The Unlikely Protagonist - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 31

celebrity. The event caused a sensation, with the Gazeta do Rio carrying the debates
aboutthemeaningoftheactinitspages,includingcommentarybythefamousabolition-
ist Joaquim Nabuco (who felt that the government ought not to permit its military insti-
tutions to become hotbeds of insurgency) and by Minister Coelho. The Paulista papers,
such as the Província de São Paulo , saw the incident as highly significant and indicat-
ive of antimonarchist sentiment within the military. The monarchist papers, on the other
hand, viewed the outburst paternalistically: an apolitical eruption that was symptomatic
of the end of term—too much late-night studying, poor diet, and anguish over exams. 73
Whilethemeaningoftheactwasparsedtoitsminutedetails,daCunhawasoutofthe
military. By late November, through the good offices of Constant, he was sent down to
São Paulo to work on the republican mouthpiece A Província de São Paulo , owned by
Francisco Mesquita, who would become an influential patron, protector, and publisher
of da Cunha throughout his life. The young man wrote scathing articles under name of
Proudhom,aftertheFrenchanarchist,forthisnewspaper.HewouldlaterreturntoRioto
completeadegreeincivilengineeringinlateJanuary1889andtoprepareforrevolution.
Figure 2.2. Cadet Euclides.
The monarchy was crumbling. On November 9, 1889, a bit more than one hundred
years after the French Revolution and just a little more than a year after da Cunha's dis-
play, Benjamin Constant was empowered to develop the plan for the coup that was to
occur a few days later, on November 15. The palace forces mutinied, and the army, un-
der Floriano Peixoto, refused to obey the order of the prime minister. The immensely
popular Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca was placed in power as a military government in-
augurated the First Republic.
The iridescent warm fogs of the coast and of history flowed softly around Praia Ver-
melha, where the military trained its elite recruits in that distant time. Emperor Dom