Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/740

698 Francisco Pizarro {q. v.) ; but, always envious of the glory of others, Pedrarias did everything in his power to hamper Pizarro's operations. Meanwhile, Cordova, trying to withdraw from the authority of Pedrarias, had opened negotiations with Hernan Cortes, who at that time (1525) was at Honduras, offering to submit to his authority ; but the latter refused the offer, although he ordered Pedro de Alvarado {q. v.) to aid Cordova in case of need. When Pedrarias heard of these negotiations he hastened with a small force to Nicaragua in 1526, captured Cordova in Leon, and, after a short trial, executed him in the latter city. During his ab- sence he had been superseded in the government of Panama by Pedro de los Rios and remained in Nicaragua, but had repeated difficulties with Alva- rado, who resented the execution of Cordova, and when Pedrarias heard in 1527 that Alvarado had obtained in Spain the title of adelantado and cap- tain-general of Guatemala, fearing for his posses- sions, for which he held no legal title, he went to Spain in the next year to legalize his conquest, and he must have died soon afterward, as he is not mentioned again.

PEDRO I., emperor of Brazil, b. in Lisbon, Portugal, 12 Oct., 1798; d. there, 24 Sept., 1834. He was son of the prince-regent Joao, heir-presumptive of the crown of Portugal, and he was hardly nine years of age when the Portuguese government, foreseeing that imminent peril threat- ened the royal family and the independence of the kingdom, resolved to send him to Brazil with the title of constable. But the march of the French army upon Portugal precipitated events. On 29 Nov. the Portuguese royal family, flying before the French, emigrated to Brazil, and in March, 1808, the city of Rio Janeiro became the capital of the Portuguese monarchy. By the elevation of his father to the throne in 1816, Dom Pedro became heir-presumptive to the crown, but, being entirely removed from public affairs, he had no political education. In 1818 he married the Archduchess of Austria, Leopoldina Carolina Josepha. When the revolution of Oporto in 1820 proclaimed a pro- visional junta and the calling of a congress to form a constitution, the garrison of Rio Janeiro, together with the people, rose on 26 Feb., 1821, and forced the king to swear to recognize the future constitu- tion for Brazil also. In March the king announced his intention to return to Portugal, leaving Dom Pedro as regent in Brazil, and ordered elections for the cortes of Lisbon. But on 21 April the people decided not to let the king depart, and formed a plan to take possession of the forts and prevent the sailing of the fleet. The crown prince, at the head of the troops, dispersed the mutineers on the 22d, and on the 26th the royal family sailed for Portu- gal, and Pedro entered upon the regency. The Portuguese cortes, afraid that the presence of the prince in Brazil would cause a gradual separation, decreed the re-establishment of the colonial govern- ment and the return of the prince to Portugal, under the pretext that his education should be finished. When the decrees arrived, 10 Dec. 1821, the people rose, and representations from all parts of the country, begging the prince to establish him- self in Brazil, were signed, and presented to him on 9 Jan., 1822, in Rio Janeiro. Pedro consented to remain, thus disobeying the cortes. He issued a decree calling deputies from the provincial legis- latures to assemble in Rio Janeiro to consult about the future of the country, and ordered that no decree of the cortes be promulgated in Brazil with- out his approbation. Pedro was the object of con- tinuous manifestations of loyalty, and on 13 May he was honored by the municipality, the people, and troops, with the title of " perpetual defender of Brazil." but the cortes of Portugal continued in an attitude of hostility. While he was on a trip to the province of Sao Paulo, Pedro heard that the cortes had annulled his acts and had declared the governing junta and the prince's advisers subject to criminal prosecution, and he answered by declar- ing on 7 Sept., on the borders of Ypiranga river, the absolute independence of Brazil. This declara- tion was received everywhere with enthusiasm, and on his return to Rio Janeiro h" was proclaimed emperor of Brazil on his twenty -fourth birthday, and consecrated in the cathedral i,n 1 Dec. Under the guidance of Jose Bonifacio di Andrada e Silva {q. v.), his minister of foreign relations, he organized an army to attack Bahia, the stronghold of the Portuguese forces, and improvised a navy under Lord Thomas Cochrane to blockade that port. Hunger and the fear of Cochrane's fire-ships caused the Portuguese authorities to evacuate the city in the night of 2 July, 1823, with the fleet, the army, and seventy vessels laden with riches. On 27 July Maranhao capitulated, and in September the em- peror's authority was acknowledged everywhere. On 25 March, 1824, the new constitution was pro- claimed, but the northern provinces opposed it, and a revolution began in Pernambuco, which was sub- dued after a heroic resistance. In 1825 Portugal, yielding to the influence of England, recognized the independence of Brazil, and on 29 Aug. a treaty of peace was signed. The recognition bv the treaty of a debt of £2,000,000 to Portugal burdened the finances of the new empire heavily, and the opposi- tion began to attack the government, especially as the Brazilian arms were unfortunate in attempting to suppress the insurrection of the Banda Oriental (now Uruguay). In 1826 the death of King John VI. added a new difficulty, as Pedro I., his legal successor, seemed to be inclined to unite the two monarchies again, but he found such strong and general opposition that, after a consultation with his councillors, he abdicated the throne of Portugal in favor of his daughter, Maria da Gloria. But the unhappy result of the Cisplatine war and the recog- nition of the independence of Uruguay, and also his inclination for personal government and for sustaining the ministry against the expressed desire of the majority, made him unpopular. He was accused of spending the resources of the nation in reconquering for his daughter the throne of Por- tugal, which had been usurped by his brother, Dom Miguel, and. tired of the continual strife, he abdi- cated the throne on 7 April, 1831, in favor of his son, then in his sixth year. He then retired with the empress and Queen Maria of Portugal on board the British ship of the line " Warspite," and sailed for England, accompanied by the French frigate " Seine." which carried his family to France. He organized in France a small army and fleet, and sailed on 10 Feb., 1832, for the Azores, leaving those islands with fresh troops in June to invade Portugal, and after a two years' campaign he estab- lished his daughter on the throne, the capitulation of Evora, 26 May. 1834. finishing the civil war. His health being undermined by the campaign, he caused the cortes to declare his "daughter of age on 17 Sept. — His son, Pedro II., emperor of Brazil, b. in Rio Janeiro. 2 Dec. 1825 ; d. in Paris. 5 Dec. 1891. By the abdication of his father he became sovereign of Brazil when not yet six years old. For two years, in 1831-'33. he had as tutor and sole regent. Dom Bonifacio