The mail from Lisbon, in ...
The mail from Lisbon, in addlition to the Gazcttes, which contain nothing of importance, yesterday brought letters to the 25th ult. A very groundless alarm was caused Yes- terday by a fact mentioned in the latter-viz., the arrival in the port of Lisbon on the 22d, of the French sloop of war ZI.nJtigable, M. H. de VILLENEUVE commander, vith troops on board, from Cadiz. This simple incident was magnified into a participation by France in the designs understood to be foemed by Portugal against Brazil. The truth appears to be, according to the best informa- tion, that this vessel had sick troops on board, on their voyage home from Cadiz to France. The accounts of the activity used by the Portuguese Government in the equipment of vessels for sea is renewed in these letters. The circumstance is variously explained ; one party contending that an expedition to Brazil is forthwith to take place, and that the force to be employed will consist of 9,000 men; the other, that the preparations have no other object than that of placing the Portuguese navy, which had been wretchedly neglected, in an efficient state. The expenses of a distant expedition, it is asserted, would by no means accord with the present resources of the Por- tuguese Treasury. By this arrival an explanation is afforded of the route of those ships of war alluded to in our paper of yesterday. The Princeza Real frigate, and Providencia brig, which sailed from Lisbon on the 5th of Alarch, arrived at Madeira on the 12th, in company witlh four other ships of vwar. They sailed from thence on their return on the 23d, and arrived at Lisbon on the 21st ult. It is supposed that the others proceeded to the Portuguese settlements at Angola, wvith some unfor- tunate perso.is on board, condemned to deportation for their attachment to the cause of the Constitntion.