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he sent for his most intimate friend, indicated to him his short testamentary dispositions, and begged him to end his sufferings by a musket ball. The friend carefully examined the wounded man; then if he was of the same opinion, they embraced, shook hands, and a musket or a pistol shot brought quickly about the dénoument of the drama. This was sad; it may be pronounced barbarous ; but what is to be said? There were no means of doing otherwise.

Rossetti, who by chance was at Camacua with the rest of our companions, to his great regret was not able to join us. Some were obliged, being pursued and without arms, to swim across the river; others plunged into the forests; one only was discovered and killed.

This fight, so dangerous, but which had such a happy issue, gave enormous confidence to our men and to the inhabitants of that coast, so long exposed to the depredations of an adventurous, enterprising enemy. Moringue was, besides, the best leader of the Imperialist expeditions. He was particularly skilful at these sorts of surprises, and I must say he had conducted this with so much art as would certainly have obtained for him the name of the Polecat, if he had not already received it. Born in the country, of which he had, as I have said, a perfect knowledge, endowed with cunning and intrepidity enough to bear him through all trials, he did great injury to the Republican cause, and the Empire of Brazil, owes to him beyond doubt the better part in the submission of that courageous province.

We, however, celebrated our victory. Donna Antonia gave us a fête at her estancia, situated at a distance of about twelve miles from the galpon in which we had sustained the fight. It was at this fête that I learnt that a beautiful young girl, on hearing of my danger, had turned pale and anxiously inquired after my life and health; a victory more sweet to my heart than the sanguinary triumph we had obtained. Oh ! beautiful daughter of the American Continent! I was proud and happy to belong to thee, in whatever manner

it might be, even in thought. Thou wast destined, and thou wast forced to belong to another; and fate reserved for me that other Brazilian flower which I still weep for, and for which I shall weep while I live. Sweet mother of my sons! I knew her not in the midst of victory, but in adversity and shipwreck, and -much more than my youth, my face, or my meritmy misfortunes bound me to her for life. Anita ! beloved Anita!

CHAPTER XX.

THE EXPEDITION TO ST. CATHERINE.

VERY little-nothing, indeed, of importance-happened upon the lagune of los Patos after this adventure. We set about building two new lancions. The first elements were found in our previous capture; as to putting them together, that was not only our affair, but also that of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who assisted us bravely. The two new vessels being finished and armed, we were summoned to join the Republican army, which was then besieging PortoAllegro, the capital of the province. The army did nothing, neither could we do anything, during the time we passed upon that part of the lake.

This siege was, nevertheless, directed by Bente Manoel, to whom everybody by good right accorded great credit as a soldier, a general, and an organizer. He was the same man who afterwards betrayed the Republicans, and passed over to the Imperialists.

The expedition of St. Catherine was resolved upon; I was summoned to form a part of it, and placed under the orders of General Canavarro. Only there was one difficulty, which was, that we could not leave the lake, the mouth of it being guarded by the Imperialists. In fact, upon the southern shore was the fortified city of Rio-Grande of the south, and upon the northern shore San Jose of the north, a smaller city, but fortified also.

Now these two places, as well as Porto-Allegro, were still in the hands of the Imperialists, and made them masters of the entrance and issue of the lake. It is true they only possessed these three places, but that was quite enough.

With such men as I commanded, however, nothing was impossible. I proposed to leave the two smaller lancions in the lake, under the command of a very good sailor, named Zefferino d'Ulra; whilst I, with the two others, having under my orders Griggs, and the most daring of our adventurers, would accompany the expedition, operating by sea whilst General Canavarro would operate by land.

It was a capital plan, only the question was to put it in execution. I proposed to construct two carriages, large enough and strong enough to have each placed upon it one of our lancions, and to harness to these carriages a sufficient number of horses and oxen to draw them. My proposal was adopted, and I was charged with the carrying of it out. After mature consideration I introduced the following modifications: I caused to be made by a skilful wheelwright, named Abren, eight enormous wheels, of strength equal to all that could be required, particularly in their naves. At one of the extremities of the lake—that opposite to Rio-Grande of the south, which is to say, to the north-east—there is, at the bottom of a ravine, a little rivulet which flows from the lagune of los Patos into the lake Tramandai, upon which our object was to transport our two lancions. I caused one of our carriages to be drawn down into this ravine, immerging it as much as possible. Then in the same manner that we transported our lancions over the sand-banks, we raised one of the lancions till it lay upon the double axletree. A hundred domestic oxen, harnessed to the beams by the strongest ropes, were urged to start with a grand pull at once, and I saw with a satisfaction I cannot describe, our largest vessel carried off like an ordinary bale of goods. The second carriage was

brought down as the first had been, and, like the first, moved off as we wished.

Then the inhabitants enjoyed a curious and uncommon spectacle, that of two vessels traversing in carriages, and drawn by two hundred oxen, a space of fifty-four miles; that is to say, eighteen leagues, and that without the least difficulty or the smallest accident. When arrived on the shore of the lake Tramandaï, the lancions were again placed in the water in the same manner as they had been embarked; there the little repairs necessitated by the journey were effected, but they were so trifling that at the end of three days they were fit for navigating.

Lake Tramandaï is formed by flowing waters, taking their source from the eastern declivity of the chain of the mountains do Espinasso; it opens into the Atlantic, but it is so shallow that in the greatest tides only is it four or five feet deep. Let me add, that upon this coast, open on all sides, the sea is scarcely ever calm, but on the contrary is generally stormy. The noise of the breakers which border the coast, and which sailors call horses, on account of the foam which they make fly around them, is heard for several miles inland, and is often taken for the roaring of thunder.

CHAPTER XXI.

DEPARTURE AND SHIPWRECK.

PREPARED at length for setting out, we waited for the hour of high tide, and then ventured forth, about four o'clock in the afternoon. In this circumstance, we had to congratulate ourselves upon the long practice we had had of navigating amidst breakers; and notwithstanding this practice, I cannot at this day tell by what daring, rather than skilful manoeuvres, we succeeded in getting our two vessels out, although we had, as I have just said, chosen the moment of the height of the tide;

we wanted depth everywhere, and it was not till nightfall that our efforts succeeded, and we cast anchor in the ocean outside of those furious breakers, whose rage seemed to augment at seeing we had escaped them.

Let me note it here, that never before ours, had any vessel been known to go out of the lake of Tramandaï.

Towards eight o'clock in the evening, we weighed anchor and commenced our course. The next day, at three in the afternoon, we were wrecked at the mouth of the Aseringua, a river which takes it rise in the Sierra do Espinasso, and which falls into the sea in the province of St. Catherine, between the Torevas and Santa-Maria.

Out of a crew of thirty men, sixteen were drowned. Let me describe how this terrible catastrophe was brought about.

From the evening, indeed from the moment of our departure, the wind from the south had threatened, heaping up clouds, and blowing with violence. We ran along parallel with the coast, the Rio Pardo having, as I have said, thirty men on board, a twelvepounder piece upon her pivot, a number of chests, with a multitude of objects of all kinds, taken by way of precaution, not knowing how long we should keep the sea, what shore we should touch on, and what condition we should be in when we did touch that shore and directing our course towards an enemy's country.

The vessel, then, was overladen, so that it was often entirely covered by the waves, which every minute inereased with the wind, and sometimes threatened to engulf us. I determined, therefore, to approach the shore, and, if possible, to land upon a part of the beach which appeared to me accessible; but the sea, which continued to run higher, did not allow us to choose the position which suited us; we were struck by a terrible wave, which threw us over completely on one side. was at the moment at the top of the foremast, whence I

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