João Maria Ferreira do Amaral

João Maria Ferreira do Amaral (Lisbon, Alcântara, 4 March 1803 - Macau, 22 August 1849) was a Portuguese military and politician.

Background

He was the first son of Francisco Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral, born in Lisbon, Alcântara, on 3 May 1773, whose male line was de Macedo, a Fidalgo of the Royal Household and a Sergeant of the Portuguese Army and the Portuguese Legion during the Napoleonic Wars who died frozen at the French Invasion of Russia, where he might have been promoted to Alférez, in the Winter of 1812, and wife, married in Lisbon, Alcântara, on 4 February 1801, Ana Isabel Cirila de Mendonça, and older brother of Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral, born in Lisbon, Alcântara, on 15 October 1804, and Francisca Ferreira do Amaral, born in Lisbon, Alcântara, on 10 May 1805, both without further notice.

Career

A distinguished and valliant Officer of the Portuguese Royal Fleet, he lived a military career full of peripetias and gallantries. In 1821 he was a Midshipman and started his brilliant military career at the Fleet which, in Brazil, defended the rights of Portugal. In that campaign he lost his right arm in battle. After it was amputated, while he was smoking a cigar, he threw his limb to the air, threw it and shout Viva Portugal! (Long live Portugal!).

He was a Captain of Sea and War, Knight Fidalgo of the Royal Household, etc.

On 21 April 1846, being a Deputy for Angola, he was appointed 79th Governor of Macau. There he resister for three years, between 1846 and...
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