mortalized in Brazilian history through the hanging of
Tiradentes and the imprisonment and exile of a number
of others. These men were premature in their attempt,
and foredoomed to failure, but they lived, as well as
wrote, an ideal and thus form at once an epoch in the
national history and the nation's letters. The freedom
won by the United States, the foreshadowing of the
French revolution, inspired in them ideas of a Brazilian
republic; how surely idealistic was such an aim may be
realized when we recall that Brazil's emancipation was
initiated with a monarchy ( 1822) and that, although it
has been a republic since 1889, there are a number of
serious thinkers who consider the more liberal form of
government still less a boon than a disadvantage.

In 1783, Luis da Cunha de Menezes, a vain, pompous
fellow, was named Captain-General of the Province of
Minas. It was against him that were launched the nine
satirical verse letters called Cartas Chilenas and signed
by the pseudonym Critillo ( 1786). Menezes was suc-
ceeded by Barbacena ( 1788) who it was rumoured,
meant to exact the payment of 700 arrobas of gold, over-
due from the province. It was this that proved the im-
mediate stimulus to an only half-proved case of revolt,
which, harshly suppressed, deprived Brazil of a number
of its ripest talents.

From the name of the province--Minas Geraes--
these poets have been grouped into a so-called Mineira
school, which includes the two epicists, Frei José de Santa Rita Durão
and José Basilio de Gama, and the four
lyrists, Claudio Manoel da Costa, Thomas Antonio Gonzaga
, Ignacio José de Alvarenga Peixoto and Manoel Ignacio da Silva Alvarenga
.

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