Trained at the Jesuit college in Rio de Janeiro, he developed a power of literary improvisation which he indulged at the expense of the Portuguese whites and thereby stirred them up against him.

His enemies had him forcibly enrolled in a body of troops setting forth for the Colonia del Sacramento,[1] where he remained until 1762.

Taking minor orders he received a religious benefice, being attached as chaplain to the Casa da Supplicaçáo.

Although he was a mulatto, he obtained entrance into high society in the Portuguese capital: he could improvise cantigas and play his own accompaniment on the viol.

Well aware that his social status was uncertain, he retained his self-possession even in the face of the insulting attitude of the poet Bocage and others.