which is fortified to preserve it from the at- 
tacks of the Indians, and Cunhao. It con- 
tains about 12,000 inhabitants. 

5. The province of Paraiba had been given 
by King John III. to the celebrated John de 
Barros, author of the Decades of the Indies, 
the Livy of Portugal, and one of the best 
writers in Europe ; but he was obliged to re- 
store it to the king, after he had almost ruined 
himself by unsuccessful armaments. The ca- 
pital is Paraiba do Norte, or Nossa Senhora das 

* The river is called Potiji by the Indians, and takes 
its source in the Aracuyas mountains ; but the exist- 
ence of the lake is not so well ascertained. T. 



Neves, seated on the river Paraiba, at whose 
mouth there is an harbour and a custom-house, 
defended by a pentagonal fort, called St. Ca- 
therina. This province produces the best sugar, 
which is fabricated in twenty-one sugar-works. 
The town contains about 4000, and the pro- 
vince about 20,000 inhabitants. 

6. The capitania of Itamaraca consists of 
the island of that name, and of eight or nine 
leagues of the coast. The town in the island 
is named Nossa Senhora da ConceicaS, (our 
Lady of the Conception), and is situated on 
a hill. The island also possesses three sugar- 
works. Upon the main land is the town of 
St. Miguel de Goyana, with three parishes in 
its environs. This province contains about 
10,000 souls. 

7. The province of Pernambuco has about 
eighty leagues of coast. Its capital is Olinda, 
built in an elevated situation on the sea side; 
it lies in a delicious country, and is adorned 
with fountains. It is inhabited by about 1 2,000 
people, and with two battalions of troops as a 
garrison ; though one occupies the town of Re- 
cife. Olinda possesses an excellent manufac- 
tory of sword blades. The Dutch were mas- 
ters of this province from the year 1624 to 


1654, when they were driven out by the inha- 
bitants. The Count Mauritius of Nassau had 
very much embellished the two towns of Olin- 
da and Recife, where he built a very handsome 
castle. These two places have a commodious 
harbour defended by several forts. 

Pernambuco has been a very rich province* 
It once possessed upwards of one hundred su- 
gar-works, fine forests, well cultivated farms, 
and abundance of fruit. It then furnished 
upwards of 15,000 casks of sugar at every 
return of the Lisbon fleet ; but at present it 
scarce produces only a fifth part. Its bishop- 
ric has a very extensive jurisdiction, and it 
still contains from 50 to 60,000 souls. The 
people, however, frequently quit it for Para- 
guay, Chili, and Peru, on account of the mi- 
sery which is produced by the vexatious impo- 
sitions of the trading companies, and the debts 
with which the province is burdened. It has 
also seven other towns, named Igaraes, Velho, 
Porto Calvo, Lagoa do Norte, Santo Antonio 
Grande, Lagoa do Sul, and Penedo on the ri- 
ver St. Francisco, which terminates this pro- 
vince on the south, as the isle of Itamaraca, 
forms its termination to the north. 

8. The capitania of Sergipe contains about 


2o,ooo souls, with 25 sugar-works, and pro- 
duces tobacco, leather, and cattle. * Besides 
its capital, which is called Sergipe del Rey, it 
has several other towns, of which the most 
considerable are St. Christovao, Santo Amaro 
das Brotas, and Villa Real do Piagui. It has 
no harbour sufficient to receive large vessels, 
which is a great obstruction to its commerce. 

9. The principal capitania of Brasil is that 
of Bahia de Todos os Santos, (the Bay of All 
Saints) which is the residence of the viceroy. 
St. Salvador, which is the capital, is well for- 
tified, both by sea and land, and contains a gar- 
rison of 2 or 3000 men. It has a very fine 
archiepiscopal palace, a very rich cathedral, 
and a very good harbour on the bay, from 
whence the province derives its name. St. 
Salvador is a very opulent and commercial 
place ; and being the general rendezvous of all 
the fleets, it is the mart of the various commo- 
dities of Europe. This town contains above 
20,000 inhabitants, and the province upwards 
of 100,000. 

10. The capitania of Ilheos has for its capi- 
tal the town of St. George, defended, as well 

* It has also gold mines. T. 


as its harbour, by two forts. The other places 
in its district are Cairu and Camanu,* whose 
bar is defended by a fort, consisting of four 
bastions. It contains above 20,000 inhabitants, 
is very wealthy, and its principal commerce is 
in meal of different kinds, with which it fur- 
nishes Bahia and Brasil. 

n. The capitania or province of Porto Se- 
guro has two towns, the chief of which bears 
its name, from the security of its haven ; while 
the other is called St. Antonio on the river Ca- 
ravelas. These towns and their environs con- 
tain from 7 to 8000 inhabitants. 

12. The capitania of Espiritu-Santo stretches 
along fifty-five leagues of coast. It compre- 
hends the towns of Spiritu-Santo, with a tole- 
rable harbour, Os Keys Magos, Villa Ilha, and 
Goropari. It contains about 25,000 souls. 

13. The province or capitania of Rio Ja- 
neiro. Its capital is called St. Sebastian, and 
is an episcopal see. The plan of it, and an 
account of its capture, may be seen in the Me- 
moirs of Du Guay-Trouyn.t This province 

* Camamu, not Camanu, belongs to the capitania 
of the Bay. T. 

f The city of St. Sebastian is better known by 
the name of Rio de Janeiro, commonly Rio Janeiro, 
E 3 


contains upwards of 100 sugar-works. Its 
commerce was carried on till January i, 1766, 
by a company, which the Portuguese govern- 
ment, for political reasons, has dissolved. It 
contains upwards of 40,000 inhabitants : the 
town of Gabo Frio, about twenty-two leagues 
eastward of Rio Janeiro, is opulent, from its 
trade in salt. 

14. The capitania of St. Vincent is one of 
the four governments dependent on Bahia ; its 
capital bears the same name, and contains about 
3000 souls. The principal commerce of this 
province consists in cattle, particularly in hogs, 
in brandy, and sugar : it has also several forts. 
The dismembered government of the mines of 
Rio Janeiro contains ten towns or burghs, of 
which the capital is Santos, that contains up- 
wards of 8000 inhabitants. I have never been 
able to obtain any satisfactory information re- 
specting the produce of these mines ; but it is 
reasonable to suppose that it has greatly dimi- 
nished, from the eagerness with which those cf 

(River January), is at present the metropolis of Brasil, 
and has been for some time the residence of a viceroy. 
Its harbour is one of the finest in the world, and the 
entrance, not a mile broad, is defended by the strong 
ftrts of Santa Cruz> and Lozia, or St. John. T, 


Rio Negro are worked ; these have been but 
lately discovered, and are in a situation much 
more exposed to invasion. The government of 
St. Paul contains thirteen burghs. St. Paul is 
built on the famous mountain of Paranam-pia- 
caba which possesses a most valuable mine of 
diamonds. Indeed, the whole of the country 
is rich, and in a state of cultivation. The na- 
tions who occupy the space between this pro- 
vince and the Rio de la Plata, or river Plate, 
are the Tapuyas and the Carijos, and other 
warlike Indians. The Tapuyas, or Tapes, 
form one of the principal nations of South 
America, and are consequently the most hos- 
tile to the Spaniards and Portuguese. This 
country is terminated, on the river Plate, by 
the colony of St. Sacrement, which is called 
the province of the king, and was ceded by 
the Spaniards at the peace of Utrecht. It con- 
sists only of that town, and sixty leagues of 
the bank of the river opposite Buenos Ayres. 
The river La Plata, from its mouth to this 
town, is divided (by the sand banks) into three 
navigable channels, viz. St. Lucia, La Con- 
ception, and El Rosario. Before this town is 
the island of St. Gabriel, with a castle, very 
necessary to protect the navigation of the river ; 
E 4 


it was attacked and taken in 1762 and 
by Cevallos, commandant of the Spanish co- 
lony of Uruguay. The Portuguese in vain 
endeavoured to retake it : for that purpose 
they had taken in their pay four English pri- 
vateers, but dissensions arose in this little fleet, 
and two of the vessels having been destroyed by 
fire, with all their equipage, the governor of 
Rio Janeiro, Gomez Freire, an officer of me- 
rit, who conducted this enterprize, was forced* 
to abandon it, and the Portuguese did not re- 
possess the island of St. Gabriel and the colony, 
till the peace. The town is very ill fortified, 
though so often besieged and taken by the Spa- 
niards. It contains about 2500 inhabitants, 
including blacks and slaves. These four go-- 
vernments are so populous, that Don Pedro 
d'Acunha, the present viceroy of Brasil, was 
enabled to levy, in 1766, 14,000 militia; which 
measure, united to other causes, occasioned a 
great revolt in the mines. The number of their 
inhabitants is estimated at up wards of 100,000. 
The inhabitants of St. Paul and the mines are 
ferocious and insolent. The great distance from 
any sea-port renders it necessary to maintain a 
large body of troops, and to exercise an unremit- 
ting rigour, in order to keep them in submission. 


This colony is composed of villains capable of 
committing every crime.* It is true, indeed, 
that they are the best soldiers which Brasil can 
furnish, but they occasion continual disquie- 
tude and embarrassment to the viceroy. Assas- 
sinations are very frequent in this part of Bra- 
sil, and crimes of every kind pass unpunished. 
Travellers are under the necessity of forming 
themselves into large caravans, in their journies 
from these interior provinces to the sea ; and 
even with this precaution they encounter in- 
convenience and danger ; for, besides the wick- 
ed disposition of the natives, who are habituated 
to assassination as well as robbery, the roads 
are infested by runaway negroes, who have 
formed settlements in the woods, which the 
Portuguese find it a matter of great difficulty to 
force and destroy. 

The Maroon or free negroes are, throughout 
the European colonies, the most cruel enemies 
of their former masters, and will, in the course 
of time, produce the most material injury to 
the colonies themselves. The number of thsm 
in Brasil is impossible to determine with any 
degree of accuracy ; but in the general estima- 

* They are known by the name of Paulists. T. 



tion of ,the Brasilians themselves, they exceed 
40,000. Their settlements, which are situated 
in the most impenetrable parts of the woods, 
are fortified by palisades and deep ditches, 
while they are not altogether destitute of fire- 
arms, though their more common weapons are 
arrows and darts. These inclosures not only 
contain their huts, but their cattle, and are 
very populous ; for, though so many of the 
Maroons are from time to time destroyed, 
their propagation is so abundant as to justify 
the calculation already given of their numbers 
hi this part of South America. 

All the European nations experience in their 
colonies the danger of these interior enemies, 
as well as the difficulty of extirpating them. 
The English have not been able to deliver their 
islands from them, particularly Jamaica.* The 
Dutch have lately been engaged in a war with 
them in their colony of Berbice. The island 
of Cuba, though very narrow, is so filled with 
them, that it is impossible to pass in safety in 
any direction but from the Havannah to St. 

* This, however, has been luckily accomplished 
iast year, by the indefatigable exertions of Lord Bal- 
carras. T, 


Between the colony of St. Sacrement and the 
capitania of St. Vincent, is inclosed the Rio 
St. Pedro, a Spanish settlement, and the island 
of St. Catherine, where they have a garrison. 
These two ports, especially that of Rio St. 
Pedro, will be a perpetual subject of dispute 
between the two nations ; while the Spaniards 
refuse to sell, exchange, or abandon it. It is also 
as difficult for the Spaniards to preserve this 
port, as for the Portuguese to keep possession 
of that of St. Sacrement. It is to be presumed, 
therefore, that the latter would be very will- 
ing to make an exchange. But this port is of 
much greater importance to the Spaniards, than 
that of St. Sacrement is to the Portuguese, be- 
cause in time of war, it secures the means of 
arriving at the mines, which are not more than 
100 leagues distant, and are not guarded on this 
side: the possession, therefore, of this port 
must be the cause of continual alarm to the 
Portuguese ; whereas their colony of St. Sacre- 
ment can occasion but a trifling degree of dis- 
trust to the Spaniards, as the breadth of Rio dc 
la Plata, forms a sufficient defence to Bue- 
nos Ayres ; and any attack that the Portuguese 
might make from this quarter must be of no- 
comparative importance. 


In the beginning of the year 1766 the Count 
d'Oeyras ordered an embarkation of 400 disci- 
plined troops, with engineers and cannon for 
this part of Brasil. The. Spanish garrison of 
Rio St. Pedro was in a very wretched con- 
dition. It consists only of 200 dragoons, and 
400 infantry, which at this period had been 
diminished by the desertion of 140 men, who- 
had passed over to the Portuguese. But there 
was no reason for supposing that any hostilities 
would take place, as the general revolt of Bra- 
sil then occupied the attention of the Portu- 
guese minister. 

Brasil, possessing as it does all the advantages 
of nature, ought to be the finest colony in the 
world ; as the Portuguese have now been settled 
on it upwards of 260 years. But besides the 
ravages of the Dutch, it has been checked in its 
progress, as well as the rest of this monarchy, 
by the dominion of the Spaniards. It has even 
lost much of its value and importance since the 
cpocha of the three Philips ; the debts of John 
V. and the companies that have been establish- 
ed in it, with more avidity than understanding, 
have completed its ruin. Commerce now pos- 
sesses but three principal positions in Brasil, 
and is absolutely annihilated in every other part 


of this immense country. These are Bahia, 
which is the centre of it; Para, to which 
the new discoveries of Rio Negro promise to 
restore a commercial vigour, as from thence 
the produce of the mines may be transported 
by the river Amazon ; and lastly, Rio Janeiro, 
whose situation is equally convenient to the 
southern mines, and which serves as a port to 
the capitanias of Porto Seguro, Espiritu Santo, 
and St. Vincent. 

In the colony of Brasil there are twelve ci- 
ties, sixty-six burghs, and a great number of 
villages ; an archbishopric, and four bishoprics, 
with about 430,000 inhabitants, of which a 
sixth part, at most, are Portuguese. About 
thirty vessels sail annually from this country 
to Portugal ; which, one year with another, 
carry from 7 to 8000 casks of sugar, 10,000 
rolls of tobacco ; from 25 to 30,000 dressed 
hides, from 4 to 5000 raw hides, with large 
quantities of diamonds, as well as gold in dust, 
ingots, and coin ; besides balm, cloves, cinna- 
mon, ginger, cocoa, vanilla, cotton, indigo, oil 
of copahu, and several kinds of wood, in great 
estimation for their strength, length, and dura- 
bility. Every year one or two frigates sail from 
Bahia and Fernambuco, laden with timbers 


already prepared for the service of the king's 
marine. The negroes employed in this colony 
are brought from Ethiopia* and Congo. Nei- 
ther the king of Portugal, or his subjects possess 
one half of the commerce of Brasil, as the 
greater part of it is usurped by the English, to 
whom the best factories belong, under Portu- 
guese names, and for whom the Portuguese 
traders, of which there are but few, act as 
brokers and agents. The troops which protect 
Brasil consist, of about 7 or 8000 regular sol- 
diers, and about 30 or 40,000 militia. Those 
of the mines of St. Paul pass for good troops ; 
but this is a small army for so vast an extent of 
country, the northern part of which may be 
attacked with great advantage by the French. 
The colony of St. Sacrement is easily taken at 
the beginning of every war between the Spa- 
niards and the Portuguese ; and the method to 
prevent this, as well as to annoy the Spaniards, 
would be to yield this colony to the English, 
Though by thus giving themselves masters, 
the remedy would be worse than the disease. 
If Brasil was vigorously attacked at the same 

* From the coasts of Loaugo, Congo, Angola, and 
Benguela, but chiefly from the port of St, Philip de 
Benguela. T. 


time, by the French, on the side of Para, of 
Maranham, and along the Rio Negro; and by 
the Spaniards on the, side of Rio St. Pedro, ad- 
vancing also towards St. Paul and the capitania 
of St. Vincent, its defence would be very diffi- 
cult, as it would be assailed on the side of its 
mines. Any marine aid from the English 
would be of little use, and it would be equally 
dangerous for the Portuguese to suffer any Eng- 
lish troops to land ; a measure which they 
would never adopt but at the last extremity. 
The Portuguese, however, have no cause for 
alarm, while the French and Spanish colonies, 
which are contiguous to Brasil, are not better 
provided with troops, and the means of making 
hostile incursions, 




THESE islands may be divided into four parts, 
i st. Porto Santo, and the island of Madeira. 
2d. The A9ores, or Terceiras. 3d. The Cape 
Verde islands. And 4th. Islands on the coast 
of Guinea.* 


The island of Porto Santo is situate 32 north 
latitude, eight nautic leagues to the north-east 
of the easternmost point of Madeira : it is not 
two leagues in length, and about half a league 

* General Dumouriez has forgot in his enumeration 
the small but important island of Fernao de Noronha, 
situated about sixty-four leagues to the north-east of 
Cape St. Roque in Brasil. In this island, inhabited by 
exiles, and where no women are suffered, the Portu- 
guese keep a strong garrison ; all the little sandy bays, 
as well as the anchoring places, being defended by forts, 
or intrenched batteries : it is about ten miles long, and 
between two or two and an half miles in breadth, has 
lenty of water, and produces an abundance of provi- 
sions. T. 


in breadth : it lies about 160 leagues from Lis- 
bon. This island was discovered by John Gon- 
calez Zarco, and Tristan Vaz. It contains 
1300 inhabitants, the greater part of which 
reside in the town which bears its name. The 
bay is rather commodious, though exposed to 
the south and south-west winds. 

The island of Madeira is 160 leagues from 
Lisbon, and about the same distance from the 
A9ores. It lies in 32 37' to 53 north latitude, 
and is about thirteen leagues in length, and four 
leagues in its greatest breadth. It was disco- 
vered the same year as Porto Santo, and by the 
same John Gon9alez Zarco, who gave it the 
name of Madeira, from the quantity of wood 
which covered it. He set it on fire, and the 
conflagration lasted seven years. It is divided 
into two capitanias : that of Machico belongs to 
the house of Vimioso, and contains the little 
town of Machico, with 2000 inhabitants, the 
burgh of Santa Cruz with 1200, and seven vil- 
lages which contain about 2 or 3000. The 
capitania of Funchal was given by King John 
I. to the house of Zarco, which is now become 
that of Camara, to which it belongs at this day. 
The capital of this district is Funchal. It is 
defended towards the sea by five forts on the 


main land, and a small fort on an island (the 
Loo castle), and towards the land by the castle 
of St. Joao do Pico (commonly Peak castle) ; it 
is an episcopal see. This island contains one 
city, four towns, and upwards of 120,000* 
inhabitants, divided into forty-three parishes. 
It is the constant residence of a governor ; and 
the custom-house, with the tenths that the king 
derives from this island, as grand-master of the 
order of Christ, produces a revenue of upwards 
300,000 crusades. The principal trade of this 
place is in honey, wax, dragon's-blood, sugar, 
excellent wine, and various kinds of fruit. t 


The Acores derive their name from a kind 
of bird that resembles a hawk, of which a pro- 
digious quantity was found there, on their first 
discovery by the commander Alvarez de Cabral, 
in 1432^ They were also called Terceiras, 
from the name of the principal island, which 

* In the year 1768, the inhabitants living in these 
forty-three parishes amounted to 63,913, of whom 
there were 31,341 males, and 32,572 females. Former's 
Voyage round the World, Vol. I. p. 16. T. 

f The only survey ever engraved of Madeira and 
Porto Santo islands has been published by W. Faden, 
in 1791. T. 


was the third in the line of discovery. The 
Flemings, who discovered them almost at the 
same time with the Portuguese, call them the 
Flemish Islands. They are nine in number. 
The first is Santa Maria : it is three leagues 
and a half in length, and three in breadth ; has 
an harbour well fortified, with about 5000 in- 
habitants. The second is the island of St. Mi- 
chael. It is fifteen leagues in length, from two 
to five in breadth, and is the most populous of 
these islands, as it contains upwards of 40,000 
souls. It is extremely fertile, although the 
fiftieth part of it is not cultivated. It contains 
one city, five burghs, and twenty-two villages. 
The city is called Ponte Delgada. The house 
of Ribera Grande, to whom this island belongs, 
draws from it an income of more than 40,000* 
crusades. The third is the island Terceira, 
which is nine leagues long, and four in breadth : 
it contains one city, two burghs, and fifteen 
villages. Angra, the capital of it, is situated 
on the south coast of the island, and is a bi- 
shopric. The entrance into the harbour lies 
between two points which project into the sea. 
On the west point is a large rock, on which is 

* About /'2ooo, 


seated the castle of St. John the Baptist, with 
an advanced bastion, called St. Antonio. This 
rock, which is of black stone, is called Le Mo- 
no, or the Ape. On the east point is the castle 
of St. Sebastian. The port has good anchorage, 
and is very secure against every wind but the 
south-east, which obliges the vessels to weigh 
anchor as soon as it begins to blow. The town 
is well situated, well built, with large streets, 
well paved, and decorated with fountains, and 
contains upwards of 10,000 inhabitants. It 
was erected into a city and a bishop's see in 
1534, by John III. Its ordinary garrison 
consists of 500 men. It is very capable of de- 
fence, and well provided with artillery ; it is 
said to have upwards of 180 brass cannon, and 
many of them forty-eight pounders : it also 
possesses the famous culverin of Malacca, 
which is a sixty pounder. The town of St. 
Sebastian has about 1000 inhabitants, and is 
defended by six well-conditioned forts. Here 
the senate of the island assembles when any 
affairs of importance require its deliberations. 
Villa Praya, or Praya, is two leagues to the 
north-east of Angra, situated on a safe and 
well-defended bay : it contains near 3000 souls. 
The fourth bland is that of St. George, about 


three leagues to the westward of Terceira, be- 
ing about nine leagues in length, and one and 
an half broad. It is high but flat, and at its 
two points there are two detached islots. Its 
port is safe for small vessels. It contains about 
3000 souls, distributed in three burghs, and 
four villages, all of which are on the southern 
side of the island ; the northern part being rocky 
and incapable of cultivation. The fifth is Gra- 
ciosa, which lies four leagues to the north of 
St. George, and about seven north by west from 
Terceira ; it is two leagues and an half long, 
and as many in breadth ; the northern part has 
a better soil than that which is towards the 
south. It contains two burghs, and 3600 in- 
habitants. The sixth is the island of Fayal, 
which lies seventeen leagues to the west of 
Terceira. It forms a kind of lozenge, whose 
diagonals are each seven or eight leagues in 
length. The principal town is called Santa 
Cruz, and its road or harbour, Horta de Fayal. 
It contains 4000 inhabitants, divided into ele- 
ven parishes. The seventh, the island of Pico ; 
is separated from Fayal by a channel, 'two 
leagues broad ; is seven leagues in length, and 
four and an half in breadth. It is seen at the 
distance of fifteen leagues at sea, on account of 


a very high mountain, which is said to possess 
an elevation of three miles.* Its principal 
port is Villa das Lagens. Several others are 
dispersed round the coast, the principal of 
which is called Madalena, opposite to FayaJ. 
This island is very fertile, and abounds in ce- 
dar trees. It contains two towns, four villages, 
and 2000 inhabitants. The eighth is the island 
of Flores, which is twelve miles long, and three 
broad. The principal place is Ribeira da Cruz, 
which contains 800 souls. It has altogether 
two burghs, four villages, and 2000 inhabi- 
tants. It gives the title of Marquis to the 
house of Gouvea. The ninth is the island of 
Corvo ; is situate to the north of Flores, from 
which it is separated by a channel of nine 
miles in breadth. It is about eight or nine 
miles in circumference, has one parish, and 
about 500 inhabitants. The A9ores contain 
about 80,000 souls, but have very little trade ; 
so that the revenue which the King of Portu- 
gal derives from these islands is not equivalent 
to the expence of maintaining of them. 

* This mountain, which 5s a volcano, is not sup- 
posed to be so high as the Peak of Teneriffe, whose 
elevation does not exceed two miles, or two miles and 
a quarter above the level of the sea. T. ; 



The Cape Verd Islands are situate at the 
distance of no leagues from the Cape of the 
same name, on the western coast of Africa, 
between 23 and 26 west long, and 15 and 18 
north lat. They are supposed by some to be 
the ancient Hesperides of Pliny and Ptolemy. 
They were discovered, in the year 1460, by 
Antonio de Noli, a Genoese, under the direc- 
tion of the Infant Don Henry, who presented 
them to King Alphonso V. his nephew. They 
are ten in number: the principal of them is St. 
Jago, about 12 leagues in length and 32 in cir- 
cumference. Ribeira Grande, or St. Jago, 
which is a bishopric, has a port capable of 
receiving large vessels, with fourteen fathoms 
water at its entrance ; but that of La Praya, 
called Porto Praya, and situated on the south 
side, like the former, is still better. This 
island has been twice attacked and pillaged ; 
in 1582, during the war carried on for the suc- 
cession of Don Sebastian, and in 1712, by a 
French squadron. The other islands are Mayo, 
Boavista, Sal, Fogo, Bravo, St. Nicholas, St. 
Lucia, St. Vincent, and St. Antonio. They 
are poor, subject to famine, and have but little 
trade, which consists chiefly in rice and salt ; 


nor does their combined population amount to 
more than 16,000 souls. 


The person who discovered these islands is not 
known, though the period of their discovery is 
supposed to be about 1471, during the reign of 
Alphonso V. The principal of them is St. Tho- 
mas, which has a city, that is the residence of 
a bishop, and contains abdut 3000 inhabitants. 
The second is Prince's Island, and contains 
about 2000 inhabitants. The third is Fernao 
do Po,* so named from its discoverer, and which 
has very few people on it : and the fourth is 
Annobom, or Good Year, with not more than 
300 inhabitants. These four islands are not 
only very poor, but equally unwholesome ; and 
the anchorage not always safe. Their vicinity 
to the line prevents them from keeping any 
stock of fresh provisions ; so that the ships 
whrch sometimes call there, instead of obtain- 
ing refreshments, are obliged themselves to 
relieve the inhabitants of these unfortunate 

* This island belongs now to the Spaniards, te 
vhora it is as useless as it was to the Portuguese. T. 




THIS brief description of the Portuguese colo- 
nies is sufficient to give an adequate idea of 
their strength. The Asiatic colonies could not 
subsist, without bringing destruction on Portu- 
gal ; though they had never been attacked by 
European enemies. The Mahometans dis- 
persed along the shores of the Red Sea, and 
in the kingdom of Mogul, almost to the penin- 
sula of Malacca, were too powerful not to de- 
stroy, in the end, the weak and ill-fortified 
establishments of the Portuguese. Too indo- 
lent and too proud to ^submit to the engage- 
ments of commerce, they were alone qualified 
to carry on war; and therefore could not re- 
pair, by the advantages of trade, the losses they 
sustained by the failure of their military opera- 
tions. Their continual piracies excited a gene- . 


ral indignation against them; while the Indian 
nations, in their own defence, were obliged to 
engage in the same practice of maritime depre- 
dation. Fanaticism excited them both. Jesus 
Christ and Mahomet were always invoked to 
give victory to their respective worshippers, 
in these unjust and bloody combats ; in which 
their respective interests were blended with the 
glory of their respective religions. I n the mean 
time the Indians learned the science of naviga- 
tion and the art of war, and in a short time 
would have known as much as their masters. 
The French, the English, and the Dutch reaped 
the fruits of the Portuguese discoveries. They 
combined industry with strength, and have 
established those rich commercial companies, 
which are so powerful as to keep the Indians 
in awe, and to sustain extensive wars. The 
general outcry of the Indians against the Por- 
tuguese has justified the fury with which these 
different people have pillaged them without re- 
sistance. It was, however, the reign of the 
three Philips, and the bad administration of 
the Spaniards, which prevented the Portuguese 
from defending themselves. They were sa- 
crificed by the court of Madrid, who regarded 
Portugal as a conquered country, and not en- 


titled to the privileges of the rest of its domi- 

Brasil has been retarded in its population 
and its cultivation by the spirit of chivalry, 
which considered it as a degradation to become 
a cultivator of land and a colonist. Riches were 
acquired with more rapidity and eclat in the 
East Indies : piracy opened a career more at- 
tractive to a brave, proud, and indolent people. 
The kings of Portugal indulged the prejudices 
of their subjects in appearing to despise Brasil, 
which was therefore peopled only with villains 
and vagabonds ; and finding that it produced no 
addition to their revenues, they granted whole 
provinces to individuals, who subjected the la- 
bour and exertions of the inhabitants to their 
own advantage, and strangled .in its birth the 
spirit of industry and enterprize. The Dutch, 
in 1624, found Brasil in a poor and uncultivated 
state, when they established at Fernambucco a 
colony, upon the same principles as those they 
had formed in the East Indies. Here they gave 
to the Portuguese an example of industry ; and 
though, after a war of thirty years, when they 
were obliged to abandon this colony, they de- 
stroyed their plantations and factories. The 
Portuguese availed themselves, in some degree, 


of their example, and being supported by the 
English, advanced Brasil to the condition in 
which it is at this day. Indeed, since the loss 
of their Oriental possessions, their commercial 
speculations have been directed to this quarter. 
The government has withdrawn from the hands 
of individuals a great part of the provinces : but 
this measure has been carried too far, and avi- 
dity is always blind. The establishment of 
companies has also given a severe blow to the 
prosperity of Brasil. The inhabitants, who 
live in a state of oppression, are disposed to 
revolt. Burdensome taxes check the spirit of 
industry, and spread around discouragement and 
despair. Among other well-combined means 
to recall public confidence and industry, it is 
necessary to employ mildness with discretion. 
Power may enforce submission, but it cannot 
command industry. If troops are to be em- 
ployed in keeping distant possessions in sub- 
jection, it is equally dangerous to send too 
many or too few. The example of the Eng- 
lish colonies in resisting the stamp act, has pro- 
duced a powerful effect upon the European 
colonies of America. It is the cause of all the 
disorders which exist in Mexico, Peru, and 


The island of Madeira is the most populous 
and opulent of the Portuguese settlements ; but 
it is not the most productive to the mother 
country. The inhabitants stand in little need 
of supplies from Europe, carry on a direct 
trade with England, and pay but trifling duties 
to the king. The other islands and colonies in 
Africa are in a very wretched condition. The 
number and extent of the Portuguese colonies 
may be imposing ; but their real condition will 
appear from the following state of their popu- 
lation. - 


In Asia 50,000 

Africa - - 80,000 

Brasil - 430,000 

Madeira and Porto Santo *i 30,000 
The Acores 80,000 

Cape Verd Islands 16,000 

Islands on the coast of Guinea 5,000 


Of these the Portuguese scarce form a sixth 
part. The small prcp.rtion of this population 

* See the note at the bottom of p. 90. 

F 3 


to the immense extent of the Portuguese settle- 
ments is a sufficient indication of their weak- 
ness, and justifies the conclusion, that the com- 
merce and marine of Portugal are in a very 
bad condition, 






1 HE Portuguese army has been in a most con- 
temptible state for a century to the period of 
the war of 1762. In consequence of fifty years 
of peace, a most destructive earthquake, several 
famines, and a most abominable conspiracy, it 
had been totally neglected, and was sunk into 
the most wretched condition. It was composed 
of from 8 to 10,000 men, of a class inferior to 
peasants; without uniforms, without arms, beg- 
ging alms or assassinating for a livelihood; and 
the officers of these troops were servants, who 
mounted behind the carriages, or served at the 
tables of their masters, when they were not on 
duty. This is the unexaggerated and incon- 
ceivable picture of the Portuguese troops, be- 


fore the war of 1762, and the arrival of" Count 
jde Lippe, who instantly set about reforming 
the whole of it. 

The Portuguese are naturally indisposed to 
application. The Great are averse to military 
employments ; and as, in consequence of its 
frequent revolutions, this government is full 
of suspicion, it is permitted but to certain fa- 
milies to enter into the army. Strangers alone 
can support its/ character, and they are gene- 
rally ill chosen, and treated with indignity. 
The obligations which the Portuguese have 
received from foreigners, since the year 1640, 
cannot be equalled but by their ingratitude. 
It seems to be a principle with these people, 
to demand their assistance in time of war, to 
redeem the follies they have committed during 
a period of peace. A military zeal and ardour 
seems to return on the arrival of these auxilia- 
ries: but when the war is closed, their zeal is 
extinguished, their arms are suffered to rust, 
and these foreigners, to whom they owed so 
much, die or desert, oppressed by injustice^ 
by debts, and despair ; while the Portuguese 
sink into their former state of ignorance and 
torpor. This absurd conduct has been fre- 
quently renewed since the epocha that has been 


just mentioned, and it is probable that it will 
be again repeated. Unfortunately for the state 
which is governed by a single minister, that 
minister is never qualified for every depart- 
ment, and therefore gives his attention to those 
in which his capacity has been chiefly exercis- 
ed. The Count d'Oeyras, first minister of 
Portugal, is a mere politician, and is altoge- 
ther uninformed in military matters. Besides, 
he is an enemy to the character of a soldier, 
which requires resolution and vigour; qualities 
by no means requisite, in his opinion, to im- 
prove that obedience and submission which are 
essential to his government. 

The army of Portugal has a very respectable 
appearance ; but the officers are ill chosen, ill 
paid, and nevertheless are entirely engaged by 
interest, with the least spark of military ho- 
nour. Their exterior appearance, however, is 
under some kind of regulation, and the cut of 
their clothes, as well as their manual exercise, 
is in the Prussian method. 

The Count de Lippe has rendered an essen- 
tial service to Portugal, in new modelling its 
army ; but he remained there too short a time 
to carry his reform into effect ; besides, he did 


not make a proper choice of officers to finish 
the work which he had begun. 

When war was declared in 1762, Portugal 
finding itself without officers, arid without 
soldiers, the government, alarmed at its de- 
fenceless situation, employed every means to 
engage foreign officers in its service. A crowd 
of military adventurers, therefore, who had 
been dishonoured in, or driven from, the ser- 
vice of other powers, were received in the Por- 
tuguese army. Mr. Mello, ambassador from 
the court of Lisbon to that of London, was 
commissioned to receive all who offered ; and 
rank as well as money was held forth to tempt 
military men, of any character or country, to 
engage with the court of Lisbon. Instead of 
applying to the King of Prussia, or the Dutch, 
for a body of able and tried officers ; instead of 
holding forth adequate remunerations to mili- 
tary men of merit of any nation, the Portuguese 
government introduced into its army a great 
number of foreigners, whose vices and igno- 
rance tended to increase the disorder and pu- 
sillanimous spirit which prevailed in it. This 
evil was cured by a very violent remedy. The 
minister, having dissembled his resentment at 
these abuses during the war, which were so 


evident, that they even forced themselves upon 
his observation, employed an expedient as fatal 
as the abuses themselves, by persecuting and 
driving out of the kingdom every foreign offi- 
cer without distinction. As to the Portuguese 
officers, their pay does not enable them to live 
better than the common soldiers, whose com- 
rades and relations they are. The subaltern 
posts are filled from among the inferior classes; 
and their hatred of foreigners, arising from their 
having one-half more pay than themselves, pre- 
vents their associating with, or receiving any 
improvement from them ; and hence it is that 
they remain in ignorance and wretchedness. 

The Portuguese soldier is obedient, patient, 
robust, lively, and dexterous ; but he is, at the 
same time, idle, filthy, and disposed to find 
fault with every thing: but he is capable, 
when properly attended to, of doing credit to 
his character. His aversion to the Spaniards 
should be encouraged, but he should be made 
to comprehend, that he cannot gain any advan- 
tage over the superior numbers of that nation, 
but by superior discipline. The mutual con- 
tempt which these nations entertain for each 
other, arises from their ignorance and their 
presumption. It is very extraordinary, when 


it is their mutual interest to know each 
other, that their reciprocal aversion should 
operate so powerfully as to prevent any useful 
communication between them. Hence it if 
that a war between Spain and Portugal, will 
consist of little more than groping about in the 
dark, because neither the one nor the other 
have maps, or guides, or spies. 

These defects of the military establishments 
in Portugal might have been easily corrected 
by the Count de Lippe. But to attain such 
an object, a full power and the exercise of a 
rigid discipline was indispensable. It would 
be also necessary to make the appointments of 
the Portuguese officers equal to those of the fo- 
reign officers, in order to dissipate the grovelling 
jealousies and contempt that subsist between 
them, and to make talents the only distinction ; 
at the same time to encourage the foreign offi- 
cers, who live in a continual state of suspicion 
and distrust, by making them equal sharers in 
the favour of government, and attaching them 
to the country by solid establishments. In 
short, it would be the best policy to reward 
diligence by attaching to it honour as well as 
emolument, and to punish indolence by disgrace 
and the loss of fortune. 




TH E state of the Portuguese army, independent 
of its marine and its colonies, consists of 33 bat- 
talions, containing 26,000 infantry, and 26 
squadrons, which compose about 4000 cavalry. 
The peasantry also form a militiaof upwards of 
100,000 men, who serve "without pay, but en- 
gage with great fury, and are very formidable 
to the Spaniards, by their manner of fighting ; 
AS, from the ignorance of their generals, the neg- 
lect of their officers, and the want of discipline 
in the soldiers, the latter are ever exposed to 
ambuscades, assassinations, and sudden attacks. 
The Portuguese army is in a tolerable state 
of discipline : it marches and manoeuvres well ; 
but it ought more frequently to be drawn out 
into encampments, that the little manoeuvres 
of exercise might be applied to the great ope- 
rations of war. The battalions are composed 
of seven companies, one of which -consists of 


grenadiers, of 140 men each. This formation 
is imperfect, according to the rules of tactics, 
as it is not capable of square divisions, without 
confusion. There are many other faults in its 
evolutions, the greater part of which proceed 
from the same principle. Neither are the 
troops accustomed to remove earth, to practise 
the manoeuvres of attack and defence, as well 
as the art of fortification ; and all this is essen- 
tial in a country like Portugal, where war must 
be on the defensive, and carried on in detail. 
The infantry of the north is very superior in 
discipline, as- well as in stature, to that of the 
south, especially of the capital and of Elvas. 

The cavalry is well mounted on horses from 
Andalusia, Beira, and Traz os Montes ; which 
are of a moderate height, like those of the Spa- 
nish cavalry ; but they are all geldings. 

It is a problem which experience alone can 
resolve, whether the gelding or the stone-horse 
is best qualified for the service of cavalry ; and 
if the quiet disposition of the one is equal, in 
point of effect, to the ardent spirit of the other. 
The Spanish cavalry is the only one in Europe 
which consists of stone-horses, and it is of ac- 
knowledged excellence ; but it may be doubted 
whether it possesses sufficient solidity to sup- 


port a line of infantry. Cavalry should pos- 
sess these four qualities ; order, solidity, force, 
and swiftness. The Spanish cavalry are fa- 
mous for the two latter, and the Portuguese 
possess the two former. The union of these 
four qualities are by no means incompatible ; 
but I have my doubts whether they are to be 
found in any cavalry of any nation. 

Portugal maintains twelve squadrons of cui- 
rassiers in pretty good condition and discipline. 
Though I am rather doubtful whether they 
possess sufficient solidity to resist the impe- 
tuous shock of the Spanish cavalry, from the 
moderate size of their horses. Their breast- 
plates, however, give them two incontestable 
advantages; though the Spaniards are of a diffe- 
rent opinion, as they never make use of them. 
The first is, that they afford protection to the 
soldier ; and secondly, they give him an idea 
of his superiority over troops who are not clad 
in such defensive armour. The Portuguese 
dragoons, however, will never equal those of 

It is a great advantage to this cavalry to 
keep always in close union with the infantry, 
and never to engage alone in the plains of 


Alemtejo, and still less in those of Estre- 
madura, because there is great reason to 
conjecture that it would fail in an engage- 
ment with Spanish cavalry. Its most advan- 
tageous place is in the line, where it would 
be able to support the infantry ; and in battle 
it is better calculated to maintain its ranks, to 
cover a retreat, or protect the forage. It would 
execute with less activity, but with more cer- 
tainty, the great manoeuvres as well as the de- 
tail of its service. The squadron has the same 
defect as in Spain, in being composed of four 
companies, which require too many officers, 
and renders the establishment expensive. A 
company of cavalry is worth in the provinces 
near ^500. per annum. The regiments which 
are on court duty are very much harassed, be- 
cause they do the duty of body guards, and that 
the king, whom they constantly attend, always 
goes full speed ; so that they must be necessa- 
rily in worse condition, and the companies of 
less value. 

The Portuguese cavalry has this advantage 
over that of Spain, that it is exercised in fir- 
ing, and accustomed to leap hedges and ditches 
in squadrons j a manoeuvre which the Spa- 


niards can scarcely believe ; but which they 
could execute better than any other cavalry, if 
they were exercised in it. 

There is but one regiment of light dragoons, 
of about 1 200 men, very ill exercised, and of 
course incapable of engaging in that kind of 
war for which they are designed. The colo- 
nel, though a good officer, is not sufficiently 
active to conduct light troops. Colonel Louis 
Hollard is the only officer capable of that ser- 
vice in Portugal. It is, nevertheless, indis- 
pensable to have a body of from 5 to 6000 
light troops in a war with Spain, which be- 
ing defensive, the only attacks that the Portu- 
guese can make must be by way of incursion. 

The artillery is composed of three battalions, 
but in a very bad state of discipline. The can- 
non are ill made and clumsy. The minister 
had the good fortune to engage two excellent 
founders, brought up under the famous Maritz ; 
but the prevailing prejudice against foreigners 
has got the better of actual want, and, in con- 
sequence of ill treatment, they have been 
obliged to desert from the service. There are 
no field pieces, nor any small cannon, to ac- 
company the infantry ; which would be of 
the greatest use in such a country as Portugal, 


where there is a post at every step. There are 
three colonels of artillery , Colonel York, an 
Englishman, who contributed so much to the 
taking of the Havannah ; Colonel Macbean, 
a Scotchrrfan, who distinguished himself in the 
allied zrmy in Westphalia ; and Lieutenant Co- 
lonel Hollard, a Swiss, but who has been both 
in the service of Prussia and Denmark, and is 
well known by his valour and services. He is 
the only person capable of putting the artillery 
of Portugal upon a good footing ; though he 
would be employed more essentially in form- 
ing a body of light troops. 

The corps of engineers is ill formed, and 
extremely ignorant ; they can do little more 
than rule paper and page a register. Never- 
theless there are two engineers of great repu- 
tation among them ; Funck, a Swede, who 
served with distinction under Marshal Saxe, 
and Miron, a Swiss, a brave and most ex- 
cellent officer ; who was menaced with a 
trial, for having attempted to restore the forti- 
fications of Almeida, and to defend it against 
the Spaniards, in 1762. But the cowardice of 
the governor served as his justification. The 
School of Engineers is in a very backward 
state, and in 1766, its most forward scholars 


had not got beyond the second book of Eu- 

The Portuguese might avail themselves of 
their foreign engineers to procure correct maps 
of their country, in which they are totally 
deficient ; at least they might obtain topogra- 
phical surveys of the chains of mountains, of 
rivers, vallies, and frontier plains, that every 
post might be known in case of war. It is 
said that the Count de Lippe made himself 
well acquainted with the country which he 
passed through in 1762, and that he was actu- 
ally engaged in making maps of it. General 
Fraser has, since that time, made a tour through 
the northern division of the kingdom ; but he 
had only draftsmen with him, and I much 
doubt whether he viewed it with the eye of a 
master. Colonel Funck has aho been em- 
ployed to make designs of the frontiers ; and 
he presented to the minister a plan of general 
fortification, which is supposed to have beeu 




THE Count de Lippe is the restorer of the mi- 
litary art in this country. He is equally ami- 
able, witty, learned, brave, and virtuous. He 
is intimately acquainted with the sublime parts 
of war, well skilled in tactics, and a good en- 
gineer. He will acquire an high degree of re- 
putation, at the head of the Portuguese troops, 
if he will cease to neglect them, and return 
again to re-establish those parts of the army 
which have fallen into disorder since his ab- 
sence, and to complete the work which he 
began, with an equal degree of zeal and suc- 

The second general is an old Portuguese 
devotee, the Count Baron of Arcos : he lets 
every thing go to destruction, because he is 
incapable of app T ying a remedy to any thing. 

The first lieutenant-general is a Scotch gen- 
tleman, Simon Fraser, the son of Lord Lovat. 


He is young, and served only two years in Ca- 
nada, as colonel of a regiment of Scotch High- 
landers, after having been a barrister at law 
during the former part of his life. He has a great 
share of ambition, undaunted courage, a great 
deal of presumption, and very moderate talents. 

There are two field-marshals of distinguished 
character : a German, named Bohm, a creature 
of the Count de Lippe, a brave and well in- 
formed officer, but rather too much of a cour- 
tier ; and a Scotchman, named Macklean, a 
brave and ancient officer, and an excellent com- 
mander of infantry. The rest of the staff are 
Portuguese, with little or no military qualifica- 
tions, and whose names are scarcely ,known. 
The court of Lisbon, therefore, ought to pro- 
cure better, and fix them in its service by just 
and honourable treatment. 

There are somecolonels, lieutenant-colonels, 
and majors, who are good officers, but they al- 
most all of them strangers. Colonel Smith, an 
Englishman, passes for a good engineer, as well 
as commander of cavalry ; Macdonnell, Fitz- 
gerald, Campbell, Forbes, and Chauncey, are 
good officers. There are also some Portuguese 
noblemen, of whom there are great hopes, from 
their zeal and their talents : they are the Mar- 


quls de Lavradio, the Counts de Prado, and 
d'Aponte, Deluis de Miranda, Pinto, Acun- 
ha, &c. 

There is no staff in the Portuguese army, 
nor in that of Spain. The post of major-ge- 
neral of the army was last held by a Scotchman, 
named Preston, who retired from the service 
at the time of the unfortunate affair of Colonel 
Graveron. This post has been supplied by two 
inspectors of the troops. The employment of 
quarter-master-general is very difficult to ful- 
fil : it is his business to issue all the orders ; 
to provide for every undertaking, whether it 
relates to military operations, or to subsistence ; 
to arrange, direct, and conduct the passage and 
movements of the troops, to form maps, and 
to keep all the archives of the war. There is 
neither in Spain nor in Portugal, companies of 
guides, nor a train of waggons laden with pon- 
toons, planks, &c. There is no military board, 
or any fixed regulations for provisions or fo- 
rage. The great number of places, and the 
small extent of the theatre of war in Portugal, 
render this defect less likely to be felt; at the 
same time the troeps always run some risk of 
dying with hunger. 

A commissary named Ferrari, lately passed 


from the service of Spain into that of Portugal, 
who regulated the making of bread for the 
troops, so as to gain 33 per cent, for the go- 
vernment i and in case of a future war, he 
will, probably, be appointed commissary-general 
of the army. 

The scarcity of forage will always prevent 
the Portuguese from keeping the field, and 
maintaining a large body of cavalry ; and thi s 
circumstance proceeds from a defective state of 
agriculture. Nevertheless, the supplies for a 
Portuguese army might be easily collected in 
two or three strong places in the back parts, 
from whence they might be drawn with con- 
venience and safety. 

The military hospitals form no concern of 
the king, as a community of monks always 
charge themselves with that branch of military, 
administration. But regular and fixed hospitals 
would be more serviceable, and might be con- 

One of the principal obstacles to the due re- 
gulation of subsistence during war, is the man- 
ner of conducting it, at least, to the present 
time. As soon as the Spaniards enter Portugal, 
the king publishes a declaration, by which he 
enjoins his subjects to fall upon the invaders, 


and the national hatred excites them to execute 
this ordinance. The Spanish army 'always 
pushes on ; the villages are depopulated, and 
their inhabitants fall back upon the capital. 
The peasants arrive there in crowds, with 
their wives and children ; so that the king, who 
should have nothing more than his army to main- 
tain, finds, at the end of two or three months 
of the campaign, two or three hundred thou- 
sand additional mouths to feed. Another re- 
sulting evil is, that the court of Madrid avails 
itself of the famine which is occasioned by its 
invading army, induces the Portuguese peasants 
by kind treatment to abandon their own coun- 
try, or transport them by force into different 
provinces of Spain, with their wives, children, 
and cattle. 

To remedy this evil, it would be necessary to 
regulate the number of militia in time of war, 
and to prohibit any peasants to resist the enemy, 
to abandon their villages, or to disobey the con- 
queror, to whom they, of course, belong, till 
the force of arms, or returning peace, delivers 
them from a foreign yoke. But whatever the 
Spaniards may say to the contrary, this war of 
the peasantry is by no means important, but 
to ignorant and undisciplined troops. The 


burningof two or three villages, and the hanging 
of as many monks or curates, or principal per- 
sons in the parish, quickly puts a stop to the 
indiscreet and barbarous fury of the country 

A king of Portugal, who has found the means 
of regulating his expences by his revenue, will 
be able to sustain a war, upon equal if not su- 
periorterms against Spain. The article of sub- 
sistence is the principal and most expensive; 
every attention therefore should be given to this 
fundamental object. Established magazines, 
and economy in the dispensation of them, form 
the basis and strength of that defence which is 
required for this little kingdom. 

The war department is not under proper re- 
gulations, and its official proceedings are dila- 
tory. The advanced age of the Count d'Oeyras 
is a public inconvenience. He is continually 
occupied in various less important objects, to 
which he sacrifices his precious time. The 
ministerof war is Don Louis d'Acunha; a man 
of honour, but of little credit, and who does 
nothing. He is scarcely known by one half of 
the military officers. All the real business is 
in the hands of a confidential person, and se- 
cretary of Count d'Oeyras, Don Miguel d'Ar- 


riaga, he is a man of great merit, integrity, and 
understanding ; but he is only the echo of the 
count, and that minister being of a dilatory cha- 
racter, no advantage is derived from his super- 
intendance, so that the administration of the 
army is every year becoming worse and worse. 
It is divided into two departments ; that of the 
north, which comprehends the three provinces 
of Entre Minho e Douro, Traz os Monies, and 
Beira ; and that of the south, which embraces 
Estremadura, Alemtejo, and Algarve, 




TOPOGRAPHY, or a knowledge of the posi- 
tion of places; of the course and current of 
rivers ; of the extent and inclination of chains 
of mountains; and the situation of fortified 
places, is the first branch of military science, 
and a necessary part of the detail of a kingdom 
in a state of war. An enemy must be ac- 
quainted with these natural or artificial barriers, 
either to avoid or surmount them ; while the 
citizen ought to know them still better, to em- 
ploy them as the means of defence. But this 
grand and leading branch of the science of war, 
*s not duly considered by many nations, parti- 
cularly those of Spain and Portugal, who have 
not carried on one single scientific campaign 
against each other, since the foundation of their 
respective kingdoms. 

Portugal is watered by four principal rivers, 

which may serve to direct both its offensive and 

defensive operations. One of these rivers, the 

Guadiana, which runs from the east to the 

G 2 


south-west and south ; enters into Portugal be- 
tween Xerumena and Olive^a, in Alemtejo, 
and serves, in its course, as a natural ditch to 
that province and the little kingdom of Algarve, 
dividing the latter from Andalusia. Though 
the Guadiana is a considerable river, it cannot 
be employed to any purposes of utility in the 
present war, from the small importance of the 
provinces through which it flows, and because 
it is incapable of being navigated by boats for 
more than thirty-six miles, from Mertola to the 
sea. The other rivers run from east to west. 
The Minho divides a part of Galicia from a part 
of Entre Minho e Douro ; but it does not serve 
as the least defence to the latter province, 
which may be attacked without crossing this 
river. The Douro, coming from the kingdom 
of Leon, enters Portugal ; and, after dividing 
it, empties itself into, the sea, near the city of 
Oporto. It is navigible by boats from La- 
mego, a course of above fifty miles; its banks 
are rich, and it may be rendered very service- 
able if that place should be the object of mili- 
tary operations. But the most important river 
of Portugal, the key of Lisbon, and the nurs- 
ing mother of those armies which enter into 
that kingdom, is the Tagus. For about seventy- 


two miles from Alcantara to Abrantes, its course 
is interrupted by rocks and falls, and conse- 
quently incapable of navigation: but from 
Abrantes to the sea, which is ninety miles ; it 
is navigable by vessels of considerable burden, 
which may convey all the necessary supplies 
of war. Its right bank, though mountainous, 
is very abundant in provisions and cattle, and is 
covered with villages ; while the left is marshy 
and barren. From Santarem, upon the right 
bank, to Lisbon, a distance of fifty miles, the 
declivity is so great, that the first of these towns 
commands the latter, and is the key of the 
country. Several small rivers discharge them- 
selves into the Tagus ; the principal of which x 
are the Elga, (which divides Beira from Spain) 
the Ponsul, the Laca, the Zezere, and the Rio 
Mayor. This state of the country increases 
the means of defence, and the difficulties of at- 
tack. All these small rivers, which descend 
from the mountains of Beira are very unequal 
and dangerous in their course ; sometimes they 
appear only as shallow brooks, and sometimes 
as rapid torrents, which inundate the adjoining 
country. The Count de Lippe, in 1762, being 
encamped at Punhete, after the march of the 
Spaniards towards Villa Velha, and having 


the Zezere, with its bridges, in his rear; this 
river, in consequence of violent rains, was so 
greatly increased, that the bridges were broken 
down, and he found himself inclosed, without 
resource, between the Tagus and the Zezere. 
If the Spaniards had known, or could have 
imagined this event, (and a knowledge of the 
country would have informed them of it,) they 
would have taken him and his whole army with- 
out the discharge of a single musket. 

The Spaniards discovered little or no know- 
ledge of the position of the mountains of Pbrtu- 
gal, their chains, their extent,, their heights, or 
their defiles : when they attempted to penetrate 
to Oporto by the Traz os Monies ; they were 
ignorant that the two chains of mountains of 
Marom and of Geres,, form an insurmountable 
barrier between this province and that of 
Oporto: and that to pass from Chaves to 
Oporto, it is absolutely necessary to procure 
the native guides, with their mules, which, ac- 
customed to this journey, pass through narrow 
ways covered with wood, and on the brink of 
horrid precipices, where fifty peasants might 
stop the march of an army. In the same man- 
ner, when, after the taking of Almeida, the 
Spaniards had advanced to Guarda. to get in a 


straight line to Lisbon by Coimbra; they were 
ignorant that the Serra or mountain of Estrella, 
formed an impenetrable barrier, and that they 
must either return to the banks of the Tagus, 
or by keeping along the Douro, regain the sea 
shore, and thus form a march of two sides of a 
triangle to get round the Serra da Estrella. 

Portugal is very mountainous. The pro- 
vince of Alemtejo alone is varied by plains, 
which has been considered as an inducement to 
make it the theatre of war, forgetful of the 
true system, that is, to suit the war to the coun- 
try, and not the country to the war. 

All the mountains of the Spanish peninsula, 
are ramifications of the Pyrenees, which, taking 
different directions, on one side extend to the 
ocean, which they enter by Gal icia and Portugal; 
and on the other to the Mediterranean sea, which 
they cross to Africa, forming by their summits 
the various islands that appear between Spain 
and the African continent. 

The particular branches of these mountains, 
which pass into Portugal, run from east to west. 
The mountains which enter it by a part of 
Galicia and Leon, rather incline to the south 5 
and they all form a natural barrier to the Por- 
tuguese provinces. The mountain of Geres 


and that of Marom, divide the EntreMinhotf 
Douro from Traz os Montes : their branches 
extend as far as Beira, where they are denomi- 
nated Serra de Alcoba and Serra da Estrella. 
Other ramifications of the mountains of Gua- 
darama, which separate the Old from the New 
Castile, traverse the kingdom of Leon, and 
stretching onwards, under the name of Sierra 
de Gata, enter Portugal by the districts of Sa- 
bugal, Pena htfacor and Castel Branco, con- 
tinuing their course also by Guarda, Vi-seu and 

On the left bank of theTagus, are branches 
of the Sierra Morena and the Sierra Constan- 
tina, which enter Alemtejo by the way of 
Moura and Serpa ; and which form several 
ridges, terminating at the Guadiana, the prin- 
cipal of which is the Serra de~Aroche. (On the 
other side of the Guadiana, the chain continues 
through the kingdom of Algarve, which it 
divides from Alemtejo, and runs as far as Cape 
St. Vincent, and parallel to the south coast of 
Portugal, under the names of Serra de Caldeirao 
and Serra de Monchique.) 

Portugal is so far from being deficient in forti- 
fied places, that it possesses more than are neces- 
sary for its protection ; for if they were all suffi- 


ciently garrisoned, its army would be so weak- 
ened as not to be able to maintain a campaign. 
The inspection of fortified places is divided 
into two departments. 

The province of Beira has not so many strong 
places as Alemtejo; but it is nevertheless al- 
most impenetrable. The town of Almeida, 
taken in 1762, possesses considerable strength, 
and it will be still stronger from the repair of 
its works now carrying on by Colonel Funck. 
But this town does not cover Lisbon, and serves 
only K guard the entrance into the upper Beira, 
which the Spanish army can have no induce- 
ment to obtain. 

That part of the country, which compre- 
hends Zebreira, (where the construction of a 
fort has been projected,) Idanha, Pena Macor, 
and Alfayates, is the most necessary to defend, 
which can be done with the least difficulty, from 
its own natural strength. Nature has formed it 
to be a front to a Portuguese army, and has 
marked out the places to be guarded. It would 
be very difficult to penetrate into it, an entrance 
can only be obtained through defiles, which are 
almost impracticable, though they were not 

The province of Traz os Montes has no 
G 5 


strong places that are capable of defence. But 
the Spaniards well know, by fatal experience, 
the consequence of carrying their arms into a 
province, at once barren, mountainous, and 
difficult of access. Its strong places have been 
constructed in low situati-ons, which are com- 
manded on all sides, such as Miranda, Outeiro 7 
Bragan9a and Chaves. This province is in- 
tersected by rivers, hollow ways, and mountains \ 
particularly that of Marom, which covers 
Oporto, Braga,. and the province of Entre 
Minho e Doiaro. 

Entre Minho e Douro, possesses two principal 
places, Valen^a and Mon9ao, which are but ill 
fortified, but whose condition will be immedi- 
ately improved on a new plan. It is full of 
small forts and ancient castles, the remains of 
former wars, which may serve as posts to check 
an attempt of the enemy to penetrate to 
Oporto. That city rs entirely open and very 
opulent, and while it is the only object of an 
invasion on that side, is well worth an attempt. 
At the mouth of the Minho is the small town 
of Caminha, a regular fortification, but com- 
manded on all sides. A chef d'ceuvre of scien- 
tific infatuation-. 
The strongest and most important place ia 


the southern division, or the left side of the 
Tagus, and indeed of all Portugal, is Elvas ; 
because the Spaniards cannot penetrate into 
Alemtejo and leave this place behind them: as 
well as Almeida, it requires so numerous a 
garrison, asto prove an inconvenient diminution 
of the strength of the army. It is an ancient 
place, with irregular bastions, and a cordon 
commanded by two mountains, upon which 
have been constructed the forts La Lippe and 
St. Lucia. The town rises like an amphi- 
theatre between them. The fort of La Lippe 
is independent of the place : it is a square, with 
four bastions, and an horn-work that is conti- 
nued to the back of the mountain, and strength- 
ened by several exterior works. It is very 
strong, in a very elevated position, and provi- 
ded with casemates which are bomb-proof: 
almost all its batteries are covered, and it would 
be nearly impossible to raze its works. Never- 
theless, this fort has great defects ; many of its 
batteries are in the rock, and would soon be 
dismantled by a powerful cannonade. The 
declivity of the mountain is strengthened by 
mines, but their branches are easily discovered 
by observing the veins of earth across the rock. 
This side, therefore, although the most fortified, 


is very susceptible of attack, as it possesses the 
common fault of all horn- works, which carry 
the defences to too great a distance : at the same 
time, this fort garrisoned with 2000 men, might 
sustain a long siege. It commands also, the 
country and the town. The fort St. Lucia is 
composed of very ancient indefensible works, 
and might be taken with the greatest ease. The 
Spaniards might establish themselves in it 
during the whole war, burn or take the town 
and 'block up the garrison of fort La Lippe, 
which would then become entirely useless. 

There are many ancient places, and of little 
importance, between the Tagus and the Gua- 
diana. The left bank of the latter river is 
covered with them. These places were of 
great use in former wars, and are not altoge- 
ther useless in those of the present time ; be- 
cause the taking of them will, at all events, 
cost time and money, interrupt the progress of 
an enemy, and would he attended with no ad- 

The leading object of the Portuguese, in a 
war whh Spain, should be to cover both sides 
of the Tagus ; and for this purpose, Castello 
de Vide on the left bank presents an excellent 
position. This is well known ; and Funck 


has offered a plan for fortifying it, which has 
been accepted. 

The post of Olivenca, on the side of Spain, 
without being very interesting, may be very 
offensive to the Spaniards, because it favours 
the incursion of light troops into their Estre- 
madura and Andalusia, and affords them a safe 
retreat, in the same manner as Moura, Mou- 
rao and Serpa. 

The sea coast is defended by Setuval and the 
fort Sagres, at the point of Cape St. Vincent. 
Algarve is impenetrable, and the islands of 
Tavira, behind which ships, in time of war, 
may be secure from privateers, are fortified, 
though they received considerable injury from 
the great earthquake. Estremoz, as well as 
Evora and Beja, have no defence but the old 
walls with which they are invested. 

Portugal has about fifteen or twenty strong 
places, and not more than 8 or 10,000 men to 
garrison them, without disabling its army from 
keeping the field. 

The army of Portugal is more respectable 
than the Spaniards imagine, because they judge 
from the condition in which they saw it dur- 
ing the last war. 




JT is with astonishment we read in the page 
of history that the Spaniards have almost al- 
ways been beat by the Portuguese. On a near 
examination ot the two people, it appears that 
a greater degree of contempt than hatred sub- 
sists between them. This contempt of the 
Spaniards does not, however, appear to be con- 
sistent with their fatal experience of Portu- 
guese valour. It seems to be an innate infa- 
tuation in the Spaniards to afford such a certain 
advantage to the Portuguese, who must be sub- 
dued, without resource, by the arms of that 
courageous people, if they employed in their 
wars against Portugal the same understanding 
that they manifest against the other nations of 
Europe, whom they respect more. It appears 
also from history, that this contempt does not 
arise from any predominant principle, but is 
itself the fundamental cause of that continual 
disgrace which the Spaniards have suffered 


whenever they have carried their arms into 

The most famous event in the ancient wars 
between these two nations is, the battle of Al- 
gibarotta, in 1385. Portugal, ill governed by 
King Ferdinand, had sustained an unfortunate 
war against the King of Castile, Henry of 
Transtamare. This brave prince had just gain- 
ed, sword in hand, a crown which did not be- 
long to him by right of blood, but to which he 
was called by the general wish of the Castilians,. 
and the hatred of the nation against Peter the 
Cruel. Ferdinand, giddy, inconstant, with- 
out merit, and without courage, governed by 
his mistress Leonora Telles de Menezes, whom 
he had carried off from her husband, Don Pe- 
dro d'Acunha, in order to marry her, drew down 
upon Portugal the arms of that hero, on incon- 
siderately taking part with the Duke of Lancas- 
ter, who disputed with him the crown of Cas- 
tile, in right of his wife Constance. The Por- 
tuguese fleets were beaten ; Don Pedro Rui 
Sarmiento overcame the Portuguese on the 
frontiers of Galicia ; Henry himself took Vi- 
seu ; raised the siege of Coimbra, from a spirit 
of gallantry, because the Queen Leonora lay-in 
there, and burned Lisbon in 1374. At length 


Ferdinand, incapable of defending his kingdom, 
and being apprehensive of losing it altogether, 
had recourse to the Pope, by whose interven- 
tion the necessary peace was concluded ; by 
which he abandoned the alliance of England 
for that of France, who was the ally of Spain; 
and he received from the generosity of his con- 
queror all the towns which had been taken from 
him. The inconstant Ferdinand, after having 
passed his life in making and breaking treaties, 
in exciting the vengeance of Castile against his 
kingdom, and opposing it only with cowardice 
and humiliation, died in 1383, leaving an only 
daughter, named Beatrice, married to John I. 
King of Castile. There remained but one le- 
gitimate prince, the son of the King Don Pedro 
the Just, and of the unfortunate Ines de Cas- 
tro : but this prince was odious to the Portu- 
guese for having stabbed his wife in an excess 
of jealousy ; and besides, he was a prisoner in 
Castile. The wicked Queen Leonora, the mo- 
ther of Beatrice, was declared regent of the 
kingdom ; she only wished to govern in the 
name of her daughter, without King John or 
the Castilians coming into Portugal. 

Such was the position of Portugal, when 
two extraordinary men arose, who changed the 


face of the kingdom, and restored its power 
and its glory. John, the illegitimate son of 
Don Pedro the Just, grandmaster of the order 
of Avis, assisted by Nunho Alvares Pereira, 
the hero of his age, immediately declared him- 
self regent of the kingdom. He began, in or- 
der to obtain the favour of the people, by stab- 
bing, in the arms of Queen Leonora, the Count 
Andeyro, her lover, who governed tyrannically 
in her name. The queen regent called to her 
succour John I. who caused her to be arrested, 
and conducted as a prisoner to Tordesillas; 
from thence he went to lay siege to Lisbon, in 
1384. The grandmaster threw himself into 
that city, with an handful of brave men, and 
sustained the siege, with great courage, against 
a formidable army. The plague, brought on 
by disease and famine, prevailed in the Castilian 
army ; but the king being obstinately bent on 
continuing the' siege, lost, by this calamity, 
two grandmasters of the order of St. James, 
the grand commander, the admiral, the two 
marshals of Castile, Don Pedro de Lara, the 
flower of his knights, and upwards of 30,000 
men. Being thus deprived of his army, he at 
length raised the siege, and was pursued in his 
retreat by the intrepid grandmaster. He did 


not succeed better in procuring the assassina- 
tion of that hero ; the conspiracy was disco- 
vered, and the conspirators punished with 
death. The Portuguese also gained a consider- 
able victory at Trancoso, against the Archbi- 
shop of Toledo. At length, Pereira assembled 
the states of the kingdom at Coimbra, and 
prevailed on them to elect the grandmaster 
king, to the prejudice of Beatrice and Prince 
John. The King of Castile re-entered Portu- 
gal at the head of a fine army of 40,000 men. 
He took the route of the Tagus, as the short- 
est, advanced by Abrantes and Santarem, and 
arrived without the least opposition at Algi- 
barrota, where his intrepid rival waited his 
coming. The Portuguese army consisted of 
no more than 10,000 men, but they were en- 
couraged by the spirit of national hatred, by 
their late successes, and by their confidence in 
the two heroes who commanded them. The 
Castilians, trusting to their superior numbers, 
considered themselves as proceeding to certain 
victory, and the unresisting conquest of the 
small body of Portuguese which appeared 
against them. So blinded were they with these 
expectations, that they detached the greatest 
part of their cavalry to make a circuit by Al- 


canhede, in order to attack the enemy in the 
rear, and seize on all the fugitives who might 
try to escape towards the capital. The advice 
of John de Rie, the French ambassador, was 
rejected with indignation, who advised the Cas- 
tilian monarch to avoid an engagement, and 
to content himself with surrounding the ene- 
my's camp, and to cut off their supplies. But 
the young courtiers accused the old warriors, 
who supported these opinions, of cowardice ; 
and at length King John, hurried on by popu- 
lar outcry, gave battle, August 14, 1385. The 
Castilians overcome with heat and fatigue, af- 
ter having fasted for twenty-four hours, and 
without allowing themselves the least repose, 
attacked, with equal impetuosity and disorder. 
The Portuguese, who, being advantageously 
posted, in lull vigour, and ably commanded, 
broke in upon them on all sides. The defeat 
immediately followed the attack, and the battle, 
which lasted but half an hour, left 10,000 Cas- 
tilians dead on the field ; three princes of the 
blood, Don John, Ferdinand of Castile, and 
Don Pedro of Aragon, the ambassador of 
France, and the flower of the nobility lost their 
lives, in a vain endeavour to rally the Castilians, 
who, being seized with a sudden panic, had 


abandoned themselves to a disgraceful flight. 
The enraged Portuguese gave no quarter ; and 
the rest of the Castilian army would have pe- 
rished, but for the arrival of the Infant of 
Navarre, who came to join them with a body 
of his troops, and for whom they were too im- 
patient to wait, ere they engaged the enemy. 
This prince collected the remains of the routed 
army, and led them baclcrinto Spain. The 
king fled, almost alone, upon a mule, on which 
he continued his flight for thirteen leagues 
without stopping ; and did not think himself 
in safety till he arrived at Seville. The new 
sovereign of Portugal strengthened his throne 
by successive victories, and at length granted 
peace to the Castilians in 1389. 

This war is the most unfortunate that the 
Spaniards have made in Portugal ; nevertheless 
it is, perhaps, the only one in which they have 
conducted their operations with skill and judg- 
ment. The object was to get possession of the 
kingdom, and they accordingly considered the 
capital as the central point, and the grand ob- 
ject of attack : they therefore marched straight 
forward to it, without paying attention to any 
places which were out of their road thither, 
and followed the course of the Tagus as the 


shortest route. But fortune was not propitious 
to this plan of the war, and in its executive de- 
tails some fatal errors were committed. Dur- 
ing the siege of Lisbon, a dreadful pestilence 
attacked the Castilian army ; and, in the se- 
cond expedition, a spirit of precipitation, and 
an unreflecting confidence, incited King John 
to follow the counsels of his young courtiers, 
who were eager for battle ; so that his army 
engaged with that disorder and temerity which 
led to a certain defeat. But without the acci- 
dental misfortune of the plague in 1384, Lis- 
bon must have surrendered, and the kingdom 
have submitted to King John ; who, on this 
occasion, can only be blamed for his obstinacy 
in continuing the siege, while sickness and fa- 
mine weakened his army. As to the battle of 
Algibarrota, if, instead of engaging, King John 
had resolved to starve the camp of the Portu- 
guese, and to wait for the succours of the In- 
fant of Navarre, *the grandmaster of Avis 
must have submitted at discretion, and the war 
would have been terminated without any effu- 
sion of blood. These were fatal errors ; ne- 
vertheless the plan of tha campaign was formed 
with knowledge and judgment. 

I now come to the glorious epocha of the 


reign of Philip II. I shall impartially exa- 
mine those facts which history presents to 
me, without the least fear of being charged 
with a malicious spirit, if my reflections should, 
in some measure, diminish the general idea of 
that conquest, which was obtained by such an 
easy entrance into Portugal. The Spaniards, 
and the Duke of Alba, who led them on, pos- 
sess so many trophies, acquired with toil and 
glory, that it is not necessary to mention a 
doubtful victory. I shall, however, take care 
to cite only Spanish authors, and draw from 
Spain itself a part of my critical reflections. 

After the death of that rash King, Don Se- 
bastian, in Africa, with the flower of the Por- 
tuguese nation, the succession was for some 
time held by his aged uncle, the Cardinal Don 
Henry. Three claimants, even before the face 
of this weak and decrepit monarch, engaged in 
disputes for the spoils he should leave behind 
him. The Duchess of Bragan9a, with some 
right, but no power ; Philip 1 1 . with both right 
and power, and Don Antonio, Prior of Crato, 
without either one or the other. The death of 
the cardinal monarch, precipitated by the cha- 
grin which had been occasioned by the ambi- 
tion of his heirs, was the fatal prognostic of a 


civil war. Philip, supported by an army com- 
posed of the best troops in Europe, and com- 
manded by the Duke of Alba, produced an 
acknowledgment of his rights in a will of the 
late King, Don Henry ; for which he was in- 
debted to the contrivance of Christopher de 
Mora, his confidential secretary. The Duchess 
of Bragan9a gave up all her pretensions ; while 
Don Antonio, equally weak and rash, obsti- 
nately refused all the offers of Philip, and had 
ihe audacity to have recourse to arms. 

The Portuguese nation, dispirited by the 
loss of Don Sebastian and all his nobility, did 
not possess the means of re-establishing itself 
during the short and tumultuous reign of the 
incapacitated and timdrous Don Henry. The 
kingdom had neither a fleet, nor arms, nor 
money; and the people were divided. Pru- 
dence suggested it would be impolitic to irri- 
tate Philip II. while the spirit of national 
hatred revolted at the idea of submitting to the 
Castilian government. Three out of the five 
governors, were resolved not to obstruct the 
entrance of Don Philip into the kingdom. The 
hatred of the people of Lisbon against the Spa- 
niards, was the sole motive which engaged them 
to favour the Prior of Crato, and to proclaim 


him king. Four of the governors fled to the fron- 
tiers of Spain, where they confirmed the rights 
of Philip 1 1 . John Telles alone, being undeter- 
mined with which party to act, became odious 
to both, and was driven from his government. 

While all this was passing, the Duke of 
Alba entered Portugal with a considerable ar- 
my : according to Ferreiras, it consisted of 
30,000 men ; but if we are to credit Cabrera 
and Osorio, it did not amount to above half 
that number. Elvas sent its keys as far as Lle- 
rena ; Villa V^osa was taken possession of 
without any effusion of blood, by the conspi- 
racy of a Castilian. soldier. Don John de Aze- 
vedo, admiral of Portugal, who was shut up in 
Estremoz, after much threats and bravado, 
shamefully surrendered on the first cannon- 
shot. Such were the first events of the war. 
From Alemtejo, the Spaniards marched to Se- 
tuval, which submitted without resistance : 
the castle of Outao was the only post which 
occasioned a small effusion of blood. After 
having 'made himself master of these places 
with so little difficulty, the duke embarked on 
board a very powerful fleet, which coasted 
along Portugal from Cadiz, and commanded 
the-seas. He then disembarked his troops at 


Cascaes, without opposition from Don Diego 
de Meneses, who was an enemy to both par- 
ties, and marched directly to Lisbon. 

The new King Don Antonio, without fo- 
reign succours, without money, and without 
the confidence of his subjects, got together an 
army, composed of the lowest and most incapa- 
ble part of the people of Lisbon, and entrench- 
ed himself at Belem, two miles from that 
city where his position was forced, and his 
troops overcome without much trouble, in the 
only battle or onset which took place in this 
war. He fled by Sacavem, and took refuge at 
Coimbra, where he obtained a reinforcement 
of troops, and was a second time beaten by Don 
Sancho d'Avila, at Aveiro. From thence he 
embarked at Oporto for theTerceiras (A9ores,) 
or Cape Verd Islands, where he sustained, for 
some time, this unfortunate contest ; till at 
length he determined to abandon his desperate 
pretensions, and to pass the rest of his life as a 
private person in France, where he died. 

This war lasted from June 19, when the 
Spaniards entered Portugal, to the end of 
August. The promptitude of its success proves 
the facility with which it was carried on, and 
the little resistance it met with. The line of 


march adopted by the Duke d'Alba was the 
best, from the circumstance of his having a 
fleet ready to transport his troops to Cascaes. 
But that general did not succeed in finishing 
the war, nor did he take sufficient precau- 
tions to attain its object, since Don Antonio 
found the means to escape and re appear at the 
head of 12,000 men. Nay, if this prince had 
been fortunately joined at that time by the 
Marshal Philip Strozzi, who afterwards fought 
for him at the Terceiras, Fortune perhaps 
might have turned her back on the con- 
queror. This mistake has not escaped the ob- 
servation of the Spanish historians. 

The error of having let the Prior of Crato 
escape, was the natural consequence of the 
plan laid down for the conquest of Portugal, 
the rapid reduction of the different places in 
Alemtejo, determined the operations on that 
side, as the most easy of access ; but if the 
Duke d'Alba had left these places for the 
present, which, whether taken or not, would 
have had no effect on his final success before 
Lisbon, and had cut off the passage of the pro- 
vinces from Don Antonio, in passing by Abran- 
tes and Santarem, which would have shut him 
up in the corner of Lisbon, there cannot be the 


least doubt that he would have finished the war 
at one stroke ; and that Don Antonio, not 
being able to escape either by sea or land, must 
have accepted the propositions which were 
made to him, or have fallen the victim of his 

The war of the rebellion of Portugal will 
furnish me with additional examples. After 
having suffered, during sixty years, the Spanish 
yoke, the Portuguese, availing themselves of the 
security and weakness of the government of 
Philip IV. proclaimed Don Juan de Bragana ; 
%vho, without his knowledge, and without hav- 
ing made any noble efforts to merit such an 
elevation, was placed upon the throne. This 
revolution was completed even with less dif- 
ficulty and effusion of Wood, than the conquest 
of the Duke d'Alba. Every one is acquainted 
with this point of history, which has been ren- 
dered so interesting by the style of Abbe Ver- 
tot.* The war which succeeded to the revo- 
lution lasted twenty-eight years, with great 
loss to the Spaniards. But as the events of it 
bear a great resemblance to each other, and 

* In a small volume izmo, called Revolutions de Por- 
tugal; it is considered as one of the classical books of 
the French. T. 



were none of them decisive ; I shall confine 
my reflections to three epochas, which will 
give a sufficient knowledge of the military 
faults committed in it, and of those inevitable 
misfortunes that arise from the pursuit of a 
false system. 

The first years of this war did not produce 
any events worthy of being recorded ; because 
the court of Madrid, embarrassed with other 
more important contests, particularly those of 
France and Catalonia, could give very little at- 
tention to this ; while Portugal, instead of 
profiting from such neglect, gave itself up to 
supineness and indolence, without making any 
preparations for the war that threatened it. 

In 1658, Don Louis de Haro, a good mini- 
ster, but a bad general, took upon him the 
command of the troops in Estremadura. He 
entered with a powerful army into Alemtejo, 
and undertook the siege of Elvas. After much 
time had been lost before this place, the Portu- 
guese army arrived to succour it, January 14, 
1659, when Don Louis, after having his lines 
forced, fled to Badajoz, leaving 6000 men dead 
on the field of battle, and 1000 prisoners, among 
whom were four grandees of Spain, together 
with the artillery, baggage, and military chest, 


the standard of Charles V. and the strong-box 
of the general, which contained papers of great 

In 1661, Don Juan of Austria, sonofPhilip 
IV. took upon him the command of the army, 
in the place of Don Louis de Haro, who was 
more usefully occupied in negotiatingthe peace of 
the Pyrenees. This prince, following the same 
methodical system, abandoned the trunk to lop 
off the branches. Finding the siege of Elvas 
too difficult an undertaking, Don Juan passed 
two years in taking and fortifying certain in- 
considerable places, as Arronches, Olivenca, 
and Xerumena; and having ventured into 
Alemtejo, he got possession of Estremoz and 
the whole province, and pushed into Estre- 
madura as far as Alcacer do Sal ; but after a 
campaign of two months he was forced to re- 
tire, on account of the havock that was begin- 
ning to be made in his army by disease and 
famine. He was beaten twice in his retreat; 
at Ameixial and Estremoz, and he finished his 
campaign with the diminution of his military 
character, and two-thirds of his army. The 
battle of Estremoz took place, June 8, 1663. 
The Portuguese were commanded by the Count 
Schomberg, and supported by the English and 
H 3 


French, who performed prodigies of valour. 
The Spaniards fought with the courage attri- 
buted to the troops of Charles V. ; but they 
could not resist the ardour and despair of their 
eremies. Don Juan had two horses shot under 
him, and acted with great skill and resolution ; 
but Schomberg proved superior to the prince, 
and was the saviour of Portugal. The loss of 
the Spaniards amounted to 12,000 men killed 
and ti.ken prisoners. 

The last entrance of the Spaniards into Por- 
tugal, was that of the Marquis of Caracena, 
with a powerful army. Thb general, who was 
possessed of great talents ami much experience, 
followed the stream, or rather the orders of the 
court ; and in compliance with the old system, 
sought misfortune in the plains of Alemtejo, 
where he lost, June 17, 1664, the battle of 
Villa Vi9osa. It was to the ability of Schom- 
berg, and the valour of the French, that the 
Portuguese were indebted for this victory, which 
completed the disgrace of Spain, brought on 
peace, and took from the Spaniards all desire 
of returning to similar encounters. Ten thou- 
sand Spaniards left on the field of battle ; 4000 
prisoners, and all the artillery, baggage, and 
standards, testified the complete triumph of the 


Portuguese. The sensibility of Philip IV. 
surpassed, after this battle, all that he had felt 
during a long and unfortunate reign. He 
could not console himself for having been con- 
quered by an handful of rebels, as he was pleased 
to call the Portuguese. Charles II. his suc- 
cessor, made peace, because it was impossible 
for him to continue the war. If it had con- 
tinued throughout a century, it could not have 
had any other conclusion, while the manner of 
carrying it on was obstinately adhered to. This 
is evident, because the ill success of the several 
campaigns could not be attributed to the gene- 
rals, Don Juan of Austria, the Marquis of Ca- 
racena, the Count of St. Germain, and the Duke 
d'Ossona, who had distinguished themselves 
in far more important wars ^ nor to the weak- 
ness of the army ; for in no time were the Spa- 
niards more warlike, than from the age of 
Charles V. to the end of the reign of Philip IV- 
nor to the skill or activity of the Portuguese ; 
for except Count Schomberg, whom they hated 
as a foreigner, incapacity, presumption, and 
discord, were the leading features of the Por- 
tuguese army. 

The sole foundation of these misfortune 
was the uncertainty, the indiscretion, and the 
H 4 


want of system in carrying on this war. On 
leading its history, it appears to partake of 
something of the ancient spirit of knight erran- 
try ; and that prince tacitly agreed, that such 
a province should be the theatre of war, where 
armies might assemble as at a tournament, and 
decide, as in lists, contests very different from 
those of knighthood. Every General departed 
from his object, became embarrassed in fruit- 
less or dangerous enterprises, and conducted 
himself contrary to every principle of art or 

This error has been discovered in our age, 
but no pains have been employed to find a re- 
medy ; for, notwithstanding many favourable 
opportunities have presented themselves, the 
means of carrying on this war have never been 
investigated but at the moment of its renewal. 
Maps have not been formed, nor the roads, 
mountains, and rivers, reconnoitered. Military 
plans have not been accepted, or even proposed, 
when peace afforded the best opportunity for 
those investigations. No arrangements have 
been made respecting the subsistence and equip- 
ment of troops, the construction or maintenance 
of bridges, the different kinds of arms, and the 
mode of employing them. No new system has 


been admitted in the place of the ancient one, 
which the court of Spain has rejected with dis- 

The war for the Spanish succession does not 
offer a subject for reflection ; because, except 
some inroads, fortunately executed by the Mar- 
quis de Bey, the war has been purely defensive 
on the side of Spain. In the last war, a very 
different plan has been proposed, but it did not 
succeed The disgrace of Spain is recent, and 
inspires the most profound reflections. Expe- 
rience should be the fruit of misfortune. 

We live in an enlightened age. War is the 
science of sovereigns. Systems are calculated 
and projects are verified. The great Frederick 
has given lessons to future ages. According to 
his system, rivers form the most natural con- 
ductors t6 enter a kingdom, whether to attack 
or defend it ; their course directs the plans that 
must be formed for action or for subsistence. 
Such is the fundamental principle of those wars 
which he has terminated wirh so much glory. 
The most advantageous consequences must ever 
flow from such a solid and immoveabie basis 
of military operation. 


H 5 






1 H E character of the Portuguese bears a strong 
resemblance to that of the Spaniards ; they pos- 
sess the same disposition to idleness and super- 
stition, the same kind of courage, the same 
pride, but more politeness and deceit^ which 
arises from the rigour of their present govern- 
ment ; the same national zeal, and, above all, 
a decided spirit of independence, which incites 
the most violent hatred towards the Spaniards, 
who have been their tyrants, and the English, 
who are their masters. 

The manners of the northern provinces of 
Portugal have a positive resemblance to those 
of Scotland. - Their inhabitants are a fine race 


of men, free, sincere, brave, full of prejudices 
of national hatred and patriotic love. They are 
universally hospitable, and, in the provinces of 
Entre Minho e Douro and Traz os Montes, 
there are no inns. In the south, on the con- 
trary, and, above all, at Lisbon, the inhabi- 
tants are robbers, misers, traitors, brutal, fierce, 
and morose, with an external appearance which 
bears all the characters of their detestable na- 
tures. Some exceptions, however, are to 
be met with, particularly among the nobility ; 
whose birth is superior to that of the Spanish 
nobles, and who possess more affable manners, 
as well as a more communicative spirit, which 
indeed they derive from a more frequent inter- 
course with foreigners. 

The Portuguese possess an innate enmity to 
the English and the Spaniards. The French 
nation is that with which they sympathize the 
most ; of which they entertain the greatest 
apprehension, and for which they bear the 
highest respect. They are governed by a pre- 
judice, that no place can resist the attack of 
French besiegers. This sympathy, as well as 
its concomitant opinion, are both beneficial, 
and proceed from the gaiety, the vivacity, the 
inconstancy, and turn of mind common to these 


two people ; a relation which able politicians 
may employ to their mutual interest. In poli- 
tics, the knowledge of national character is not 
always sufficiently considered ; the interests of 
sovereigns are alone regarded and it often hap- 
pens, that the most important negotiations fail, 
from an ignorance in the art of reconciling the 
contrarieties of these high interests, and the 
characters of nations. 

The Fidalgos or grandees of Portugal are not 
so ill informed as those of Spain ; but they are 
almost as incommunicative, as haughty, and 
are more jealous of their women. Very few 
of them enter into the army, because they 
cannot obtain permission. They have carried 
audacity, tyranny, and independence to the 
highest pitch, from the epocha of the procla- 
mation of Don Juan de Braganca, in 1640, to 
the assassination of the king in 1756. The 
Count d'Oeyras availed himself of the latter 
event to reduce and lower them in a much 
greater degree than they had ever been ele- 
vated. He restored the authority of the king and 
the laws amid streams of blood. The greater 
part of the principal persons among them pe- 
rished in prison. These Fidalgos which fre- 
quent the court are poor, base, and grovelling j 


those alone who are particularly attached to 
him are permitted to serve in the army ; or 
such who have not any quality that can give 
him umbrage. The rest of the nobility live 
without credit ; at once ignorant, loaded with 
debts, and without any exterior distinction. 

The Portuguese women possess the finest 
colour of any in Europe, the finest teeth, and 
the most beautiful hair. Their dress, though it 
bears some resemblance to the dress of the Turk- 
ish ladies, does not set them off to advantage ; 
as the lacing themselves too close enlarges their 
bosoms. Their shoes are very high and large, 
so that almost all of them have big feet, and 
walk ill ; they therefore seldom walk. They 
are otherwise gallant, witty, and well inform- 
ed ; but they live in a rigorous state of soli- 
tude. Intrigue is not only difficult but dan- 
gerous in Portugal. The women are never 
seen but at the churches and places of diver- 
sion. They are very cleanly and coquettish. 
The boxes of the theatres are highly decorated 
by the presence of these charming females; 
but the small portion of liberty which they 
possess obliges the men, and particularly fo- 
reigners, to consider them in no other point of 
view, than as beautiful portraits arranged for 


the; decoration of a gallery. Women of the 
common rank suffer an almost equal degree of 
restraint : many of them are very handsome, 
and however poor they may be, they pay a very 
particular attention to the arrangement of their 
hair and the dress of the head, which they al- 
ways keep uncovered, even in the streets. 

The Portuguese theatre is worse and in a 
lower style than that of Spain : their pieces are 
all in the burlesque, like the Italian panta- 
lonades, but with less wit and more buffoonery. 
They have neither an equal variety nor so fine 
a^dramatic collection as has been furnished by 
Lopez de Vega, Calderone, Moreto, &c. Not 
one good writer has employed himself in the 
service of the Portuguese theatre, but Camoens, 
who has given a good translation of Amphy- 
trion, which is never performed; and Ferreira, 
who composed a very good tragedy called Ines 
de Castro, after the Greek model. At present 
they translate from the French and Italian 
theatre, but the bad taste of the country and 
the harshness of the language* destroys the 

* The Portuguese language has long preserved the 
Latin tongue, though much corrupted; and several 
Portuguese compositions yet extant are as good Latin 


merit of them. The actors are bad, but well 
dressed. Their dances and music are excellent,, 
and give some little life to the two theatres of 
Lisbon. They have very good Italian operas, 

as any monk of the twelfth century would have wrote : 
the following verses, in honour of St. Ursula arid her 
eleven thousand virgins, will give a specimen of this 
affinity : 

Canto tuas palmas, famosos canto triumphal, 
Ursula, divinos martyr concede favores ; 
Subjectas sacra nympha, feros animosa tyrannos, 
Tu phixniXf vivendo ardes, ardendo tnumphas. 
I/lustres generosa chores das Ursula idles ; 
Das rosa bellas rosas, fortes das sancta columnas ; 
jf.ternos vivas annos, o regia planta i 
Devotes cantando hymnos, invocofavores. 
Tarn puras nymphas amo, adoro, canto, cdebro 
Per vosjelices annos, o Candida turfia, 
Per vos innumeros de Cfiristo sperofavorcs. 
The affinity of the Portuguese with the Latin does not 
destroy the assertion of the author ; when it is spoken 
sweetness is found in the expression, but an uncouth 
harshness generally offends the ear of the stranger; and 
this is attributed chiefly to the vast number of diph- 
thongs, which are no less than sixteen in that language. 
Another great defect of the language itself is, the dif- 
ficulty, or rather the impossibility, of making a true 
distinction betwhct the three tenses of the verbs; that 
is, the preter-imperfect, the preter-perfect, and the 
future. T. 


and that of the king is one of the best composed 
in Europe. 

The Portuguese are by no means of a com- 
municative disposition, and there is but little 
society among them, particularly at Lisbon. 
The government, which is become naturally 
suspicious, since the horrid plot against the 
king, has prohibited all assemblies ; which re- 
gulation accords wonderfully with the extreme 
jealousy of the nation ; so that Lisbon is with- 
out diversions. There are occasional balls ; 
but they are principally for the amusement of 
strangers. The national dance is called the 
Foffa ; it is danced in couples, like the Spanish 
Fandango, to the tinkling of a bad guitar. Its 
motions are extremely indecent, and the dancer 
generally accompanies his gesticulation with 
expressions equally ludicrous and obscene. 

There are bull-feasts in Portugal as well as 
in Spain, where, notwithstanding every pre- 
caution to prevent mischief, accidents some- 
times happen from the very great awkwardness 
of the combatants. But the most singular cir- 
cumstance belonging to these feasts is, that per- 
mission is given to persons of the first rank to 
engage in these spectacles, under the cover of 
a mask, and that some of them always avail 


themselves of this privilege. They always en- 
gage on horseback with small lances, called in 
Spain Rejones. If the horseman loses his stir- 
rup, if his hat falls, or if he is thrown into dis- 
order, he is obliged to dismount and to revenge 
himself on foot, and to fight the bull alone ; 
not like the Spaniards behind a cloak, but face 
to face, with a sabre. The bulls of Portugal, 
however, are not equal to those of Spain, either 
for strength, or size, or fierceness ; and they 
have a ball fixed on the top of each horn ; so 
that the bull-feasts of Portugal are less cruel, 
as well as dangerous, than those of Spain. 




HAVING described the dress of the women, it 
remains only to speak of that of the men, which 
is that of other European nations, cut short, and 
accompanied with a Spanish cloak and a long 
sword. Their clothes are ill made, very dirty, 
and have a Jewish appearance, which by no 
means set off the Portuguese countenance. 
Those who belong to the court almost univer- 
sally wear uniforms. 

The houses also are very dirty, ill built, and 
inconvenient ; gnats, bugs, and insects of every 
kind, bred amid the filth of Lisbon, make its 
residence insupportable ; while the slightness 
of the roofs and walls are incapable of protect- 
ing the inhabitants from the rigour of the win- 
ter and the north wind. Since the great earth- 
quake, it has not been thought prudent to con- 
struct solid buildings. The king himself live s 
in a kind of barrack. These barracks are made 
in Holland, and brought by sea from thence in 
a state to be immediately erected. This isef- 


fected by putting all the different parts together, 
and consolidating them with a coat of plaster. 
These houses may be built or removed in 
twenty-four hours. 

The streets of all the towns are full of every 
kind of filth, without any lights, but such as glim- 
mer before the statues of the Virgin Mary; they 
are therefore by no means safe after it is dark, 
and are also infested by all the dogs of the place, 
who always pass the night in the streets ; but, 
besides their continual barking, it is astonishing 
that no accident happens from these hungry 
animals ; one of whom, if seized with mad- 
ness, would, in the course of two or three 
hours, spread that fatal calamity through every 
quarter of the city. The number of dogs in 
Lisbon, who are the nocturnal inhabitants of 
the streets, are supposed to amount to 80,000. 
About eight o'clock in the winter evenings, all 
the shopkeepers and common people place 
themselves on the thresholds of their doors, to 
chant the rosary. This noise lasts about an 
hour, after which time the streets overflow with 
robbers, chamber-pots, dogs, and officers of 
justice. The latter proceed in bands of fifteen 
or twenty persons, armed with long swords, 
which they present to the passengers, whom 


they surround and interrogate. This troop, 
which belongs to the police, is neither feared 
by thieves, nor held in estimation by the go- 
vernment, which employs, in Lisbon, patroles 
from the garrison, that consists of from 4. to 
5000 men. A part of the common disturbances 
is caused by the Negroes and Mulattoes, of which 
there are supposed to be in Lisbon so many as 
150,000 ; by the misery of the people, and the 
facility of finding hiding places in the subsist- 
ing ruins of this unfortunate city, of which a 
description is given in a future part of this 

The climate is temperate, and refreshed in 
the hottest seasons by a sea breeze, which pu- 
rifies the air and renders it wholesome. It 
rains in deluges during five months of the 
year, when the lower streets of the city be- 
come impassable, from the torrents which de- 
scend from the upper parts. In the seven dry 
months there are- frequent hurricanes, which 
raise such thick clouds of dust as to obscure 
the sky. Earthquakes are so frequent, that a 
year seldom passes without two or three slight 
shocks ; and the bituminous vapours which 
rise upon the Tagus, prove that beneath it and 
within the mountains of Lisbon and its envi- 


rons, igneous matter is in a continual agitation, 
whose active powers occasion loud explosions, 
and violent periodical shocks. The earthquake 
in 1755 was preceded, 150 years before, by one 
attended with similar effects ; and that by seve- 
ral others, during a thousand preceding years, 
in the same proportion. 

There are no public walks in this city or its 
environs, but they are adorned with country 
houses, some of which are maintained in a 
good style. It is in these retreats that good 
company is to be found ; that is to say, the 
foreign merchants ; who alone are in a condi- 
tion to sustain the expence, and to enjoy the 
pleasures of them. 




THE police of Lisbon, and indeed of all Por- 
tugal, bad as it is, is in the hands of judges, 
named Juiz de Fora, who are subordinate to 
the corregedors and ouvidors, the whole king- 
dom being divided into corregedorias and ouvi- 
dorias. Nothing can exceed the insolence and 
cupidity of this great number of different judges. 
Justice is administered with the same extortions, 
the same miserable chicane, and the same load 
of pleadings as in Spain ; that is to say, much 
worse than in any other part of Europe. 

The prisons are the abodes of barbarity and 
despair. The innocent return from them en- 
tirely ruined, and the guilty pardoned, and in 
an equal state of wretchedness. Impunity ne- 
ver fails to produce crimes. I myself saw at 
Lisbon a servant assassinate his comrade at 


noon-day, in the middle of the street, and re- 
tire with great calmness from the scene, with 
the knife in his hand, to be conducted to pri- 
son, which he entered smiling; and from which, 
after some months, he was permitted to depart, 
in order to perform the office of public execu- 
tioner. The Limoero is the public prison of 
Lisbon, and generally inhabited by 4 or 5000 
unfortunate persons. State criminals, nobles, 
officers of every rank, whether for slight or 
heavy offences, debtors, and foreigners, are 
mingled together, without any distinction of 
rank or treatment, but as they can afford to 
pay the jailer. The rich who are committed 
to prison are ruined by its extortions, and the 
poor have no dependence but public charity ; 
for the king makes no allowance for them ; 
and hence it is that such numbers are impri- 
soned, and for such trifling causes. There are 
also secret state prisons, the abodes of torture 
and despair, horrible dungeons, beneath the 
towers of St. Vincent, St. Julian, and Bugio; 
in which languish, in despair and darkness, 
many nobles and heads of the first families, 
the tardy but irrevocable victims of policy, of 
justice, and of despotism. The continual dis- 
appearance of well-known persons creates fre- 


quent alarm and consternation throughout Lis- 
bon and Portugal ; of which I cannot give a 
more faithful picture than Narbal presents to 
Telemachus, of the state of Tyre under the 
government of the tyrant Pygmalion. 

The criminal chief justice is the Archbishop 
of Evora Saldanha, the intimate friend of the 
Count d'Oeyras, posses-sing the same kind of 
disposition, and the most wealthy ecclesias- 
tic of the kingdom. He has a great share of 
power, and is fond of pomp. 

The first tribunal is that of justice, named 
the Desembargo do Paco, or the Parliament,* 
and consists of two divisions. That of Lisbon 
has the sole right of final judgment ; while 
that of Oporto is subject to its revision. This 
parliament was established in the beginning of 
the fifteenth century, by John I. The num- 
ber of counsellors, named Desembargadors, is 
not fixed. That of Lisbon has the jurisdiction 
of Algarve, Alemtejo, Estremadura, and of 
the district of Castel-Branco, and Riba de Coa. 
That of Oporto extends over Traz os Montes, 
Entre Minho e Douro, and Beira. Each par- 
liament is divided into two chambers ; that of 

* Rather the privy council. T. 


supplication, which consists of thirty-nine coun- 
sellors, and that of civil justice, which consists 
of twenty-four. The rest are merely hono- 

The Council of State established in 1557, by 
the Queen Regent Catherine, during the mi- 
nority of Don Sebastian, is composed of four 
ecclesiastical counsellors, five seculars, and * 
secretary of state, who is commonly the king's 
minister. Its department regards the arch- 
bishoprics, bishoprics, capitamas, governments, 
vice-royalties, embassies, alliances and mar- 

The Council of War is composed of four 
counsellors, and a secretary, who is, generally, 
the minister of the war department. At pre- 
sent it is filled by Don Louis d'Acunha. On 
very pressing occasions it is united to the coun- 
cil of state. 

The Council of Finance is divided into fifteen 
tribunals, viz. of accounts, customs, the Indies, 
mines, magazines, Madeira, the mint, the fleet, 
&c. This council consists of three depart- 
ments, that of the kingdom, that of Africa, and 
that of the Indies and the fleets. 

The office of Secretary of State, was reformed 
by John IV. It is divided into two parts, 


which Count d'Oeyras has united in his own 
person. That of signatures, whose business it 
is to prepare for the sign manual of the king, 
all those papers or ordinances which issue from 
him respecting all the branches of government, 
except such as regard the second division, viz. 
that of favours and rewards, which pass alone 
through the hands of this secretary. The title 
of Secretario das merces e gramas is the only one 
which the Count d'Oeyras assumes : he lets 
others take the titles and exercise the duties of 
the remaining branches, reserving to himself, 
however, their power and emoluments. 

Besides these -tribunals, the Cortes or states 
of the kingdom, are assembled, on pressing oc- 
casions, to make alterations in the laws or 
political constitution ; or to introduce new 
arrangements in the finances or the govern- 
ment. But as this overlooking and powerful 
tribunal cannot be pleasing to the king or his 
ministers, it is but seldom summoned to its 

There are three Orders in Portugal, from 
which the king, as grandmaster, derives a < 
revenue of 2,000,000 of crusades.* The order 

* About/" 100,000. 


of Christ, instituted by King Denis, in 1319, 
ceased to be in estimation with the wars against 
the Moors ; and it is debased by a most foolish 
and misplaced pride, which has introduced into 
it a species of knights from among the lowest 
class of the people. It has longbeen, and still 
continues to be, a prevailing vanity among the 
Fidalgos or nobles, that the valets behind their 
coaches, or who serve them at table, should be 
decorated with an order of knighthood. Hence 
it is, that those orders, adorning alike the per- 
sons of the king, the princes, the nobles, and 
their lackeys, are all of them, but especially 
that of Christ, considered with contempt in 
Portugal. This order possesses the grand priory 
of Thomar, 4.54 commandries, and a revenue 
of near 50,000 sterling. The order of St. 
James, separated from that of Spain, since the 
year 1290, has the grand priory of Palmela, 
150 commandries, and a revenue of near 
30,000. The order of Avis, established at 
Evora, but subject to that of Calatrava, was 
transferred to Avis in 1161. It has the grand 
priory of Avis, fifty commandries, and upwards 
of 20,000 per annum. These orders were 
founded in times of anarchy, by the fanaticism 
and brutality of Christian knights. They sus-- 
I 2 


tained themselves for a long time, by their uni- 
ted strength and courage ; and above all, by the 
opposition of the Moors (whose hostile spirit 
never abated) which rendered them necessary 
to Christian princes. That of Calatrava v\'as 
established by two monks, who were better 
soldiers than priests. That of St. James owed 
its institution to a famous robber, named Fer- 
nandes, who to obtain heaven devoted all his 
iniquities to God, and employed against the 
Infidels, his robberies, his courage, and his cru- 
elty. But in a short time the great acquisitions 
which these knights made from the Moors, ren- 
dered them not only insolent, but formidable, to 
their own sovereigns. They made alliances with 
foreign enemies, ravaged thekingdom, andjoin- 
ed tyranny to independance. More than once 
the grandmasters have allied themselves to the 
Moorish kings, led the Infidel troops into their 
own country, and assisted them in laying waste 
the Christian states. The kings of Portugal, 
following the example of other European so- 
vereigns, found the only means of putting an 
end to this abuse of power in ceasing to con- 
fide the charge of grandmaster to subjects. 

Besides these three orders, that of St. John 
or of Malta, has twenty-five comrnandries, and 


a revenue of about 30,000. In Spain and Por- 
tugal, the cross of Malta is taken up and laid 
down, without the least ceremony ; and the 
Portuguese frequently wear it from mere fancy, 
without having any connection whatever with 
the order whose symbol it is. 

There are in Portugal eighteen cities, of 
which Bragan9a, Beja, Lagos, Silves, andTa- 
vira are not episcopal sees: three archbishop- 
rics, Lisbon, subject to the Patriarch, Evora, 
which is worth upwards of 80,000 crusades* 
per annum ; and Braga, which is possessed by 
an illegitimate brother of the king's, who dares 
not come to Lisbon from the fear of being im- 
prisoned. This is the situation also of two 
other natural brothers. There are ten bishop- 
rics ; Porto, Miranda, Coimbra, Guarda, La- 
mego, Viseu, Leiria, Elvas, Portalegre and 
Faro. In Asia there are three archbishoprics ; 
Goa, which has the primacy of the east, Da 
Serra and Cranganore ; and four bishoprics, 
Cochin, Malacca, Meliapour, and Macao. The 
three first are in partibus. In America, there is 
one archbishopric, La Bahia ; and four bishop- 
lies, Rio Janeiro, Pernambucco, Maranham, 

* About/ 100,000. 



and the great Para. In Africa, there is one 
archbishopric, Funchal, in the island of Ma- 
deira ; and four bishoprics, Angola, St. Tho- 
mas, Cabo Verde, and Angra . 

The clergy of Portugal is much too power- 
ful, and far too numerous for the general po- 
pulation. The monks, nuns, and priests amount 
to more than 200,000, in a country which con- 
tains but 2,000,000 inhabitants. Hence it is, 
that the Count d'Oeyras has made an arrange- 
ment for their diminution ; especially the nuns, 
by extinguishing one half of their convents, 
and prohibiting all the religious orders, whe- 
ther male or female, to receive any novice 
within the age of twenty-five years, and with- 
out an express permission from the king. The 
Portuguese clergy is equally ignorant and disso- 
lute : the liberty and the power attached to 
this order of men, occasion the most public 
profanation of its character. That scandalous 
conduct, which lessens the veneration of the 
people, is more injurious to religion than the 
continual railleries of the English, the intro- 
duction of philosophical books, and the quar- 
rels with the court of Rome. The monks live 
in the most unrestrained licentiousness ; and 
the nuns luve been, to the present time, little 


better than cloistered prostitutes. All the con- 
vents follow the example of that of Odivelas, 
where 3oobeautiful arid coquettish nuns form- 
ed a seraglio for John V. which has been the 
' hot-bed of royal illegitimate children ; and 
where, besides, each of these religious ladies had 
her particular lovers. Throwing aside their 
professional habits, covered with rouge, with 
patches, and diamonds, they excited and prac- 
tised the most refined gallantry, and passed for 
the most attractive favourites of the Portuguese 
nobility. This scandal to religion has induced 
the Count d'Oeyras to diminish the number of 
convents, and to restrain them by very austere 
regulations. The evil, however, is not entirely 
rooted out, and the clergy of Portugal, with the 
religious orders, both male and female, may be 
considered as the most licentious and the most 
abandoned in the Christian world. 

At the head of the clergy is the Patriarch, 
the primate of Portugal, and the director of the 
church. This dignity was first established at 
the beginning of the present century, on the 
intercession of John V. w.ho expended a large 
sum of money to obtain this favour. It will 
one day, perhaps, be very prejudicial to the 
court of Rome, by producing a schism, which 


is already freely spoke of, and which the court 
of London will support with all its power. 
The patriarch wears the same robes as the 
pope, when he officiates at the altar ; and the 
canons of the patriarchal church appear in the 
dress of cardinals. 

The Inquisition is very moderate in Portu- 
gal ; it is rather a tribunal of police, than of 
fire and flames, which it formerly was. Its sen- 
tences are directed to the lower classes of the 
people ; to monks or priests who are guilty of 
heresy from ignorance, and sustain it from fa- 
naticism; impostors who pretend to practise 
sorcery, and Jews of the lowest class who are 
so weak as to boast of their religion. The 
euto dafe which I saw rn the beginning of the 
year 1766, was composed of about forty shame- 
Jess wretches, who would have deserved the 
whip in any country. No one was committed 
to the flames ; and unless that happens, the 
scene is not interesting to the Portuguese. The 
punishments were proportioned to their crimes, 
and by no means violent ; the greater part of 
the criminals were whipped, or sent into exile. 
Those which were objects of pity, were two 
or three priests and a lawyer, who had spoken 
ill of the holy tribunal ; these were condemned 


to a perpetual imprisonment in the dungeons of 
their enemies, who never fail to be zealous 
avengers of their own wrongs. 

The heat of the climate, and the natural 
warmth of their constitutions, with their igno- 
rance and indolence, render the Portuguese 
very bad Christians. Carnal inclinations are 
those which they know not how to resist, and 
therefore endeavour to supply the place of mo- 
rality with every kind of superstition. There 
is no catholic country whatever, in which a 
more superstitious devotion is paid to saints, 
relics, miracles, and other religious mum- 
meries ; because no people stand more in need 
of expiations for their low and filthy debauche- 
ries, and for the avarice and revengeful spirit 
which continually agitates the soul of a Portu- 
guese. The national worship is equally divi- 
ded between God and the Virgin Mary ; and 
since the alliance of this nation with England, 
St. George is become a principal object of their 
devout attentions. Once a year, his eques- 
trian statue, armed at all points, and covered 
with all the jewels of the crown, is carried in 
solemn procession. The more the Portuguese 
deviate from the duties of the Gospel, the more 
they attach themselves to the exterior circum- 


stances of religion. Hence it is, that the Count 
d'Oeyras proceeds with the greatest precaution 
in those projects which he has already begun, 
in opposition to the power of the court of 

The first of his operations was the expulsion 
of the Jesuits. That singular order of men 
was all-powerful in Spain and Portugal ; for, 
abandoning the common people to the monks, 
they reserved to themselves the task of directing 
the consciences of the great, of ministers, and 
of kings. 

The order of the Jesuits is apolitical associa- 
tion of spiritual and ambitious men, bound to- 
gether by one strong and common interest. 
Implicit obedience to their head, is the basis of 
their actions : all their views, designs, and ope- 
rations tend to the same end, and proceed from 
the same principle ; no personal Interest, no 
division exists among them. This order is the 
image of a perfect republic, and consequently 
is contrary to all other governments. A Jesuit 
is a citizen only of his own order, is a natural 
enemy of every society, and according to the 
principles of good policy, is hot admissible into 
any well ordered state. It is astonishing that 
such a body of men should have been receired 


under any government ; nevertheless, it has in- 
sinuated itself under the cloak of religion into 
many. The arts, the sciences, and the educa- 
tion of youth, were the means by which it ac- 
quired all its distinctions. Many states, how- 
ever, not dazzled by their real and useful qua- 
lifications, adopted a more enlarged way of 
thinking, than those who received them. 
These austere and learned philosophers, who 
consecrated themselves to the office of enlight- 
ening nations, occupied themselves also in po- 
litics, in commerce, and in war; more skilful 
even in intrigue than in science, and always 
contriving to manage the leading interests of 
mankind, they were suspected of employing 
the most Machiavelian and criminal means to 
obtain their objects : they have been accused 
of lighting up funeral piles, preparing poisons, 
sharpening poniards, and arming fanaticism ! 
Several sovereigns have at length opened their 
eyes, and discovered their ambition. The par- 
liaments in France, the senate of Venice*, the 
suspicious apprehensions of Carvalho, the re- 
volt of Madrid, have driven them successively 
from France, Venice, Portugal, and Spain. 
In a political view every country is justified in 


having employed the most violent means to 
extirpate this society ; but morally speaking, 
they have been treated with great injustice, 
particularly in Spain and Portugal. 

An affair of the greatest importance had al- 
most entirely ruined them with these two 
courts ; and by depriving them of the charac- 
ter of confessors to the kings and their minis- 
ters, destroyed the basis of their power. The 
Marquis of Carvajal, favourite of Ferdinand 
VI. King of Spain, who without the title of 
Minister directed the government of that coun- 
try, had been gained over by the Queen Bar- 
bara, who was an Infanta of Portugal. The 
known state of the king, her husband's, con- 
stitution ; and her own attachment to Farinelli, 
the famous Italian singer, leaving her without 
hopes of children, she had directed all her ten- 
derness, her wishes, her cares, and her intrigues, 
towards her country. Mr. Keene, the English 
ambassador, who enjoyed all her confidence, 
had traced out to her, conjointly with the Por- 
tuguese minister, the Duke of Alba, and some 
others, the plan of a treaty very advantageous 
to Portugal, and still more so to England. The 
Marquis of Carvajal, joined with the queen 


in advancing its success, intoxicated by his 
affinity to the house of Bragan9a, of which the 
court of Lisbon made a great parade. 

The object of this treaty was an exchange 
of the colony of St. Sacrement upon the river 
La Plata, for the settlements on the river San 
Pedro and some others, which by surrounding 
Brasil, would bring together the Portuguese 
frontiers, would extend them along the great 
Cordilleras, and the rivers which flow from 
them, and multiply in a great degree the means 
of securing a smuggling intercourse with the 
richest provinces of Spain. Nevertheless, the 
pretext for making this exchange, was to abo- 
lish the contraband trade of the colony of St. 
Sacrement. The opposition of the Marquis 
de 1'Ensenada, minister for foreign affairs, of 
the marine and the Indies, was attributed to his 
partizans, the Jesuits, and suspended for two 
years the exchanging the ratifications of this 
treaty. That minister absolutely refused his 
signature. He was accordingly stripped of 
his employments, and exiled to Grenada, while 
those monks which were most violent against 
the Jesuits, were appointed confessors to the 
king, the queen, and the royal family. It was 
at this time that the fable of their kingdom in 


Paraguay began to gain credit, and which oc- 
casioned a miserable publication, with the title 
of Nicolas I. The origin of" this fable is as 

Paraguay is an immense portion of South 
America, which extends from the capita- 
nia of St. Vincent in Brasil, to the left bank 
of Rio de la Plata, runs up behind Chili and 
Peru to the unknown country of the Amazons, 
and has no fixed limits. This vast country 
is watered by noble rivers, whose banks were 
peopled by various savage nations, till the di- 
vision of South America was made by Spain 
and Portugal, who alone have any settlements 
in it. The two courts of Madrid and Lisbon, 
after a long succession of disputes relative to 
the limits, not being able to come to any po- 
sitive determination respecting this country, 
w ich no one yet had penetrated,* and being 
alarmed with mutual fears respecting mutual 
encroachments ; the Spaniards fearing for Pe- 
ru, and the Portuguese for Brasil ; they uni- 
ted in manifesting their confidence in these 

* The limits have been fixed since by Spanish and 
Portuguese commissaries, sent for that purpose from 
the two kingdoms. T. 


good fathers, whose indefatigable zeal in pro- 
pagating the Gospel, appeared to merit such a 
recompence. They mutually agreed, there- 
fore, to concede this immense country to the 
society of Jesuits, with an exact demarkation 
only of its breadth, as its length has never been 

The Jesuits, superior to the rest of mankind 
in the art of persuasion, and labouring for them- 
selves, made an incredible progress in their 
designs. At the end of fifty years, and to the 
disgrace of the other colonies, the country of 
the missionaries was filled with villages, the 
catholic faith was triumphant, and the savages 
civilized, happy, and subject to the wisest of 
governments. No people on earth were more 
contented, labour and property was all in com- 
mon. There were neither rich nor poor, nor 
dignities, nor great, nor little ; there was no 
inequality whatever; and consequently neither 
avarice, ambition, or jealousy : every one con- 
tributed equally his portion of labour, and re- 
ceived an equal retribution from it. Every 
village was one numerous family, of which the 
Jesuit was the father ; and the society itself 
was the mother of this hap^y republic. 

The power of these reverend fathers, by a 


system of politics very different from the greater 
part of human governments, was founded up- 
on a perfect union of public utility with indi- 
vidual happiness. 

This wonderful republic existed in peace. 
The Jesuits, from their moderate spirit, and 
to avoid all appearance of ostentation, payed 
the kings of Spain and Portugal certain small 
tribute, without murmuring at the unjustifi- 
able power which required them of a free peo- 
ple, who, united in a society of their own esta- 
blishment, could not be reasonably considered 
cither as subjects to the Spaniards or Portuguese. 
It was not long, however, before the two courts, 
jealous of the progress of such a population, 
agreed to divide between them the fruits of the 
labours of the Jesuits. The latter represented in 
vain that their rights were legitimated by the con - 
cession of the country, as well as the injustice 
of doing violence to a free people ; who, on 
embracing the catholic religion, and adopting 
the European manners, did not propose to give 
themselves masters. These remonstrances 
were treated as criminal and treasonable by 
Spaniards and Portuguese, who entered with 
arms in their hands into these colonies. The 
Indiansexertedthemselvestothe utmost in their 


defence ; but overcome by the superior disci- 
pline of European soldiers, a small number of 
them received the yoke, while the rest esta- 
blished themselves further up the country, 
taking the fathers with them to console them in 
their distress, and protesting against the tyran- 
ny and injustice of the barbarians of Europe. 

The Jesuits now found themselves in a very 
perplexed situation ; threatened, in Europe, 
with persecution and exile ; prohibited from 
continuing their missions ; while they must 
have been highly unjust to their proselytes, if 
they had advised them to give up their liberty ; 
their sagacity was often disconcerted. At 
length, however, an accidental discovery was 
made of their Machiavelian system, and at once 
exposed their conduct. 

A captain of Spanish dragoons, who was a 
native of France, the Chevalier de Bonneval, 
found in a village of the mission of Parana, 
where he commanded after the conquest, the 
instructions of the order, addressed to the prin- 
cipal Jesuit of the district. He himself re- 
peated to me the three following articles, ist. 
44 If the bishop of Buenos Ayres, or any other 
" ecclesiastical officer should come to make a 
" pastoral visit, and to interfere in the affairs 


" of the mission, he should be diverted from 
" his purpose by presents, and particularly of 
" the herb of Paraguay. But if it should not 
" be possible to dissuade him from -his errand, 
" by such an application to his interest, any 
" and every means must be employed to frus- 
" trate the object of it. 2d. If the commis- 
" sary of finances, or any person employed by 
" the king, should come into the country to 
" impose taxes upon it, one half of the people 
" must be sent into the mountains or forests, 
" that he may not know the real population 
" of the village. 3d. If the governor of Bue- 
" nos Ayres, or any general or commanding 
" officer should come to visit the villages of the 
" mission, he should be loaded with presents, 
" in order to turn him aside from his design : 
" and if such means should not succeed, force 
" itself must be employed to resist his preten- 
" sions." 

These instructions were sent into Europe, 
and exposed to imminent danger the life of 
the captain, whom the intrigues of the Jesuits 
retained in prison, at Ceuta, for two years, 
to prevent his appearing against them ; they 
formed a principal instrument in the process 
which was instituted against the order in Spain, 


Nevertheless, on an impartial examination of 
the preceding circumstances, the conduct of 
the Jesuits will be considered as not wholly 
unjustifiable, since their interests in these con- 
cerns was connected with that of a free peo- 
ple, who were oppressed on their account.* 
The Spaniards and Portuguese still enjoy the 
melancholy advantage derived from their con- 

* It is not perhaps unnecessary to remark, that in 
France at that time, all th'e writers, except Dumouriez 
and some others, who were of Montesquieu's opinion, 
all inveighed bitterly against the republic of Paraguay. 
They had Voltaire at their head, and left no argument 
untried that could prove the bad tendency of that re- 
public, and the justice, the utility, the necessity of 
exterminating its founders. The humane philoso- 
phers who are now preaching the freedom as well 
as the political liberty of the African slaves, could 
not suffer that civilization, equality, and a govern- 
ment purely evangelical, should be introduced among 
the free Americans of Paraguay ; they preferred the 
military reflations of the Portuguese or Spanish 
commanders. How can such a contradiction be ex- 
plained ? Very easily. The Jesuits, whatever their 
politics might be, defended successfully by their 
writings against those philosophers, the Christian re- 
ligion, which their missions propagated; and the state 
founded by them was a Christian commonwealth. Ths 


quest of the Paraguay missions, which con- 
sists in nothing more than the dominion of a 
vast depopulated country. 

To complete this state of mortification, the 
Jesuits, dispirited in America, and humiliated 
at Lisbon and Madrid, suffered in silence. In 
both these courts they conducted themselves 
with moderation and prudence, supporting 
their disgrace with apparent resignation, bold- 
ly disavowing all that had passed in Paraguay; 
declaring their submission, and brooding over 
their vengeance. 

The assassination of the King of Portugal 
by penitents of the Jesuits, following hard 
upon the business of Paraguay, they were sus- 
pected of having resolved, by this crime, to 
revenge the injustice which they had suffered 
in America. The Fathers Malagrida, Matos, 
and Alexander, were arrested, put to the tor- 
ture, and involved in the catastrophe of this 
conspiracy. All the possessions of the Jesuits 
were confiscated, and their resistance in Para- 
black slaves, on the contrary, have no religion but 
their Fetishism, which is the worship of any living or 
inanimate being ad libitum : this must and will agree, 
better than any religious system whatever, with modern 
philosophism^and indefinite liberty. Erg, &c. T. 


guay seemed to justify the confiscation. At 
length they were all banished; and, in defiance 
of the Pope, the ecclesiastical states were over- 
run by 4000 persons, who being dismissed 
from their stations, were become altogether 
useless. The Nuntio, by the haughty manner 
in which he attempted to protect the power of 
the papal militia, rendered their situation still 
worse ; while to hopeless banishment, and 
general confiscation, was added the sale of all 
their property. 

The Nuntio however, extremely irritated, 
quitted Portugal ; and the court of Rome, con- 
sidering the process instituted against the Je- 
suits to be a wicked attempt, put the kingdom 
under an interdict. The minister being thus 
driven to an extremity, attacked the holy see 
itself. This first act of hostility was a book 
prepared under his inspection, (and as some 
have supposed, written by himself), to prove 
that the Popes ought not to have approved the 
institution of the Jesuits ; and when they had 
done it, that they ought to have retracted their 
approbation, which might have been done with- 
out exposing their authority, because they are 
not infallible ; and that even in the coun- 
cils, there arc examples of a similar recanta- 


tion. This, book having made the danger of a 
rigorous conduct evident to the court of Rome, 
it endeavoured to employ mediators to termi- 
nate the dispute in a friendly manner. But 
the minister was inflexible, and so far from 
seeking the favour of the holy see, he made 
another and still more forcible attack upon it 
last year, in bringing forward the Father "Per- 
reira, a celebrated theologian, to support a 
thesis, whose object was to prove the non-in- 
fallibility of the Pope. This thesis, sustained 
by the authority of the synods of France, and 
the canonical 'books of the French clergy, is 
full of strong argument, and written in a style 
of great animation. The effect of these hosti- 
lities against the court of Rome exasperated 
both parties ; and it might have happened that 
the court of Portugal, after having adopted the 
liberty of theGallican church, would not have 
stopped there ; if the Patriarch of Lisbon had 
been a man of talents, and the Count d'Oey- 
ras ten years younger. 





LITERATURE and the arts, and the means to 
make a progress in them, are extremely cir- 
cumscribed in Portugal. The University of 
Coimbra, the parent of learning in this king- 
dom, is six centuries behind the enlightened 
parts of Europe. Nothing is known there but 
the Aristotelian philosophy, and the theologi- 
cal subtleties, so disgraceful to religion and the 
human understanding, which prevailed in that 
school in the earlier periods of the Christian 
era. This university contains 4000 scho- 
lars, who pass their lives in dissipation and 
ignorance. Their principal occupation is to 
make small tooth-picks of boxwood, known 
under the name of palltos. The class for the 
Greek tongue, in 1766, consisted of seven scho- 

The Jesuits were entrusted in Portugal, as in 
all the other catholic .countries, with the edu- 


cation of youth. The Count d'Oeyras has 
filled up their place with a college of nobles, 
directed by himself, and opened in 1766. He 
chose very able professors on every branch of 
education ; but the universality of its objects 
was blended with pedantry. To support this 
institution, he assigned the revenues of the Je- 
suits, or at least a principal part of them. 

Literature is at a very low ebb in Portugal, 
though the Portuguese themselves neither want 
understanding or a disposition to cultivate it ; 
but they have long been without any induce- 
ments to apply to learning ; and it is but lately, 
that the young nobility have turned their at- 
tention to literary pursuits. They are passion- 
ately fond of Voltaire, Rousseau, and the new 
philosophy : and almost all the works of those 
authors are translated into the Portuguese lan- 
guage. The most distinguished among the 
young Fidalgos, by their application to learn- 
ing, are the two Counts of Castlemelhor, 
the two Counts of Lavradio, the Marquis of 
Cascaes, the Counts de Prado, da Ponte, and 
one named Pinto ; they form a small literary 
society in great estimation, and which has al- 
ready given to the public a translation of the 
Theatre of Voltaire, of the Henriade, the Emi- 


ims, the Spirit of Laws, and the Art of War by 
the King of Prussia. Foreign authors on sur- 
gery and medicine, are continually translating, 
so that by degrees a taste will be formed in this 
country, and the Portuguese will quit their 
state of ignorance much sooner than the Spa- 
niards. They are better furnished than them 
with ancient authors ; their historians are ex- 
cellent, though too much loaded with miracles 
and exaggerated relation- The first of them 
is John de Barros, the Livy of Portugal, who 
has written with great purity the Decades of 
the Indies. The editions of this book are very 
old and very scarce. The continuation by 
Diego Couto, does not equal it in force or ele- 
gance, in facility of narration, or in the grand 
style of its harangues ; but the particulars in 
both authors are always interesting ; and prolix- 
ity alone lessens the pleasure of reading their 
work. Manoel Faria, has written an history of 
Portugal, well written in the Spanish language. 
He lived in the time of the three Philips. The 
style of this author is good, and his turn satirical, 
nor is he less a lover of the marvellous than Bar- 
ros. Jacinto Freira de Andrada, has written 
a life of Don Juan de Castro, in a style as bom- 
bastic as his hero is extravagant. This author 


has talent, 'and force of expression, but is al- 
ways searching after quibbles and 'hyperbole. 
There are also some good chronicles. Trfat 
of Resende, a Latin writer, takes the lead for 
antiquities, Damianus de Goes, for the reign 
of Don Manoel ; Francisco de Andrada, for 
King John III. Buarte Nunhes de Leon, 
for John I. Edward, and Alphonso V. This 
author has also written the life of the ten first 
kings of Portugal, and the description of the 
kingdom. The re-conquest of Portugal by the 
Count de Ericeira, is highly spoken of, and 
translated into French. This writer loses him- 
self in details, expresses his thoughts in a con- 
fused manner, and dwells upon trifles. This 
work contains an history of the war, from the 
revolution of 1640, to the peace in 1668. 
There are two indifferent treatises on fortifi- 
cation by Don Luis Serraon Pimentel, and 
Manoel Azevedo ; a judicious treatise on na- 
vigation by Don Manoel Pimentel ; and a new 
description of Portugal, by Caetano de Lima, 
which, Chough full of faults, is more correct 
than any other. 

There is a considerable number of Portu- 
guese poets, some of which have merit. But 
the first of them, and the most known in fo- 



reign countries, is Luis de Camoens. His 
poem, which is entitled the Lusiad, possesses 
a strong but easy versification. Its subject is 
the conquest of the Indies by Vasco de Gama, 
and is a servile imitation of the Odyssea, of the 
Eneid, and all the ancient poems. In one of 
its ccjitos, the author has introduced a noble 
and affecting episode of the death of Ines de 
Castro, mistress of King Don Pedro the just ; 
On which subject Monsieur de la Motte has 
written a very'fine tragedy ; Ferreira, a Portu- 
guese tragic author, has treated it with success, 
according to the rules of the Greek theatre, 
with choruses, &c. There also remains of this 
poet, an excellent translation of the Amphy- 
trion, two other comedies, detached pieces of 
poetry, and a collection of charming letters-writ- 
ten with great spirit and vivacity. There are 
many other poems in the Portuguese language, 
of which the least bad is Malaca Conquistado, 
or the conquest of Malacca. 

At the close of the last century, and the be- 
ginning of the present, a celebrated preacher 
named Father Vieira, had been twice sent to the 
inquisition for having expressed himself with 
too much freedom in the pulpit, and also on an 
accusation of Judaism. The Pope was obliged 


to interpose, that he might not become a vic- 
tim of that tribunal. He is the Bourdaloue* 
of this country. 

Another Vieira is the best painter of Portu- 
gal, which has produced very few of any me- 
rit. The Portuguese physicians are very ig- 
norant ; while the surgeons are clumsy opera- 
tors and great quacks. Lisbon has now a 
great musical, composer, named David Peres, 
who is well known throughout Europe. But 
in this city there are teachers of dancing, fen- 
cing or horsemanship; though the Portuguese 
boast of admirable horsemen. Hence it is, 
that they are very deficient in all corporal ex- 
ercises. It is, however, more than fifty years 
since the Portuguese were excellent sword- 
men ; but, instead of using the points of their 
swords, they struck with the blade, which they 
named Pancada. 

* A Jesuit, famous for the eloquence of his sermons, 
and the severity of his doctrine ; the French call him 
the Demosthenes of the pulpit. His sermon on im- 
pureness, has teen put in parallel with the discourse 
of the Greek orator, pro Corona. T. 




ALL the different parts of society, like those 
of the body, depend upon each other, and the 
disease of the one necessarily influences the 
condition of all the rest. A superstitious 
people, who cultivate but in a small degree the 
arts and sciences, cannot possess a well regu- 
lated government. Besides, the subjection of 
the Portuguese to the English, diminishes the 
vigour which the Count d'Oeyras has labour- 
ed for the last fifteen years to communicate to 
all the relaxed springs of this machine. Dur- 
ing the present century, the Portuguese go- 
vernment has been without strength, and with- 
out attention. The ministers slumbering at 
the foot of the throne, have suffered it to be 
shaken by the insolence of the nobles, the 
usurpations of ecclesiastics, and the tyranny of 
the English. Nature appears also to have as- 
sisted all these political causes of decay, in or- 


der to complete the ruin of Portugal, by an 
earthquake ; and it is in the midst of these 
ruins, that the celebrated Sebastian Joseph 
Carvalho, Count d'Oeyras had the courage to 
re-establish the throne, by supporting it with 
one hand, whilst with the other he crushed the 
nobility, humbled the clergy, and diminished 
the influence of the English. The first enter- 
prise of this great man excited fanatacism and 
conspiracies, and gave him an opportunity to 
display his severe and inflexible character. 
The king, escaped from the strokes of his as- 
sassins, became their master and their judge. 
After he had removed this first obstacle, the 
Minister attacked the ecclesiastics, and at 
length employed the most subtle policy respect- 
ing the English. Powerfully impelled by the 
same hatred of that nation as the Portuguese 
universally possess, he directed his strokes 
against them, under the semblance of measures 
for rectifying abuses. 

The marine was in a very bad state. Five 
or six disabled ships and as many frigates, 
without sailors or officers, constituted the 
whole naval force of Portugal. The Minister, 
in order to become absolute master of this de- 
partment, obtained the post of secretary of the 


marine for his brother Francis Xavier de Men- 
do^a, who died about three years ago. He was 
a man of a narrow capacity, but very indus- 
trious, and perfectly submissive to his brother. 
Accordingly, in about seven or eight years the 
marine was established upon a good tooting ; 
at the same time, the English, the Swedes, the 
Dutch, the Danes, and the French were invited 
to teach navigation to the Portuguese ; who, 
two centuries ago, conquered three quarters of 
the globe, carried on the commerce of it, and 
directed all its views to the improvement of its 
marine. The actual state of its navy consists 
of ten ships of the line, and double that num- 
ber of frigates, all built of the finest Brasil 
timber. Two ships have been launched at 
Lisbon of 74 and 72 guns, and admirably con- 
structed for resistance as well as duration. 
But neither the officers or the sailors are kept 
in sufficient practice ; and I am of opinion, 
that vessel against vessel, the Spaniards would 
beat them at sea, from the superiority of their 
equipage. But this deficiency may always be 
supplied by the English navy. The present 
state, however, of the Portuguese marine, is 
sufficient to protect the coasts, and the war 
against the Algerines, and the corsairs of Sale, 


may serve as a school to teach the art of naval 
combat, and accustom them to it, which is the 
more necessary as they have not the reputation 
of being brave at sea. The war with Morocco 
may be, one day or other, fatal to the Portuguese : 
for if the Emperor should fortify Mogadore, in- 
vite to his service renegade seamen, and order his 
corsairs to cruize about the Cape Verde Islands, 
the Canaries, Acores, and Madeira, the ships 
coming from Brasil would risk being often taken . 
The commerce of Portugal, notwithstand- 
ing all the efforts of the Count d'Oeyras, is 
altogether in the hands of the English, to whom 
the Portuguese are no more than brokers or 
agents, and even English ships are employed 
in the whole of their trade, except that of the 
Indies, of Africa, and America; which is under 
the direction of distinct companies, and carried 
on by the king's ships ; but even in those 
brandies of commerce the Portuguese, though 
they lend their names, are not principals. The 
most considerable factories of Brasil and Africa 
belong to English capitalists, who have for 
correspondents the English houses of Lisbon, 
Oporto, and London, of whom the Portuguese 
themselves purchase the merchandize that comes 
from their own colonies. 


The Count d'Oeyras, after a very attentive 
consideration of this subject, determined upon 
a very singular operation, which was no less 
than to change the general order of commerce. 
He accordingly abolished all the old trading 
companies, and destroyed their exclusive rights ; 
while, on the contrary, he erected new com- 
panies, and gave them an exclusive right over 
those branches of commerce which had hitherto 
been free. But notwithstanding all his care 
and precautions, the English, from their large 
capitals, became the masters in these new 
arrangements, and, under borrowed names, 
possessed themselves of all the new funds. 
Another evil has arisen from this new arrange- 
ment, which the Minister did not foresee, but 
which caused the seditious discontents that 
have prevailed in Brasil, and threatened the 
total ruin of the colonies. The companies 
having obtained permission from different mi- 
nisters, and particularly from Count d'Oeyras, 
to impose duties both on the sale of their own 
merchandize, and the purchase of the produce 
of the country, these duties proved very bur- 
densome to the inhabitants of Brasil ; they be- 
came, on account of them, very much indebted 
to these companies, who, on their abolition, 


demanded payment. Accordingly the Count 
d'Oeyras found himself obliged to take those 
measures which have dissatisfied both parties. 
Nevertheless, the merchants who continued 
the trade after the abolition of the companies, 
determined to carry on their sales, and make 
their purchases on the same principle as the 
companies had done ; this produced a state of 
disorder and confusion In Brasil, for which it 
Was not easy to find a remedy. 

The Count d'Oeyras aimed another blow at 
the interests of England, by encouraging a 
trade with France for grain ; and In the year 
1766, that country had made very profitable re- 
turns from Portugal, under the wise and able 
administration of the Duke de Choiseul. In 
this particular the Count d'Oeyras has, found 
the means to diminish in Lisbon the general 
dependance on the English merchants. But 
this branch of commerce, after all, must be 
precarious and temporary, at least till themarine 
of France becomes strong enough to form a 
balance to that of Great Britain. 

This successful essay has given birth to ano- 
ther attempt, which has been equally fortunate ; 
to weaken the credit of the English respecting 
grain, and to lessen their immense profits OR 


the wines of Portugal, the Minister ordered 
a considerable part of the vineyards to be de- 
stroyed, and sown with grain. This unreser- 
ved proceeding at once discovered his design, 
and produced a great clamour against him. 
The individuals also, whom he was determined 
to force into a new and more difficult cultiva- 
tion of their ground, exclaimed against his 
tyranny, and refused to obey : but he was deaf 
to their clamours, rigorously insisted upon 
obedience, and forced his edict to be observed. 
In order to understand this extraordinary 
operation, it is necessary to be informed, that 
Portugal is all vineyard, except some small 
cantons in Entre Minho e Douro, and Traz os 
Montes. The English have purchased, and 
consequently possess all the prime land in the 
environs of Oporto, and Lisbon, of Setuval, 
and Faro, whose wines are the best, and some 
of them in great estimation ; so that the soil of 
Portugal and its productions may be said to be- 
long to them. These circumstances, which are 
ruinous to the Portuguese, serve to prove their 
indolent disposition ; of which they do not 
perceive the disadvantage. They prefer the 
culture of the vine, which requires but little 
trouble, to a more laborious cultivation. 


The commerce of Portugal being entirely in 
the hands of the English, and being destitute of 
pasturage and grain, this kingdom is in an ab- 
solute state of dependance, because England 
furnishes it with all the commodities of which 
it stands in need. Such are the bonds of ser- 
vitude that keep Portugal in that alliance with 
England, which the Count d'Oeyras has en- 
deavoured to destroy.. He also attacked the 
English interest, by establishing manufactures 
for silk, woollen-drapery, leather, and soap. 
At the same time he published very severe edicts 
to prohibit the importation of foreign stuffs : but 
the imperfect fabric of these manufactures, their 
slow progress, their bad quality, and high price, 
established the preference given to the silks, the 
woollens, and leather of England and France, 
and in spite of the edicts, the importation of 
foreign manufactures still prevails. 

This Minister employed all his power to in- 
vite by treaties the commerce of Denmark, of 
Sweden, and of Russia, to Lisbon. This was 
a wise and beneficial measure, because the 
greater the number of foreigners concerned in 
the trade of Portugal, the less would remain 
in possession of England. But it was doing 
things only by halves, to establish a merely 


passive commerce. The Portuguese themselves 
should have been encouraged to navigate the 
distant seas, and to fetch foreign commodities 
in their own vessels ; in short, to engage in an 
active commerce. 

The Count d'Oeyras has agriculture very 
much at heart, regarding it as the basis of all 
government. He resolved to make a gene- 
ral register of the lands in order to ascertain 
their value, and to discover the means to be 
employed for bringing them into a state of 
cultivation ; but after all the pains and time 
employed on this subject, and the calculations 
made, the lands in question remain untouched 
by the plough. The whole province of Alem- 
tejo is uncultivated : Beira and Algarve conti- 
nue to be a desert. 

The finances of Portugal have been the firs* 
objects of attention to the Count d'Oeyras; 
and he reserved this department to himself, 
though without attaching any title to it. But 
the opinions on the state of the finances, and 
the revenues of the kingdom are various. It is 
indeed generally said that the treasury is full, 
that Portugal is very rich, and that its revenues 
are considerable ; but there is great reason surely 
to suspect that the finances cannot be in a very 


good condition in a kingdom which has neither 
agriculture nor a marine ; which has lately 
sustained an earthquake that produced so many 
large bankruptcies, and has been engaged in a 
very expensive war; whose colonies, which are 
a principal source of its riches, are so poor, 
so ill administered, and so harassed, that the 
people either leave them or revolt ; above all, if 
it is considered that this kingdom has many old 
debts, and that its wealth, particularly its gold, 
passes through the hands of the English, who 
derive all the advantage from it ; and lastly, 
that the diamonds, of which it possesses a very 
large store, are a kind of dead stock, which 
does not enter into circulation. The Portu- 
guese have but very few taxes to pay ; never- 
theless they live in a state of extreme wretched- 

Previous to the ministry of the Count d'Oey- 
ras/the finances of Portugal were in a most de- 
plorable state of administration, 22,000 clerks 
or writers, divided into a considerable number 
of offices, devoured the revenues, embroiled the 
accounts, and swallowed up the treasure. The 
Minister, by a single edict of the month of Oc- 
tober 1761, reduced this enormous crowd of 
blood-suckers to thirty-two well qualified and 


chosen persons. He has simplified the regula- 
tions relative to the receipts and payments of 
the public treasure, by using the same journals 
as bankers and merchants employ for the in- 
sertion of their daily transactions. These books 
are examined every week ; while the king 
passes the accounts which are presented to him, 
or gives instnictions concerning such as are in 
a state of preparation ; none of which, how- 
ever, are suffered to be in arrear. The per- 
spicuity, the precision, and the security of this 
arrangement will appear incomprehensible in 
the different countries of Europe, where finance 
is so complicated a science, and such an inex- 
tricable labyrinth ; but to convince incredulity, 
it is necessary only to have recourse to Portu- 
gal, and to read the edict of the Count d'Oeyras, 
and the execution of this plan will be instantly 

Here are many varying opinions respecting 
the revenues of Portugal, which some have 
calculated at seventy, and others at eighty mil- 
lions of livres, or between three and four mil- 
lions sterling. The mines produce annually 
from fifty to sixty millions of livres, or betweea 
two and three millions sterling. 




THE court of Portugal is very dull and cere- 
monious. The king never sees the foreign 
ministers but on public days, and the rest of 
his time he passes with his family, or in hunt- 
ing, of which he is passionately fond. This 
prince neither sees or does any thing but 
through his Minister, in whom he has placed 
the most unlimited confidence. He is pecu- 
liarly robust and indefatigable ; is very grave, 
and seldom accessible at Lisbon. He passes 
two months, towards Lent, at Salvaterra, upon 
ihe left bank of the Tagus, where he is the 
most magnificent sovereign in Europe. He 
there entertains, at his own expence, all 
foreigners who are properly introduced. He 
maintains an excellent opera, and furnishes 
every one with horses for the chase. He*passes 
some time also at Pinheiro, upon the banks 
of the Caldao, and at the Abbey of Mafra. 
But at these latter places travellers do not find 
any accommodation whatever. 


The queen of Portugal preserves a rooted 
aversion to the court of France, where she had 
been sent in order to share the throne of Louis 
XV. She has not yet lost the remembrance 
of her forced return to the court of Spain. 
She is much attached to the king, whom 
she accompanies every where. She loves 
hunting as well as his majesty ; and her con- 
tinual equestrian exercises have tanned her 
face, and given it a ruddy and swarthy hue. 
She is very well informed, and not only pos- 
sesses wit, but discretion. It was by her ne- 
gotiations that the danger of the Spanish arms 
was averted in 1762. She detests the Count 
d'Oeyras, who troubles himself very little about 
her ; but she does not venture to declare her 
sentiments respecting him. All her favourites 
have fallen a prey to the haired of this Minister, 
who involved them in the executions which 
followed the conspiracy against the person of 
the king. Among others the Count d'Obidos, 
one of the most powerful nobles of Portugal, 
who had nothing to do with the conspiracy lost 
his liberty by a ban mot. There is a popular 
tradition relative to the King Don Sebastian, 
which the Portuguese believe. They say that 


he is not dead, but will return by sea to Lisbon, 
and resume the crown. One day, as the queen 
was at a window with her court, a large water- 
spout appeared on the sea, when the queen 
humorously observed, that it was King Don 
Sebastian returning ; no, answered the Count 
d'Obidos, that is impossible, Don Sebastian is 
already here ; it is he who reigns. Within 
two hours after this pleasantry, the Count was 
arrested and thrown into a dungeon in the 
castle of St. Julian, for the rest of the life of 
Count d'Oeyras, whose name is Sebastian 
Carvalho. This event brings to my recollec- 
tion a lively observation of Lord Tyrawley : 
" What can be done with a nation, one half 
" of which expects a Messiah ; and the other, 
" the King Don Sebastian, who has been dead 
" these 200 years ?" 

The queen has two daughters, the oldest of 
which is married to the Infant Don Pedro, a 
devout, gloomy, and silent character, by whom 
she has had the Prince de Beira, who is the 
presumptive heir of the crown. The second 
daughter is a very fine woman, well educated, 
and highly accomplished. This young prin- 
cess had been proposed as a wife to the king 


of the Romans ; but the then existing politics 
and the circumstances of the war prevented the 
execution of that design. 

The old Prince Emanuel, the king's uncle, 
who died this year, had been a gallant prince, 
and had run through Europe to gratify his love 
of pleasure. There are no persons of high 
distinction at this court, but the young Duke 
of Cadaval, a man of a confined understanding, 
and a drunkard ; and the Marquis of Marialva, 
a man of wit, an ancient chevalier, and uncom- 
monly dexterous in all bodily exercises, as well 
as his two sons. The father of the Duke of 
Cadaval, a prince of the blood, was very much 
esteemed in the time of John V. for his wit, 
his satirical turn, his resolution, and his merit. 
I have seen at the Fathers of the Oratory, a 
large folio, entitled, Ultimas Palavras do ceh- 
bre Duque de Cadaval : the last words of the 
Duke of Cadaval. The king has several ille- 
gitimate brothers ; one of which is the arch- 
bishop of Braga ; the others were thrown into 
prison at the epochaof the assassination. Don 
Joao de Braganca,* a prince of the blood, has 

* This prince, called Duke da Lafoens, came at 
that time to England, where he remained about a 
year. T. 


found security in a foreign residence. He be- 
came zC lieutenant-general in the Austrian 
service, where he distinguished himself by his 
valour and his talents. 

The two persons the best known in the mi- 
nisterial party, and who may succeed to Count 
d'Oeyras, are Don Martin de Mello, and Don 
Joseph de Sylva Passanha. The first is am- 
bassador in England, a man of talents, and at- 
tached to the English. The other, who is a 
wise and well informed person, and animated 
with the common hatred of England, is without 
employment, after having long been ambassa- 
dor at the courts of Naples and Madrid. The 
rest of the nobility never approach the king : 
without credit, money, power, or honours, they 
cringe before the Count d'Oeyras and his wife, 
while the princes of the blood, the nobles, and 
the people, all unite in caressing and detesting 
that powerful family. 




THE kingdom of Portugal is known in ancient 
history by the name of Lusitania. Its people 
maintained themselves against the inroads of 
the Romans, whom they have often conquered, 
under the command of Viriatus,* who being the 
captain of a banditti, became the general of an 
army, and made the Romans tremble ; and 

* In the reign of King John III. upon removing 
some ruins on the land of a Pedro Machado Cor- 
regueiro, in the territory of Belas, near Lisbon, they 
found accidentally the tomb of Viriatus ; it was a stone 
chest with this inscription upon it, Hie jacet Viriatus 
Lvsitanus Dux. Within there was a sword, on which 
were engraved many characters. Pedro Machado de- 
siring to sell this piece of antiquity, (whether of the 
Roman age or posterior to it) offered it successively to 
all the great men in the kingdom ; but none of them 
choosing to buy it, he at last gave Viriatus's tomb to a 
friend, who lived in the island of Madeira, where \\ 
was carried and lost. T. 


Sertorius, a Roman commander, whose discon- 
tents made him the enemy of his country. 
The Romans were not able to overcome the 
Lusitanians, till they had procured the assassi- 
nation of these two generals. 

When the Roman empire became a prey to 
the barbarians, the Alani got possession of 
the country situated between the Minho and 
the Tagus, where they founded a kingdom ; 
.which after having been conquered by the 
Goths, became with them a prey to the Ara- 
bians : the capital of this kingdom was Coim- 
bra. Alphonso VI. King of Leon and Castile, 
having commenced with advantage the war 
against the Moors, engaged a considerable 
number of knights from France, Gascony, 
Italy, and England, to fight with him in a war 
against the Infidels. The most distinguished 
of these knights was Henry of the house of 
Burgundy. The king, to fix him in his 
country, gave him his illegitimate daughter 
Theresa in marriage, and Galicia for her dowry, 
with whatever he could conquer of Portugal, 
and the title of Count. This prince accord- 
ingly carried on the war with so much vigour, 
that he conquered all the country to the banks 
of the Tagus. His son, Alphonso Henriquez, 


having overcome five kings, or rather -five 
Moorish governors, caused himself to be de- 
clared king in the year 1135. He pretended 
that Jesus Christ had commanded him to do it ; 
that his crucifix had extended its arms and spo- 
ken to him. Twenty-five kings, since that 
epocha, have governed Portugal. I must re- 
fer to the history of the kingdom at large, all 
those who wish to inform themselves of the 
particulars of their respective reigns, and con- 
fine myself to some slight sketches of their 
more striking events. 

At the commencement of the fourteenth 
century, the King Denis drove the Moors en- 
tirely out of Algarve, by taking Faro, which 
was their last retreat. He also added to Por- 
tugal the little country called Ribade Coa, that 
is washed by the Coa, a small river, on whose 
banks is situated Almeida, .which is the capi- 
tal. This King Denis suffered great uneasi- 
ness from the conduct of his son, who after- 
wards succeeded him under the name of Al- 
phonso IV. and who was surnamed the African, 
from having made the conquest of Tangier, 
Ceuta, Safia, Tetuan, and Mazagan. 

The son of Alphonso IV. was Don Pedro I. 
celebrated by the death of his wife, the unfor- 


tunate Incsde Castro, and by the cruelties that 
accompanied his vengeance. One of the assas- 
sins was named Coelho, which in the Portuguese 
language signifies a rabbit. Don Pedro there- 
fore ordered him to be spitted, roasted, and 
served up to his accomplices. Portugal has had 
the rare fortune of having a much greater 
number of good than bad kings. John I. 
whom victory and the love of the people raised 
to the throne, although illegitimate ; and Al- 
phonso and John III. distinguished by the 
title of the perfect prince, were great kings, and 
made Portugal flourish. 

But the most brilliant epocha of this king- 
dom, was that of the Kings Don Emanuel and 
John III. The first of these princes had an 
uncle named Cardinal Don Henry, who re- 
sided at Lagos in Algarve. This prince who 
was rich, engaged, by large rewards, two gen- 
tlemen, named Tristan Vaz, and Zarco, to 
attempt discoveries on the western part of 
Africa ; and it is to the encouragement which 
he gave to navigation, that the Portuguese owe 
their conquests. Soon after, Alvaro Cabral, 
and Vasco de Gama, made separate discoveries 
of Brasil and the Indies. At the end of fifty 
years, the Portuguese found themselves, by 


their courage, masters of all the coast of Africa, 
from Cape Blanco to the island of Socotora, 
and from Cape Guadarfui, the whole compass 
of Asia, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Ormuz, 
the two Peninsulas of the Ganges, and the 
Molucca Islands were in their hands. They 
possessed the entire trade in gold, silks, porce- 
lain, pearls, and ivory ; in short all the com- 
modities of three parts of the globe, which were 
known only to them. But it was not long be- 
fore the European powers became jealous of 
their greatness. 

A terrible and unexpected revolution changed 
in one moment the face of Portugal : the most 
fatal of all events precipitated the Portuguese 
from the height of their glory, and reduced 
them to the greatest misery. Don Sebastian, 
a young prince of the greatest hopes, at once 
courageous and indefatigable, possessed of the 
most active and solid talents, ascended the 
throne in 1572, with a determination to ren- 
der himself illustrious by some splendid action. 
Inspired by the ardour of chivalry, he meditated 
nothing less than the conquest of Africa and 
its infidel inhabitants. He assembled an army 
of 20,000 men, . composed of his principal no- 
bility, and the flower of his subjects. He placed 


himself at their head, and passed into Africa, 
where he was conquered and slain at the battle 
of Alcazarquivir,* with the greatest part of 
the Portuguese nobility. The Portuguese, a 
credulous people, and who love the marvellous, 
then pretended, and still believe, as has been al- 
ready mentioned, that he is not dead. Philip 1 1 . 
King of Spain, the Duke of Braganca, and an 
illegitimate uncle of Don Sebastian, were com- 
petitors for the Crown ; which, after the death 
or disappearance of Don Sebastian, was possess- 
ed by an old cardinal, named Don Henry, who 
reigned but a few months. Philip maintained 
his rights with an experienced army, conducted 
by the celebrated Duke of Alba. In vain did 
the Portuguese, excited rather by their hatred 
of the Castilians, than any attachment to the 
bastard Don Antonio, made some feeble efforts 
to avoid the Spanish yoke. The disaster of 
Don Sebastian had left them without troops, 

* Oral Cassr in the kingdom of Fez. Don Sebas- 
tian went to assist Muley Mahomed, king of Morocco, 
against Muley Mulack, his uncle and king of Fez, by 
whom he had been dethroned. They fought in 1578, 
and the three kings perished in the battle. An ad- 
venturer appeared in Portugal in 1601, who pretended 
to be Don Sebastian, and had many followers. T. 


without a fleet, and without money. None of 
the powers of Europe supported their cause, 
and in two months they were entirely subju- 

The epochaof Don Sebastian cast a funereal 
veil over the Portuguese nation. All the ancient 
families were interrupted in their successions 
by the havock of war ; all the national force 
was exhausted by the loss of the army ; all 
conquests were at an end : and during the reigns 
of the three Castilian kings, named the three 
Philips, nothing is seen in this unfortunate 
kingdom but disgrace, rebellion, and disasters. 
This catastrophe was in 1580, and the cap- 
tivity of Portugal, or its submission to Spain, 
lasted sixty years. The Dutch availed them- 
selves of the weakness of Portugal, and of the 
-little assistance afforded it by Spain, which was 
itself in a languishing condition during the 
reigns of the three Philips, and formed esta- 
blishments at Olinda, and Fernambucco in 
Brasil. They possessed these colonies during 
thirty years, drove the Portuguese from the 
Molucca Islands, those of the isles of Sunda, 
Ceylon, &c. and acquired the sovereignty of 
the Indian seas, which the Portuguese had pos- 
sessed during the glorious reigns of Don Ema- 


nuel, and John III. They established the im- 
portant settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, 
and during these sixty years, they despoiled 
Portugal of all its power. It was by those 
seizures of the Portuguese possessions, that the 
Dutch avenged themselves of the Spanish na- 

Misfortune now seemed to have attained its 
height. Portugal, at once harassed and despi- 
sed, appeared to be too feeble to be an object 
of the least consideration. The court of Ma- 
drid punished the complaints of despair, and 
fancied that despair was impotent ; when the 
patience of the Portuguese was, at length, ex- 
hausted. In 1640, thirty gentlemen, with- 
out communicating their project, and with- 
out being assured of any support, murdered 
Vasconcelos, who tyrannized over the people, 
under a princess of Austria, appointed to 
govern the kingdom, for Philip IV. The 
fire of rebellion spread around, and soon be- 
came universal ; and in so small a space as a 
month, all the Spaniards were driven away, and 
with little effusion of blood. The timid Duke 
of Braganca was forced by his wife to mount 
a dubious throne, under the name of John IV. 
This irresolute prince was by no means worthy 


of ruling a brave people, but the nation was 
determined to support him ; and continued to 
maintain a war against Spain during twenty- 
eight years, with great courage and equal suc- 
cess. Neither the death of this king, nor that 
of prince Theodosius who succeeded him, and 
whom the nation regarded as a rising hero, nor 
the reign of that weak monarch Alphonso VI. 
could diminish the enthusiasm of the Por- 
tuguese, nor restore to the Spaniards their 
former superiority. After having lost four 
battles in Portugal, the Spaniards gave up the 
design of re-entering that kingdom. The 
same spirit of liberty communicated itself to 
the Portuguese colonies; the Spaniards were 
driven from Goa, and all the Portuguese set- 
tlements in India ; from Congo, and the pre- 
sidencies of Africa, and Brasil. 

At length, in 1668, King Charles II. was 
forced to grant peace to the King Don Pe- 
dro II. the brother and successor of King Al- 
phonso VI. and to acknowledge him as king of 
Portugal ; at the same time renouncing all pre- 
tensions to that crown. Alphonso VI . possessed 
a very weak understanding, and a very vio- 
lent temper ; he had married a princess of the 
blood of France, named Louisa d'Orleans, 


who, instigated by the Count Schomberg, and 
shocked at the insolence of Count Castelmel- 
hor, the favourite of Alphonso and absolute 
master of the kingdom, had the boldness to ac- 
cuse her husband of impotency and madness, 
and to sue for a separation before the states of 
the kingdom. Don Pedro, the brother of the 
king, was entrusted with the care of the king- 
dom and of Queen Louisa, who was become 
pregnant. Alphonso in a second assembly of -the 
states, was declared unworthy of his kingdom, 
and unfit to have a wife; accordingly he was 
deprived of both, and they were given to Don 
Pedro. Alphonso was shut up, and suffered 
enough to make him mad, if he was not so be- 
fore. The Pope was bribed with considerable 
sums to pardon all these acts of injustice, and 
a splendid auto da fe appeased the anger of 

Don Pedro peaceably enjoyed his good for- 
tune, and transmitted his kingdom to his son 
John V. Portugal, since the peace of 1668, 
has resumed its ancient constitution, but it has 
not been able to attain its former vigour. Its 
powerful protectors, and the change it has un- 
dergone, leave it but a secondary place in the 
scale of Europe : it was now become subordi- 


nate to England, whose forced alliance is a 
strong indissoluble chain, and its weight daily 
is increasing. 




THE history of Portugal conducts us to the 
reign of John V. I shall therefore reduce to 
certain anecdotes all I have to say respecting 
that king, and the monarch now on the throne ; 
and will pursue my plan without flattery and 
without passion. John V. who filled the 
throne of Portugal at the beginning of the 
present century, reigned with honour and hap- 
piness. He was a prince of superior under- 
standing, great in all his designs, magnificent, 
gallant, and proud. He possessed all the quali- 
ties of Louis XIV. and resembled him in every 
thing but his love of war, which John abhor- 


red. He was much attached to his alliance 
with England, and did not sufficiently reflect 
on the empire that greedy nation usurped over 
his country. He had conceived a violent friend- 
ship for Lord Tyrawley, the English ambas- 
sador, who availed himself of this partiality to 
become the most insolent of favourites, and to 
load with injury and contempt the Portuguese 
nation. This king made himself respected 
by his neighbours, both by his wisdom and his 
resolution ; when, in the war which placed 
Don Carlos upon the throne of Naples, he was 
menaced by Spain. On that occasion, he rais- 
ed in the course of three months, an army of 
35,000 men, commanded by able officers, with 
a numerous artillery and a respectable marine. 
This vigorous conduct procured him a solid 
peace, which the flame of discord lighted up 
throughout Europe in 1741 did not interrupt. 
In the bosom of peace he sought for solid glory. 
He greatly embellished the royal palace, of 
which not a single vestige remains. He built 
a magnificent patriarchal church, which be- 
came also a prey to the earthquake. He erect- 
ed the sumptuous convent of Mafra, at four 
leagues distance from Lisbon, where he form- 
ed a very valuable library. He also caused an 


aqueduct to be erected to conduct water to 
Lisbon ; a work worthy the genius of the 
ancient Romans, and which even the earth- 
quake seems to have respected. In short, he 
made his subjects happy, and was adored by 
them. But this prince having fallen, at the 
close of his life, into a state of extreme devo- 
tion, abandoned the care of public affairs to 
Gaspard, his confessor, the relation and pro- 
tector of young Carvalho. He dissipated the 
greatest part of his revenues in establishing 
chapels, building convents, and paying for 
masses. It became at last a matter of obliga- 
tion to prevent his becoming acquainted with 
the deaths that happened at Lisbon ; as he no 
sooner knew of the death of any of his subjects, 
though among the very lowest classes, but he 
ordered an hundred masses or more to be said 
at his expence. His devotion became more 
and more extravagant, till it degenerated into 
absolute imbecillity, and he died almost an 

The reign of Joseph I. was destined to ex- 
perience the greatest dangers, and the most 
uncommon catastrophes. This king having 
ascended the throne in 1750, found his trea- 
sury empty, his government oppressed with 


debts, and the English masters of the kingdom 
and its colonies. His minister, Diego de Men- 
do9a, had not sufficient talents to apply a re- 
medy to these abuses. Carvalho, returned from 
the embassy of Vienna, obtained the confi- 
dence of the king, turned out the minister, 
who was banished to Mazagan, and took his 
place. He passed the two or three first years 
of his ministry in contending with cabals, in 
searching into the causes of the deranged state 
of government, and in suffering the insolence 
of the nobles, who wished to pull him down. 

On the first of November, 755, happened 
the famous earthquake which desolated all 
Portugal, threw down a considerable number 
of buildings in every town throughout the king- 
dom, and destroyed, as it were, in the same 
hour, 50,000 people. But Lisbon suffered 
most ; the earthquake there assumed its most 
terrific form. The elements united to over- 
whelm the wretched inhabitants ; the sea and 
the river rushed into the city, the earth opened 
wide its jaws, and fire consumed their dwell- 
ings. It was the festival of All-saints, and at 
nine in the morning, when great numbers of 
people were hearing mass. The churches 
were thrown down, and all those whom devo- 


tion or alarm had conducted thither, were 
crushed beneath their fall. The aged, the in- 
fants, and the sick, were smothered in their 
beds, or consumed by the flames, which were 
blown into fury by the tempest that accompa- 
nied the earthquake. The vessels in the har- 
bour were violently driven against each other, 
and many of them perished. But in the midst 
of this general desolation, an horrid scene of 
human brutality was displayed, and added to the 
universal horror of the moment. The desire 
of plunder, inflamed with the hope of speedy 
success a large band of sailors, soldiers, ne- 
groes, and criminals, whom this event had de- 
livered from "their prisons: these infamous 
wretches spread themselves throughout the city, 
to increase by pillage, violation, and murder, 
the horrors that surrounded them. To com- 
plete the calamity, Lisbon was threatened with 
famine ; while the stench of the dead bodies 
corrupted the air, and produced symptoms of 

The Count d'Oeyras alone preserved a pre- 
sence of mind in this scene of desolation ; and 
where the fear of the future stifled all com- 
plaints at the present evil. This Minister took 
no repose ; and having no other dwelling, ox 


bed, or office, but his coach, was seen every 
where, encouraging and consoling the wretched 
inhabitants. In eight days he published 230 
ordinances to regulate the circumstances of the 
moment ; which have been collected in one 
large volume, entitled, Providencias sobre os 
terremotos. He caused the fire to be extin- 
guished, he ordered all the dead bodies to be 
covered with quick lime, or thrown into the 
sea ; he directed the public ways to be opened 
through the ruins ; he encouraged the garrison ; 
and condemned the banditti, who infested the 
city, to suffer military execution. Provisions 
of all kinds were fetched from the provinces, 
by land and by sea ; and by his example and re- 
solution, he stopped the people who were de- 
termined to abandon a country which had so 
often been laid waste by similar destruction. 
But notwithstanding all the care and precau- 
tions of Count d'Oeyras, who was at this time 
the tutelary deity and saviour of Lisbon, be- 
sides the loss of lives, of effects, and furniture, 
there was lost in merchandize, money, and 
bankruptcies, produced by this terrible event, 
above six millions sterling. Of the magnificent 
palace of the kings of Portugal, not one stone 
remained upon another. Immense riches were 


there devoured by the flames, as well as in the 
patriarchal church, or were buried in their ruins. 
The court, full of alarm and agitation during 
eight days, had no other asylum but such as 
they found in their carriages, and the garden 
of Bellem, a small villa about a league from 
Lisbon. The king and the royal family, while 
they displayed the utmost resignation for them- 
selves, exercised all their charity in consoling 
the unhappy people ; and offered to their view 
an affecting example of greatness of mind, arid 
patient resolution. 

The recompence of Carvalho for his mag- 
nanimous conduct on this fatal occasion, was 
the entire and irrevocable confidence of the 
king. This was no more than an act of jus- 
tice to that able Minister, but it heightened to 
an extreme degree of rage the jealousy of his nu- 
merous enemies : strengthened, however, by the 
sovereign power, he began to take very strong 
measures : he attacked at once the departments 
of the marine, of commerce, and of the finances, 
as well as the clergy, the nobility, and the Je- 
suits : the latter were the first objects of his 
resentment, and the conquest of Paraguay was 
decided and arranged by the court of Madrid. 
The grandees irritated and alarmed, felt their 
own weakness } nor had they the courage to 


make a direct attack upon this superior cha- 
racter, whose very looks they were afraid to en- 
counter. Vengeance is^the element of the Por- 
tuguese, but they prefer those modes of indulg- 
ing it which are not liable to danger ; they do 
not, therefore, consider assassination as a crime, 
because, as Moliere says,* it is the surest way 
to get rid of an anemy. 

An horrible conspiracy was plotting with 
the utmost secrecy; four persons in the state 
were concerned in it : the Duke d'Aveiro, 
of the house of Mascarenhas, who was the head 
of it, was allied to the royal family. Mor- 
domo-mor grandmaster, or steward of the 
king's household, and the most powerful no- 
bleman of Portugal ; he was an ugly, little 
man, of a narrow mind, but vain and wrong- 
headed, deranged in his affairs, capable of any 
crimes, always cringing to the Minister, whom 
he detested, while he himself was universally 
hated and despised. This man was easily ex- 
cited to commit any crime by the Marchioness 
de Tavora, who was the soul of the conspiracy. 
That lady, one of the finest women in Europe, 
of a superior genius and ambition, capable of 
every thing whether good or bad, was dreaded 

* In his comedy of the Sicifan or L' amour Peintrt . T. 


at court on account of her violent disposition, 
haughty spirit, and sarcastic pleasantries ; she 
was the declared enemy of Carvalho, and never 
spoke of him but in the most reproachful terms, 
nor did she treat the king with more respect, 
whose whole conduct was the public object of 
her satirical insults ; equally the enemy of the 
queen and the princesses, she treated them as 
her equals. But this terrible woman had a 
great number of followers, powerful vassals, 
as well as large estates. Her magnificence, 
her profusion, her winning looks, gained the 
affections of the people, whom she managed 
with great address. She blended her criminal 
disposition and her pride with extreme devo- 
tion, and was under the direction of an old 
Jesuit, named Malagrida, a fanatical and visio- 
nary character, who believed himself to be 
inspired. Her husband, a general of cavalry, 
her two children, Tier son-in-law, the Count of 
Atouguia, and her daughter-in-law, the Mar- 
chioness of Tavora, were also under the spi- 
ritual direction of the Jesuits, and subject to 
the will of this imperious woman. It was said 
in Portugal that the conspirators had no design 
to hurt the king, and that their sole object was 
Carvalho. This opinion was founded upon 


the circumstance that it was in the carriage of 
the Minister the attempt was made upon the 
king ; and as the royal coaches had passed on 
before without having been attacked, it has a 
claim to some degree of credit. After all, the 
profound mystery in which the whole pro- 
ceeding was involved, allows little more than 

The conspiracy in the mean time was car- 
ried on with great secrecy and equal indiscre- 
tion. The Duke d'Aveiro, the Marquis de 
Tavora, his two sons, the Count d'Atouguia, 
the Almeidas, and the Sousas, were the re- 
spectable names which appeared at the head of 
250 persons of both sexes, who were accom- 
plices without the secret having transpired : 
nevertheless, the Duke d'Aveiro, proud at one 
moment, and cringing at another, rendered 
himself suspected by his menaces and indiscreet 
discourse. Love had also its share in this 
cruel scene. The young Marchioness de Ta- 
vora carried on an intrigue with the king, 
which all her family considered as an affront, 
and they availed themselves of the mysterious 
visit which he paid every day to this lady. 

On the day appointed to carry this horrid 
plot into execution, gd September, 1758, the 


conspirators, to the number of 150, divided 
themselves into small troops, and took post in 
different parts of the way which the king Was 
to pass. His majesty was in a calash, drawn 
by two mules, conducted by one postilion, and 
was accompanied only by his valet de chambre. 
The first band of conspirators let him pass on 
till he was in the midst of them, when they 
discharged forty muskets ;* the calash was 
pierced in various places, and the king received 
three wounds, the most considerable of which 
was in his shoulder. His valet de chambre, 
whose name was Texeira, had the presence of 
mind to make the king truckle down at the 
bottom of the chaise, that he might sit over 
him, and at all risks cover his body. At the 
same time, the postillion, as brave and as faith- 
ful as Texeira, instead of pursuing the road, 
or returning back again, turned with great 
address, and with the utmost speed, into a bye 
way, amidst many other random shots, and by 
a circuitous road got back to the palace of 

* Two men only fired at the king's calash, Ferreira, 
who was executed, and Axevedo, who by his early 
escape, shewed himself the only one among so many 
conspirators that foresaw what would happen after- 
wards. See the note next to this. T, 


Bellern. These two men, to whom the king 
owed his life, were amply recompensed. 

The king on arriving at the palace, cover- 
ed himself with a cloak belonging to one of 
his guards, ordered Carvalho to be instantly 
called to him, and waited at the gate, with- 
out thinking of his wounds, or discovering 
the letfst sign of pain or apprehension. The 
Minister with his usual resolution, and main- 
taining the same magnanimity as his mas- 
ter, prohibited Texeira, the postillion, and 
guards, from making any discovery of what 
had happened. He also recommended to the 
king himself silence and dissimulation. Never- 
theless, the news of this event having spread 
abroad, perhaps by the conspirators themselves, 
the people ran in a state of alarm and confu- 
sion to Bellem, and the nobles repaired to the 
palace. The Duke d'Aveiro appeared the most 
anxious and alarmed of them all, and offered 
to place himself at the head of the cavalry to 
go in search of the assassins. But Carvalho 
removed his fears, pretended to make him his 
confident, and with a mysterious air, recom- 
mended him to appear to know nothing of the 
matter : nevertheless, the Minister already sus- 
pected him, from the knowledge he had of his 


turbulent spirit, and the well known hatred he 
bore to himself. The king, to dissipate the 
fears of his people, appeared at a window, and 
declared from thence, that the report of his 
assassination was false, that the slight hurt he 
had received was from no other cause but the 
accidental overturning of his calash. To con- 
firm this belief, he engaged in his usual exer- 
cises even before he was cured of his wounds, 
and the agitated spirit of the people was uni- 
versally quieted : even the conspirators them- 
selves, deceived by the general tranquillity, took 
no precautions whatever to prevent "discovery, 
and remained at ease. One alone, named 
Polycarp, a domestic of the Tavora family, 
being suspicious of this mysterious state of in- 
action quitted the kingdom. 

Nevertheless Carvalho, in secrecy and in 
silence, took his measures to discover the au- 
thors of the conspiracy, and chance discovered 
them to him. A valet had an intrigue with a 
servant of the household of Tavora, and used 
to meet her lover in the gardens. One night, 
while he was waiting for his mistress, the con- 
spirators assembled near the spot where he was 
concealed ; and after they had conversed about 
the plot that had failed, unfolded the design 


of another. The valet heard all, and gave im- 
mediate information to the Minister ; who, on 
continuing his inquiries, found his suspicions 
confirmed, and was soon possessed of sufficient 
proofs of the conspiracy, and the persons con- 
cerned in it. The more Carvalho thought 
Aveiro and Tavora criminal, the more he flat- 
tered and caressed them. The first of them, 
through fear, and perhaps by the advice of his 
accomplices, who were more prudent than him- 
self, asked permission to pass one month at his 
country seat, under the pretext of re-establish- 
ing his health. Carvalho immediately obtain- 
ed leave for three months. The other had for- 
merly solicited a commandry, and the Minis- 
ter now announced a grant of it, on the part 
of the king. In short, his Majesty and the 
Minister so conducted themselves, that the 
people not only ceased to speak of the assassi- 
nation, but even to remember any thing con- 
cerning it. 

Nevertheless, in about six months, Carvalho 
proposed the marriage of his daughter with the 
Count of Sampayo, a nobleman of high birth. 
The king accordingly signed the contract of 
marriage, and took upon himself the expences 
of the wedding. All the grandees of the king- 


dom were invited to assist at the ceremony ; 
and the Duke d'Aveiro returned in great haste 
to Lisbon to be present at it. Ten battalions 
and as many squadrons of troops arrived the 
same night, and at the same hour in the capi- 
tal. There were two balls which occupied 
the attention of the city ; the one at Bellem, 
given by the Minister, and the other at the Long 
Room, a place of entertainment belonging to 
foreign merchants, who gave it in honour of 
the marriage. At the same hour all the con- 
spirators were arrested, their palaces invested, 
and the process against them being already pre- 
pared, ten of the principal of them were executed 
in the course of a week, in the square of the pa- 
lace of Bellem. The Duke d'Aveiro was drawn 
into quarters by horses,* the Marquis de Tavora, 

* The General is far from being correct in the par- 
ticulars of this bloody scene, which is the more sur- 
prising as the following account was published by au- 
thority after the execution. 

" Saturday, January 18, 1759, ascaffold having been 
' built in the square opposite to the house where the 
" prisoners were confined, eight wheels were fixed 
" upon it : on one corner of the scaffolding was placed 
' Antonio Alvares Ferreira, and at the other corner 
" the effigy of Joseph Policarpio de Azevedo, who is 
" still missing ; these being the two persons who fired 


his two sons, his wife, and the Count d'Atou- 
guia his son-in-law, were beheaded, and four 
inferior accomplices were burned alive. Aveiro 
died like a coward. The rest supported their 
torments with resolution. But the two crimi- 
nals who displayed the greatest strength of 

" at the king's equipage. About half an hour after 
< eight o'clock in the morning the execution began. 
44 The Marchioness Tavora was the first who was 
44 brought upon the scaffold, when she was beheaded 
44 at one stroke. Her body was afterwards placed upon 
" the floor of the scaffolding, and covered with a linen 
41 cloth. Young Joseph Maria of Tavora, the young 
44 Marquisof Tavora, the Count of Atouguia, and three 
44 servants of the Duke of Aveiro, were first strangled 
44 at a stake, and afterwards their limbs broken with 
41 an iron instrument ; the Marquis of Tavora, gene- 
44 ral of horse, and the Duke of Aveiro, had their 
4 * limbs broken alive. The Duke, for greater igno- 
44 miny, was brought bareheaded to the place of exe- 
" cution. The body and limbs of each of the crimi- 
44 nals, after they were executed, were thrown upon 
44 a wheel, and covered with a linen cloth. But when 
44 Antonio Alvares Ferreira was brought to the stake > 
44 whose sentence was to be burnt alive, the other 
4 ' bodies were exposed to his view; the combustible 
44 matter, which had been laid under the scaffolding f 
44 was set on fire, the whole machine, with the bodies , 
, 4< were consumed to ashes, and thrown into the sea." 


mind on the occasion, were a woman, the old 
Marchioness de Tavora, and a young man of 
nineteen years of age, her second son. He had 
suffered the most cruel tortures without ac- 
knowledging his guilt ; when his father being 
brought to tell him that he and the other ac- 
complices had confessed the whole, he replied, 
" as you gave me life, you may take it from 
" me." As for the old Marchioness, she esca- 
ped the torture on account of her sex ; but re- 
ceived her sentence, and saw the preparations 
for her punishment with an indifference that 
would have done honour to a better cause. 
She had been accustomed to breakfast after the 
English fashion, and after she had heard her 
sentence read, and been dressed as usual by her 
women, she demanded her breakfast. Her 
confessor represented to her that she had some- 
thing else to do ; when she answered, " that 
" there was a time for every thing." She took 
her breakfast in perfect tranquillity, and made 
her women partake of it. When she came to 
ascend the scaffold, she said to those who offer- 
ed to assist her, " I will ascend it alone, I have 
" not suffered the torture like the rest." The 
Marquis de Tavora, who did not possess an 
equal strength of mindf reproached her for 


having brought her family to such a fate ; she 
replied, " support it as I do, and reproach me 
" not." She herself placed the fillet over her 
eyes, shortened the duties of her confessor, en- 
treated the executioner to dispatch her quickly, 
and by dropping her handkerchief, gave the 
signal for the fatal stroke. The young Mar- 
chioness de Tavora was confined in a convent, 
as well as the young Countess of Atouguia, 
who has been since persecuted by the inquisi- 
tion as a visionary. The principal part of the 
nobility were carried away and confined in 
dungeons, while some escaped ; of the latter 
number were the Almeidas and Sousas. As for 
the Jesuits, they were expelled from every part 
of the Portuguese dominions as accomplices in 
this horrid conspiracy, but without process or 
proof. There remained of them but twenty- 
two, decrepit old men, who were shut up in a 
villa of the Duked'Aveiro; and eight prisoners, 
of which the most criminal, viz. Malagridaan 
Italian, Alexander an Irishman, and Matos, 
a Portuguese, were executed secretly in prison, 
after having been denounced as chiefs of the 

The Minister has been accused of gratifying, 
by these executions,- his own personal ven- 


geance. But surely this crime merited the 
severest chastisement ; nor could it be consi- 
dered as bad policy to humble an insolent nobi- 
lity who insulted the king, and tyrannized over 
the people. 

Since this fatal period, consternation and 
suspicion have not ceased to afflict the Portu- 
guese : every one sees the sword suspended 
over his head, and fears the operations of in- 
formers and spies. The perpetual seizure of 
persons, proves that the spirit of persecution 
has not yet subsided, and the inhabitants have 
not since this sad catastrophe, enjoyed one tran- 
quil day : the crime is passed, but the punish- 
ment continues. The Minister, sure of being 
detested for his unnecessary cruelty, finds no 
security, but in keeping alive the general con- 
sternation. This cruel necessity has rendered 
him inattentive to the forms of law, and violent 
to an extreme in punishment. His power is 
cemented by the best blood of Portugal, and the 
title of Count d'Oeyras, which the king has 
granted him as a recompense for his services, 
is sealed with the same blood, and purchased 
by a long series of decapitations. 

These two fatal events which followed one 
upon the other, occupied all the attention of the 


Minister, and suspended the operations of every 
other department of the state whose strength 
they had exhausted. War being lighted up 
throughout all Europe, the Portuguese, who had 
no interest in it, began to recover themselves and 
to draw some advantage from the state of peace 
which they enjoyed. But their neutrality was not 
equally preserved. They were considered as 
very much attached to the English ; they tri- 
umphed on their victories, they received them 
with joy into their harbours, they profited of 
their captures, and they were regarded rather 
as the subjects than the allies of England. 
This opinion determined the Spanish court to 
attack Portugal, as the best way of attacking 
the English, whom they considered as the 
commercial possessors, at least, of Lisbon and 
Oporto. It was supposed that this war with 
Portugal would have a considerable influence 
on the negotiations for peace ; and to accele- 
rate it, Spain resolved to break its neutrality. 
If Portugal had been subdued, it is certain that 
such an event would have been the source of 
great advantage to Spain at the conclusion of a 
peace ; but success alone could justify the con- 
duct which the court of Madrid pursued at this 
period. That power was particularly interested 


in preventing the English from aggrandizing 
their power in America, and crushing the 
French navy ; but this interest did not furnish 
sufficient motives to quit its neutrality. It 
might, on all occasions, have favoured the 
French, have opened their ports to them, and 
supplied them with money ; but they had no 
just pretence to declare war against England. 
The piracies of certain privateers, which were 
disavowed by the court of London, and the 
strict but lawful examination of Spanish ships 
which carried ammunition to France, were not 
sufficient pretexts. All the commercial nations 
suffered the same inconvenience, without think- 
ing themselves authorized to take up arms to 
prevent it. Besides these causes of complaint, 
whether well or ill founded, Spain had nothing 
to do with Portugal. War was, however, de- 
clared in 1762. 

The Portuguese, who never thought of a 
rupture with Spain, were so ill prepared for 
this unexpected event, that the army was not 
only in a very bad condition as to discipline, 
but also as to equipment. The Minister, who 
was naturally an enemy to military men, be- 
cause he knew nothing of military affairs ; and 
reckoning upon a long peace, as well as on his 



own superior politics, he had totally neglected 
the army, and employed the funds destined for 
its maintenance, to other objects : he had not 
even filled up the vacancies in it which had 
been caused by the late catastrophe. 

The state of the Portuguese army appeared 
on paper to consist of 17,000 men, 2,400 of 
which were cavalry : but in reality it did not 
amount to half that number. When the Count 
de Lippe, a sovereign prince of Germany, 
who was recommended by the English to com- 
mand the army of Portugal, wished, on his ar- 
rival, to get a body of troops together, in order 
to have some appearance at least of an army ; 
he could not assemble at his first camp of Villa 
Vi9osa, more than 5000 men ; the greater part 
without uniforms and without arms. Elvas, 
Almeida, and some other places occupied the 
rest. There was neither artillery, nor ammuni- 
tion, nor hospitals, nor magazines, nor engi- 
neers, nor officers, nor maps, nor waggons. 

Don Martin de Mello had recourse, on the 
part of the king of Portugal, to the court of Lon- 
don, which ordered 6000 men to embark for 
Lisbon ; 2000 of these were Irish troops, newly 
raised, consequently as incapable of defending 
Portugal as the Portuguese themselves, and who 


arrived when the campaign was half over : Lord 
Tyrawley, who commanded these succours, was 
a bad officer, and a very violent man, calculated 
rather to throw matters into disorder than to re- 
store them. He was the ambassador in Portu 
gal, who made so insolent a use of the favour 
of King John, V. He resumed, on the present 
occasion, all his haughty, contemptuous airs, 
and some very warm disputes took place be- 
tween him and Count d'Oeyras j that Minis- 
ter, however, contrived to get him recalled. 
Lord Louden, who succeeded Tyrawley, Lord 
Townshend who replaced him, and General 
Crawford who followed, were equally hated 
for their pride. They always encamped sepa- 
rately from Count de Lippe, whose orders they 
refused to receive ; in short, they expressed 
their contempt of the natives so openly, that the 
Portuguese at length rose up against these cruel 
and insolent allies, and massacred more than 
half of them. There was no kind of excess 
which these undisciplined troops, who were 
worse than enemies, did not commit. Upwards 
of 1400 of them perished also in a revolt at 
Santarem. The Irish, above all, were so dis- 
orderly and so wicked, that those who had 
M 3 


escaped the vengeance of the Portuguese and re- 
turned to England, were broke and punished. 

No better service was received from two 
regiments, called Swiss troops, that the king 
raised in Portugal ; of which one colonel was 
hung in effigy, while the other died in prison ; 
and the two regiments were afterwards reform- 
ed into a single regiment of grenadiers. 

The Count de Lippe had also the same dif- 
ficulties with the Minister, who valued him- 
self much more, and with reason, on his talents 
for negotiation, than the science of arms, check- 
ed all his enterprises, opposed him in every- 
thing, and repulsed the German pride by Por- 
tuguese solemnity. The native generals, jea- 
lous of the honours which the king shewed to 
this foreigner, were his greatest enemies. 

The Count de Lippe is a prince distinguished 
by his military talents ; and above all by his su- 
perior knowledge as an engineer, and officer of 
artillery. He is haughty, presumptuous, ar- 
dent, and leaves much to fortune. He was 
obliged in Portugal to bend to the various and 
opposing circumstances that surrounded him.* 
and he there served an apprenticeship to pa- 
tience. Although he had no opportunity in 


this campaign to signalize himself, his whole 
conduct proved him to be an able and experi- 
enced soldier. 

Such was the interior state of Portugal when 
the Spaniards penetrated into it. But the 
Count d'Oeyras not depending upon an arm- 
ed strength for defence, had recourse to his 
usual politics. He engaged the Queen to sup- 
plicate her mother the Queen Dowager of 
Spain to dispel the storm which threatened to 
destroy Portugal. He employed money, he 
set negotiations on foot, and by these arms, far 
more powerful than those of the Spanish war- 
riors, caused their enterprises to miscarry. 

Nevertheless the court of Spain ordered 
40,000 men to march into Portugal ; and from 
jts powers of defence, a ready judgment might 
be formed of the facility of its conquest. But 
contrary to all appearance, this army did no- 
thing but what was injurous to Spain itself, 
by a great and useless consumption of men, of 
horses, of cattle, of grain, and above all of 
money. The Marquis de Sarria, colonel of 
the Spanish guards, old, bigotted, and without 
talents, was entrusted with the command of 
this army. But besides the want of vigour and 
capacity in this superannuated general, the 
M 4 


operations of the war were all either checked 
or impeded by the influence of persons of the 
highest consideration in Spain. The war 
Minister was an Irishman,* and all Europe 
suspected him of partiality for his countrymen. 
But whatever the cause might be, the preserva- 
tion of Portugal cost Spain its glory, its trea- 
sure, and an army. 

The extraordinary ignorance of the Spanish 
generals, the want of discipline in their troops, 
the little care that was taken to secure supplies 
of forage and ammunition, were circumstances 
very favourable to the safety of Portugal. The 
enemy entered into the country without hav- 
ing agreed upon a plan of the campaign ; and 
the first encampment was at Zamora, April 21, 
1762. They approached the frontier, without 
being acquainted with the country, without 
maps, or guides, or spies. A part of the army 
attacked Miranda, which was blown up by an 
accident. This conquest determined the Spa- 
niards to enter Portugal on the side of Traz os 
Montes ; and it was then only they discovered 
that there was a river to pass ; but they had 
neither pontoons or boats, and much time was 

* Don Ricardo Wall. 


lost in constructing them. May 4, the General 
being at Alcanisas, said publicly, in speaking 
of the Portuguese army, " I cannot disco- 
" ver where these insects are." Bragana, 
Outeiro, and Chaves, being without a single 
soldier, surrendered without opposition on the 
approach of the army. 

The General, May 21, sent a detachment 
against Moncorvq,, while O'Reilly, who com- 
manded the light troops, quitted Chaves to get 
possession of Oporto ; which, however, he did 
not effect : for he was stopped between Villa 
Real, and Villa Pouca, by 3 or 400 peasants, 
who drove back his detachment, consisting of 
3000 men, as far as Chaves. He owed this 
defeat to the appearance of fear which he dis- 
covered, and which seems to have been com- 
mon to all the commanding officers detached 
from the Spanish army. 

On the evening of Whitsunday, there was 
an alarm in the camp ; the General ordered all 
his artillery to be drawn into the rear, that it 
might not be exposed to the danger of being 
taken ; by which he deprived his army of all 
the advantage that might be derived from field 

On June 21, an officer, named Alvarez, at- 
M 5 


tacked the village of Freixal, and after having 
pillaged it, set it on fire. Three hundred 
peasants, who were shut up in it, and made 
some resistance, were converted by the gazettes 
of Madrid into 6000 men. After such a bril- 
liant expedition, the army took the road of 
Zamora, and it was determined to lay siege to 
Almeida. On the 4th of August the place 
was invested ; on the i5th the trenches were 
opened without the least difficulty, as the be- 
sieged did not, during the course of the siege, 
discharge more than four or five cannon. On 
the 25th the place surrendered, although no 
breach had been made, nor the first parallel 
completed. The batteries of the besiegers 
were at the distance of 1 800 feet from the 
walls, and the siege was attended with the loss 
only of an ostler, a labourer, and four horses ; 
not one person was wounded during the short 
time it lasted. There were found in the town 
ninety-six preces of cannon of different calibres, 
all sorts of ammunition and provisions, and 
3600 Portuguese, who composed its garrison, 
all unhurt and in good health. Almeida is a 
considerable place, and might have stopped the 
progress of the Spaniards for at least a month : 
but the governor was fourscore years of age, 


had been a captain of cavalry in the war of the 
succession, and was a vain-glorious character- 
A very able engineer, named Miron, who had 
thrown himself into the place, was anxious to 
put it in a state of defence, but the governor 
having refused to advance the money necessary 
to carry on the works, a dozen of English and 
Scotch officers, who were at the head of the 
regiments in garrison, raised among themselves 
a very considerable sum for that purpose. But 
when Miron, on the strength of this subscrip- 
tion, was determined to begin his works, and 
spoke firmly on the subject, the governor order- 
ed him to be confined in irons, and sent him 
to be tried at Lisbon. Having, however, de- 
prived himself of his engineer, he retired into 
his chamber, where he passed all the time of 
the siege in reciting his rosary. When the 
English officers ordered the Portuguese garrison 
to man the outworks, they revolted and refused 
to obey. Not a single man was seen in the 
covered way, nor along the curtains during the 
whole siege, so that no place was ever taken 
with more ease ; and if the Spaniards could 
have conceived the interior state of the town 
and garrison, they would not have given them- 
selves the trouble to open the trenches. 


After this siege the Spaniards were more em- 
barrassed than before, as to where they were 
to go, or what they should do. They had cal- 
culated that the siege would have occupied the 
whole campaign, and no further plan had been 
thought of. Besides, the war was carried on 
by couriers, and the court regulated all the ope- 
rations at the distance of an hundred leagues. 
Old Marquis de Sarria was now removed, a*d 
the Count d'Aranda substituted to command 
the army. This new general made an attack 
upon Villa Velha, on the banks of the Tagus. 
Nevertheless, the Portuguese, encouraged by the 
indecision of the Spaniards, strengthened by the 
support of the English, and animated by the 
Count de Lippe, ventured to take the field, and 
encamped to the number of 12,000 men at 
Abrantes, and Punhete ; while a small camp of 
Portuguese volunteers, commanded by a brave 
Scotchman, of the name of Hamilton, and rein- 
forcedby two English battalions, and some com- 
panies of grenadiers, were posted upon the left 
bank of the Tagus, opposite Villa Velha, whose 
castle was garrisoned by three hundred Portu- 
guese. Alvarez had taken this castle without 
much danger, as it surrendered at the first 
musket shot. During the march to Villa 


Velha, the Count de Lippe had sent Colonel 
Burgoyne with his English dragoons, and six 
companies of grenadiers, four of which were 
Portuguese, to attack Valena d'Alcantara, of 
which that officer got possession without any 
resistance, and afterwards pillaged it. Valenca 
is surrounded with walls, and contained a gar- 
rison of 1 200 militia, under the command of 
a brigadier general. This affront, however, 
was soon forgotten by the Spaniards. The 
capture of Villa Velha had increased the con- 
fidence of the detachment of Alvarez, who, 
despising the enemy, abandoned themselves to a 
fallacious security. Hamilton perceived their 
negligence, passed a ford of the river by night 
with 300 men, half of them English, surprised 
the camp of Alvarez, consisting of 2000 men, 
the flower of the Spanish army, spiked their 
cannon, and repassed the Tagus without loss, 
leaving behind him no common scene of disor- 
der and confusion. 

Such were the transactions of this campaign 
which finished in the month of September. 
The Spanish army retired to Alcantara, but at 
the same time an attack was made upon Cam- 
po Mayor, which failed, because the detach- 
ment destined to this object arrived with a 


view to surprise the place at noon-day. The 
Spanish forces, when they arrrived at the fron- 
tier, were reduced to 25,000 men, and never did 
troops experience a more horrible campaign. 
The sick and the stragglers were almost all of 
them massacred by the peasants, who were 
rendered ferocious by the marauding conduct 
of the Spanish army, and emboldened by the 
timidity of its generals. 

Spain was much more successful in Ame- 
rica. Cevallos, the governor of Buenos Ay- 
res, made himself master of the colony of St. 
Sacrement, and the island of St. Gabriel, 
which the Portuguese knew not how to de- 
fend, and endeavoured in vain to retake ; but 
this advantage did not compensate for the 
ill-success of the campaign in Portugal ; it 
covered Spain with dishonour, and exhausted 
her to such a degree as to keep her quiet till 
the peace. 

This war, which might have crushed Por- 
tugal, gave it a degree of vigour and elasticity 
which it did not possess before ; and produced 
a military spirit that still exists, though it re- 
ceived some diminution from the absence of 
Count de Lippe. The Count d'Oeyras availed 
himself of these successes, and of the re-esta- 


blishment of the army, to render himself still 
more powerful, and to forward his designs. 

But the misfortunes of the reign of Joseph I. 
had not yet ceased. Two years after the war, 
the customhouse was entirely consumed by 
fire, with every thing it contained. This was 
a severe blow on the commerce of the country, 
many persons were entirely ruined by the 
event, and many bankruptcies followed. It 
was said, indeed, that this conflagration was 
not attended with a general loss, as the most 
valuable merchandise was in other ware- 
houses, and that the building was purposely 
set on fire. But be that as it may, commerce 
must have been severely affected by the acci- 
dent, and the commercial security of Lisbon 
considerably diminished. 

It has been remarked, that during and since 
the war, the Portuguese army received very 
great detriment from the disunion that sub- 
sisted, not between the foreign and the native 
troops, but among the foreigners themselves. 
The officers were divided into two factions, 
the English or the Scotch, and the Germans, 
comprehending also the Swiss and the French. 
The history of all the trifling disagreements 
and revolutions which took place in the army 


of Portugal, would contain a tissue of events 
disgraceful to the military character ; but as 
the adventure of the unfortunate Graveron, 
Colonel of the royal foreign regiment, has 
been mentioned in the different gazettes of 
Europe, it may satisfy curiosity to give in this 
place an impartial account of his death. , 

Graveron, known in France by the name of 
Peiferrier, was of honourable birth, and first 
served in the Mousquetaires of France , after- 
wards a captain of dragoons, he was at length 
aid de camp of Count d'Herouville, a lieu- 
tenant general, who, in 1762, procured him 
recommendations to Portugal, where the hope 
of advancing his fortune had led him. The 
Count de Lippe immediately conceived a re- 
gard for this officer, whose social qualities ren- 
dered him very agreeable, and made him major 
of cavalry. The first moments of his ad- 
vancement were stained by political intrigues, 
which afterwards gave an appearance of justice 
to his sad catastrophe. 

While Graveron was major of cavalry, 
there were two regiments in the Portuguese 
army, which having been raised by two Swiss 
officers, took the name of their country. The 
English faction were very violent against the 


formation of these corps, and their two com- 
manding officers, in consequence of accusa- 
tions, whether just or unjust I do not pretend 
to determine, were committed to prison. One 
of them, named De Saussure, died in confine- 
ment, and was afterwards declared innocent ; 
the other, considered as culpable, but a brave sol- 
dier, saved himself by flight and was hung in effi- 
gy. Graveron, influenced solely by his interest, 
paid his court to the English, by promoting the 
disgrace of the Swiss officers ; and he received 
a recompense for his services : the two regi- 
ments were formed into one, as I have said al- 
ready, and given to him. He was very indis- 
creet in the management of his corps ; but 
he brought on his fate by speaking and writ- 
ing with too little precaution on the conduct 
of government. The expences of his regi- 
ment was also equal to those of two Portu- 
guese regiments ; and that circumstance con- 
tributed to his ruin. He was ordered to Lis- 
bon in 1766, where having been arrested with 
his staff" officers, the regiment was disarmed. 
He was accused of having ill-managed the fi- 
nances of his corps, of making false returns, 
and of having changed his name ; such were 
the principal articles of accusation ; but they 


were sufficient, supported as they were by an 
authority that was irresistible, while his real 
crimes were his imprudent opinions of the 
government, and an improper choice of offi- 
cers in his regiment. As he could not be 
condemned to suffer death by any military 
law, the council of war acquitted him. He 
was, however, farther consigned to the civil 
judges, who, according to the ancient laws of 
the kingdom, 'condemned him to be hanged ; 
which sentence, as a matter of favour, was 
changed into decapitation. This outrageous 
and unjust sentence was confirmed by the mi- 
litary judges, who all signed his sentence by 
order of the king, except Don Bernardo Mello, 
brother of the ambassador to the court of Lon- 
don, a field marshal, governor of Elvas, and 
a most upright and humane nobleman. It is 
very evident, that these proceedings were no 
more than a pretext to disband the regiment, 
and the execution of its commander was con- 
sidered as the most ready way of doing it. 

This unfortunate officer was abandoned by 
the minister of his nation ; and the English 
did not hesitate to speak in the most outra- 
geous terms of that desertion, because they 
always possess too much consideration for the 


life of a fellow-citizen, even if he is culpable, 
to abandon him to the caprice of foreigners. 

At length Portugal sustained a shock which 
made it tremble to its centre. This was the 
general revolt of Brasil, of which the causes 
have been deduced in a preceding chapter, un- 
der the article Commerce. General Bohm, a 
creature of the Minister, was sent there with 
five battalions. 




THE political state of Portugal may be said to 
be a state of compulsion ; for this nation can- 
not consult its inclinations, in its enmities or 
its alliances. The court of Lisbon is attached 
by necessity, to that of London, is the enemy 
of Spain, from natural circumstances, and of 
France, as being the rival of England. The 
power which possesses the strongest naval force, 
will necessarily have a predominant influence 
in the Portuguese government, because the ul- 
tra-marine possessions of Portugal, those prin- 
cipal sources of its support, are open to inva- 
sion ; while neither its navy or its army can 
administer a sufficient strength to defend them 
against an enemy who has a superior marine. 

It might have been possible at a former 
period, by engaging Portugal in the family 
compact, to have rendered a great service 
to all the southern part of Europe ; but the 


decay of the French navy, and the growing 
strength of the English, their numerous ships 
of war, the efficacious succour they have so long 
afforded to the Portuguese, the ancient and in- 
timate union of the courts of Lisbon and Lon- 
don, the confederation of the courts of Ver- 
sailles and Madrid against England, have de- 
cided the Portuguese to join the party to which 
their interest directed them, independant of 
that fear which is the principle of their alli- 
ance with the English, of whom they may be 
rather said to be subjects than the allies. Be- 
sides, they have never been suffered to remain 
neutral ; they have been attacked and exaspe- 
rated ; and the disgraceful campaign of 1762, 
has completed the alienation of their minds 
from, and added insurmountable obstacles to 
an alliance with France ; of which the unfor- 
tunate war in 1757, had already destroyed all 
possibility. If, however, jn a future war the 
French arms should be more succesful, the Por- 
tuguese might be detached from their alliance 
with England ; and being forced, in the first 
instance, to observe a neutrality, they might 
be led on to engage in a confederation against 
that same power which keeps them in subjec- 
tion. It belongs to France to break in pieces 


the fetters of Portugal, not by negotiations, 
but by the superiority of its arms. 

A good understanding between Portugal, 
Spain, and France is now become a subject 
of conjecture : nay, there are those who 
pretend to foresee an alliance which will de- 
stroy the seeds of war. I will suppose such 
an event, and examine its consequences. The 
Portuguese would, it is true, always enjoy a 
partial state of neutrality ; but it would be 
better surely to have them for declared ene- 
mies, because a war with them would always 
prove the means of revenge against England, 
by causing a considerable diversion of its 
power ; while a simple peace with Portugal 
would secure the English commerce at Lisbon 
and Oporto, and deprive Spain of the indem- 
nities which the war might procure it. In 
short, Portugal must be forced into a complete 
alliance, or to open war. It must be brought 
into the situation, to choose decidedly between 
France and England. Here is the great dif- 
ficulty. But can it be supposed that the court 
of Lisbon will abandon the alliance of Eng- 
land, who sustains it, who holds all its facto- 
ries, is at the head of its companies ; on whom 
it depends to escort the Brasil fleets, or to cap- 


ture them, to protect their colonies, or to ruin 
them, to furnish subsistence to Lisbon, or to 
expose it to famine in blocking up its harbour; 
who holds the government in its hand from 
fear, and the nation from interest ? What an 
advantage would Portugal derive from an alli- 
ance with France and Spain, who could enable. 
her to repair her losses, and would prevent her 

It is probable, however, that two reasons may 
influence Count d'Oeyras to direct his nego- 
tiations and political sagacity in favour of the 
enemies of England, ist. His great age, and 
his aversion to military men, must naturally 
produce a wish to terminate in peace his admi- 
nistration and his life, and to amuse the two 
courts with whom he treats, with the appear- 
ance of good-will. 2d. The widowhood of 
the young emperor which renews the preten- 
sions of Portugal, and the re-union of the two 
courts which may prove a bar to the views of 
that of Lisbon, respecting the marriage of the 
young Infanta. Such are the real motives of 
the apparent good-will of the Count d'Oeyras, 
of the good understanding which reigns, and 
the negotiations which may be proceeding be- 
tween the three courts. 


I do not hesitate to offer my concluding 
opinion, that force alone can break those trea- 
ties which have been cemented by force, and 
that the enmity or the friendship of Portugal, 
depends on the success of a future war. Then 
the Gordian knot must be cut, that cannot be 



I CANNOT better finish this description of 
Portugal, than by giving a portrait of this great 
Minister, who is the creator of it ; in whose 
hands it has recovered its strength, and been 
restored to that state of good order which it 
now enjoys. It is an homage which is due to 
agreatman, whom his enemies have blackened, 
and whom the Spaniards, either from pride or 
ignorance, do not esteem as he deserves. 

Portugal is indebted for its present strength 
and prosperous condition, to the Count d'Oey- 
ras. He has extricated his country from that 
state of barbarism, ignorance, and brutality in- 
to which it had fallen, and availed himself of 
the alliance with England, to polish its people, 
to strengthen its government, and to render 
the kingdom respectable. 

His life is a tissue of extraordinary adven- 

tures, which prove the superiority of his ge- 

nius, and that he was formed to govern. - 

Sebastian Joseph Carvalho was born in 1669. 



of a noble family of Coimbra. He was edu- 
cated in the university of that place, where he 
made great progress in his studies, and distin- 
guished himself by his genius. But being in- 
fluenced by his passions, and instigated by an 
irresistible vivacity of temper, he determined 
upon the profession of arms, and he entered, at 
a very early age, into a corps of twenty-four 
archers of the palace guard, in the reign of 
John V. He there distinguished himself by 
his talents and courage ; but as neither the one 
or the other would submit to discipline, he 
committed a variety of follies, and was dis- 
charged from that corps. At this period the 
infant Don Antonio, brother of King John V. 
a man of a cruel and ferocious character, took 
great delight in nocturnal combats. The 
streets of Lisbon were, every night, infested 
by bands of armed men in search of adventures. 
The prince, who was the chief cause of all 
these disorders, frequented the streets at the 
head of a band of gentlemen, for the pleasure 
of attacking and insulting the passengers. 
These armed bands were called Ranchos. A 
savage emulation possessed all the higher nobi- 
lity. The Duke de Cadaval, the Marquises of 
Marialva and Cascaes, the Aveiras and the 


Obidos had each their Rancho. The ren- 
counters of these illustrious banditti were every 
night signalized by wounds and murders, and 
produced a kind of civil war in the capital, 
and under the eye of the king. Foreigners 
formed themselves into leagues offensive and 
defensive; and under this pretence, sailors came 
ashore in bodies, attacked the bravos of Lis- 
bon, and robbed them when they were strong 
enough to effect their purpose. 

Carvalho, distinguished for a fine and al- 
most gigantic figure, an uncommon strength, 
an invincible courage, and handsome counte- 
nance, and superior understanding, determined 
to take the lead of all the bravos of his time. 
He accordingly associated himself with another 
young man like himself. They wore white 
hats and shoes, in order that they might be 
known in the obscurity of the night, and made 
a practice of attacking by themselves all these 
Ranches, whom they often put to flight, but 
not' without great hazard and frequent wounds. 
To these efforts of rash precipitate valour, the 
two champions joined the gallantry of chival- 
ry. Carvalho having captivated the heart 
of a young lady of the illustrious house of 
Aveiro, bore her off, and married her in spite 



of her family ; who, considering such an alli- 
ance as disgraceful to them, employed all their 
power to prevent it. Carvalho, for some time 
resisted all the opposing efforts of that family, 
escaped from all the ambuscades which they 
had prepared for him, and braved their poi- 
son and their daggers. The Friar Gaspard, 
who was his relation, alarmed at the fate 
which threatened him, and foreseeing what he 
might one day be, sent him to Vienna, as se- 
cretary to the embassy. It was in this em- 
ployment that the talents of Carvalho un- 
folded themselves. In this interval, he was 
informed of the death of his wife, who was 
suspected of having been poisoned by her fa- 
mily. Being thus freed from such a danger- 
ous connection, he had the good fortune to 
please a lady, who was a relation of the famous 
Count Daun ; but he experienced great diffi- 
culty in obtaining her in marriage. The Por- 
tuguese ambassador, however, who was the 
Marquis de Tancos, encouraged his passion, 
and to remove every obstacle to the attain- 
ment of its object, procured the appointment 
of Carvalho to succeed him in the embassy. 
In this advancement, the marriage to which 
he aspired found no further obstruction, and 


was immediately solemnized. He now began 
to fulfil the hopes which had been formed of 
him ; his dispatches gained the admiration of 
the council, who discerned in them that supe- 
rior political sagacity, - that precision and ac- 
curacy, which he has since displayed in all the 
concerns of his administration. 

On the death of John V. he was recalled to 
Portugal, and placed in the council, of which 
he soon became the oracle and the master. 
Don Diego de Mendoca his predecessor was 
banished, and Carvalho possessed himself of 
the reins of government ; nor has there ever 
been a more stormy or more glorious admi- 
nistration than his. He found himself sur- 
rounded by enemies ; above all, by the Aveiros, 
whose destruction he completed about two 
years since, by imprisoning the last of that fa- 
mily at his return from the vice-royalty of 
the Indies. All the first rank of nobility, who 
were full of indignation at seeing the supreme 
power in the hands of a man only of the se- 
cond order, formed a league against him. It 
required all his courage to overcome the dan- 
gers that surrounded him, as well from the 
malignity of his enemies, as from the extraor- 
dinary events of his period. But the greater 
N 3 


the peril, the more the greatness of his mind 
discovered itself. In all the storms and tem- 
pests which he encountered, he never let go 
the chain of those designs which he had pro- 
jected for the good of the state. His universal 
genius embraced all its departments, attacked 
every abuse, remedied every evil, tore up every 
bad root, and planted better. Notwithstand- 
ing all the attacks of his enemies, their false- 
hoods and their calumnies, he must be consi- 
dered as the restorer of Portugal, which was in 
extreme danger in 1766, when it was expect- 
ed he would not survive the illness that afflict- 
ed him, but from which he recovered. The 
king and every good citizen was in a state of 
real consternation. The most malignant ha- 
tred, or a blind prejudice, could alone be insen- 
sible to the menaced calamity. To good order, 
and a plan of government founded in wisdom, 
anarchy would have succeeded. Portugal, 
which under his administration had advanced 
at least half a century, would, on his death, 
have fallen back to an equal distance. All the 
various departments of government were now 
institutions established by him, and would have 
fallen with him. Unfortunately for Portugal, 
the Count d'Oeyras is already far advanced in 


years, and his plans will be ill executed by a 
successor, even if he should possess the inte- 
grity and the understanding to follow them; 
and it will require at least twenty-five years 
of the same vigorous efforts, to produce the 
fruits of his important labours. 

This Minister has a passion for writing on 
abstruse subjects, andbordersa little on pedan- 
try. He has personally attacked the Jesuits 
with his pen, and almost all the various literary 
works which have appeared within these ten 
years in Portugal, upon Agriculture, upon the 
Jesuits, on the College of Nobles, on the Non- 
infallibility of the Pope, are of his writing. 
It is impossible but the public business must 
have suffered, from the time he employed in 
these trifles, especially at his advanced age. 

The Count d'Oeyras is very tall, and pos- 
sesses a very imposing countenance; he is very 
witty, and has a storehouse of knowledge. 
His politeness to foreigners, his amiable de- 
meanour in society, his unalterable resolution, 
his profound knowledge of politics, his florid 
eloquence, and his extensive information, may 
justify the comparing him to Cardinal Riche- 
lieu. There is indeed a very striking coinci- 
dence in the characters and circumstances of 


these eminent Ministers. Both of them rose 
from moderate birth and small fortune to the 
highest honours. Both of them employed ter- 
ror as the engine of their government, es- 
tablished the royal authority by cutting oft" 
heads, and humbling an insolent nobility. Both 
of them were ridiculously fond of passing 
for wits, and men of universal knowledge ; 
both of them were great politicians, imperious 
masters, irreconcileable enemies, and amiable 
in society. Both of them attained their splen- 
did elevation by noble means, without pay- 
ing their court to Fortune, and both acquired 
immense riches. 

The Count d'Oeyras, as well as the Cardi- 
nal, is an honour to his nation, as well as the 
support of it; and from whence he receives the 
return of hatred and ingratitude; against which 
he employs, after the example of Richelieu, 
that resolution and severity which place him 
above all fear. He found abuse deeply rooted 
in every department of the state ; and he pu- 
nished without fearing insurrection ; he has 
overthrown the great, and made the brave 
tremble. He laboured without ceasing, and 
with an indefatigable zeal, to render his 
country, by the means of commerce, popu- 


lation, and agriculture, independent of Eng- 

He enjoyed great riches, but they were ac- 
quired with honour. His wealth is so im- 
mense, that he did not escape the imputation of 
avarice, from which, perhaps, it is not altoge- 
ther possible to exculpate him, as his expences 
were by no means equal to his fortune and 
his rank. For his personal security, he is al- 
ways attended by a troop of forty guards, well 
mounted and armed, which caused an outcry 
against him, as it appeared extraordinary to 
see the Minister surrounded by soldiers with 
their drawn swords, while the King often goes 
about Lisbon without any guards at all. There 
are, indeed, no regiments specially appointed 
to attend his Majesty ; but when it is neces- 
sary for him to have a military escort, it is 
formed from the cavalry regiments. This 
precaution of the Minister, though uncommon, 
is absolutely necessary in the midst of a nation 
who are ignorant, superstitious, and mutinous ; 
and whose nobles have always been the prin- 
cipal enemies of the state, are rendered still 
more dangerous by their cowardly character. 

The Minister had by his second wife two 
sons and two daughters, who resemble him in 


nothing; and, surprising as it may appear, 
whose education was entirely neglected. The 
reputation and splendid character of Count 
d'Oeyras, will not be establ'she till after his 
death ; it will then be complete, and he will 
be regretted as he ought; herause it will be dif- 
ficult to fill his place with a successor equal to 
himself. Merit is neither hereditary nor suc- 
cessive, nor is it attached to the office of a mi- 
nister : on the contrary, its too frequent sepa- 
ration from thence, may be ranked among the 
calamities of human nature. 


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