Nogueiras (Viscount of)

Jacinto de Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos Moniz de Betencourt, 2nd Viscount of Nogueiras, was the son of Jacinto de Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos Moniz de Betencourt, 1st Viscount of Nogueiras, and of Dona Matilde Isabel de Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos Moniz de Bettencourt, the distinguished writer the Viscountess of Nogueiras, whom we shall discuss in this Elucidário. He became very well known here, and still is, as the chief protagonist of the grave events that took place on the beach of this city on 8 March 1868, which we have already described at some length in the article Popular riots. On the mainland of the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal) he became even better known among his contemporaries for his acts of courage and daring, as the hero of adventurous exploits that caused a resounding stir at the time. His contemporaries and companions in carousing included the Marquis of Niza, the diplomat Soto Maior and others. Ramalho Ortigão in the Farpas, Bulhão Pato in his Memórias, Augusto Forjaz in Livro das Feras, Luís Palmeirim and still other authors refer to Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos at length.

Nevertheless, few people on this island perhaps know that Jacinto de Sant'Ana held a prominent place in politics as a brilliant journalist and distinguished parliamentarian; that he was an inspired and admired poet; that, as a senior official of the Ministry of Finance, he published three highly notable works on economic questions; and that, as a diplomat, he represented Portugal in the United States of America, holding a place of distinction among the foreign ministers accredited in Washington.

Jacinto de Sant'Ana was born in Funchal in 1824. After attending the lyceum (state secondary school) of this city, he went, while still very young, to Rio de Janeiro, where he stayed for some years. There he devoted himself to commerce and also cultivated letters, publishing in that city in 1848 the translation of a French novel under the title Talismans. Around that time he began to be known for his bohemian life and the strength of his arm.

Around 1850 he returned to his homeland and enrolled in the faculty of mathematics of the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra), devoting himself, it seems, more actively to politics than to study. That same year he published the pamphlet O Grito do Povo, a tirade against the government of the Cabrals, which won great renown throughout the country. When Marshal Saldanha raised the standard of revolt in 1851, Sant'Ana was one of the university students most enthusiastic about the movement, and one of those who did most to bring the regiments that had accompanied King Fernando to Coimbra over to the Duke of Saldanha.

When the revolution triumphed, he abandoned his course and threw himself openly into politics, fighting energetically in journalism while at the same time, as has been said somewhere, ‘he proved a fearless boxer, causing an uproar in the easy life of Lisbon with his devilry as a scatterer of crowds. For a long time in the rest of his life Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos struggled with these traditions and memories of his youth, even though he had become one of the most serious, grave and prudent men of his generation, mastering his temperament so that he should not seem to bring his old fighting habits into political debate.’

Among the various commissions and public offices he held were those of secretary-general of the districts of Aveiro and Faial, official and head of department in the Ministry of Finance, career consul, deputy and Portuguese minister in the United States of America. He devoted himself to the study of financial and economic matters, publishing in 1863 an important report on the consumption tax, and in 1870 another study on the same subject, a volume of 247 pages that was regarded at the time as a work of great value.

He was deputy for the constituencies of Viseu, the island of Pico (‘peak’) and others. In parliament he took an active part in many debates, proving a distinguished speaker who handled the subjects he addressed with great proficiency.

In the press, too, he proved a brilliant journalist, sustaining attacks and polemics that became celebrated. He was at times violent and rough in debate, which was in any case the natural consequence of his ardent and restless temperament. He contributed extensively to O Português and A Revolução de Setembro. It was one of these disputes that provoked a duel between Sant'Ana and our foremost journalist, Rodrigues de Sampaio. Sampaio, who did not practise arms, wounded his opponent, who was a great swordsman and an excellent shot.

Besides the writings already mentioned, Jacinto de Sant'Ana published a volume of verse entitled Pátria e Amor, with a long preface by Latino Coelho. Special mention is due to the series of articles he wrote in A Revolução de Setembro under the title Cartas ao conde de Avila sobre materias eleitorais da ilha da Madeira, articles that caused the greatest sensation.

In 1875 he was granted the title of Viscount of Nogueiras, and shortly afterwards he left for the United States as Portuguese minister. He lived there for about 12 years, never returning to his country. In Washington he won a prestigious name and was regarded as a distinguished and able diplomat. He died there on 24 January 1888 and lies buried there.

Our readers will be interested to learn of some of Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos’s adventures, and so we shall draw on what Bulhão Pato published on the subject in his Memórias and Augusto Forjaz in Livres das Féras.

The author of Paquita credits him with no fewer than seven duels in Paris, one of them with a fencing master, in which ‘Sant'Ana was badly wounded and the fencing master was at death’s door.’

‘After six years of a whirlwind of adventures,’ the same author continues, ‘his father’s leniency wore thin, and he sent him off to Rio de Janeiro on a little wooden horse, which, as people thought at the time, was an effective remedy. He could already have said of him what the Count of Mirabeau said of the great orator: “My son – the hurricane!”’ ‘What Jacinto de Vasconcelos did in Rio de Janeiro was extraordinary!

Once, in a café, grappling with the capoeiras, after hurling stone jars and bottles like cannonballs and smashing benches to splinters, he went for the stone tables and threw them at his enemies! Only a few years ago the café owner was still showing the broken stones to customers who arrived from Portugal.

‘Another time – and this was the last in Brazil – Sant'Ana was watching a bullfight. A mulatto snatched from a young Portuguese man’s hands a dart bearing our flag, threw it to the ground and trampled it as an insult. Sant'Ana leapt into the arena, felled the mulatto with a kick and cleared the ring! The police came; he routed the police! As he left the ring, a troop of cavalry fell upon him: Sant'Ana, still clutching a pitchfork, threw himself at the cavalry! The commander drew a pistol from its holster and told him he would fire. Sant'Ana replied: “That will not go off!” And it did not! More troops came, more cavalry. Sant'Ana was finally arrested and ordered to leave, in the third canto of his Odyssey! The first had taken place in Coimbra, the second in Paris, the third in the land of the Holy Cross (Santa Cruz)! The fourth was to take place in Lisbon. ‘This man, who could clear a fairground, was an elegant gentleman of exquisite breeding, talent and lively wit! ‘…. In June 1851 Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos was appointed secretary-general of Horta, and the following year transferred to Aveiro. ‘Before he left, one night – it was summer, and Sant'Ana was going through a period of heroic calm – we went to the Martinho for ices. We gathered round a table: Mendes Leal, A. Pedro Lopes de Mendonça, José Maria d'Andrade Ferreira, Luís de Vasconcelos, author of a drama entitled a Cruz which was a success at the Dona Maria II theatre, António Correia Heredia and I. The last two are still standing; the others have all fallen. ‘Shortly afterwards a ship’s captain came in at the door, a man well known at that time in the Baixa set, accompanied by a tall, broad-shouldered, strong man. He was a German. The seaman had suffered a setback at Sant'Ana’s hands in Rio de Janeiro and still had the bone stuck in his throat, but he came up very amiably and introduced the German, who spoke French fluently. Sant'Ana received him with his characteristic courtesy. I, however, noticed something constrained about him. With his lynx’s eye he saw that the seafarer, a crooked sort, had brought the other along as a mastiff. After a few words Jacinto took his leave and was about to go out when the German suddenly grabbed the collar of his frock coat and tore it! Sant'Ana e Vasconcelos took a step back and punched him: the man went down flat! He got up, his face badly swollen, and charged wildly. Another punch, and the colossus was on the ground. He got up yet again and returned to the attack… Then Sant'Ana, in a surge of fury, seized him and hurled him over the table that stood beneath the large mirror! This time the aggressor lost consciousness. When he came to, he left, staggering, on the seaman’s arm. ‘Sant'Ana sat down panting, his nose pinched, his moustache bristling and his eyes flashing. António Heredia, who had known his fellow countryman, friend and kinsman since childhood, was nonetheless astonished at this act of bull-like strength! ‘After entering politics, Sant'Ana fought two duels: one with a Frenchman named Clavel, with swords, and the other with A. Rodrigues Sampaio, with pistols. Sampaio fired first; he hit him, and Sant'Ana very nearly did not leave the field alive. ‘Rodrigues Sampaio often said in my presence: “If my bullet had gone in just a tiny bit further, Sant'Ana would have been a dead man, and I would have carried a shadow on my heart all my life.”’

In the volume Livres das Feras by Augusto Forjaz we read the following: ‘Another episode in which he took part occurred in December 1859. The royal commissioner of the São Carlos theatre, Dom Pedro Brito do Rio, had engaged the two rival singers Marcellina Lotti della Santa and Fortunata Tedesco de Franco. One night, when the opera Lucrécia Bórgia was announced, the two ladies deliberately declared themselves ill. Factions formed, and Tedesco won over most of the theatre’s regular audience and almost the entire Lisbon press. Sant’Anna e Vasconcellos took up Lotti’s defence in the Revolução de Setembro. On the night of the 19th Tedesco reappeared; the great majority gave her an ovation, intending to receive the rival lady with hostility. Dom Pedro do Rio and his wife, Dona Maria Krus, were in a box with Sant’Anna e Vasconcellos, who calmly went down to the stalls. Approaching the group of demonstrators, he asked them to abandon the planned hostile demonstration. Only four refused, pleading the freedom of their heels. Sant’Anna e Vasconcellos then warned them with the utmost courtesy: “You gentlemen say you are within your rights to stamp your feet in protest. That may be so. But you gentlemen express yourselves with your feet, and I am accustomed to express myself with my arms. So use your freedom, and in the first interval we shall settle accounts between feet and hands.” ‘Marcelina Lotti della Santa was not booed. ‘At that time there was also published in Lisbon a satirical newspaper called O Asmodeu, which spared no unpleasant remarks about Dom Pedro do Rio, an honourable man and therefore incapable of bowing to the whims of the artists and of a certain public. Some spectators in the stalls declared themselves for or against the artists according to how generously they rewarded their applause. This demand of a particular public was called the molhadura [TN: literally ‘wetting’, i.e. a tip or bribe], and the royal commissioner could not prevent it. The editor of O Asmodeu, Marciano de Azevedo, took the side of those making demands, boasting that there was no watchdog that could frighten him. Sant’Anna e Vasconcellos took the phrase as aimed at himself, linking it to the failed demonstration against Marcellina Lotti. Seeking out Marciano de Azevedo in the stalls, he demanded an explanation. In the midst of the uproar the editor of O Asmodeu slipped away to the stage and shut himself in the dressing room of the dancer Emilia Bellina, who was extremely ugly and was said to be his mistress. Sant’Anna broke down the door with a punch, but when that fearsome-looking woman appeared before him he burst out laughing, adding that Marciano de Azevedo was already well punished by his relations with such a scarecrow....’ ‘His consular and diplomatic career was remarkable, and the country owed him no small interest and many benefits, above all in every matter relating to commercial expansion. I believe there exist in the archives of the ministries of foreign affairs and of finance some unpublished reports which well deserved to be published, since they served as the basis for several treaties and conventions... But since it is true, as it is, that those who do most are least appreciated, the patriotic work of Sant’Anna e Vasconcellos went unrecognised, to which his withdrawal from our political world also greatly contributed. ‘So long an absence had brought oblivion. His fine athletic figure had faded from memory through his lengthy stay abroad. When one day he returned for a visit, none of the younger generation recognised the brilliant poet, the incisive journalist, the distinguished orator who from 1851 to 1872 had attracted attention by his talent, his elegance, his humour and the episodes of his bravery. Jacintho Augusto Sant’Ana e Vasconcellos, Commander of the Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo) and of the Order of Charles III of Spain, nobleman of the Royal Household (fidalgo da Casa Real) and 2nd Viscount of Nogueiras since 2 July 1875, found his old companions and best friends in the peace of the grave. His hair was turning white; his body was beginning to stoop. The circles of his former society had disappeared, giving him the impression of being a stranger, sorely tried by the reverses of Fortune. One night in January, leaving the Dona Maria II theatre, he found himself alone. For him, who had known so many friends and enemies, devoted to the former and intimidating the latter, that isolation sent shivers down his spine. He went into the Rossio café, then in the former Mattos Moreira shop, in the building on the corner of Largo de Camões. He sat down and ordered tea and toast. At the table opposite, two rakes of the day, strapping, quarrelsome young men, burst out laughing. To them, knocking back glasses of cognac, that old man drinking tea and eating toast was a figure of fun. Sant’Ana e Vasconcellos smiled. Then he clapped his hands and ordered the waiter: “Bring two more teas and two more rounds of toast.” The young men’s mirth grew. What a magnificent bumpkin they had found in that bourgeois! When the waiter carried out the order and returned with the tray, Sant’Anna e Vasconcellos told him, in a loud voice, to place it on the table of the impertinent would-be dandies. In the packed room silence fell, for an imminent clash was foreseen, all the more so since the two young athletes, mocking the harmless waiter, had pushed the tray away with contempt. Sant’Ana e Vasconcellos rose and approached. His voice rang out like a bugle of war: “You gentlemen laughed because I take tea, being an old man. Now I am going to laugh at you gentlemen, who have not yet taken it, being a pair of overgrown children. My name is Sant’Anna e Vasconcellos. So, whether you like it or not, you must swallow that tea.” And under his menacing gaze the two obeyed, resigned.’