The Brazilians determined that the last doubt concerning the situation
should be dissipated, and on October 12, 1822, Dom Pedro, who was at
Piranga, was made constitutional Emperor of Brazil, and all relation and
connection with Portugal was severed.
Dom Pedro had all this time kept up a correspondence with his father,
King Joao, and in one of these letters he wrote:
"They wish, and they say they wish, to proclaim me Emperor. I
protest to your Majesty that I will not be perjured ... that I will
never be false to you; and if they commit that folly, it will not
be till _after they have cut me to pieces_--me and all the
Portuguese--a solemn oath, which I here have written with my blood
in the following words:
"'I swear to be always faithful to your Majesty, to the Portuguese
nation, and Constitution.'"
These latter words were apparently actually written in his blood, and
the epistle is certainly a proof of the complicated state of affairs and
of the strange influences which were at work.
Open warfare now broke out between Brazil and Portugal. At Bahia the
Portuguese, although their garrison was hemmed in, were masters of the
sea.
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