The growing importance of _Brazil_ was now shown by the elevation of _Bahia_ to the rank of a Metropolitan See, which should comprise the three bishoprics of _Pernambuco_, _Rio de Janeiro_, and _Maranham_. A Franciscan convent was, in the following year, established at _Bahia_, a movement which did not fail to elicit the disapprobation of the thinking portion of the community; since it is evident that in a new country of such immense extent any institution calculated to diminish the spread of the ruling race was opposed to the first principles of political economy. An establishment of Italian Capuchin monks at _Bahia_ likewise dates from this period. [Sidenote: 1682.] The city of _Bahia_ was in the year 1682 thrown into a violent state of commotion by the assassination of Francisco Telles de Menezes, the _Alcaide Mar_, who had used his position in so tyrannical a manner as to incur general odium. The assassin, Brito de Castro, who had to avenge an attempt upon his own life, took refuge in the Jesuits’ College. The governor, enraged at what had occurred, ordered the Secretary of State, Bernardo de Vieyra, brother to the celebrated missionary, to be thrown into prison. In vain his venerable relative pleaded for his release. The Jesuits’ College was, by the governor’s orders, surrounded by a _cordon_ of soldiers; and so intolerable was the state of things that one of the chief inhabitants of _Bahia_ was deputed to proceed to Portugal to make representations to the Crown, the result of which was that the _Marquez_ Das Minas was sent out to supersede the aged governor. The Secretary of State was declared innocent, and his brother, who was now between seventy and eighty years of age, was appointed Visitor of the province. [Sidenote: 1686.] Bahia was in this year visited by a fearful pestilence, of so virulent a nature that of two hundred persons attacked in one day only two recovered. It is remarked that the ravages of this disease were exclusively amongst the Portuguese, the natives escaping unharmed. It gave an opportunity for the display of much benevolence, one opulent widow, _Donna_ Francisca de Saude, opening her house as a hospital when the _Misericordia_ could no longer contain the sick, and providing for the patients at her own expense. All medicine having proved unavailing, recourse was had to the mediation of a saint, and to _Francis Xavier_ is ascribed the staying of the plague.