Brazil is interesting as the seat of Portuguese colonisation in America. Originally annexed to Spain by Pinzon, it was accidentally discovered a second time in 1500 by the Portuguese admiral Cabral, who, in an attempt to follow Vasco da Gama's course by the Cape of Good Hope to India, so greatly exaggerated the circuit which was necessary to avoid contrary winds and currents that he struck the coast of Brazil; it was then found that it lay within Portuguese territory by the agreement of 1494, and a few years later Vespucci was sent by Portugal to colonise it. After the middle of the sixteenth century it passed into Spanish and Dutch possession and was recovered by Portugal in 1640. On the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon in 1807, John VI. fled to Brazil, and it became the seat of government till 1821, when, on his father's return to Portugal, Pedro was left regent, and became emperor by a revolution in the following year; its independence was recognised in 1825. Plate VII., Fig. 43, shows a silver coin of Brazil struck in 1749 by John V.; the sphere on the reverse was the emblem adopted by Manoel about the year 1500 to typify the large additions to Portuguese dominions at that time. Fig. 44 is a gold piece of 4000 Reis with portrait of Pedro I. as emperor in 1824 and Fig. 45 a gold 10,000 Reis piece (the Reis having greatly depreciated by this time) struck in 1889, the first year of the Brazilian Republic. French colonisation is seen in the island of Haiti, in which, though discovered by Columbus, a French colony settled in 1690, and by the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 the part of the island known as San Domingo was ceded to France. After long fighting between French and natives independence was declared under Dessalines, who took the title of James I.; after his assassination in 1806, Christophe seized power and in 1811 became king of the largest part of the island; his portrait and assumed title of Henry I. are seen on the silver coin figured on Plate VII., No. 46. Pétion, ruler of the other part, was succeeded by Boyer who united the whole island in 1822. In 1844 it was again divided as at the present time. [Illustration: PLATE VII.] Plate VII., Fig. 47, shows an English Shilling countermarked by the Republic of Costa Rica, a practice which was much in vogue in Central America to supply the lack of small silver. Having become independent in 1821 Costa Rica joined in 1824 the Confederation of Central America and separated again in 1840. A gold Escudo of 1849 is seen on Plate VII., Fig. 48, on which is continued the type in use during the Confederacy. Guatemala, the head republic of this Confederacy, won its independence also in 1821; the Peso, or Eight Real piece, of the first year of the Confederacy, which is figured on Plate VII., No. 49, bears the mint-mark N.G. (New Guatemala). [Illustration: PLATE VIII.]