hood to ask of foreign nations a recognition of belligerent rights.
A refusal was quick in coming, and this was another disappoint-
ment.
It was not till early in November that the leader of the naval
revolt found it necessary to invite Señor Saldanha da Gama to join
in the movement. The republicanism of Señor de Mello is not of
the true temper. Just as he had, when ordered by the pro-
visional government, landed on the coast of Asia, a grandson of
the ex-emperor, so he would be capable of landing on the coast
of Brazil another, if not the same, grandson, if circumstances
should so demand. This was a contingency evidently accepted
by him to gain the coöperation of Señor Saldanha da Gama.
The correspondent of the London Times, which is always well
informed in regard to what is going on among the rebels, advised
that paper, in November, of this new alliance. It appears that
there was some reluctance on both sides to enter into an agree-
ment, because a full month elapsed before Saldanha da Gama
publicly declared for the rebellion.
Señor da Gama, who was doubtless the most distinguished officer
of the Brazilian navy, both in character and in talent, had taken
a position in regard to the rebellion which it was impossible to
maintain, and which was unjustifiable from every point of view.
At the beginning of the rebellion he declared himself neutral, and
maintained a semi independent position while yet occupying the
post of director of the naval school and having under his com-
mand the government establishments on the Cobras and En-
chadas islands, and the schoolships. He had hoisted in these
places the flag of the red cross of Geneva, which had already
served as a cover for the sham neutrality of the friends of the
rebels in the south, who under the cloak of humanity were re-
ceiving, instead of medicines and surgical apparatus, death--
bearing munitions of war. Even after the mask of neutrality
had fallen, the red cross flag continued to float over a hospital on
Enchadas island, although its basement was occupied as a de-
posit for warlike stores.
The so-called neutral portion of the navy followed Saldanha da Gama into the ranks of the rebels, and on the ninth of December the first manifesto of the new rebel leader was distributed through the federal capital, and attached to the walls in the form of a placard. Señor Mello, up to this time the leader of the rebellion,
