Edict published at Lisbon, by order of the King of Portugal

v6:1255

Being lately informed that the Colonies of English America, by an act published by the Congress held on the 15th of May last, do not only declare themselves entirely separated from the subjection of the Crown of Great Britain, but are already making laws by their own particular authority to resist the lawful authority of his Britannick Majesty, my good brother, friend, and ally:

And as such a pernicious example must be interesting to Princes the most indifferent, so as to deny all favour and assistance, directly or indirectly, to subjects who, in so publick and formal a manner, have risen against their natural Sovereign, I am pleased to order, that in none of the Ports of these Kingdoms and Dominions there be given pratique or entry to any ship which shall arrive there with or without a cargo, coming from the Ports of the above-mentioned English North-America; but that, on the contrary, they be driven from the said Ports in the same state in which they shall arrive, without any succour of any nature whatever being given to them. The masters of ships to whom an entry may till now have been permitted, in consideration that there was no motive for hindering them, shall have notice to go but of the said Ports with their ships within the term of eight days, without further prolongation; an examination being made before they go out, whether they have on board any Gunpowder or such Ammunition as I have already prohibited by my Royal orders, given on the 21st of October of the last year, at the Arsenal and the Consulado; and confiscating for the benefit of the publick works all such ships in which there may be found such prohibited Ammunition clandestinely and privately put on board as effects deemed by such a discovery to belong to Rebels. The Conselho da Fazenda to understand it so, and is to order this Edital to be printed and fixed up in all the publick places of the City of Lisbon, and the Ports of this Kingdom and of Algarve, that it may come to the knowledge of all, and no one may allege ignorance of it.

Palace of Nossa Senhora da Ajuda, 4th July, 1776.

With the Royal Signature.