In the meantime, the Courts were hearing various reports on the prince’s stance. For the first time, they sent a more conciliatory missive: it behoved them to tighten the reins, not to sever them. Nonetheless, the atmosphere was one of tension. Soon the temperature rose again: the Portuguese, in their fury over Dom Pedro’s attitude, referred to José Bonifácio and his Cabinet colleagues – whom they believed were influencing the prince – as ‘depraved thieves’. Events now developed quickly. By February 1822 the Southern Region of Brazil had formed a single political bloc, with the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santa Catarina and even Minas Gerais agreeing to the plan for independence with the Prince Regent as its head. José Bonifácio believed the only way to avoid separatism, or even more liberal popular revolutions, was to centre the movement around a monarch; and his opinion was gaining ground. Independence was in the air. Despite the provinces’ significantly conflicting interests, in theory they were united around the idea of independence.
There was no less tension at the Courts in Portugal. The proposals put forth by the Brazilian deputies were constantly blocked. As one of the deputies wrote in a letter to the Correio do Rio de Janeiro: ‘The rivalry has turned to hatred, not only between the Portuguese and the Brazilian deputies but also among the people.’42 Several Brazilian deputies would neither swear by nor sign the Portuguese Constitution. When it became increasingly clear their goals had been thwarted, some of them fled surreptitiously to London.43 Among those who left were Diogo Antônio Feijó,44 José da Costa Aguiar de Andrada and Antônio Manoel da Silva Bueno – all from São Paulo – and the deputies Cipriano Barata, Francisco Agostinho Gomes and José Lino Coutinho, all from Bahia.45
Meanwhile back in Brazil, Dom Pedro, with his tendency to romanticize, was drawing closer to the Masons. They had been a major influence behind his famous ‘I’ll stay’ moment. And they became even more important when, on 13 May 1822, during King João VI’s birthday celebrations, Dom Pedro received the title of ‘constant defender of Brazil’ from none other than José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, the Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge of Brazil. There were, however, other important members of the Lodge who disagreed with José Bonifácio’s stance. Although he was opposed to slavery, José Bonifácio did not conceal his conservative political position on independence: he defended greater autonomy but was against any kind of radical separation from Portugal.
Within Masonry itself opinions were divided between the most conservative groups, who wanted a constitutional monarchy with limited representation, and the more radical groups, who envisaged a republic with popular political rights. Nowhere was this division more evident than in the discussion about whether or not to elect a Constituent Assembly in Brazil. José Bonifácio and his group were against the convocation, whereas Gonçalves Ledo (part of the most radical faction) and Martim Francisco (José Bonifácio’s youngest brother), among others, were in favour. The radical factions came up with a petition demanding the convocation of a Representative General Assembly. The document, which had more than six thousand signatures, was delivered to Dom Pedro in May 1822.46 In response to this pressure, Dom Pedro summoned a Constituent Assembly on 3 June. After all, while Brazilian voices were stifled at the Courts of Lisbon, the country had no representation, no legitimate administration and, gravest of all, no protection against recolonization. Leaders like Gonçalves Ledo and Januário da Cunha Barbosa reacted with inflammatory speeches, and newspapers poured fuel on the fire with their ardent campaign against the Courts. Although Gonçalves Ledo wanted direct elections, whereas less radical groups wanted indirect elections, the urgency to find a solution brought the two sides together.47
This was the situation when the Brazilian Constituent Assembly was convocated on 3 June. The final text was the work of José Bonifácio, but most of the ideas were those of Gonçalves Ledo. The central theme, which had been included in Dom Pedro’s proclamation of the previous day, was ‘independence moderated by national union’. The decree also established the criteria for the election of deputies: Minas Gerais would have twenty representatives; Mato Grosso, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí and Rio de Janeiro would have one each; São Paulo would be represented by nine; and Bahia and Pernambuco by thirteen.48 An additional act, signed by the Prince Regent on 4 May 1822, required that all laws, orders and resolutions, which continued to flow from the Portuguese Courts, be approved by the Brazilian Cabinet. Once again, the legislation was in reaction to the increasing hostility from Lisbon. Each and every ship brought disastrous news: the formation of new army regiments, the creation of a special council to oversee Brazil, the revocation of Dom Pedro’s title of ‘defender’, and the refusal to allow the Kingdom of Brazil to be either united or independent.
Following his investiture, Dom Pedro was invited to become a member of the Masonic Lodge, where he was given the name Guatimozim (‘initiate into the mysteries’) and immediately elevated to the position of Grandmaster of the Lodge of Brazil. The rituals of Masonry appealed to the imagination of the young Prince Regent who, in the atmosphere of secrecy, allied himself with the more conservative sectors of the group. At the same time, with his wilful nature, he increasingly rebelled against the instructions from the Courts whose members, still unaware of his power in Brazil, continued to provoke him, referring to him as that ‘youngster’ or ‘miserable wretch’.
A litigious divorce had became inevitable. The separation was finally declared in the manifesto of 1 August 1822 drawn up by Gonçalves Ledo, but attributed to Dom Pedro: ‘Brazilians! It is time to stop deceiving the people […] The southern provinces of Brazil, now united, will take the majestic stance of a people that recognizes its right to freedom and happiness, a people that now turns to me, your friend and the Son of your King …’49 By way of Gonçalves Ledo’s quill, Dom Pedro was seemingly the narrator, and took strength in his own actions, in the certainty they had been provoked by ‘the villainy of the Portuguese’.
By this time, the liberal faction led by Gonçalves Ledo had suffered a significant setback, which weakened their position. On 19 June their motion for direct elections to the Constituent Assembly had been defeated. Brazilian independence, born of the country’s refusal to accept further interference from the Portuguese Courts, represented a victory for José Bonifácio and his supporters – conservative, monarchist and only mildly constitutionalist. The conservative group had absorbed Gonçalves Ledo’s Brazilian party. By this time José Bonifácio’s, Masonic adherents, rural property owners and wealthy merchants controlled the workings of the government.50 Another manifesto, issued on 6 August, was also José Bonifácio’s work.51 Despite proclaiming, ‘If the monarchy goes, Brazil is lost’, the document was largely antagonistic towards Portugal. That same month the Prince Regent declared all Portuguese troops enemies; and provincial governors in Brazil were ordered not to allow officials appointed by the Courts in Lisbon to take office. A new surge of decrees made it clear the colony had become autonomous. All that was lacking was the formal ceremony.
‘FROM THE PLACID MARGINS OF THE IPIRANGA’52
The consecration finally took place in São Paulo. Not even the Andradas – José Bonifácio and his brothers, so often accused of favouring their home province – could have dreamt of such an outcome. After visiting the provinces of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais to resolve local conflicts, Dom Pedro left for São Paulo on 14 August 1822, accompanied by a small group of close advisers: Luís de Saldanha da Gama (later the Marquis of Taubaté), his principal official, valet and political secretary; Francisco de Castro Canto e Melo, Gentleman of the Imperial Chamber, and brother of the future Marquesa de Santos, a favourite of the Prince Regent;53 Francisco Gomes da Silva (nicknamed Chalaça), his companion, secretary and – according to gossip – the man who orchestrated the comings and goings of the royal bedchamber; João Carlota, a personal servant; and João Carvalho, Gentleman of the Wardrobe, equerry and Superintendent of the Royal Gardens. The group was later joined by Lieutenant-C
olonel Joaquim Aranha Barreto de Camargo and the priest Belchior Pinheiro de Oliveira, the prince’s confidant and mentor. In Rio de Janeiro, Princess Leopoldina was appointed regent, responsible for presiding over the Council of Ministers and for giving public audiences in place of her husband – accompanied by the head of the Cabinet, José Bonifácio.
The small party took their time, ten days to cover the 470 kilometres between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. They spent the nights in farms, in Areias, Lorena, Taubaté and Águas Brancas, where they received support but also heard criticism from opponents of the Andrada brothers. Before they reached São Paulo they were joined by the Honour Guard, wearing dragoons’ helmets and boots à l’écuyère,54 and a group of officers in the service of the prince. They entered São Paulo on 25 August 1822. At the time the small city, of no more than 6,920 residents, was made up of narrow, curving streets. On 1 September the prince left São Paulo for Santos, from where he was only to depart on the fateful morning of 7 September.
Dom Pedro’s objective in São Paulo was to resolve the conflicts that had erupted during the uprising known as Francisco Inácio’s bernarda. The origin of the term came from St Bernard and the alleged ignorance with which the Benedictine monks had reacted to his reforms. The term had become synonymous with ‘stupidity’, as used by Tomás Antonio Vilanova Portugal to describe the 1820 constitutional revolution of Porto. His use of the word bernarda was widely commented on in newspapers, and was eventually employed colloquially as a synonym for ‘mutiny’ and ‘popular uprising’. The ins and outs of the terminology do not matter; what is important is that the Prince Regent interpreted Francisco Inácio’s bernarda revolt against the power of the Andrada family as a personal affront, to which he reacted by appointing José Bonifácio’s brother, Martim Francisco, as his Finance Minister. He decided to visit São Paulo in person to make his support of the Andrada brothers clear.
Dom Pedro’s journey to Santos had political motives; but there was nothing to prevent him, while he was there, from breaking the sixth commandment. His fame as a seducer preceded him, and it was said he was never without an attractive, willing female companion, whether from the nobility, the court, or among his slaves. One famous case occurred in Santos, when the prince saw an enslaved girl who was so beautiful he insisted on acquiring her then and there. But the most notorious case, which was to eclipse all the other gossip associated with Brazil’s independence, was yet to take place. It involved Domitila de Castro Canto e Melo, the daughter of Colonel João de Castro Canto e Melo and his wife Escolástica de Oliveira Toledo Ribas.
Domitila had been born in São Paulo and was almost a year older than Dom Pedro. She was a mature woman, graced with a great deal of beauty – and was suffering both from an unhappy marriage and, in her own words, ‘the limitations of provincial life’. Although she may not have been a good mother to her children, whose father she judged to be inferior, it would be a mistake to rush to judgement: Domitila herself could never have imagined the role she was to play during that trip. On the contrary, at the time she was having difficulties with her husband, who had accused her of adultery and thus claimed the guardianship of their three children. It is not known whether she planned to request Dom Pedro’s intervention through her brother, a member of his inner circle, or whether their meeting was a matter of chance. Little does it matter. The story circulating in the 1820s was that Dom Pedro was returning from a distant neighbourhood of Santos when he passed a beautiful woman in a litter carried by two slaves. The prince dismounted gallantly to greet the stranger, praising her beauty.
After this brief exchange, he lifted the litter. ‘How strong you are, your Majesty!’ she is said to have murmured, to which he replied, ‘Never again shall you be attended by little negroes like these.’55 Although the tale may well have been embellished over time – despite the prince’s terrible choice of words – their meeting does seem to have been by chance. To this day, though, it is still unknown what exactly Domitila’s brother – Francisco de Castro Canto e Melo – did in the prince’s entourage. Whether this meeting was due to a brother’s intervention, to destiny or to a premeditated encounter, it is impossible to know. What is known is that their meeting marked the beginning of the most famous love story in Brazilian history. The affair relied on the complicity of Domitila’s entire family: her brother, her father, her uncles and her cousins, all of whom received privileges, honours and distinctions from the emperor. The date of the meeting was probably between 29 and 31 August 1822. From that time on the relationship between the two was only to grow closer.
At any rate, it was time for Dom Pedro to get back to Rio de Janeiro. The return attracted very little attention, mainly because the Prince Regent’s special guard of thirty young soldiers had been dismissed; his visit had become increasingly unofficial. By this time the decision to separate from Portugal had already been made; only the formal announcement was yet to come. As soon as the prince had left Rio de Janeiro, on 14 August, José Bonifácio issued a circular to the diplomatic corps in which he declared the emancipation of Brazil.
All that remained was to catapult Dom Pedro to centre stage. The occasion arose soon enough: on 28 August the brig Três Corações arrived in Rio de Janeiro bringing the customary bad news from Lisbon: the Courts ordered the immediate return of the prince, revoked a number of measures they considered privileges, and accused Dom Pedro’s ministers of treason.
José Bonifácio summoned the Council of Ministers in Rio de Janeiro and they came to a swift decision: the time had come. The urgency was such that José Bonifácio requested the courier, Paulo Bregaro, to gather as many horses as he required. The messengers, however, found the prince in circumstances less than noble. He had climbed the mountains to Cubatão, the town at the top of the Serra do Mar separating Santos from São Paulo, on a ragged nag and wearing a plain military uniform. To make matters worse, on that morning of 7 September, Dom Pedro was in a sorry state, which, although not serious, was undoubtedly uncomfortable. Perhaps from a change in diet or possibly from impure drinking water, the prince had woken with an upset stomach. So it was that, from time to time, suffering severe cramps, he had to absent himself from the travelling party, causing the march to come to a halt. One of his companions on the journey, Colonel Manuel Marcondes de Oliveira Melo, euphemistically described the situation by saying the prince was frequently obliged to dismount so that he could ‘attend to himself’.56 It was hardly the time for a grandiose statement, but it was the moment destiny had chosen.
As soon as the first messengers arrived at the village of Moinhos, Francisco de Castro Canto e Melo informed Dom Pedro of the news from Portugal. Later, Domitila’s brother was to write a glorified version of the events of 7 September, giving great importance to the roles played both by himself and by the prince.57 True to his tempestuous personality, Dom Pedro immediately galloped off enthusiastically towards São Paulo. But José Bonifácio’s messengers met him halfway at ‘the top of a hill near the Ipiranga stream’.58 At the crest of this slope, with the small town of São Paulo seen in the distance, at about four o’clock in the afternoon, Dom Pedro received the correspondence from Major Antônio Ramos Cordeiro.
There were several letters: administrative acts from the Courts, letters from José Bonifácio, Antônio Carlos and Princess Leopoldina (one dated 28 August, the other 29 August). After reading the correspondence, Dom Pedro informed his exhausted entourage that the Portuguese Courts were planning to ‘massacre’ Brazil. He read aloud the documents that demanded he dissolve his ministry and convoke a new council. The most emphatic letter was from José Bonifácio: ‘May your Majesty decide as soon as possible, because lack of resolution and mere warm measures […] will serve for nothing and a moment lost could bring catastrophe.’59 Along with the letters it was rumoured that Dom Pedro had been replaced as heir to the throne of Portugal by his brother Dom Miguel. So he took action: independence was declared.
That is the version of the story commonly narrated in history
books, but it is high time to rewrite those somewhat theatrical events. At half past four in the afternoon, mounted on his horse, overcome with intermittent attacks of diarrhoea and exhausted from the journey, Dom Pedro made the formal declaration of what was already a reality. He tore the blue and white ribbon (the constitutional colours of Portugal) from his hat, threw it on the ground, and drawing his sword shouted loudly and clearly: ‘The time has come!… Independence or death! […] We have separated from Portugal …’ According to Canto e Melo, all those present then swore ‘an oath of honour binding them to fulfil the grandiose idea of freedom’.60 Years later Domitila’s brother created an imaginative account, saying it was thronged with people, despite the fact that it is known to have taken place in an isolated, secluded spot.
There is yet another version told by the prince’s good friend, the priest Belchior Pinheiro, who claimed to have read the letters aloud to Dom Pedro, who in turn trembled with rage, tore the letters from the priest’s hand and stomped on them. Then, on the priest’s advice, Dom Pedro supposedly composed himself and, buttoning up his uniform, asked him, ‘What now, Father Belchior?’ To which the priest replied: ‘If your Majesty doesn’t make himself King of Brazil, he will be taken prisoner by the Courts and probably be disinherited. There is no other path except for independence and separation.’ According to Father Belchior the prince then said: ‘If this is what they want, this is what they’ll get. The Courts are persecuting me, they refer to me with contempt as a wretched boy and a Brazilian … Well, they will see what this wretched boy can do.’ And he continued: ‘Friends, the Courts […] wish to enslave and persecute us. From today on our relations are terminated. There are no longer any ties between us!’ He then allegedly shouted ‘Long live the independence and separation of Brazil’, and concluded: ‘By my blood, by my honour, by my God, I swear to make Brazil free.’
Brazil Page 32