Finding no effort made to apprehend the murderers, I addressed to Bruce the following letter:--
It is with great regret that I have learned the atrocious act committed by your soldiers against an officer having my passport for the purpose of endeavouring to tranquillize the province, by inducing the dissentient party to lay down their arms. This is a matter so disgraceful to the cause of those by whom it has been perpetrated, that I must enforce on your attention the necessity of exertion to apprehend all persons who may be suspected of having committed this crime, and send them immediately, prisoners, to this city.
I have further to direct, in the name of His Imperial Majesty, that the troops under your command shall remain where they are until further orders from me, as Commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of this province, notwithstanding any authority or order which you may heretofore have received, or which you may hereafter receive--except from me--to the contrary.
It is almost needless to say that the guilty parties--though doubtless well known--were permitted to escape with impunity; the president alleging as his excuse, "the insufficiency of the regular troops to preserve the tranquillity of the city;" this remark being intended to throw upon me the responsibility of having secured on board the black savages whom he had organized. My reply was, that--"for what I had done, I was responsible to the supreme Government and the public, and if he could not find means to preserve the public tranquillity, I must do so; as he must be sensible that I had acted with propriety in relieving him from a portion of the labour and responsibility which he had hitherto sustained."
On the 28th of November, I forwarded to the Minister of Marine, at Rio de Janeiro, a full report of these transactions, from which the subjoined are extracts:--
The completion of the task of tranquillizing Cearà in a manner I trust satisfactory to His Imperial Majesty, was, in a great measure, effected by the pardon promulgated in the name of His Majesty--consigning to oblivion those occurrences which would otherwise have agitated the public mind. The only exception made was the intrusive President Araripe, and this, because, instead of availing himself of the first proclamation of amnesty, in which he was included, he retired into the interior with a band of robbers, in order to excite further disturbance. The consequence of this obstinate perseverance in disobedience on the part of Araripe, has been his death, and the capture of all his followers.