Varia fortuna d'um soldado portuguez. Offerecida ao publico pelo Brigadeiro Fidié.

Lisbon, Typ. de Alexandrina Amelia de Salles, 1850.. FIRST EDITION. Large 8°, later brown wrappers (small pieces missing, spine partly defective, rubber-stamped "3" in red on rear cover). Uncut. Light browning. Title page backed. In good condition. 116 pp., with 2 unpaginated folding plates [Documentos 6 and 7] following p. 40, (1 l. errata, 1 blank l.). *** FIRST EDITION of the author's protest against his dismissal from the post of Director of the Real Collegio Militar. It includes documents related to Cunha Fidié's service against Brazilian independence fighters in Piauí in 1823 (pp. 5-6 and Documentos 3-5 and 40-42, pp. 35-39 and 113-6). He defeated the Brazilian troops at the Battle of Genipapo. According to Borba de Moraes, some regional historians in Brazil refer to the struggle for independence in Piauí and Maranhão as "a guerra do Fidié."A second edition of Varia fortuna was published in 1942 at Piauí, "Edição comemorativa do 120º aniversário da Guerra da Independência no Piauí."João José da Cunha Fidié (d. 1856) entered the army in 1809 and fought in the Peninsular War. He served in Brazil in 1817 and 1818, then went to Madeira as ajudante de ordens for the governor in 1819-1820. In December 1821 he was named governador das armas of the province of Piauí, in northeast Brazil. Arriving at the capital, Oeiras, in August 1822, he marched to Parnaíba and fought with Brigadier Manoel de Sousa Martins against the advocates of independence. From there he was summoned to defend Caxias (province of Maranhão), but having been captured, was sent back to Oeiras, then to Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, where he was imprisoned in the Fortaleza de São Francisco Xavier on the Ilha de Villegagnon until Emperor Pedro I allowed him to return to Portugal.In 1825 he was named comandante of the Real Colégio Militar, and (after a stint as subdirector of the Arsenal in Porto) served as director of the Real Colégio from 1837 until 1848. During his tenure Cunha Fidié published Breves esclarecimentos acerca do Collegio mlitar, 1843. In 1854 he was promoted to tenente-general. *** Borba de Moraes (1983) I, 308. Innocêncio III, 393 (giving the date as "184-", and without collation); Aditamentos p. 201 (giving the correct date and collation). Martins de Carvalho, Dicionário bibliográfico militar portugues (1979) II, 169.  Porbase locates four copies, all at Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Jisc repeats British Library. KVK (51 databases searched) locates only the copies cited by Porbase.