Bettencourt Pita (Nicolau Caetano)

Nicolau Caetano de Bettencourt Pita, doctor of medicine of the University of Edinburgh, member of the Royal Physical Society and of the Royal Medical and Natural History Society of the same city, and professed knight of the Order of Christ, was born in Funchal on 6 December 1788.

Intending to follow a medical career, he went to the Scottish capital and enrolled at its university, receiving the degree of doctor of medicine on 24 June 1812.

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So brilliant were the academic exercises that preceded the conferring of the degree’, says Dr Rodrigues de Gusmão in the Memórias biográficas dos médicos e cirurgiões portugueses, ‘that, in reward for his distinguished merit, he was elected president of the Royal Physical Society that year. This is a just and respectful tribute which, by praiseworthy and ancient custom, the University of Edinburgh pays to the talent of the member of that Royal Society who surpasses the other doctoral candidates in distinction.

In that same year of 1812, Dr Nicolau Pita published in London a work in English, to which he gave the following title: Account of the Island of Madeira. The respected Portuguese physician Dr F. A. Barral refers to this work in these terms: ‘This production of a young talent, who was later to make a distinguished mark in the profession, was a descriptive account of the island’s climate and of its physical geography; it was the most important work written up to that time on the island of Madeira that could serve as a foundation for its medical topography. The Investigador Português of September 1813 also spoke of this work with praise.

When Dr Pita returned to Portugal, the Prince Regent Dom João, later John VI, in recognition of his talent and merits, granted him by royal letter (carta régia) of 8 March 1814 all the privileges, rights and honours that at that time were granted only to physicians who had graduated from the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra).

When the liberal principles of the Porto revolution of 24 August 1820 were proclaimed in Funchal on 28 January 1821, Dr Pita was one of the first to embrace them, and from then on he was always a fierce opponent of the old institutions. Believing that a newspaper was the best means of spreading constitutional ideas among his fellow islanders, he had a printing press brought from Lisbon, and on 2 July 1821 he began publishing O Patriota Funchalense (‘The Funchal Patriot’). This was the first periodical Madeira ever had, and its contributors included the men best known on the island for their advanced opinions.

When the absolutist regime was restored in 1823, one of the government’s first acts was to send to Madeira a special judicial commission (alçada) to try and punish those implicated in a conspiracy, real or supposed. According to the sentence passed on the defendants named in that commission’s judicial inquiry (devassa), its aim was to carry out the audacious plan of restoring the outlawed constitution on this island.

Dr Pita, well known for his outspokenly liberal opinions and, moreover, editor of a constitutional periodical, could not fail to arouse the suspicion of the dreaded judges of the commission. Guilty or not, he was therefore confined in the prisons of the Fort of São Tiago (St James the Greater), where he lay for some time. He was finally sentenced on 24 October 1823 to four years’ penal exile (degredo) on the island of Terceira and to a fine of 50,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), payable to the treasury and the royal chamber.

Our fellow Madeiran was well received when he reached that island, and soon afterwards he was entrusted with the post of physician at the military hospital of Angra, which he held until 1834. In reward for his services as a military doctor, the regent, Infanta Isabel Maria, granted him the commission and rank of major by royal letter (carta régia) of 19 July 1827.

Dr Pita was one of the editors of the periodical O Liberal (‘The Liberal’), which began publication in Angra on 29 March 1835. This newspaper was the organ of the political tendency then called reformist, later Septembrist and finally Progressive, and it waged constant polemics with the Sentinella, which represented the conservative party, known as the Devourists, and with the Angrense.

In that city our fellow Madeiran also held the posts of physician at the civil hospital and municipal doctor to the Council, as well as that of delegate of the Public Health Council of the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal). His name appears among those of the citizens who signed in Angra the record (auto) of the acclamation (aclamação, formal public proclamation of a new king) of Pedro IV and Maria II on 22 June 1828. He died on 20 May 1857, shortly before his 69th birthday.

He was a full member of the former Society of Friends of the Sciences and Arts of Funchal (Sociedade dos Amigos das Sciencias e Artes do Funchal) and one of the citizens elected in 1820 to the first constitutional council of this city. It was he who proposed erecting a monument in Funchal to commemorate the day on which liberal principles were proclaimed in Madeira. The foundation stone of this monument was actually laid with great ceremony and pomp in the square in front of Funchal Cathedral (Sé) on 28 January 1822. However, the work never got beyond the foundations, and even these were destroyed on 1 September 1823, after absolute government had been restored on this island.