display of armed force might yet restore Spanish rule where it
had been merely suspended.

Very different was the course of events in Brazil. Strangely
enough, the first impulse toward independence was given by the
Portuguese royal family. Terrified by the prospective invasion of
the country by a French army, late in 1807 the Prince Regent, the
royal family, and a host of Portuguese nobles and commoners took
passage on British vessels and sailed to Rio de Janeiro. Brazil
thereupon became the seat of royal government and immediately
assumed an importance which it could never have attained as a
mere dependency. Acting under the advice of the British minister,
the Prince Regent threw open the ports of the colony to the ships
of all nations friendly to Portugal, gave his sanction to a
variety of reforms beneficial to commerce and industry, and even
permitted a printing press to be set up, though only for official
purposes. From all these benevolent activities Brazil derived
great advantages. On the other hand, the Prince Regent's aversion
to popular education or anything that might savor of democracy
and the greed of his followers for place and distinction
alienated his colonial subjects. They could not fail to contrast
autocracy in Brazil with the liberal ideas that had made headway
elsewhere in Spanish America. As a consequence a spirit of unrest
arose which boded ill for the maintenance of Portuguese rule.



CHAPTER III "INDEPNDENCE OR DEATH"

The restoration of Ferdinand VII to his throne in 1814 encouraged