Antônio Pedro de Carvalho Borges

Antônio Pedro de Carvalho Borges began his career in the armed services before becoming a diplomat. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1824, he studied mathematics, entered the navy, and transferred to the army's engineering service. His early work included surveying and mapping in the region of the Uruguay River. Diplomatic assignments from 1859 took him to northern South America, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina before Washington. ¹

In 1873 naval minister Joaquim Delfino Ribeiro da Luz received maps, drawings, and information about lighthouses that Carvalho Borges had obtained from Admiral Thornton Jenkins. The material was passed to engineer Zósimo Barroso and then to the naval library. In 1876 Borges chaired Brazil's executive commission for the Philadelphia exhibition, where Lopes Neto managed much of the daily organization. ^{2, 3}

Borges pressed Washington over the protection of Brazilian currency printed in New York. In February 1878 he pointed out that American law covered counterfeiting foreign banknotes but did not adequately cover notes issued directly by a foreign treasury. In May 1880 he challenged an additional tonnage charge imposed on the Brazilian vessel Foster. He argued that the established reciprocal practice exempted Brazilian vessels and warned that equivalent treatment of American ships in Brazil would damage both countries' commerce. ^{4, 5}

After Washington, Borges served in Vienna and Portugal. He died in Lisbon in July 1888. ¹