Antas (Conde das)

Major Francisco Xavier Pereira da Silva, later Count of Antas, who distinguished himself in the campaigns of freedom, was in Madeira in 1828 to assist the governor and captain general Travassos Valdez in the defense he was preparing against the attack of the Miguelist fleet. Pereira da Silva had arrived in Funchal from England on August 20, 1828, and was immediately tasked with the defense of some strategic points in the heights of Caniço, but the liberal forces were forced to yield to the invading troops, and that officer, along with Valdez and others, boarded the English corvette Alligator and sailed to England.