JEQUITINHONHA, Francisco G6 Acaiaba de Montesuma (hay-ke-tin-yon'-yah), Viscount of, Brazilian statesman, born in Bahia, 23 March, 1794; died in Rio Janeiro in 1870. His father intended him to enter the religious order of St. Francis, and sent him to the convent in 1810, but he abandoned the cloister six months afterward and proceeded to Portugal, where he entered the University of Coimbra, and was graduated as a lawyer in 1820. In 1821 he joined a secret society called" Keporative," or "Jardineiros," and came to Brazil to establish branches of it. He did good service in the struggle for independence, and was obliged to escape to Reconcavo, where, in the town of San Francisco, he organized a provisional government. On 10 December, 1822, he was commissioner to the army in Bahia, where he issued the "Independente Constitutional" until the authority of Pedro I. was established. In 1823 he was elected to the assembly, but at the dissolution of that body he was imprisoned, and, having escaped, went to Europe. In 1831, when Pedro I. abdicated, he returned and published the paper "Ipiranga" in opposition to the absolutists, and the pamphlet "A libertade das Republicas" against the federal Republicans. In 1837 he was a minister in the cabinet of the celebrated Father Diego Feije, and in 1838 he was elected representative to the assembly. In 1840 he was appointed special envoy to England, and on his return exerted his influence to found the Instituto dos advocados, over which he presided till 1850, when he was called again to the assembly. In 1851 he was elected senator of the empire, and in 1854 the emperor made him viscount of Jequitinhonha. From 1855 till 1862 he constantly favored the emancipation of the negroes, and his eloquence was much feared by his opponents.