The English war ship HMS Cormorant was arresting three sailing boats when was advised to stop by blank shots, the answer was the most important sea fight in Brazilian South. Novel on heroic event happened in Paranagua Bay.

1. The Astro Schooner
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2. Egberto F. Ribeiro
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3. The Astro Schooner
by Egberto Fioravanti Ribeiro
THE ASTRO SCHOONER
©2004 – 2009 Egberto F. Ribeiro
1st Edition
Curitiba – 2009
Author – Publisher
ISBN 978-85-906811-3-7
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4. Egberto F. Ribeiro
International Data in the Publishing Cataloger.
Responsible Librarian: Mara Rejane Vicente Teixeira.
Parana Public Library - Curitiba - Pr - Brazil.
Ribeiro, Egberto Fioravanti.
The Astro Schooner / Egberto Fioravanti Ribeiro.
Curitiba: E. F. Ribeiro, 2007 – 245 pages. ; 21 cm.
Includes bibliography. 1. Brazilian Literature.
Parana.
2. Movie Screenplay. 3. Book. I. Title.
CDD ( 21º edition) B869.35
Search, Text, Pictures, Typing, Translation, Reviewing, Edition, Licenses are by the author.
Register applied for Book and Screenplay, by the Brazilian National Library.
Register number 329.978. August 20, 2004 – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil.
Movie 1st Treatment: 120 minutes – 245 Pages – 280 Sequences – 1561 Dialog Takes.
The original book is written in Portuguese with the name “A Escuna Astro” and was
translated into International English and reviewed in both languages by the author.
Translated into English by the Author.
Digital Format in PDF – BrOfficeOrg
Curitiba, April 2009
© 2004 – 2009 Egberto Fioravanti Ribeiro
egfior@hotmail.com
1st Edition
2009 – Curitiba
Author – Publisher
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5. The Astro Schooner
INDEX
NUMBER CHAPTER PAGE DIALOGUE
Preface 6 TAKES
I The Roots 24 -
II The Queen of Seas 30 152
III The Sagaz Departure 52 145
IV To Put About the Ship 68 123
V English to See Ships 79 102
VI Laura 87 143
VII South Seas 102 48
VIII The Pilot 107 58
IX Birds of Prey 113 27
X The Seizures 116 102
XI Headquarter 125 62
XII The Ransom 133 86
XIII The Great Militia 143 82
XIV Sunday in Pray 152 68
XV Scuttled Schooner 162 36
XVI Artillery 166 60
XVII Effulgent Justice 179 183
XVIII Ships in Flames 207 41
XIX Funeral Service 213 29
XX The Triumph 220 14
XXI The Parana Province 224 -
XXII Epilogue 228 - TOTAL
Bibliography 231 1561
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PREFACE
The
Iberian people aggregates millenarian culture,
from distinct pre-historical inhabitants, to nations
founders of cities as the Phoenician in Cadis and
the Grecian in Rosas and Sagunto. The invasions by the barbarous Celtic
settled between the rivers D'Ouro and the Tejo. Iberia also became rich
province belonged to powerful nations, as Carthage in Hannibal's time and
Rome during Julio Cesar's Empire, when several cities were founded. After
the falling down of the Roman Empire, the peninsula was occupied by the
Visigoth until 739 AC. In this time, Iberia suffered the invasion of the Saracen
Moors, with its apogee in 929 during the Cordoba Caliphate. The province
Portucalense was in persistent battles, when in 1139 in middle of ceaseless
war against Moors and Castile's armies, flourished the Portuguese nation.
The Lusitania heroes have been sung by Camões as the ancestry
Celtiberian warriors. The spiritual feelings of the Christian Visigoth and the
Jewish capitalism dressed up Iberia with God’s armor to fight against the
Islamic warriors.
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The Islamic revelation in Yathrib was soon preached over all Arabian
nations and neighbors countries. The Islamic faith was to be spread out very
fast in few years from Mediterranean Sea to Europe and Asia. The appealing
Islamic system to share the despoil among the army, was soon accepted by all
followers. That practice had begun against the Jews in Yathrib, the city that
received the name of Medina (Prophet's City). At the end of the period of
darkness, the Koran was being recited on two thirds of Iberia. On the high of
the mosque's tower, the Sheiks convoked the followers for daily prays in the
Caliphate of Cordoba. The best lands from the South of Spain to Galizia had
been taken by the Islamic followers under power of swords, not caused by
religion, but for political power. The low acknowledge about the religion
showed a large war affair, that was much more important than to go to Mecca.
The Islamic political domain, in name of the religion caused
indignation inside the Spanish kingdom in 729AC, when the king began the
war called "The Reconquest". In 904, the King Don Afonso began to cast out
all the Saracen. The villages, castles and cities were being abandoned by the
Islamic that soon were settled by the remaining of the Christian Celtic, Jews
converted as New Christian and inhabitants from Galizia. The large victories
were much more than the losses on uncountable battles that stimulated
Europe's nations to send the first Crusades to Palestine. The Spanish troops
had pushed back the Moors from Iberia, restoring part of Don Afonso's
kingdom.
Two hundred years later, the Castile's king had given to his daughter
Dona Teresa, the Portucalense Province. Dona Teresa married the count Don
Henrique de Borgonha and they had a son, Don Afonso Henriques. The old
king died and a conflict among the heirs raised up. Just after the death of the
count Don Henrique, father of Don Afonso, the young prince decided to
become a knight to fight against the Moors.
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The Infant Don Afonso Henriques (Dom Afonso II), at 14-years-old,
assumed a Divine commitment in the Zamora's Church on the Pentecost day
of 1163 (Spanish Calendar). He dressed the knitting armor the helmet and laid
hold of the sword from his grandfather to lead the Spanish army against the
Moors Saracen. In three years of battles, he had restored the Spanish domain
from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Under the strong arms of
this Infant, Portugal was born in 1139 (1177 Spanish Calendar) fighting
against the Moors for several centuries.
(In the beginning of Rome, the foreigners people were being settled
in the region known as Lazio, at the south of the Tiber River. These people
kept a solid union in wars against the invaders and built the Roman Empire.
The conquest began two centuries and a half before Christ with the Province
of Sicilia. The several languages in Lazio were being unified in a Popular Latin,
originating the Classic Latin as political identity).
In the reconquest war by Don Afonso I, the former Roman Province
Portucalense received citizens from Galizia to be settled in the city of
Coimbra. After the death of the king Dom Afonso II, the reign was ruled by his
son Dom Sancho I. He began a new administrative structure over the Lusitania
land. The young nation adopted the notable linguistic contribution of the
Galician to edify its new political identity in Iberia. These facts are very well
observed in Portuguese grammar. The first known poetic verses are from 1189
with “A Ribeirinha” (The Little Brook Girl) by Paio Soares de Taveirós. The
nobility will incentive the Portuguese language with too many poems, as those
written by the king Dom Sancho and by the king Dom Dinis with 137 poems.
The war supplies were not only by troops, but also on international
tribunals, so the necessity of jurists and medical assistance in battles influ-
enced Dom Dinis to install the University of Coimbra in 1290. The courage and
Christian spirituality of the Celtic people built the valuable Lusitania army to
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fight against the Islamic Jihad. The commercial engagement brought by the
Jews (New Christian) consolidated Portugal as worldwide powerful nation.
The Catholic Verona Council in 1183 established “The Inquisition”.
Much more for economic causes than religious were the reason for a entire
family be executed by the Dominican Fathers; smashed under torture machine
or in bonfire executions. The Jewish people in Europe had built the new social
class: the bourgeois. They became victims of people who had taken their
money as loan. For such people, the only way to clear all debts, would be
after the deaths of all creditors. After the execution, their properties were given
to the government and church. The Portuguese kings saw advantage on that
despair and allowed their immigration as citizens, if they accepted to translate
their names and to be baptized as New Christians. The Jews non converted
and remaining Moors were subjugated by Acts and treaties in obvious discrim-
ination for their commercial power. In Brazil, the Jews descendants were
called “Marranos”. They were hated for their richness, for their friendship with
the royal family and because they didn't join to the Republican party-liner.
The Military Order of São Bento de Avis was a knighthood
organization founded at the beginning of Portugal to fight against the Muslins.
Dom John had received the knight honor from Avis and the disputed
Portuguese throne in 1385 (The Avis Dynasty). In the battles against Spain,
the Portuguese had improved the craftsmanship of cannons with the
metallurgy technical developed by the Moors Saracen (malleable steel).
The often Moors invasions over Portugal were causing heavy
damage on the maritime tax paid by ships in transit at the Lusitania coast.
Dom John and his sons succeed on a secret and large invasion over Ceuta in
1415. The Christian attack on the Islamic Africa eliminated the Muslim's dream
to become Caliphs (religious leaders) over the entire Europe.
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Supplied with papal edict and royal obsession, the infant Dom
Henrique developed the Indian Plan, to open fire against the Muslims on their
own lands. The imprisonment and death of his brother, Dom Fernando in
Tangier, made his mind to become much more defined on this purpose. The
Plan consisted to turn round the Moors to block their rearguard. It was to
impede their often escape to deserts and mountains after every battle. In
1418, the Infant Dom Pedro undertook to do a trip of ten years to Europe and
Middle East. He got maps and the book written by Ruticello telling about
Marco Polo's trip to Asia. As the invention of gun powder in China had been
brought to Europe by Polo, the book received credit of the Avis Dynasty.
Despite of in Europe, readers were considering it as a chapter of The
Thousand and One Nights or a joke. The king's Dom John family began to
believe that the prophecies by Daniel about the 5th Empire would be
accomplished by Portugal. The restoration of Israel in 1948 was by a Brazilian
in UN, son of a Portuguese family (Spider), Mr Osvaldo Aranha.
The execution of the Plan of India only would be done by ocean. It
required large maritime knowledge to set sail on unknown seas. Dom
Henrique contracted navy technician, cosmographs, cartographers and
opened the Sagres School in his own house. “The population welfare is in to
produce” (Dom Henrique).
The successive discoveries of the oceanic isles and lands at the
African coast rewarded the Portuguese Nation with 20° of territory extension.
The navigator Gil Eanes has been to the Canary islands in the trip when
discovered the Cape Bojador in 1434. From that limit began the unknown sea
with different currents of wind.
“From fixed Pole, where still does not know
which another land begins or ends the sea”
(The Lusiads 5,14).
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The Spanish Diego Garcia Herrera started to explore the Canary
Island in 1476. Spain received the Pope's support to vindicate the right “Uti
Possidetis” on the Canary Islands (the land belongs to whom lives in and
explores it). The Lusitania performance was observed by the Holy See.
Portugal became the main allied to send the gospel on new lands. The Pope
Eugene IV signed a Bull giving to Portugal as mercy, the God's lands not yet
discovered. These lands should be kept in Christian domain, while the Islamic
religion had not yet been reached by those inhabitants from such islands.
The nations didn't believe to exist anything beyond the Bojador and
Portugal received absolute rights since the Canary border to the south. For
Rome, the world belonged to God and the lands not yet discovered should be
Christian and assured the peace with the Bull Intercaetera. That divisor line
was over the parallel 27° (horizontal) that crosses the south of the Canary
island and Florida in America.
The discovery of America in the parallel 23° was by Christopher
Columbus on October 12, 1492. The coordinates shown in Europe revealed
that the New Lands were in Portuguese territory, 50 miles north of the tropic of
Cancer. That discovery took all of them to Tordesilhas for a new treaty.
The largest international agreement, without any other equivalent on
earth's face was signed in the city of Tordesilhas on June 4th,, 1494. This treaty
firmed among the Catholics kings; Fernando and Isabel from Castle and the
representatives from Portugal; Dom John and Dona Leonor. The new Meridian
would be moved from 100 to 370 leagues West from the Cabo Verde Islands.
(...that inasmuch as among the said lords their constituents, there is a certain
difference over what each one of the said parts belongs, from what until today,
day of the making of this capitulation, is to discover in the Ocean Sea...). The
Treaty of Tordesilhas.
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The terms of that agreement was extensive in space and perpetual
on time. The Tordesilhas signatories, their heirs and vassals should have to
accomplish the treaty, under penalty of ex-communion. Although, a treaty with
that magnitude had been established on unknown lands. It should be
displeased by all citizens in both nations, under war for three centuries. It
should not be acceptable for those who even didn't imagine what was going
on. By this way, the treaty could not be perfect and suffered some alterations.
The causes of the conflict that began in 1470 only ended after several
agreements. The main conciliation finished the 5 years war, after the definitive
resignation of the Portuguese king pretension to rule over Castle.
(The king Dom Afonso V of Portugal had a marriage not
accomplished with his niece Joana of Castle, a princess from the Asturias,
royal title in the hierarchy of Castle. Joana was daughter of the king Henrique
IV from Castle and Joana de Avis from Portugal. She received her title in
1462, being obeyed to cede her position in favor of her brother, Dom Afonso in
1464, who died four years later. To follow the successive order, the right was
for her sister, that disobeyed one of the rules for the Spanish throne. She
married a pretender from Aragon and not from Castle. The personal concern
of Dom Afonso was to take advantage on his marriage and to join Portugal
and Castle. The Castile's repulse was general, it was unacceptable for Spain
to be ruled by Portugal and a new conflict was started by Dom Afonso V in
1474, that was five years long. The peace was reached after the capitulation of
the princess Joana who gave up the Castile's throne and the consequent
annulment of the marriage. The Treaty of Alcassova on September, 04 of 1479
detained the belligerent animation.)
The Lusitania sailing knowledge was producing good results with
thousands of miles at the African coast. The Portuguese technical expertise,
acquired by the infant Dom Henrique, for so many time overcame those by
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Spain which committed successive mistakes. Portugal wanted to keep the
division line, the closest to Europe as possible, to let the Spanish domain to
finish on the empty Pacific Ocean, far from the rich spice islands in Asia.
The Treaty of Tordesilhas established the border meridian from pole
to pole at 370 leagues (1.110 miles) from Cabo Verde's island to west. That
archipelago had been cited on nautical charts for too many centuries as the
zero grade meridian that divided Orient and Occident, but it was not so clear.
Although, Portugal believed in the studies by Dom Henrique according the
Marco Polo's trip. Consecutively, all the antipodes islands rich in spices should
be owned by Portugal. Spain claimed and Portugal, at least, recognized that
fail in the Tordesilhas' Treaty. The Azores islands were adopted as the starting
point for the unknown lands and the divisor meridian was defined at 370
leagues to west. The clever Portuguese didn't want to reveal what in
Tordesilhas had been written about the divisor line. The Treaty cited “Unknown
Lands”, but the archipelago of Azores had been discovered in the first quart of
that century.
The Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias made good use of the wind
currents from African coast to southwest, beyond the Bojador. The Captain-
major also discovered the atmospheric currents that blow to southeast, taking
the sailing boats in windward to few miles from South Africa. Bartolomeu
sailed very far from the coast on a tack to South and went beyond the Good
Hope Cape. However, a strong wind from Antarctic and a mutiny on board
have taken him to sail back, till arrive on land. Notwithstanding, he was in
Portuguese territory, Bartolomeu placed in the South of Africa, two stone
patterns with the Christ Military Order (The Malta Cross).
Vasco was a nobleman and had been entrusted to explore a new
tack to India. He applied the knowledge offered by Bartolomeu Dias and
succeeded on that trip and arrived to Calicute. Vasco was introduced to the
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region's governor, without to offer valuable gifts. Vasco should only to keep
commerce agreements in Calicute and to install a trade factory in that port.
The Samorim was very disappointed with the frugal gift received and kept him
detained along with some other sailors in his palace. The Captain of Vasco's
vessel kept as hostages some visitors from Calicute which intended to deal on
board, among them was the Samorim's brother. The freedom of Vasco da
Gama was negotiated after three days of detainment, when he was released
and sailed back to Portugal to give those bad news to king Dom Manuel.
As soon as the news brought by Vasco da Gama arrived to Portugal,
the king Dom Manuel I felt outraged. The king sent in the following year, the
Captain-major Pedro Alvarez Cabral 33, to define its domain in Calicute. The
Portuguese empire should have to subdue by power, the nations adverses to
its monopolist trade inside its own domain. That was a sovereignty matter,
much more important than to answer an incident suffered by a vassal.
Pedro Alvares Cabral would sail to south sea under directly
instructions by Vasco da Gama. He assured Cabral the existence of land
signals below the Equator line. Vasco also gave him a letter with
recommendation for that trip and his most skillful Captains: Bartolomeu Dias,
Nicolau Coelho and others.
Cabral departed with his fleet from the quay of Belem in Lisbon on
March 09, 1500 with thirteen caravels, 1500 men, experts pilots and
experienced Captains. That was the largest Lusitania war fleet since the
invasion on Ceuta in 1415. In two weeks the fleet arrived to the coast of the
Cabo Verde islands, when began the new tack to southwest. One vessel was
lost, despite of the warning cannons blank shots by the flag ship. After six
week of trip from Belem, as had been said by Vasco da Gama, the signals of
land were seen floating on the waves. On the following day, the first shout
“land at sight” was thrown in Brazilian waters on April 22, 1500.
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The imposing Portuguese disembark on the island at the entrance of
Porto Seguro's bay was very well received by the Indians. The solemn
thanksgiving with field mass on the following Sunday has been registered on
the letter by the public notary Pero Vaz de Caminha. The fleet was at anchor
for ten days among a savage people, but with friendly treatment. At the
departure, some young sailors remained on land by their will and some
banished criminals were ordered to stay to learn the language. The Captain-
major was triumphant when he sent back to Portugal, Gaspar de Lemos with
the Letter written by Caminha, to announce to the king the discovery of the
“Island of Vera Cruz”.
On May 2nd, the resolute Cabral continued his mission, ordering the
vessels to weigh anchor and to set sail with tack to southeast. Under the fair
convergent winds, the fleet quickly arrived to the African coast on May 24.
Bartolomeu Dias had discovered that coast, but as he had suffered with the
gusty wind, he called that coast as the Cape of Storms. But, the Portuguese
king understood that the name should be changed to “Cape of Good Hope”.
The Cabral's fleet arrived to the extreme South of Africa under heavy
storm. After five days of boisterous sailing, Cabral was notified about the
disappearance of four caravels and the inevitable losses of precious lives,
among them, his friend Bartolomeu Dias. The Cabral's crossing to the African
oriental coast assured to Portugal the exclusive trading domain in the Far East
for an entire century of commerce with Asia. Cabral arrived to the Samorim's
Calicute to install a trade factory and to cease the Arabian trade in that
Portuguese territory. The order for the Arabian to discharge their ships and to
leave the port caused an immediate uprising. The just arrived Portuguese
were treachery attacked by the Arabian in the streets of the city and near forty
person had been murdered, among them was the notary public Pero Vaz de
Caminha, the factory governor Aires da Cunha, some catholic fathers and
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several employee and soldiers.
Cabral applied severe retaliation on Calicute. Two days of round
shots on the city result in five hundred deaths and fifteen sunk Arabian ships.
After to conclude the replying, Cabral left the destroyed city and sailed to
Cochin, where installed a trade factory and went back to Portugal in January
with six loaded ships.
On the next year, Vasco da Gama sailed to Calicute with an
exceptional destruction power, sealing the Lusitania trading domain in the Far
East. In 1504, the Samorim from Calicute organized an allied force to fight
against the Portuguese factory in Cochin. Duarte Pacheco Pereira had only 70
men, four ships, 18 cannons of long range and a small fort. The Samorim was
defeated with his army of 5000 men aboard in 150 ships gunned with
bombards which were sunk. The Samorim did not cause harm against the
commander Duarte and left his government in India.
After the domain on Cochin, too many Portuguese expeditions sailed
to Orient, to register all the islands until the east border of the territory. After
the discovery of Brazil, some factories had exceeded the production targets
established by the Portuguese crown. Although, the incursion of French
traffickers in association with Indian tribes to explore the pau-brasil (blaze-
wood) should be stopped.
The Moluccas islands were discovered by the Portuguese Francisco
Terrão in 1512, when established in Ternate a factory to produce spice. That
news arrived from Asia was a surprise to Spain.
The king Charles I from Spain, as he knew about Terrão discovery,
organized a secret expedition in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the south of
Seville to dominate the Moluccas Islands. Three caravels and 60 men, under
the command of the Captain-major Juan Dias de Solis, the substitute of
Amerigo Vespucci whose death in 1512 had been a large lost to Spain. The
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fleet departed on October 08, 1515 with real destination kept in secret. The
small crew and low food supply and few barrels of water didn't raise suspect
that they were going to undertake a circumnavigation. The tack to Canary
Islands didn't reveal the great Spanish interest to sail 5.100 miles beyond the
Tordesilhas Treaty through any channel at the south of Brazil. The Solis fleet
was anchored in Rio de Janeiro, Cananeia and Santa Catarina. That was an
evident tentative to get information from Indians dwellers, shipwrecked or
colonizers about any crossing to west, or the silver mines. Solis relegated to
second field the mission to Pacific. The Captain-major sailed southward till find
the large river. They arrived to the river and got a new tack to west, exactly as
they had been noticed. Solis and his men have disembarked at the north coast
of the big river, but they were attacked, by probably the Charruas (plough).
The remaining crew on board saw how they were annihilated. The small
garrison of survivors was enough to set only two caravels. The pilot Francisco
de Torres, Solis brother-in-law commanded one of the caravels. The other
caravel was under the command of the pilot Aleixo Garcia.
Aleixo was a Portuguese navigator dweller of Spain. They were
touched with that tragedy, but not frustrated , they were far from home, but
near to Potosi. The young explorers didn't intend to go back without to
conclude the last Solis purpose. Aleixo headed with his caravel against the
rocky island of Ducks' Port (Sta Catarina) and shipwrecked at the south of the
island. It was easier to explain for the Spanish king a shipwreck than a mutiny.
Aleixo and ten survivors lived among the Carijohs Indians and built new
families.
Aleixo and his fellows did several expeditions at seashore, thinking
they were in Spanish territory. They have been to Paranagua bay where Aleixo
named it as “Baya de la Corona de Castilla”. In 1521, Aleixo went back to
Ducks' Port and organized a troop with two hundreds Indians and headed to
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the south of Bolivia by the Peabiru Way and by the Chaco. He arrived to the
silver mines of Potosi and defeated an Inca settlement which gave him pieces
of gold and silver. In the way back to Ducks' Port in 1525, Aleixo entered in
combat against the the Guaranis in the region of Paraguay, where he was
dead. The undertaking by Solis was done by Don Francisco Garcia Loyasa
that departed from Spain on December 25, 1525.
The discovery of the Philippines islands in 1521, inside the
Portuguese border, by the Portuguese Fernão de Magalhães (Ferdinand
Magellan), on Spain service, caused a new conflict between the two Iberian
crowns. The new war declaration was detained after a negotiation of right
through the Saragossa Treaty in 1529. The political domain of Charles I in
Europe intimidated any nation to raise guns against Spain, when the
Tordesilhas line was moved for the third time. To keep good profits with spices
from the Philippines, Spain had proposed to move the limit line of Tordesilhas
once more. Portugal was compelled to buy for $350.000 ducat in gold, 17° of
the region to the south of that invasion where were the Moluccas. That
negotiation was accepted to certify the permanence of the Portuguese factory
explored by Francisco Terrão in Ternate since 1512. The Saragossa Treaty on
April 22, 1529 moved once more the Tordesilhas Meridian.
The information about the presence of French trade factories on
Brazilian coast and the lost of the Philippines islands, obeyed Portugal to send
a military fleet to Brazil. The bad news about the death of Solis by Indians in
the River Plate covered with care the Martim Afonso's fleet. The noblemen and
brothers Martim Afonso de Souza and Pero Lopes de Souza were sent to
Brazil by Dom John III to demarcate at the Parana river the alteration in 17°
occurred on the Tordesilhas Meridian. They arrived to Brazilian coast on
January 31, 1531 with the mission to demarcate and to donate lands, to
nominate public notary and justice officer. Martim seized some French ships
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loaded with blaze-wood and his brother Pero Lopes de Souza applied heavy
night fight against French traffickers ships on escape. Martim sailed southward
and in Guanabara's bay he established a factory to explore the blaze-wood.
Martim was a land donatory (Person in the nobility who received lands with
hereditary right). Martim arrived in Cananeia bringing from Portugal some
stones with the mark of the Military Order of Christ, at the channel entrance he
placed one mark (still exists). He placed that stone pattern was to delimit his
own Captaincy, while the lands southward belonged to his brother Pero Lopes
de Souza. Martim sent Francisco Chaves to an inland expedition through the
Peabiru, the old way to Peru. To detain the losses of men, Martim designated
some War-Captains. One expedition was destroyed by the Carijohs and
another expedition went back with hundreds of arrested Indians. In September
26, 1531 they departed southward in two ships. As soon as they arrived at the
Cape of Santa Maria, at the entrance of the River Plate, they suffered violent
storm. Martim shipwrecked, loosing too many guns and food, fortunately there
were no victims.
On the north coast beach at the Silver River, Martim found a small
ship abandoned by Cabot and equipped her to sail. Martim sent his brother to
demarcate the 17° cited in the Saragossa Treaty. Pero Lopes should sail up
the Parana River, till the farthest the ship could go. Pero should have to
choose the best place to lay the stones. On December 12, 1531 Pero cast
anchors at the left margin of the river, from where the waters were coming
from southwest. Pero verified the sun measure and assented two stone marks
with the Military Order of Christ. The pattern stones were laid in name of El
Rey on the oriental margin of the Parana River on 33º 45’ South. Pero Lopes
had definitively established the third Portuguese border from south to north,
because the Tordesilhas line was from Pole to Pole. That demarcation near
San Pedro restored 10° from the 17° Portuguese dead loss on the Philippines
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islands. That new border had been moved from Laguna to the Parana River.
Spain kept the Philippines Islands, while Portugal received the Parana River.
(Log Book – Pero Lopes de Souza – 1531/1532)
Martim sailed back to North and on January 22, 1532, he cast
anchors and declared the foundation of São Vicente. On his way back to
Europe, Pero found a French fortress in Pernambuco. He warned the invaders
to surrender, but the answer was on round shots. Pero ordered his ship
batteries to open fire. The fortress was under fire for eighteen days till be
destroyed. The French Commander was hanged up on that same site and the
prisoners were sent to the Algarves.
The foundation of Santa Maria de Buenos Aires didn't succeed. The
settlement was soon beleaguered and burnt by Indians, that caused its
abandonment. Without food and defense, the Spanish colonizers escaped
upward the Parana River, letting behind Buenos Aires in flames. The Spanish
arrived to the Paraguay River at a pleasant place on August 15, 1537, day of
Nuestra Señora de Asunción. On that settlement grew up the Paraguayan
Capital.
The few Spanish settlers arrived with Pedro de Mendoza were not
enough to occupy all the Nova Andalusia's colony, between the parallels 25°S
and 36°S, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The solution offered by the
Derecho de Indias (Spanish Act for Right of the conquered people to become
Spanish citizens) was followed by Hernando Árias de Saavedra for the
colonization on the East side of the Parana River. Under that system, the
Spanish slavery of Indians had been badly received by the clergy. The
education of the ordered Indians was applied to settle the American Colonies
with Spanish citizens.
Before the Iberian Union, occurred the foundation of the Province of
Guayrá in 1570. Several reductions (villages) were under the Jesuit fathers
20

21. The Astro Schooner
administration in the East territory of the Parana River. Meanwhile, the
Portuguese had founded at the north side of the Silver River, the Colony of the
Santissimo Sacramento at 30 miles from Buenos Aires.
(The death of the king Dom Sebastião in 1578, at 24-years-old, in
combat against the Moors in Alcacer Quibir and whose body was never found,
let Portugal without heirs. The successor was his uncle, the cardinal Dom
Henrique which died two years later, being the direct next of kin, the Spanish
king Dom Felipe II, beginning the Iberian Union. - These facts coincide with the
5th Empire cited by the Prophet Daniel in chap 11).
In the beginning of the XVII century, to assure the Portuguese right,
the General Government in Bahia sent the Bandeirante Commander Antonio
Raposo Tavares (paramilitary troop of 3000 men seeking for gold, diamonds
and emeralds) to negotiate the Portuguese right Uti Possidetis (the land
belongs to whom utilizes it). He also should had to rescue the Portuguese
sovereignty in Guayrá, south of the Paranapanema river. Raposo Tavares
found already built, twelve Spanish villages. He warned the Jesuits and
dwellers: “This land belongs to us and not to the king of Spain”. Fifteen years
later, as the villages had been partially abandoned, the Bandeirantes came
back and destroyed the twelve reductions in Guayrá (North of the State of
Parana). The remaining dwellers were arrested and sold as slaves in São
Paulo.
The gold washers’ settlement in Paranagua was elevated to the
category of village in 1648. The General Government elevated the village to
the category of Captaincy in 1656 and nominated the Captain-major Gabriel
de Lara as Captain Settler for the occupation of the lands demarcated by Pero
Lopes de Souza. In this period, Lara founded Curitiba and several others
villages, reinforcing the possession over the Oriental territory till Sacramento,
at 30 miles from Buenos Aires.
21

22. Egberto F. Ribeiro
The new conflict with the Spanish invasion on Sacramento's Colony
and the consequent Lisbon Treaty in 1681. That event took the Pero Lopes de
Souza's heir, Marquis de Cascais to propose the selling of the Captaincy of
Paranagua in 1709 for the donatory of São Vicente for $40.000 cruzados. The
Portuguese government didn't allow the sale and paid in cash that required
amount to its owner. In the following year, the Portuguese crown finished the
system of Captaincy and joined Paranagua to Santo Amaro and to São
Vicente, establishing the Province of São Paulo that until 1770 kept its border
at the Silver River.
The Silver Plate Vice Kingdom claimed for the annulment of of the
border kept by both nations since 1529. The requirement sent to the Holy See
for the ex-communion of the signatories and transgressors of the Tordesilhas
Treaty was the way to cease the animosity of the most exalted. According the
Madrid Treaty on January 13, 1750, both Iberian crowns accepted the
Portuguese border at the Parana River margin. At last, Portugal had accepted
the Spanish right over the Philippines. However, the border was not accepted
by Spanish governor in Buenos Aires and it was enough to detonate a new
conflict in the region.
The Spanish invasion obeyed the crowns to sign the Treaty of El
Pardo in 1761. The Spanish didn't accept any treaty and Spain declared war
against Portugal. The invasions by Cevallos in 1762, Vertis and by Salcedo in
1763, whose advance was detained by major Bandeira and by the Treaty of
Paris in 1763. But, the definition only happened by the Saint Ildefonso's Treaty
in 1777. Portugal assumed the accomplishment to give the Oriental side of the
Parana River to Spain (Uruguay, Entre Rios and Corrientes). The Badajoz
Treaty in 1801 ended the war between Spain and Portugal. The border
question between Uruguay e Brazil was defined by the Rio de Janeiro's Treaty
in 1828, when Uruguay got its independence.
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23. The Astro Schooner
In the monopolist period, the Ultramarine colonies were not allowed
to deal with any country. In this time, the Auditor Rafael Pardinho tried to
promote the herb mate from Curitiba in Lisbon. He sent samples of the tea and
instructions for use, but it was not accepted by the population. This man was
very persistent and asked for authorization to negotiate the herb mate directly
in the Silver River, where there was no interest of the Portuguese trading
companies. The proposal was very well received by the crown and Curitiba
began a timid commerce of herb mate, facing the better prices offered by
Asunción.
Stone Pattern of The Military Order of Christ.
23

24. Egberto F. Ribeiro
I
THE ROOTS
P
ortugal had begun a repressive campaign to impede the
Brazilian Independence. The deaths of Felipe dos Santos
in 1720 and Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, the “Tiradentes”
in 1792 discouraged the Brazilian politics and assured the Lusitania
sovereignty. The production of iron tools and spare parts for industries in Rio
de Janeiro, was near to be self sufficient, it was a political signal of danger to
Lisbon. In so many provinces of the colony, there were factories of glass,
cotton fabrics for sugar bags and jute fiber for coffee bags and wool clothes.
By a decree signed by the queen Dona Maria I in 1785, all those industries
had been closed, to stop the colony's development. When the queen arrived in
Brazil during the escape from Napoleon's invasion in 1807, people nicknamed
her as The Mad Queen.
During the Continental Blockade by Napoleon against England,
Portugal tried to keep political neutrality for do not cause damages on its
24

25. The Astro Schooner
business. A secret plan to escape to Brazil had been created in the century
XVI, if there were any invasion on Portugal. London wanted the Portuguese
support and persuaded Lisbon to move the court to Brazil. The plan was
formalized by an agreement, according the restored England Convoy Act in
1807. The plan was executed by the English fleet of four ships, under the
command of the Admiral Sidney Smith, to escort thirty ships with fifteen
thousand passengers.
While the Lusitania population was facing the General Junot broken
troops in Lisbon streets, the Portuguese Administrative structure was arriving
to Salvador in Brazil. In Elba, Napoleon declared in his memories that he had
been deceived only by Dom John, when he tried to despoil Portugal.
The Portuguese Aristocracy on escape to Brazil had large business
in Africa, South America and Asia. Some of them were merchants, exporters,
importers and ship owners. The fleet arrived to Salvador in Bahia, where was
signed on January 8, 1808 the law for the opening of the Brazilian ports to
friend nations. Some sugar exporters disembarked to head their business
directly from their sugar industries in Pernambuco. The remaining exporters
went to Rio de Janeiro where they continued their commerce to Europe, Africa
and Asia, as if they were in Lisbon.
The colonial Brazilian urbe in Rio de Janeiro was not provided with
sumptuous palaces. The popular culture was inept for all that aristocratic
refinement. The multitude of aristocrats not well lodged in those ships didn't
dispose place for the transportation of their valuable silverware, masterpieces,
sculptures and valuable paintings. They arrived in Brazil bringing their fortunes
on hands: eighty million of Crusades, or one hundred million Sterling Pounds.
The half part of the existing capital in Portugal had been strewn on the warm
colony (That amount was enough to buy two hundred million bags of coffee, in
today's price it means US$20 billion). That opulence was very considerable to
25

26. Egberto F. Ribeiro
finance the Napoleon's war against England.
The secret meetings for the Brazilian Independence ceased
instantly, dazzled by the richness scintillating in rough rooms. The foundation
of the Bank of Brazil happened four months later. The Portuguese world would
offer to these businessmen their colonies to install trade establishments.
However, the mercantile society decided to stay in the court, beside the king
and to invest in Brazil.
Three years after the arrival of the Portuguese court in Brazil,
Paraguay got its Independence. The successive offensives by the Argentinean
Confederation's troops, under the command of Belgrano, to restore that
Spanish Province were inutile. The Buenos Aires answer was to raise a
commercial blockade to impede the transportation by the Parana River of all
Paraguayan products as: tobacco, cotton, leather and herb mate. To actuate
against this boycott, El Supremo (the Paraguayan dictator) decided to
eliminate the Spanish exporters’ class and to cease the supplying of cotton for
the English industries. These events have given to Curitiba the prestige of
exclusive supplier of herb mate for the thirsty consumers from the River Plate
and Chile.
That was a singular opportunity for the just arrived Portuguese to
have good profits in Curitiba’s District. In few years, the exportation of the tea
"herb mate" from Curitiba raised to equivalent 25%, compared to all the
Chinese exportations of tea. The business headed the investors to inland until
the lands of Guarapuava. There were investments to pavement of the
Itupava's Way, hydraulic engineering on the Nhundiaquara's river, quay at the
Beach Street in Paranagua and at the bay. Two shipyards were built in
Paranagua for 300 tons ships and one in Morretes for small ships.
The ships coming from Europe and from United States had its hull
covered by copper plates, but not all of them. The lazy port operation and the
26

27. The Astro Schooner
loading of cargoes delayed the ships for three months. It was time enough for
the ships be attacked by the borer mollusk, as the buzano in all south ports.
The Navy examination in ships revealed hundreds of holes with flow
of water and the ships were condemned by the authorities. The cargoes had to
be moved to another ship and the damaged sailing ships were sold on auction
at very low prices. These ships were bought by ship-owners and sent
immediately to be restored in shipyards. After the repairs, these ships were
used for the transportation of cargoes and passengers between Rio de Janeiro
and the port of Rio Grande. The commerce of firewood, lumber, sugar, coffee
and rice from south ports to Rio de Janeiro was enlarged to Africa, Asia,
Europa and North America. The immediate growing up of the economy in
Curitiba's District in the Sao Paulo's Province attracted investors, politician and
received the first immigrants from Europe.
After the Royal Family’s coming back to Portugal, the succession
right of the Bragança Dynasty required the Regent Prince, Dom Pedro I, in
Lisbon. To impede the access of any adventurer in the Brazil's power and to
keep the loyalty of the military force in Lisbon, Dom Pedro sent the Portuguese
army to Portugal and ordered his throne to his daughter. Dom Pedro organized
the Brazilian Navy and the Constitution Assembly. After a new warn from
Lisbon, the party of the high social class in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo
convinced Dom Pedro to stay in Brazil. On September 07, 1822 the Regent
Prince was in a trip to São Paulo when received a message from Rio de
Janeiro at the Ipiranga River. Dom Pedro took knowledge of the Portuguese
measures contrary those said by him. Dom Pedro called all his followers at the
river's margin and declared the Independence.
That was the beginning of the First Kingdom and the search for
international recognition. The first nation to agree with the Brazilian
Independence was the United States of America, followed by Mexico,
27

28. Egberto F. Ribeiro
Argentina and France.
Portugal would recognize the Independence after the payment of an
indemnity of 2 million sterling Pound, to pay for the English navy escort of the
Portuguese court to Brazil. The English Freight Money Act had a tax of 2%
over the transported value. The escort value was equivalent to four million
bags of good coffee. The English recognition would be part of an agreement
with Brazil for fifteen years: The supplying of lumber for ships. Land for
Shipyards. To reduce the importation fees on English product. To prohibit the
slave traffic in ships and to give to England the right to visit on board.
The Emperor Dom Pedro vacillated and unfastened the friendship
ties with England. A cloud of menace and the applying of force, was floating
after the arrival of an English fleet to Rio de Janeiro. Dom Pedro signed on
November 23, 1826 the agreement valid for fifteen years, to receive the
English recognition for the Independence.
On the second kingdom, on March 12, 1845 the Brazilian Emperor
was Dom Pedro II, at 19-years-old. He notified England for the expired term of
fifteen years for the right of “visit and search” written on that agreement signed
by his father. England answered that the Parliament had voted on August 08,
1845 the Act Aberdeen, to impose on traffic ships the visit right, imprisonment
and condemnation of its Commander and ship-owners on English Court. The
well known expression by the Queen Victory was: “They don't exist!”
The enemies ships, cargoes and prisoners arrested were evaluated
by a commissary on board of the War Ships. The ships and merchandises
were sold by auction in England. The gross money gotten was divided in two
parts: 35% for the British Government and 65% for the crew. The money
gotten by the crew was divided in eight parts and distributed among the crew
of the seizer ship. The fleet Commander received one part; the seizer ship
Commander received two parts; to the chief officer, boatswain and surgeon
28

29. The Astro Schooner
was given one part; to the Lieutenants and officers was given one part; to the
aspirant and Sergeants was given one part and for the sailors was given the
last two parts. Apprehensions of great amount of Spanish galleons were
profitable to pay to sailor’s wage of 400 Pounds, or four hundred month
wages.
The autonomy of the Flag Ship Commander and the motivation for
the Royal Navy crew, induced them on Asia in 1849 to destroy 46 Chinese
junk, gunned with short range cannons to defend the access to Hanoi at the
Tonquim river's mouth. In this same year, another six Portuguese ships had
been seized at the African Coast causing large protest in Lisbon. After the
Portuguese claims, that squad was moved to Brazil. The incidents done by
English cruisers at Brazilian coast were ordered to finish on July, 1850. After
that, the squad did some arrests but was withdrawn from the coast.
The English production of coffee in Ceylon and sugar in Mauricio’s
Island with hands of work by the immigrant cooties didn’t overcome the
Brazilian exports of sugar, produced by slave hands. The application of slave
hands of work in the production of sugar and coffee in Brazil reduced the
exporting prices and discouraged the English colonization in Asia.
29

30. Egberto F. Ribeiro
II
THE QUEEN OF SEAS
On
the spring of 1849 arrived to Brazil the English fleet
under the command of the Rear-Admiral Barrington
Reynolds. The squad was being moved from Africa
for some arbitrariness practiced against Portuguese cargo ships. The flagship
was the frigate HMS Southampton, under the command of Captain Cory,
gunned with 50 artillery pieces. The fleet had other ships; the steam corvette
with screw propeller HMS Sharpshooter, under the command of the Lieutenant
John Barley; the steam corvette HMS Rifleman, under the command of the
Lieutenant Crofton; the steam corvette HMS Tweed, under the command of
Lord Russell; the steam corvette HMS Harpy, under the command of the
Lieutenant Dalton; the steam corvette with side wheels paddle, HMS
Cormorant, under the command of the Cap Herbert Schomberg. The cruisers
had to impede the slave traffic in sailing ships at the Brazilian coast.
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31. The Astro Schooner
One of the ships was chosen monthly for the mail transportation
between Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Also there were other
ships as: HMS Crescent under the command of the Lieutenant Brantley. The
HMS Hermes was under the command of the Lieutenant Fish Burnt. All these
ships worked to give support for the squad with supply and coal from England.
The steam corvettes were gunned with four side cannons cal 64 and two
turrets on axis with cannons cal 80. The reference of the caliber means the
iron round ball weight in Pounds (0,453kg).
The war ships also were the preparatory schools for officers for
command training, steam machine engineer, seafaring and to command
artillery pieces. The King’s letter boys entered in the new career at twelve and
after four years as officer apprentice working as assistant, to be approved in a
knowledge examination in England. The officer level began as midshipman
and aspirants. In two years, there are the examination in the Admiralty in
Southampton to become Lieutenant. At 20-years-old, the Lieutenant could be
promoted for ship’s command.
The English Mr Hudson was the Entrusted of the British Business
and for the Intelligence Service in Rio de Janeiro. He denounced to the rear
Admiral Reynolds some Brazilian sailing ships and steamers as being applied
to slave’s traffic: Fidalga, Imagem, Sem Nome, NV Paquete de Santos,
Astrea, Santa Cruz, Paulina, Serêa, Leônidas, Astro, Rival, Velha de Dio and
the Lucy Ann (Dona Ana).
The changing of the brig’s name “Sagaz” to “Astro” few days before
the English visit to Paranagua. The same reason for the burning of the brig-
schooner “Rival" in the shipyard of Cabo Frio. It is obvious that this list was
written after the ships seizure by the Cruisers, otherwise, those names would
not be known.
31

32. Egberto F. Ribeiro
The seizure in Brazilian sea to get the “Prize Money” caused
indignation not only on our people, but also on Lord Hutt in the English
Parliament. An author under the pseudonym of “Anglicus” published in English
on Jun 29, 1850 in the Jornal do Commercio the verses “Lines Suggested by
Recent Events”, in protest against the Royal Navy.
1- The galley “Santa Cruz”
The channel between the continent and de São Sebastião Island in
the Paulistanian seashore was a maritime route from Santos to Rio de Janeiro.
In the morning of January 02, 1850, the galley Santa Cruz was approaching of
this channel loaded with 20.000 bundles of firewood to Rio de Janeiro. The
command Lieutenant Crofton of the HMS Rifleman laid aboard of the Santa
Cruz. After verifying the books and the absence of traffic vestige, he let the
sailing ship to continue her trip. In this afternoon, the HMS Cormorant, under
the command of the Captain Herbert Schomberg, stopped the galley in front of
Ilhabela. The corvette sent two cutters with gunned men to go aboard the ship.
The Lieutenant Luckraft stayed on foot on the forecastle waiting for
his men to take forward the ship for him to follow them out of harm's way.
“All on board!”
The sailors with white canvas uniform, large shirt-collar to the back,
straw hat with ribbons and gunned with muskets and swords approach to the
ship. They went on board by her main stay tackles. The menaces with swords
scared the passengers and crew taking them to the deck.
The Lieutenant Luckraft walked up on the hatches cover and ordered
his men to seek for any slave traffic vestige and asked for the ship’s
Commander.
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33. The Astro Schooner
“I want all the crew and passengers on deck, now!”
“Let's open the hatches to verify the cargo!” Another sailor answers.
“The hatchway is sealed, sir!” The sailor tells the officer.
“Don’t mind! To break the seals” The Lieutenant orders.
“There are too many truss-frames, baking pan and rings, sir!”
“The ship is loaded with firewood, sir!”
“There are too many water barrels, sir!”
“This is a traffic ship!” The Lieutenant Luckraft sentences.
“It is an abuse!” The boatswain claims against that.
“We are taking 20.000 bundles of firewood to Rio de Janeiro as we
do for years. This is the manifest cargo with the Customs stamp. The Stones
and bags with sand are for the ballast, as every ship does it.” The Commander
protested to the Lieutenant.
“This paper doesn’t have any value. This ship is too old to be sent to
England. We have order to plunder her. To disembark the crew and
passengers and to set on fire.” The Lieutenant Luckraft orders.
“Sir! There are too many passengers; including women and children
on board.”
“Let them get downstairs to the cutters and let them to disembark at
the beach.”
At the nightfall the cutters were sent to the beach with the crew and
passengers. The scared children were watching to the lightened sea by the
burning vessel in front of Ilhabela. The expression of frighten on the sailors’
face, the children's indignation eyes and the women in despair, reproduced the
large shadow of menace on the Brazilian merchant fleet.
33

34. Egberto F. Ribeiro
2- The passenger steam ship “São Sebastião”
The steamer São Sebastião was sailing at 19 PM on January 23,
1850 near the Ilhas dos Patos. The ship was taking several military and civilian
passengers from the North ports to Rio de Janeiro; among them was the
Deputy João José Moura de Magalhães and the English John L. Hook, as the
Brazilian consul to Serra Leoa.
On a warm summer day, the passengers had taken a sit bellow a
white awning in the forecastle. Some of them were walking and talking on the
deck. The groups at the main rail were seeing a battle ship approaching of
them. The boatswain notices the 1st Lieutenant Torrezão, Commander of the
steamer, about the troublemaker approaching.
“Commander Torrezão! There is an English battleship on course to
cut our tack.”
“I hope the military on board don’t retort any aggression, if any
English troop come on board.”
“Do we have to ask for the passengers to be in their cabins?”
“I don’t think so! It will put the ladies in panic.”
While the ship’s Commander was giving order to the crew, the battle
ship HMS Rifleman made a shot to stop the steamer. The round shot raised a
water column in front of the steam ship São Sebastião.
“To stop the machines!” The pilot orders the tiller man.
The passengers at the main rail saw the shot on the water and ran to
the cabins corridor.
“Gentlemen! Let's go to my cabin, there you'll be in safe.”
Two cutters with sailors from the HMS Rifleman were approaching to
go on board of the steamer. The hard and exigent English sailors kept the
passengers on deck while another group was ordered to overhaul the ship.
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35. The Astro Schooner
Two Lieutenants jump on board by the main rail asking for the Commander.
The exasperated passengers called up for the Commander Torrezão.
“Commander Torrezão! It is an insult to the Brazilian sovereignty.”
The Deputy João José de Moura Magalhães of the General Assembly in Rio
de Janeiro was furious with that incident.
“Mr Deputy and gentlemen. I have all yours papers and also of the
slave registers.” Says the Commander trying to calm down all the passengers.
“Hold down, Mr Deputy Magalhães. I will talk to the English officers.”
The English John L. Hook knows how to stop the sailors.
“Mr John Hook! You are consul and you must consider that in first we
have to wait for their decisions.” The Commander tries to persuade the
Brazilian consul to Serra Leoa.
“Torrezão! Why do you have gunned men on board?” The Deputy
refers to some officers and soldiers on board that are returning from a
campaign in the north to enter in action.
“Mr. Deputy, the military troop on board is being transported as
passengers. In this trip we are taking some officers and recruits from the North
to Rio de Janeiro.”
“I’ll do a protest speech in the General Assembly. It is as the Deputy
Henriques de Rezende says: A friend not to be worth and a knife that does no
cut; whether get the losing of it; the least you mind. The same was said by the
Marquis of Pombal to Lord Clinton: we can live better without you than you can
live without us.”
The Lieutenant Crofton was followed by two sailors when entered in
the Commander‘s cabin. Torrezão had come together all those illustrious
passengers in his cabin.
“Who’s the ship’s Commander and where are the maritime
documents?” The English officer asks them.
35

36. Egberto F. Ribeiro
“I am the Commander and these are the documents.” The
Commander Torrezão answers and showed the cargoes manifests.
“This ship does not have the Lloyd’s Register certification”.
“It is according the Brazilian law, this ship is registered by the
Companhia Ybérica de Seguros.”
“The England Government only recognizes the Lloyd’s Register.”
“Lieutenant! The English crown does not have any power in Brazilian
waters.” The Deputy answers looking into his face.
“I am English citizen and Brazilian consul to Serra Leoa. The Royal
Navy is committing a serious mistake putting you as officer. I’ll make an official
protest letter to the English Embassy in Rio de Janeiro against your arbitrary
procedure.” The consul answered hardly to the officer.
“We are in the accomplishment of the rear admiral Barrington
Reynolds orders.”
“I am sure that his orders are in reference against criminals on
international waters, not against citizens and Brazilian officers in their own
territory. Commander Torrezão! Would you please to follow these men to their
cutters!”
“Thank you Commander! We don’t need your kind help.” The
Lieutenant does a signal with his hand to his sailors and raises his hat to take
leave and walks backward to the door leaving the cabin.
The English Commander left the steam ship São Sebastião and went
on board to his cutter, while the steamer took her trip to Rio de Janeiro.
36

37. The Astro Schooner
3- The Passengers' Steam Ship “Paquete de Santos”
The Lieutenant Crofton was the Commander of the HMS Rifleman.
On February, 10 1850, the English corvette was anchored in front of the
Palmas Island in Santos. The steam ship “Paquete de Santos” was sailing to
Rio de Janeiro when was ordered by Crofton to stop. The Commander of the
passenger steamer ordered to stop the machines. The English Commander
ordered to lay down on sea two manned cutters to follow him to aboard the
passenger vessel. The sailors row their cutters to approach the steamer main
stay to go on board.
“All on board!” Crofton orders while the cutters are tied alongside the
ship.
After the gunned men had come on board, the Lieutenant Crofton
followed them and asked for the ship’s Commander to see the ship's register.
The Commander gave him the registers from Brazilian Navy, but instead of to
read the documents shown, the Lieutenant Crofton declared the ship as
applied in slave traffic. The Lieutenant ordered the crew and passengers to
leave the ship on cutters. In few minutes, men and women with their children
were moved to the cutters and disembarked at the Goes’ beach. The steam
ship for passengers “Paquete de Santos” was manned with English sailors and
sent to come under hammer in England.
4- The brig-schooner “Polka”
In the working afternoon of May, 15 1850, the brig-schooner “Polka”
of 106 tons was docked at the Macae’s quay on a general cargo loading. Two
cutters from the HMS Cormorant were approaching to a visit on board.
“Let’s go on board!” The Lieutenant Luckraft orders his men.
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38. Egberto F. Ribeiro
“Sir! This brig-schooner seems to be in normal loading operation.”
“Tie the cutters at her main stay and climb on the main rail.” The
sailors come on board followed by the Lieutenant Luckraft.
“Who is the Commander?” The English officer asks for.
“It’s me! My name is Antonio, I'm the Master.” The master answered.
“According the Brazilian and English agreement, I want to see the
ship's papers.”
“Let’s go to my cabin, please!” The master invites him.
“Three men to follow me! The Lieutenant asks for his men.
“These are the ships’ certification and the cargoes manifest and the
Passenger’s Registers Book and the crew roll.”
“The Certification is not from the Lloyd‘s Register.”
“This ship is under the Companhia Ybérica de Seguros protection.”
The Commander answers showing some papers.
“Sir! Some gunned dwellers are coming.” A sailor comes at the door
and notices the Lieutenant.
The sailor advices him as he had seen some citizens on the ship’s
way. The people were near the quay with muskets in hands walking resolutely
to the ship Polka.
“Have a good afternoon, Mr Commander. We are going back to the
HMS Cormorant.”
The sailors row their cutters and leave the ship moored at the quay,
while the loading goes on. The time of work had finished in the sun set and the
workers left the ship.
The night was silent on the first hour of May, 16 1850. Two cutters
from the HMS Cormorant approached the moored brig Polka. The Lieutenant
Luckraft stands up at the cutter’s forecastle and orders the sailors to be quiet.
The silvered new moon rays outline the mountains and reflect on the small
38

39. The Astro Schooner
waves the silhouette of two cutters in assault. The sailors approach in silence
to aboard the ship by the main stay. The sailors invade the ship and find in a
cabin three black men sleeping. The Lieutenant lights a match and finds a
candle in the cabin. The men were awakened to answer some questions.
“Are you slaves?”
“We are sailors registered in this ship's crew”
“Where are the other sailors and the Commander?” The Lieutenant
Luckraft asks for the ship's officers.
“They are sleeping in their houses.” A scared sailor answers.
“You must to abandon the ship.” The officer orders them.
“No! We can't leave the ship!” They answer in one voice.
“Take these three men out of the ship!” Luckraft orders his men to
cast out the sailors from the ship.
The English kick the Brazilian sailors that run out the ship to warn
their Commander.
“Take off all the hawsers and springs! Bring the ship’s tow-rope to
the cutters and let’s tow her to open sea.” Luckraft orders them.
The cutters are towing the ship while the sailors are tolling the
warning bell to notice the people about the ship. The warning bell sounds in
the night and soon the Commander arrives running on the quay, while buttons
his coat. The Commander Antonio Claudio Pereira was very sorry when he
saw his ship being taken away. The furious man was brandishing in the air his
clenched fist, while the people with muskets arrived to face the English sailors.
“England has lost its dignity. Now, they are no more than a feebly
thieves gang!” The Commander shakes negatively his head.
39

40. Egberto F. Ribeiro
5- The Confrontation in Pereque's Beach
On May 16th, 1850, the quick weather change is a nature advice to
fishers telling them the mullet’s shoals are arriving. The region of Pereque in
Santos is a pleasant place with a beach closed by mountains. Some groups of
fishers with their nets of two fathoms high by one hundred fathoms long run to
the beach. They wait for the arrival of mullets shoal at the Pereque beach.
While the fishers wait for the signs by a person in charge to spy the shoals
arrival, they talk and drink cachassa to warm their body against the wind and
drizzly rain in the veranda of a house. One spy on the high of a rock at the
seashore looks to the waves. Without his known cry, the man runs to notice
his fellows.
“Leonil! Leonil! A cutter with a lot of English sailors has arrived on
our beach.”
“They are the thieves that stole the steamer Paquete de Santos.
Let’s leave the fishing nets aside and call everyone who has guns at home.
We’ll cast out these pirates invaders.”
The sailors were the crew of the English cutter, under the command
of the midshipman James Kingston Ryan. They had been sent by Lieutenant
Crofton, Commander of the HMS Rifleman, to seize any Brazilian cargo ship
coming from Santos. The midshipman didn’t know that the warm wind in the
morning would change to bad weather by the afternoon.
All the fishers at the coast know how to interpret these natural
signals. The warm wind in the morning and the agitated movement of clouds
and thin rain at afternoon warn the peoples at the beaches and in downtown
that it is time for the arrival of mullets shoals.
The rain started falling when the English cutter was near the sailing
boats route. The midshipman Kingston decided to go ashore, taking
40

41. The Astro Schooner
advantage of the south wind. On the beach, they gathered at a bonfire to dry
the wet clothes, to cook some food and to wait for the weather changing.
There were near forty fishermen with guns approaching in silence
through the trees. Each one had prepared its musket with buttered paper filled
with powder and bullet. They would have to do a heavy attack as the sordid
apprehension of the steamer Paquete de Santos.
“Let’s approach in silence at shot reach.” Leonil orders.
“We are going to reply the insult.” A fisherman says while walks
slowly with his musket ready to shoot.
“We are ready to shoot!” The fishermen answer.
“Attention, fire!” Leonil commands the first discharge.
The order to break out the shooting was given, but the sailors under
a rain of bullets run seeking for shelter behind the cutter. The muskets gun fire
on the ten sailors was followed by cries of pain and the order to cease fire was
given by Leonil. A sailor with a shot on his head lies dead on the sand and
another with a bullet shot on his shoulder is helped by his fellows. The
midshipman Ryan asks for the cease fire to help his men.
“Sir! Joseph Veneer is dead and Albert is injured.”
“Let’s wave the hats to call for a cease fire.”
The sailors take the dead man and the wounded one to go on board
of the HMS Rifleman.
The dead man and the wounded were taken on board of the HMS
Rifleman. The Commander Crofton denounced to the English consul in Santos
the attack suffered at Pereque beach. The Lieutenant asked for a severe
punishment for the fishermen. Leonil and forty fishers were imprisoned, but in
few days they were put in freedom. Only Leonil was kept in the fortress prison,
but the Santos’ citizens had recognized his heroic action against the English
Navy. Everyone wanted his freedom, even his enemies.
41

42. Egberto F. Ribeiro
6- The brig-schooner “Malteza”
On July 18, 1850, at ten o'clock in the morning, the Brazilian brig-
schooner Malteza was stopped by the HMS Sharpshooter. That war ship was
under the command on the Lieutenant John Barley, nearby the Cabo Frio
fortress. Two cutters approached the schooner to stop her and to go on board.
“Go aboard!”
The sailors gathered the passengers and crew on the deck while the
ship’s installations were being verified. The Commander Barley asked the
ship’s documents to the master and declared the apprehension.
“This ship is being arrested by the British crown.” The Lieutenant
sentences the ship destiny.
“This ship isn’t transporting any slave, only general cargo and
passengers.” The Commander tries to defend his property.
“All the crew and passengers must go to the cutters and moved to
the Sharpshooter.”
The scared passengers and crew were moved to the war ship. The
fortress had done two shots on the waves, but the vessel withdraws towing the
schooner. On the next two days, the English sailors moved all the cargoes,
sails, rudder, tiller, instruments and the anchor from the cargo ship to the HMS
Sharpshooter. At down of June 20, 1850, the crew and passengers on board
the war ship saw the Malteza be sunk at sight of the fortress.
42

43. The Astro Schooner
7- The brig-schooner “Conceição”
In the break of the day June 20, 1850, the brig-schooner Conceição
was sailing at nine miles from Cabo Frio. The HMS Sharpshooter ordered the
Commander of the schooner to lower sails. The English crew came on board
and gathered the Brazilians passengers and crew on the deck while his sailors
were breaking the holds lockers with the Customs seal.
“Who is the Commander?”
“I am the Master José Netto!”
“This ship has too many water barrels.”
“It is salty water for ballast as all commanders do.”
“All the crew and passengers must go to the cutters to be moved to
the Sharpshooter to join the crew and passengers of the brig-schooner
Malteza. You all will be sent to an open trial in England.”
“We are in Brazilian waters doing the transportation of goods and
passengers as we do for more than twenty years. This ship is not being
applied in any slave traffic.”
“We’ll be at anchor near the Itaipu Island while the schooner is being
prepared to set sail to England. I’ll go to Rio de Janeiro to take orders from the
rear admiral Reynolds.”
The passengers and the crew were sent by the cutters to the war
ship. The Lieutenant went to the flag ship HMS Southampton in his cutter and
came back at night. He received orders from the Rear-Admiral Reynolds to
send the ship to England and to disembark the Brazilians from the two
arrested ships. The anguish was on the passengers’ face when they saw the
schooner Conceição set sail to England with all their belongings. At 10 AM of
Jun 22, all the passengers and crews were put off at the Santa Luzia’s beach.
43

44. Egberto F. Ribeiro
8- The brig-schooner “Rival”
On June 26, 1850, the HMS Cormorant kept its paddles on and all
her gunnery turned to the fortress in front of Cabo Frio. The Lieutenant
Luckraft approached at the fortress with three cutters. The Lieutenant
disembarked at the beach and gave a copy of the English Treaty to the
Sergeant.
“Sergeant, this is a copy of the treaty between Brazil and England.
We are getting in the channel to verify any presence of traffic ships. The HMS
Cormorant will be waiting for us at the entrance of the river.” The Lieutenant
asked permission to enter.
“Well! As there are no traffic ships inside the channel, you are
allowed to cross to the river.”
The three cutters entered the river and soon they saw a brig-
schooner with two masts and right set of sails at anchor in front of a shipyard
in her building final stage. The schooner “Rival” belonged to the ship’s owner
Francisco Gonçalves Lages. Too many carpenters and crew were working on
deck. The English cutters rowed directly to the schooner.
“Look at the brig-schooner! She has near one hundred feet long!” An
English commented.
“Let’s approach to go on board.” The Lieutenant said.
On the ship’s deck, the carpenters noticed the English sailors
approaching to the main rail. The workers didn't allow the English sailors to go
on board. They all cried to the English to keep away from the schooner.
“I won’t allow you on board! There is nothing to be seen by a cruiser
when a ship is being built.” The boatswain told to his carpenters.
“They are near fifty gunned man.” A fearful carpenter warned him.
“Give me an iron ballast ingot.” The master asked.
44

45. The Astro Schooner
“They are climbing on board by the main stay, sir.”
“Here is the ballast ingot, sir.”
“The English are imposing a climate of terror in our territorial sea.
Let’s see if his cutter bears this iron bar.” The boatswain dropped the ingot on
the cutter with several sailors.
“You did a perfect shot on the cutter, sir.”
“The cutter won’t sink because she has floating tanks in the castles.”
The boatswain said as they saw the river water to invade the cutter.
“They are coming on board with sword and gun shots.”
“Do we have to abandon the ship, sir?”
“Why does the Commander of that fortress doesn't do anything?”
“They are casting out from the ship all the crew and carpenters under
sword stabs.”
“Help me to move this trunk to my cutter.” The boatswain asked.
“To abandon the ship!” The boatswain ordered to leave the ship
before anybody were wounded.
While the boatswain was giving orders to his men, he didn’t notice an
English officer coming on board by the main rail. Luckraft jumped on deck and
walked slowly with two flintlock pistols at full cock in his hands.
“Halt! You have damaged my cutter.” The Lieutenant Luckraft
approached at thirty feet from the stupefied boatswain. The officer shot on the
man's face that cried and dropped on the deck.
“The boatswain was shot!” A sailor noticed, while the crew and some
carpenters dived in the river and swam to the shipyard.
The crew on board saw the boatswain be cowardly wounded and
they walked down to the boats that approached to take them.
“Ask for the doctor to help the boatswain.” Cried a sailor for a boater.
“Is he well?” the boater asked.
45

46. Egberto F. Ribeiro
“I don’t know! He was shot on his face.”
After some time, the Customs boat approached to the Rival taking
the doctor.
“Keep clear from this ship!” The Lieutenant Luckraft warned the
Customs boat's crew, while ordered his men to put in safe his broken cutter.
“I am doctor and there is a man wounded on board.”
“Only the doctor is allowed to come on board, the rest of you must
wait in your boat.” Luckraft warned the rowers in the boat.
The doctor approached to the boatswain and applied a bandaging on
his face to stop the hemorrhage. The Lieutenant Luckraft took off the Brazilian
flag from the stern ward mast and threw away on the deck to change by the
English flag.
“This man has to be sent to the hospital.” The doctor said.
“Take him out from this ship!” The Lieutenant answered.
“You should have to respect the Brazilian flag.” The Doctor said.
“This flag worths nothing!” The Lieutenant said with disregard.
To challenge the Brazilian, the Lieutenant drew his sword and cut the
Brazilian flag in strips that fell on the deck, while the doctor was taking the
boatswain out of the ship. The Customs boat withdrew to the shipyard, while
the Rival was being towed to the HMS Cormorant.
“Let's tow the ship by the other side of the river.” Luckraft says.
“Lieutenant! Out of the channel is too shallow.”
“Hurry up! The dwellers are arriving with muskets on hands. We
must be out of their shots reach.”
“We are grounding.” A sailor advised him while the ship headed to
Northeast and grounded.
“If we can’t tow her out to sea, let’s take some fuel.”
The gunned dwellers approach behind the stones choosing a better
46

47. The Astro Schooner
place to begin shooting.
“Have a look at the cutter.” A man in a boat said.
“They are leaving the Rival. A carpenter said from another boat,
thinking the English wanted to leave behind the ship.”
“They have left some men on board to keep in safe the broken
cutter.” A sailor reconsidered the English departure.
“Sir! The dwellers are gathering behind the rocks.”
“They'll do nothing while the ship will be here. But very soon, they'll
have bad news.” The Lieutenant answers to them.
The cutter approached the HMS Cormorant and some sailors quickly
walked on the stairs and came back with some buckets in theirs hands. They
rowed back the cutter to the Rival where Luckraft was waiting for them.
“Let’s spill kerosene over the deck! I’ll put on fire on the ship with the
Brazilian flag strips.”
The Lieutenant Luckraft approached his gun on a flag strip soaked
with kerosene and did a shot. The fire spread over all the deck, on the ropes
and sails. The cutters withdrew from the schooner Rival bursting into flames
aside the channel.
The exasperated population began to shot against the English
sailors. The fortress Commander was without action to face the ship’s power
of fire and did nothing.
“Lower your bodies and answer the fire, if you want to go back alive.”
Luckraft warned them.
The Commander Schomberg received the Lieutenant and his men.
He noticed the commissary Mr Robins to receive the report from Luckraft to
evaluate the schooner Rival for the Prize Money.
“Yes, Commander! I'll give a good value for this ship.”
“Mr Sullivan, take the southwest course to Rio and Paranagua!”
47

48. Egberto F. Ribeiro
9- The Brig-Schooner “Velha de Dio”
On July 04, the brig-schooner Velha de Dio left the port of Rio de
Janeiro to Campos. That was a 102 tons ship under the command of the
Master Francisco José Pimenta. The schooner was stopped by the corvette
HMS Tweed, under the command of Lord Russell. The schooner crew and
passengers were sent to the war ship. The cargo and instruments, tiller and
anchor from the schooner were also removed to the corvette. After all the
cargo had been taken, the ship was sunk on July 07, 1850.
10- The Passenger Steamer “Carioca”
The dwellers in Angra dos Reis opened fire against the English
sailors when they were coming at the quay to seize the steamer "Carioca".
The 104tons ship belonged to the Company Ubatubense and was applied in
the transportation of passengers. The boatswain of a ship in cargo loading at
the quay called for the police help.
“Officer, Officer! Three English cutters are near the port and the
Master Mr José Narciso de Almeida has only 16 men. He will need our help.”
“Let’s ring the alarm Bell to call gunned dwellers.”
The English sailors in the cutters heard the bell's sound and some
shots. They knew what had happened in Pereque and didn't want to suffer the
same aggression.
“Sir, the dwellers are shooting with muskets.”
“Let’s go backward!” The Lieutenant ordered them to go back.
“Cease-fire! The English cutters are going back to their ship”. The
police officer gives orders to his men.
“They know what the Brazilians are going to do.”
48

49. The Astro Schooner
The police officer is the authority in several cities where there is no
National Guard Quarter. For more than 300 years, the dwellers were
organized in militias to defend the land against any invasion.
11- Undesirable People
The English treachery action in Cabo Frio broke the good
relationship with the Brazilian people. A climate of hostility took place in Rio de
Janeiro. In the boat station of São Domingos at 6 PM on July 07, 1850, three
English sailors were waiting the Niteroi boat , to the court and people began a
physical aggression against them.
“English thieves!”
“Let’s teach them for do not steal ships.”
“Let’s hit them with firewood piece!”
“Take this thieve!” A man hits one of the sailors and soon all of them
are being hit.
“Are you all crazy? This matter won’t be resolved with aggressions.”
A merchant from Niteroi faces the population to protect the sailors.
“Mr Brito! You know that beating is the only one language the
English understand.”
“So, let’s hit them.”Cries a young man while another angry man with
a wooden baton hits on the sailor's head that falls down on the soil and from
the wound some blood drops on the ground.
“You must to wait for the General Assembly decision”.
“Mr Brito! We have to teach these thieves what their fathers didn’t
have taught them”.
“You don’t have to aggrieve the legal proceedings in Rio de Janeiro.
Go back home!”
49

50. Egberto F. Ribeiro
“Mr Brito, this casualty will happen in tragedy.”
“Let them to go in peace, please. Go back home!” Mr Brito says
taking the sailor by his arm to help him to stand up.
“Thank you, sir!” The English sailors thank him by the help and under
Mr Brito’s protection they wait for the barge in the quay.
In this same time in front of the Hotel Le Pharoux in Rio de Janeiro,
three English officers were leaving the Hotel. They suffered a sudden
aggression by transients. The Police arrived in a hurry and finished the
fighting.
In the Public Square at the quay, a sailor was insulted by person that
approach to him with pieces o firewood in their hands.
“You all take care of your goods! There is an English thieve in the
vicinity!”
“This one has plundered the Queen a lot and now he steals our
ships.”
“You are a lucky man for do not be in Arabia. Otherwise, the Muslims
would have cut off your hand.”
The sailor was being knocked down by hands and firewood’s hit till
he fell down. The man understood he was being hit because he could be an
English sailor, so, he noticed them he was not English.
“Eh! I’m not English, I’m German!” The man explains with strong
Germany ascent.
“What did he say?”
“Don’t hit this man anymore!”
“I am German!”
The aggressors were very ashamed and helped the sailor to stand
up. The man got a scarf to clean his blood on his mouth.
“Would you please, excuse us, but you have a Briton face.”
50

51. The Astro Schooner
“We hope you may understand the reasons why we are against the
English sailors.”
“On your place every one will do the same, perhaps the worst!”
51

52. Egberto F. Ribeiro
III
THE SAGAZ DEPARTURE
The
afternoon of June 06, 1850 was an usual busy
day. There were several ships on the anchorage in
the Guanabara’s Bay. The brig-schooner Sagaz
was in front of the Largo do Paço (Broad Square) waiting for the Customs
dispatch and the last maritime Agent's instructions. The Schooner “Sagaz” was
175 tons DWT, two masts and right set of sails. She was on time to depart
southwards. The boatswain was busy giving tasks for the sailors. The seamen
run on the deck to climb on the high masts and to prepare the sails in the right
set masts to leave the port.
The quay at the Largo do Paço had several small boats doing the
transshipment of goods to the sailing boats on the anchorage in operation to
load and unload. Too many men were carrying bags on their heads, small
boxes and roll barrels. Near the square, alongside the beach, was the Fish
52

53. The Astro Schooner
Market where the men were taking victuals for sell. A known black young boy
walked singing to announce his coconut cakes on a tray.
“Coconut cakes, vicinity!”
“It’s made of coconut-of-Bahia.”
Two black men were bringing some soap boxes on two wheels carts
and laid the boxes at the quay’s border in front of a man writing with a pencil
on a notebook with hard cover.
“Look! It's the coconuts' Nhonho.”
“Do you have a coin of ten?” Asks a man who carried the cart.
“No!” Answered the other worker while was piling up some boxes
with soap on the quay.
“Do you want coconut cakes?” The man with the notebook asked
looking serious to them.
“Yes, sir!”
“Nhonho! How much does it cost?” The man asked.
“It's ten réis each one!”
“Give two cakes for both of them, please.” The man took from his
pocket two coins and gave to the boy that uncovers the tray and offers the
cakes to the workmen.
The small gang thanked the man with white shirt and blue necktie,
that continued checking a cargo list. The slaves discharged the cargo and
went back to a warehouse alongside the Hotel Pharoux. They were taking a
full lot of a hundred boxes to the city of Campos to be loaded in another ship.
The man worked to the Customs as foreman and had the responsibility to
count and verify the cargoes weight moved by the gang. The slaves belonged
to some owners and were required daily by the agents of merchant ships. The
paying to their owners was by a tax established by the Customs and paid by
the exporters.
53

54. Egberto F. Ribeiro
A fast trotting of horses stopped the loud voices and folk songs,
taking the people's attention to keep clear. A two horse-drawn carriage with
bent awning approached speedily to the quay at the Largo do Paço. A
passenger wearing white suit looked the ships on the anchorage, he was
seeking for the “Sagaz”. As they approached to the quay, the man hit on the
side of the carriage with a walking stick, signalizing to stop. He could to identify
the ship's name, painted with white letters on a black wooden board with
brown frame.
“That one is the Sagaz! The schooner which is leaving today to Rio
Grande.” The man with heavy Lusitania accent talked to the passengers in the
carriage. He spook them pointing to a schooner at anchor amid a cluster of
ships in the anchorage near the Ilha das Cobras (Snacks Island).
The carriage stopped in front of the Pyramid Fountain and three men
get off and contemplated the beautiful and varnished schooner. The man with
a white suit coat was the maritime agent. He was taking a leather briefcase
and had a walking stick that shook in the air to call for a boatman. Another
young man had a white dust-coat and brought a leather valise. The third man
dressed a gray suit coat and also brought a leather valise. A rowboat
approached to the stairs to take them to the Sagaz. They walked down the
stone stairs to go aboard. After two hundred yards, the rowboat arrived to the
schooner. The three men were received by her Commander on the top of the
gangway.
“Good afternoon, Mr Souza!”
“Good afternoon, Mr Franco! I want to introduce you Dr Mendes.
This is Mr Samuel, the Customs Guard-major that has come to verify the hatch
seals before the departure.” The agent spoke while shook hands with Franco.
“Nice to meet you. You are welcome on board!” The Commander
received them with wide smile.
54

55. The Astro Schooner
“The doctor has come to see how healthy the passengers and the
crew are.” The agent told him.
“Of course! You are allowed to see all of them.”
“Thank you, Mr Commander!” The doctor said.
“Mr Samuel, the cargo has been fastened and all the hatch covers
have been sealed by another Guard-major.” The Commander explained.
“This is our usual last verification.” The Guard-major said.
“Please, Commander! Ask for the passengers and crew to come on
the deck, I need to see them.” The doctor asked for help.
“Boatswain! Call for the passengers and crew on deck.”
“Yes, sir!”
“The city of Rio de Janeiro is seriously infected by this fever and
there are no medicines to cure the people. The general use of mercury to
wash the throat and massages don't grow better the health of people under
cure.” The doctor commented.
“People talk about the French war ship that left Rio de Janeiro and
was in quarantine in Uruguay. The newspaper say that five men died and
other forty suffered with that fever, isn't it?” Franco said.
“Yes! It happened to the French crew in the steamer warship
“Gassendi”. I’ve read in the newspaper from Montevideo about tenths of
deaths in another warship from USA, from France and also from England.” Mr
Souza answered him.
“It is very grievous to happen for any crew in ships. The fever in Rio
de Janeiro is being very cruel. Every one just now weeps over the lost of the
young prince D Pedro Afonso. The princess Dona Isabel also was
contaminated by the fever. Fortunately, the princess has survived.” The doctor
noticed them.
55

56. Egberto F. Ribeiro
“The infant D Pedro was always happy and beloved by everyone. His
death was a great loss.” The agent commented.
“Excuse me sir, but the passengers are arriving.” The doctor said.
The passengers sat down on some chairs put on the deck. A blond
curly-haired young woman followed by a young servant, took the Commander
Franco attention. They look at each other and Franco smiled and raised his
hat to salute her.
“I have the manifest cargoes and the authorization for the “Sagaz” to
leave the port, Mr Commander.”
“Please, Mr Souza, let’s go to my cabin.” The Commander moved his
arms to the cabin’s door. In a last glimpse to the passengers, Franco noticed
the young woman looking to him, but she deviated her eyes to look on the
island.
The shipping-agent got into the cabin and put his hat and his walking
stick on a hat rack attached at the wall. He opened his briefcase and took
some papers to give to the Commander that was taking his seat behind the
table.
“Please, be seated Mr Souza!” The Commander said.
“Thank you! Commander Franco. Here are the registers of the
passengers, the servants, Maritime Police permission and manifests. The
manifests are clean and with the Customs stamp. The Insurance certificates
are from the Companhia Ybérica. Only the goods are under insurance,
because its price is lower than those by the Lloyd’s Register. However, for
economy reason, the ship is without insurance. We all know the rivalry
between these insurance companies. England has difficult with the Companhia
Ybérica de Seguros and by the way, in few years nobody will hear about the
Lloyd’s Register in Brazil.”
56

57. The Astro Schooner
“There is no reason for a shipping company to pay the expensive
insurance of the Lloyd's, while there is the Ybérica offering insurance policy at
lower price. Anyway, this ship only does navigation along the coast and we all
know very well the bays, channels, stones and ports. Mr Le Blon has been
here by the morning to verify the goods.” Franco told him.
“He is the inspector for Buxarco & Romaguera that is the broker of
the Ybérica. Does Mr Coelho have noticed you for a port call in Santos to buy
coffee for our customer from Rio Grande?”
“Yes! He brought to me in this morning the money for the payment of
one hundred bags of coffee and to pay the taxes in Santos. I will buy five
hundred bundles with packages of herb mate and two hundred bags of rice in
Paranagua. If there were not too many taxes, the owners’ profits with the
selling of jerked beef and leather would be higher.”
“The Empire tax of 12% is too high and several dealers in Rio de
Janeiro have claimed against the privilege of 8% given to England. Any way, if
there were any lumber seller interested in the transportation to Rio Grande,
place it at the backward low hold.”
“Mr Coelho has told me about new seizure of cargoes ships done by
some English war cruisers, isn't it?” The Commander Franco asked.
“Really! The situation is dangerous after the arrival of this English
squad that was in Africa. Now the Brazilian ships in our coast do not have
peace. The passengers are thrown on the beaches and the ship's owners are
not in safe. I ask God to protect you, for do not happen anything bad in your
trip.”
“Thank you, Mr Souza!” Franco thanked his agent.
“Did you do the sailors registration in the Port Captaincy?”
“Yes! We all have been registered in the Port Captaincy of Rio de
Janeiro. Mr Coelho has registered all the ship’s documents and the shipyard.
57

58. Egberto F. Ribeiro
Everything is according the law.”
“The Commander Nascimento has arrived to Rio on May, 10 with the
yacht “Estrela Brilhante”. He will leave tomorrow to Paranagua with
Commander Gio Batta Rossi and the Commander Severiano. They will
surpass you near Santos. If there were any trouble, take their help.”
“The Commander Nascimento has been here yesterday and we
talked about what to do if there were any seizure. Any way, if everything will be
all right, in two weeks we’ll be together in Paranagua.”
“Excuse me sir! I’ve just seen all the passengers and crew.” The
doctor and the Guard-major came in the cabin.
“How do they are, doctor?” Franco asked him.
“They are fine! All of them are very well and the ship is allowed to
depart. If somebody will show high fever, withdraw him in a cabin.”
“Mr Commander, please take this letter of congratulation for the
President of the Town Council in Paranagua.”
“It will be given.”
“I am expressing my feelings for do not attend this honorable
invitation for the solemnity to the entrance into office of the councilors. But, I
declare my solidarity to the new Province. Have you all a nice trip!”
The shipping-agent apologized and gave the envelope to the
Commander. He stood up and took his hat and his walking stick on the hat
rack and left the cabin, followed by the doctor and by the Guard-major. On the
deck, the men waved to the Commander and walked down to the rowboat.
“Have a good trip, Commander!” Mr Souza waived with his walking
stick while walked down the gangway.
“Thank you, sir!” Franco waived with his hat.
The three men walked downstairs to the boat that was waiting for
them and went to the Paço's quay. The rowboat was moored at the stone stair
58