In the case of Horta, the previous governor (José Ferreira Nestor Madruga), had established measures prohibiting contacts with ships coming directly from the Continent.

[1] His substitute (Miguel António da Silveira), therefore, continued to operate in his capacity since the beginning of the year, until he was forced to cease these activities by the national directory of the Progressistas (Progressive Party).

[1] Quickly, in his role, he "tried to appease the Greeks and Troyans", namely "due to the polemic controversy around the plague and sanitary measures", he ordered a week later "the free circulation of all [shipping], except from Porto".

The lyceum had functioned since 1882 from a large house situated in the Largo do Bispo D. Alexandre, a property owned by Dr. Severino de Avelar, incidentally former rector, a surgeon and, what is more significant, leader of the district Regenerators.

[1] What occurred at the end of the December 1899 was purely political, whereby the Progressive Governor, certainly instigated by his party, ordered the school, already teaching since October, to be transferred to a new building on Rua Nova das Angústias, in the extreme south of the city.

[1] The local papers criticized this decision, since "the house did not have the minimum conditions for the installation of an institute of this type"; it lacked the number of halls for classes, an office space or library, and was located in Porto Pim, requiring the students to cross the port, the "rail-line where locomotives passed, moving material for the construction of the dock, which would cause disasters".