This article in Portuguese

Independent discovery (?)

Inspite of that Brazilício thought that he had observed Comet 5D/Brorsen in March/April of 1885 and nothing was included in his notebook, it is possible that he discovered independently a comet in the constellation Bootes. The local newspaper Jornal do Commercio noticed the following on April 1,1885:

"An amateur astronomer informed us that while he was observing the sky last night with his binoculars [1], he discovered a comet too bright to be seen clearly with the oculo inspite of the moon's brightness, maybe easily [observed], even by naked eye, if the night were dark which will happen in a few days.
Our informer says that he supposes to be the comet Brorsen, whose period is 5.58 years, being observed in January 1874 and in August 1879, it should reappear in March 1885.
The comet is in the constellation Bootes having its nucleus in the direction of Arcturus until the star b [beta] and the tail bent in the direction of a [alpha] Corona Borealis."

The evidence that this “amateur astronomer” being in fact Brazilício are from the following facts:

a)  Although the author's name doesn't appear, the information previously published about the lunar eclipse on October 4, 1884  in the Jornal do Commercio from October 7, 1884 edition are very similair to the annotations from Brazilico's notebook.

b)  Information about Comet Fabry  are published in  its editions Jornal do Commercio  in May 7 and 12, 1886. The newspaper doesn't mention  the name of the collaborator  but identifies him as “a special friend of this capital and an expert investigator that goes far into space" and "an illustrious gentleman and distinguished amateur”. Comet Fabry's data available in the newspaper are practically the same as found in Brazilício's notebook. Read more (in Portuguese).

c) Brazilício begins to sign articles about astronomy in Jornal do Commercio under the pseudoname “Sufi Jr” from July 12, 1887 onwards.

Solving the question of  authorship of the observations from March 31, 1885,  it remains to be cleared which comet was seen  under these circumstances. Although Brasilício identified the comet as Brorsen, Brazilian Astronomer  Ronaldo Mourão informes us that periodic comet Brorsen was considered as lost  since the last observation in 1879
The American  Astronomer Lewis Swift made a catalogue of nebulae at this time and published his observations in Astronomische Nachrichten. The edition Number 2683 brought the first edition of this catalogue, where the object # 19 was observed on the April 6, 1885 with the coordinates RA = 11h 54 m 40s and Declination = +20° 2' 35" (1885) noting that the object was "n. of 2 st. which form with it a right angle triangle".

In Astronomische Nachrichten No 2707, Swift stated that the object # 19 mentioned previously was cataloged during an attempt to find Comet Tempel during the night of April 6, 1885. The clouds on the 7th didn’t permit observations. On the 8th Swift didn’t succeed in finding the object, the same as on the 10th and 13th  the same month. There was no register at Harvard College Observatory regarding this object. The object was very faint, but it was possible to observe it without difficulties. Swift  believed clearly that it was a comet, inspite of the declination not being that of Comet Tempel.
In his website specialized in comet observations Gary Kronk listed several unconfirmed discoveries of comets during the 19th century. Among them there is a mentioning of of L. Swift made in April 6, 1885.

The on-line catalogue of Maik Meyer shows a gap about the discovery of comets between September 17, 1884 (Comet 14P/Wolf) and the July 8, 1885 (C/1885 N1 Barnard). Meyer didn't mention anything about the  possible object mentioned by Swift. (Meyer have an updated version of his catalogue wich includes the Swift's object, X/1885G1).
Another comet that was being observed until the middle of April was 14P/Wolf but in April 1885 this comet was too faint (m1<10) and it wasn't  in Bootes.

In case being an indepentent discovery and assuming that the Brazilicio's object was the same of Swift's object, it shows a strong arch during 7 days. The article in the newspaper informs that the comet was easily observed using binoculars (oculo) showing a tail, even with the moonlight interference. But we haven't the exact position of the comet in the line between alfa and beta Bootis. Perhaps the comet might have been near rho Bootis, since it was situated near the center of the line alfa-beta Bootis.

Position 1  would be the object in March 31, 1885, based on the information of the Jornal do Commercio, while position 2 is the Swift's observation in April 6, 1885. The angular distance is aproximately 40 degrees, that means if it were the same object, its daily movement would be almost 6 degrees.

Brazilicio informs us in his notebook that the night of March 31 was a little cloudy. But between the days April 1 - 5 nights were cloudy. On the 6th there was an improve at evening, but the nights of April 7 - 17 weather continued bad. Perhaps these weather conditions didn’t allow him to repeat the observations.

Notes:
[1] in Portuguese "oculo" and "oculo de alcance" means any kind of optical instrument (monocular, binoculars, even a refractor). In this translation the word binoculars is well appropriate.

Main translation: Helga Szmuk
Final Revision: Alexandre Amorim

References:

KRONK, Gary, Cometography - http://www.cometography.com/unconfirmed/19th_century.html
MEYER, Maik, Catalogue of Comet Discoveries, 2002
MEYER, Maik, private communication, February 9, 2008
MOURÃO, Ronaldo R. de F., Dicionário Enciclopédico de Astronomia e Astronáutica, 1995.
SOUZA, José Brazilício, Agenda Astronômica e Meteorológica, 1882-1909.
SWIFT, Lewis, Catalogue No 1 of Nebulae discovered at the Warner Observatory, Astronomische Nachrichten, n° 2683
SWIFT, Lewis, Catalogue No 2 of Nebulae discovered at the Warner Observatory, Astronomische Nachrichten, n° 2707
Jornal do Commercio, 7 de outubro de 1884, p.1.
Jornal do Commercio, 1° de abril de 1885, p.1.(scans in Portuguese)
Jornal do Commercio, 7 de maio de 1886, p.1.
Jornal do Commercio, 12 de maio de 1886, p.1.
Jornal do Commercio, 12 de julho de 1887, p.2.