Political deportees 1The 1844 deportees
Political deportees
Original title: Deportados Politicos
Describes two groups of political prisoners deported to Madeira: insurgents from the 1844 Torres Vedras revolt against Costa Cabral, and 289 monarchists sent in 1919 after the monarchist revolution, eight of whom escaped to Las Palmas by motor launch.
1The 1844 deportees
During the revolt that broke out in Torres Vedras on 4 February 1844, with the aim of bringing down the government of Costa Cabral, 23 insurgents were arrested and sent to Madeira. Among them were the lawyers António Maria Ribeiro da Costa Holtreman and Leonel Tavares Cabral, the judge of the Commercial Court Lourenço de Oliveira Grijó, Canon Dr Manuel Joaquim Cardoso Castelo Branco and eight army officers.
Some of these political prisoners came on the brig Douro, which reached Funchal on 20 April, and were admitted to the Ilhéu fortress (Fortaleza do Ilhéu); the rest came on the cutter Andorinha, which arrived here on the 28th of the same month, and were lodged in the Pico (‘peak’) fortress (Fortaleza do Pico). They were all set free as soon as the unofficial news of the failure of the Torres Vedras revolution reached Madeira.
2The 1919 monarchist prisoners and their escape
In 1919, after the monarchist revolution at the beginning of that year, new political prisoners came to Funchal. They arrived on the steamer Africa, of the Empresa Nacional de Navegação, which had been commissioned as a troop transport. These prisoners, 289 in number, were accompanied by a naval force and landed on 8 May, three days after the Africa arrived. They were housed in the Lazareto de Gonçalo Aires (‘Gonçalo Aires quarantine hospital’). Among the prisoners were the former minister João de Azevedo Coutinho, the former colonel João de Almeida, the Count of Sucena, the Count of Arrochela, the Viscount of Siqueira and João Moreira de Almeida. A force of 30 naval men and 1 sergeant remained in Funchal to guard the Lazareto (‘quarantine hospital’), and an infantry detachment commanded by a second lieutenant joined this force for the same purpose. By order of the harbour master, all vessels were forbidden to pass through or remain in the sea area bounded by the Fort of São Tiago (St James the Greater) and Cabo Garajau (‘tern’).
Despite these precautions, on 3 June it was discovered that 8 prisoners had disappeared, among them the Count of Sucena. It later emerged that all of them had reached Las Palmas on the motor launch Glafiberta, belonging to the sportsman Humberto dos Passos, who had organised the escape. On how the escape took place, we read the following in a newspaper: ‘One fine afternoon, almost all the political prisoners held in the Lazareto do Funchal (‘Funchal quarantine hospital’) left the building on the pretext of taking the air and gathered on the strip of beach immediately below it. The guards merely watched them from the windows of the Lazareto. For a while they sang, frolicked and cheered, and when the uproar was at its height and the guards were distracted by the merriment, a boat sent from the Glafiberta approached the beach and unhurriedly picked up the 8 prisoners... Hours later, the motor launch, towed by the Milano, belonging to the Blandy firm (which did not know what kind of service had been asked of its tug), sailed towards the Desertas (‘deserted islands’), and later turned south, on course for the Canary Islands’.
The owner of the Glafiberta went with the eight prisoners. A few days earlier he had asked the harbour master for permission to make a voyage round the island in his boat.
Of the remaining prisoners who had been held in the Lazareto, 7 were released following a telegram received from the Minister of War on 13 May, and all the others left for Lisbon on various mail steamers that called at Funchal between June and August. The steamer Moçambique carried the last of the 280 prisoners who had landed in Funchal on 8 May.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02-
A revolt broke out at Torres Vedras against the Costa Cabral government, leading to deportations to Madeira.
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Political prisoners from the Torres Vedras revolt reached Funchal aboard the brig Douro on 20 April and the cutter Andorinha on 28 April.
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Some 289 political prisoners from the monarchist revolt, among them Salema Vaz, landed in Funchal from the steamer Africa and were interned in the Gonçalo Aires lazaretto.
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Seven political deportees held in Madeira were freed by telegram from the minister of war.
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The remaining political deportees in Madeira were shipped to Lisbon between June and August.
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The escape of eight political deportees, including the Conde de Sucena, from Madeira to Las Palmas was discovered.
Place
Places mentioned · 11
Abroad
- Cabo Garajau
Santa Cruz. Other limit of the restricted sea zone in 1919.
Headland marking the eastern limit of Funchal bay, rounded by ships entering Funchal from the east. It is one of Madeira's two capes and was named after the terns found there by the first explorers. It is a southern buttress and viewpoint of the island, a site of Lotus macranthus, and in 1919 a limit of the restricted sea zone.
- Canary Islands
Spain. Destination of the escape launch.
The Canary Islands are the archipelago neighbouring Madeira, with disputed accounts of their discovery. Tradition holds that their Béthencourt king sold them to Prince Henry in exchange for lands in Madeira. The Elucidário notes many contacts between the two archipelagos, including scientific visits, the Orfeão Madeirense's tour in May 1922 and the massacre of forty Jesuits in their waters.
- Desertas
Santa Cruz. Direction first taken by the escape launch.
An island group near Madeira that was already separated from it at the last eruptions and shares endemic species with it. It was the main orchil-harvesting area, and Wollaston found 89 beetle species there. The islands were investigated by scientific expeditions, including the Endurance scientists in 1914.
- Fortress of São Tiago
Funchal. One limit of the sea zone closed to boats while the prisoners were held.
A fortress on the Funchal waterfront at the eastern end of the landing shore, dated 1614 during Spanish rule and rebuilt in 1767; it later housed a mountain artillery battery. Prisoners were held there in 1823 and 1828, the Republican flag was raised there on 7 October, and it fired during the 1916 bombardment of Funchal.
- Fortress of the Ilhéu
Funchal. Fortress where the 1844 prisoners from the brig Douro were held.
The Fortaleza do Ilhéu is a seventeenth-century fortress at Funchal. It held the political prisoners from the brig Douro in 1844 and fired on the fleeing barque Tybumia. Forster claimed that Cook's ships bombarded it in 1768, and it was planned to be lit with fireworks and illuminations for the Quincentenary.
- Fortress of the Pico
Funchal. Fortress where the 1844 prisoners from the cutter Andorinha were held.
A fortress above Funchal in São Pedro parish, begun under Philippine (Spanish) rule and completed after the Restoration, containing the profaned chapel of São João. It was fixed as a city boundary mark in 1809 and long served as a place of confinement, holding the deposed governor in 1668, 16 prisoners of the Alçada of 1828 and the 1844 prisoners from the cutter Andorinha. It was ceded in 1888 and proposed again in 1909 for use as a prison, but its cost as a prison prompted a move to São Lázaro.
- Funchal
Port where the deportees landed in 1844 and 1919.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Las Palmas
Spain. Canary port reached by the eight escaped prisoners.
Las Palmas is a Canarian city and port. The first Madeiran sports team to play abroad went there in 1901, and the Funchal wireless station contacted its station during its first trials. It was promoted as a health resort rivalling or surpassing Madeira, and eight escaped political prisoners reached it.
- Lazareto de Gonçalo Aires
Funchal. Quarantine building where the 1919 monarchist prisoners were interned.
The Lazareto de Gonçalo Aires is a quarantine building at the mouth of the Ribeira de Gonçalo Aires, decreed in 1849. It was turned into a plague isolation hospital and sacked by rioters on 7 January 1906. It was later used to intern political deportees, including those of 1919, and German residents during the Great War.
- Lisbon
Portugal. Where the remaining prisoners were sent.
The Portuguese capital, seat of the Relação court and of the Misericórdia whose privileges and statutes were extended to Funchal. Henrique Franco de Sousa studied at its Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and Luiz José Baiardo moved there in 1821.
- Torres Vedras
Portugal. Portuguese town where the revolt of February 1844 broke out.
Torres Vedras is a Portuguese mainland town. The revolt of February 1844 broke out there, and Luís da Silva Mousinho de Albuquerque received his fatal wound in a clash there. The nearby Fonte Nova spring was cited as a mainland water comparable to that of São Roque.
People
People mentioned · 12-
Lawyer deported to Madeira in 1844 after the Torres Vedras revolt.
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Head of the Portuguese government whom the 1844 Torres Vedras revolt sought to overthrow.
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Monarchist prisoner held in Funchal in 1919.
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Monarchist prisoner of 1919 who escaped from the Funchal lazaretto to Las Palmas.
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Sportsman and owner of the launch Glafiberta who organised the 1919 escape of eight prisoners and left with them.
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Former minister among the monarchist prisoners held in Funchal in 1919.
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Former colonel among the 1919 monarchist prisoners in Funchal.
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Monarchist prisoner held in Funchal in 1919.
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Lawyer deported to Madeira in 1844 after the Torres Vedras revolt.
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Judge of the Commercial Court deported to Madeira in 1844.
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Canon deported to Madeira in 1844 after the Torres Vedras revolt.
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Monarchist prisoner held in Funchal in 1919.