Francisco Xavier da Costa Aguiar de Andrada

Francisco Xavier da Costa Aguiar de Andrada began as a magistrate in São Paulo before entering diplomacy as an attaché. He became a secretary in London and subsequently served as a plenipotentiary in Europe and South America. His family connections included a sister who was Baroness of Penedo, and he received the title Baron of Aguiar de Andrada in 1876. ¹

After the Paraguayan War, Aguiar de Andrada directed negotiations in the River Plate region as plenipotentiary. Luiz Augusto de Pádua Fleury managed the Buenos Aires legation in 1875–1876 under him. Historian Gabriel Passetti distinguishes Fleury’s administrative duties from Andrada’s negotiating authority. ²

His final assignment was the special mission in Washington dealing with the disputed Brazil–Argentina frontier known as the Palmas or Missions question. He died before that arbitration was concluded. Although an often repeated biographical reference places his death in 1892, Salvador de Mendonça's contemporary notification to Secretary of State Walter Gresham states that he died suddenly in Washington on the evening of 25 March 1893. ^{1, 3}