3667. Robert Southey to John May, 8 April 1821⁠* 

My dear friend

I do not think the progress of Revolution in Brazil will be so rapid as to destroy the credit of Government, or materially to affect its finances for some time. Even from Para the surplus of the Treasury will be remitted to the Rio, till the people of the former place chuse to make themselves the capital of a separate republic. [1] The I hope & trust that your brother [2]  will recover what he has already hazarded, & surely he will not be so desperately imprudent as to incur any farther risque of the same kind. Meantime I look with much anxiety to the news from that country, far less for the kind of interest which I naturally now take in its fortunes, than in your account: tho, as I said before, there will be time for your brother to save what he has embarked, before the total wreck.

As many of poor dear Nash’s drawings relating to my family as I could describe & his representatives could ascertain have been sent for me to Harry’s; & among them I doubt not, are the three drawings of your God daughter, of which one was designed for you, one for himself, & one for me. Make your choice of these. Of the two which he took away in nearly a finished state, I know not which was to be preferred, – that in the lilac dress had most of the features, that in the redder one more of the character; – he expected to make the third of which the dress was not coloured when he went away, better than either. [3]  – I write now merely to say this, & to inclose proof of a more rapid progress in my autobiography. [4]  Remember me to all at your fireside, & believe me my dear friend

Yrs most affectionately

RS.

8 April 1821.