Simoes Raposo spoke in the name of the Freemasons; the Carbonaria Portugueza, a powerful secret society, was represented by Machado dos Santos, an officer in the navy.

The whole scheme was laid down in detail in a precious paper, in the keeping of Simôes Raposo.

Within minutes of each other, Bosco Souza Eremita of Santa Cruz, Flavio Raposo of Carenzalem, Oswald Pinto of Aldona and myself took up our seats on the bare sub-editor's table, learning the basics of a profession that some continued in.

"'We were at sea,' says Rodriguez, 'Father Francis, John Raposo, and myself, when there arose a tempest which alarmed all the mariners.