From 1825 to 1830, he studied drawing, the humanities, French, and, for two years, he attended the School of Commerce [pt], a professional technical education institution of accounting.

From 1830 to 1833, he attended a three-year course of Mathematics in the Royal Academy of Navy [pt], in which he was distinguished with prizes of excellence.

Inocêncio Francisco da Silva became at this time a volunteer soldier in Terceira's ranks, until the end of the war the year that followed.

[1] During his many years in the civil service, he used his spare time to start investigating into the history of Portuguese bibliography, and began assembling a valuable library – he started gathering materials for what would be a successor of what was then the only available Portuguese bibliographic reference work, Diogo Barbosa Machado's century-old Bibliotheca Lusitana (published 1741–1758).

[5] Inocêncio Francisco da Silva, choosing Demócrito as his symbolic name, joined the Freemasonry, a member of the masonic lodges "5 de Novembro" and "Pureza", rising to the degrees 7 of the French Rite and 33 of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.