Don'Antonio^Lopez de Santa Anna. MEXICO MILITARY CHIEFTAINS, FROM THE REVOLUTION OF HIDALGO TO THE PRESENT TIME' COMPRISING SKETCHES OF THE LIVES raDALGO, MORELOS, ITURBIDE, SANTA ANNA, GOMEZ FARIAS, BUSTAMENTE, PAREDES, ALMONTE, ARISTA, ALAMAN, AMPUDIA, HERRERA, AND DE LA VEGA. BY FAY. ROBINSON. Kllustratcti feg ^rtodbe 3.3ottraits aiilj 2Sngrabiitfl». HARTFORD, CONN.: SILAS ANDRUS & SON. 1851. Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by E. H. BUTLER & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. g.^O'J / ilL PEEFACE. '7 While an invalid several years ago, and resident of more than one of the ports of the "American Mediterranean," I whiled away many weary hours in coUectmg materials for a far more elaborate work than this, on the history and the revolutions, not only of Mexico, but of the states of the southern continent. With this view I searched several con- ventual libraries, and found curious documents, which amply recompensed me for the time and labor thus expended. Circumstances which it is now unnecessary to refer to more particularly, had made me almost forget, and for a time entirely neglect this scheme ; when it was suggested to me, thaT for want of some such book as this, the peculiar policy of Mexico and its aen was almost unintelligible. Such was the occasion of this work, in which I have sought to present a fair vie\T of the past condition of the self-named repubHc, and to ( • ."e the origin of that series of events which have made it ' victim of successive revolutions, each of which has left the country in a worse condition than when the tenor of circumstances was interrupted by the preceding convulsion. I once knew a person who had passed the greater part of a long Hfe in the neighborhood of Niagara, without having seen it, and was ultimately induced to visit the great cataract, because a foot-race took place in its immediate vicinity. Similar in many respects seems the neglect by the people of the United States of the history of our neighbors, who have pre- sented to the world as many pure self-sacrificing men as any other nation, at the same time that they have perhaps exhibited in a short period more despicable characters than have disgraced the annals of any other people. Recent events VI PREFACE. have, however, rendered all that relates to Mexico important, and absolve me from any apology of this kind. I might make many acknowledgments of the sources whence I have drawn information of things, which occurred too long ago for me to have been a contemporary, or at least to have remembered them. Among the facts I have thus been enabled to present to the reader, are included no small portion of the life of General Guadalupe Victoria, from Ward's " Mexico," and a part of the history of the castle of San Juan de Ulua, from the "Life in Mexico" of Madame Calderon de la Barca. I have carefully read all the books of travels I could obtain, and also many minor sketches, for the most part anonymous ; a sheaf of letters in French and German, I have also been kindly permitted to examine, and from them have drawn many hints. The additional chapter will be found principally a collation of official documents, which it was believed would give a better idea of the present war than any sketch which could be crowded into so small a space as I was restricted to, when the course of my story had brought me to the days in which they occurred. Many of the opinions inculcated in this book, especially in relation to the peculiar ecclesiastical position of Mexico, may seem paradoxical j and it may not, therefore, be improper to state distinctly and precisely the idea sought to be conveyed. I have wished to show that it would not be less reasonable for the Roman Catholic to attribute to the Reformed churches the dogmatism and the crudities of many of the current isms of the day, which fritter aw^ay most of the essentials of faith, than is a disposition sometimes evinced to hold the Roman Catholic church responsible for the countless Indian super- stitions engrafted in Mexico on its traditions. There are many other points to which I would be pleased to refer, but as it is impossible to touch on all, I will end at once, dedicating to my countrymen these records of their enemies. F. R. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. — Mexico under the Viceroys. Extent of the viceroyalty of Mexico — Form of govern- ment— Taxes— The clergy— Education— Classes of the people — Topography — Political divisions . . Page 13 CHAPTER IL— The Revolution. Abdication of the Bourbons in Spain — Effects in Spain Effects in Mexico— Supreme central junta resigns— Change in the Spanish constitution — Insurrections in America — Vanegas appointed viceroy — Hidalgo . . 24 CHAPTER in. — The Revolution subsequent to the death OF Hidalgo. Guerilla warfare— National junta— Manifesto of the revo- lutionists— Morelos— Evacuation of Cuautla— Expedition against Oaxaca—Valladolid— Morelos defeated— Expe- dition to Tehuacan— Morelos taken prisoner— Executed 44 CHAPTER IV.— Revolution— From the death of Morelos, December 22d, 1816. to 1820. Dissolution of the Mexican congress— New Spanish con- stitution — Battles in Texas — Teran— Rayon— Nicolas Bravo— Guadalupe Victoria— Mina— Gloomy aspect of the revolutionary cause 57 Viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER v.— Don Augustino Iturbidk. Rise of Iturbide— His services in the Spanish cause — Plan of Iguala—O'DonojU— Treaty of Cordova— Iturbide pro- claimed emperor — Abdicates — His ''Statement" — ^Re- turns to Mexico — Arrested and executed — Republican constitution framed 76 CHAPTER VI.— Mexican Republic. Recognition by the United States of the independence of the revolted colonies of Spain — Congress of Panama — Mr. Poinsett plenipotentiary to Mexico — Treaty of alliance and commerce — Boundary question — Victoria president — Influence of Masonry on politics — Triumph of the Yorkino party 141 CHAPTER VII.— Santa Anna. Santa Anna — Mango de Clavo — Pronounces against Itur- bide — President — Zacatecas — Texan War — Revolution — Exile — ProclamatioUj &c 153 CHAPTER VIII. — Valentino Gomez Farias and Anastasio BUSTAMENTE. Farias an opponent of Iturbide — Elected vice-president — Attempts to obtain liberal institutions — Congress sus- pends its sessions — Farias banished — Returns to Mexico — Pronounces against Bustamente's government — His attempt defeated — Early life of Bustamente — Election to the presidency — Banished — ^Returns to Mexico — His second election to the presidency — Resigns . . .238 CHAPTER IX. — Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga and Don Juan Nepomuceno Almonte. Election of Herrera — Paredes pronounces against him — Herrera deposed — Paredes elected president — Deposed CONTENTS. IX — Imprisoned — Escapes to Europe — Almonte — ^Battle of San Jacinto — Almonte sent minister to England and France — His character 243 CHAPTER X. — ^DoN Mariano Arista and other General Officers. Arista — Jarochos — Campaign in the department of Vera Cruz — Duran' s insurrection — Insurrection quelled — Arista ordered to the Rio Grande — Ampudia — Battle of Mier — Naval action — La Vega 252 CHAPTER XI. — Don Lucas Alaman and Don Joaquin Herrera. Alaman — His personal appearance — Character — ^Visits Eu- rope — Appointed minister of foreign affairs — ^Reforms in the government of Mexico — Execution of Guerrero — Banco de avio — Revolution — Alaman again elevated to office — Bustamente deposed — Alaman establishes a cotton manufactory — His failure — Made muiister of foreign affairs in 1842 — Herrera — His character . . 266 CHAPTER XII. The City and Valley of Mexico— The Church . . .284 ADDITIONAL CHAPTER. Causes of the present war — Mexican spoliations — Annex- ation of Texas to the United States — Palo Alto — Resaca de la Palma — Monterey — Buena Vista — Vera Cruz — Cerro Gordo 304 NOTE. As the words pronunciar^ pronunciamento, and pronunciados are frequently used in the following pages, it may not be im- proper to define precisely their meanings. When any body of men, civil or military, declare their opposition to the govern- ment, and their intention to support any particular chief or principle, they are said pi'onunciar, to pronounce; they are called pronunciados, persons who have pronounced ; and their act is styled a pronunciamento or pronunciation. The two or three days' talk or powwowing which precedes the pronunciamento, is called el grito, or cry ; and when the whole is complete, the result announced to the world is said to be a plan. Such things are common in Mexico, where an obscure priest, the alcalde of an Indian puehla, and a non-commissioned officer of civicos or national guard, have more than once proclaimed a system or plan for the regeneration of the world. Erkatum.— P. 65, 9th line from foot, for I have read they. MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. CHAPTER I. MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS. Extent of the viceroyalty of Mexico — Form of goverment — Taxes — ^The clergy — Education — Classes of the people — Topography — Political divisions. By far the most beautiful portion of all the possessions of Spain in America, which extended from the mouth of the Sabine, with but few interruptions, except the Brazils, to the fortieth degree of south latitude on the Atlantic, and on the Pacific from the forty-second degree north to the fortieth south, was the viceroyalty of Mex- ico. It occupied a portion of the globe, towards which nature has • been peculiarly beneficent, where every mountain was the seat of mines, and where in contra- diction of the rule which condemns to sterility re- gions which abound in mineral wealth, every fruit of every clime grew in proximity. It was strewn with vast and venerable ruins, which even now astonish the trav- eller and reveal to him the monumental history of a by- gone people, the great resources and peculiar civiliza- tion of whom constituted but a portion of its power. The vice-kingdom of Mexico was of far greater extent 1* 14 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIETAINS. than the old Aztec Empire, and Galvez and Iturrigaray ruled over nations and countries of the existence of which Montezuma and his ancestors were ignorant. It em- braced people of many languages and habits, originally with different laws and peculiar creeds, all of which had been annihilated by a long series of oppression and reduced to one level, that of slavery and degradation. How this vast region passed under the dominion of Spain, is an important point in the history of the world, to the elucidation of which some of the most skilful pens and brightest intellects of the age have been employed ; but interesting as it is, scarcely comports with the plan marked out for this sketch — though from that conquest Resulted the fearful peculiarities of the ante-revolutionary rule, and indirectly the long series of atrocities which finally subsided into the present unsettled mi5-govern- ment, which so far has borne but the ashes and dust of turmoil and strife, instead of the wholesome fruit of order and free institutions. As it is, however, it seems indispensable to refer to the condition of Mexico under the Spanish rule, and to the events of its first revolution, before we touch upon the men who have influenced its subsequent destinies. It is the greatest curse of misgovernment that it destroys not only the present happiness of a people, but its future capacities ; and it is true that rarely has any people, which has been long oppressed, been able to establish a good government, until it had learned by a series of calamities, that freedom is not an absence of restraint, but a rule, the correct administration of which requires as many sacrifices, or as passive obedience, as the purest monarchy. This is obvious, when we remember that the difference between the freest and most absolute governments is but that in the first, the wishes of the in- MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS. 15 dividual must be sacrificed to the interests of a com- munity, in the second, the interests of a community to the wishes of an individual. ' The one is not more ex- acting than the other, though few are able to think this is the case, and hence originates not a few of the errors so fatal to new governments, in the establishment of which it has been necessary to beware of the example of the past not to take advantage of accumulations of its ex- perience. The history of all the revolutions which have yet occurred also teach, that those nations which have been most oppressed have had most difficulty in per- ceiving what course true wisdom prescribed to them ; a more striking evidence of the truth of this can no where be found than in the annals of the Mexican Republic. Mexico, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Chih, Cuba, and the other Spanish possessions in America were never known as colonies, in the sense attached to that term by Eng- land and France. They were not subject to the law of Spain, but were governed by codes prepared to suit what were considered their respective exigencies, and reference was made to the Roman law only in cases for which no provision w^as made in the several systems ordained for them. Each and all were in fact separate kingdoms, and were called such, with the exception of Cuba, and united formed that empire which enabled the successors of Ferdinand and Isabella to call themselves Kings of Spain and the Indies. At the head of each of these realms, except Chili and Cuba, which were governed by Captains- General, and Quito, at the head of which was always a Presidente, was a Viceroy, rep- resentative of royal authority, and, as far as the people were concerned, entirely irresponsible. They were ap- pointed by the real audiencia de las Indias, representing the imperial power, residing in Spain, and in many 16 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. respects the most peculiar body which ever existed. It was estabUshed in 151 Ij consequently very soon after the discovery of the American continent, and under the Rois Faineants of the house of Bourbon gradually usurped exclusive control of the Indies. As a legisla- ture, it issued all laws and regulations for the govern- ment of the Indies; in the exercise of its executive faculties, it made or confirmed all appointments, civil, military, and even ecclesiastical, and ordered or in- structed the higher officers, wdth regard to the perform- ance of their duties ; lastly, it was a supreme court of judicature, to which causes involving important ques- tions might be submitted for their final determination. It thus possessed all the powers of the government over these extensive realms. The assent of the monarch w^as, indeed, necessary to give authority to its proceedings, yet that assent w^as rarely, if ever, withheld ; and as va- cancies in its own body were always filled agreeably to its own recommendation, the whole period of its exist- ence might be viewed as the reign of one absolute sove- reign, ever sagacious, and ever adding to his stores of experience. The viceroy w^as but their creature, respon- sible only to them, and by a most tyrannical provision could only be proceeded against within a very short time after the expiration of the term for which he was appointed — five years. The viceroys were almost always nobles and courtiers, who came to Mexico to restore dilapidated fortunes, and generally returned effete with wealth wrung from the American subjects of their master. It sometimes happened they were willing to remain for longer terms. As these officers could scarcely be presumed familiar with the administration of justice, they were provided w^ith Fiscales or adminis- trators of various kinds, whom they were obliged to con- MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS. 17 suit before taking any important step ; each might act contrary to the opinion of his Fiscal, but the latter had the right to enter his protest, which might afterwards be submitted to the Supreme Council. Such a system car- ried out correctly would be bad enough, but in its ap- pointments the real audiencia seems to have forgotten that they owed any obligation to the people of Mexico, thinking them only beasts of burden bound to eternal vassalage, not only to the Spanish monarch, but to every Spaniard. Long, long after the establishment of this system, scarcely more than thirty years ago, it was gravely asserted in a Spanish legislative assemblage, that " as long as one man lived in Spain, he had a right to the obedience of every American," a paradox more ridiculous than any of the grave sayings of Sir Robert Filmer. In the long list of viceroys appointed to all the Indies (one hundred and sixty in America), but four were born on this side the Atlantic, and the proportion of other officers was quite as small. In 1785 the minis- ter Galvez referred to the fact that a few Mexicans held office in their own country as an abuse. The conduct of the audiencia and the officers they sent to America fully authorized the maxim which seems to have actu- ated the one in their forgetfulness of all humanity, and the other in the hopeless submission to the rule, that God IS IN Heaven and the King in Spain : from one they in- ferred there was no limit to their power, from the other no remedy for their wrongs. When we look at this state of things, can we be astonished at the condition of Mexico at the present time? When oppression does not force from its victims the fierce spirit of resistance, it evidently degrades those on whom it weighs ; when violence does not struggle with injustice, man is driven to cunning and subterfuge, and habits of fraud take pos 2 18 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. session of the whole mind, and those who have suffered from the tyranny of others are ever most prone to ex- hibit their own haughtiness and arrogance. Thus it is, that after expelling the Spanish oppressors, so few Mexi- cans are found worthy of the power they have won. As a check on the power of the viceroy, to secure the royal privileges, another officer was appointed an Intendente, the duty of whom it was to take care of the collection and application of the taxes, of the revenue of the mines, and the imposts, which were many and vexatious. Subordinate to these in each province was an officer, usually a military commander, called Inten- dente de Provincia, the powers of whom were those of a governor, and who was responsible to the viceroy. The provinces were divided into districts, each of which was superintended by a board called El Cabildo or Jiyuntamiento , the power of appointing which, either rested with, or was controlled by the higher authorities. The most serious check upon the absoluteness or the ambition of all the executive officers, were the Audien- das or high courts of justice, of which one or two were established in every kingdom. They consisted each of a small number, generally between three and eight, of Oidores or judges, aided by Fiscales, chancel- lors, notaries, Alguaziles or sheriffs, and other officers or agents. On ordinary occasions they were presided over by one of their own number, styled a Regent ; the viceroy was, however, ex-officio^ the President of the Audiencia established in his capital. The taxes we have said were vexatious, and it is a matter of mystery and surprise, how any people sub- mitted so long to such extortion. The chief of these, independent of the odious capitation tax or tribute, levied on the Indians, whether rich or poor, were the MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS. 19 almojarifazgo, or import duty ; the alcabala, on all sales of estates; the ??ii//io7ie, on the articles of daily use; and monopolies of all necessaries, whether of life or of industry, as salt, tobacco, quicksilver used in mines, &c. That under such a system, so crushing to energy and industry, the people became idle and nerveless, is not to be wondered at ; the wonder is, that they existed at all. The worst features of the two worst governments in the world, the Gothic rule, and that of the Spanish. Moors, had been combined to form the government of the mother- country, and its worst features had been care- fully preserved to oppress the native population of Mexico, in the code sent out to them by the supreme council of the Indies. Why they did not resist centuries before, we cannot imagine, since the military force con- sisting of regulars, w^ere nearly all Spaniards, and of native militia, neither class, however, at any time very numerous ; the government appearing to have but little dread of foreign attacks, and to place full confidence in the organization of its civil powers, for preventing internal disturbances. The ecclesiastical establishment was an important branch of the government of America, where it was maintained in great splendor and dignity. The clergy presented the same characteristics there, as in other countries w^here the Roman Catholic religion prevailed exclusively ; the inferior members being generally honest, kind, and simple-minded persons, loving and loved by their parishioners, while the high dignitaries were, for the most part, arrogant, intriguing, and tyrannical. The Inquisition exercised its detestable sway, unchecked, in every part of the dominions ; occasionally exhibiting to the people of the great cities, the edifying spectacle of an auto da fe, in which human victims were sacrificed, 20 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. to confirm the faith of the beholders in the power of the archbishop and the viceroy. Before the revolution, the diffusion of knowledge was studiously prevented. The charge of keeping them in ignorance was committed to the priests, who, v;ith the exception of the Jesuits, executed it with fidelity ; the few schools and colleges were directed solely by eccle- siastics, who excluded from the course of instruction every branch of study, and from the public and private libraries every book calculated to strengthen the mental faculties, or to elevate the feelings. In the year 1806, there was but one printing-press at Mexico, from which a newspaper was published, under the immediate direction of the government ; and as the Spanish newspapers, the only ones allowed to be imported, were devoted almost wholly to the movements of the court or the church, the inhabitants remained in absolute ignorance of all that transpired elsewhere. A few poems and plays, none of any value, and some works on natural history, or specu- lations, generally wild and baseless, on the antiquities of those countries, form nearly the whole of their original literature. The incomplete outline here given of the system by which Mexico was governed, at the time when that system was the most liberal, and perhaps, in general, the most liberally administered, may serve to afford some idea of the evils to which it was subjected before its separation from Spain — evils by no means productive of proportional advantage to the oppressors. A more minute review of the history of Spanish supremacy in America, would serve to show that, throughout the whole period of its existence, the wishes and welfare of the inhabitants were sacrificed to the interests, real or supposed, of the monarch or of his European subjects. MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS. 21 To secure these interests permanently was the great object of the government, and, unfortunately for Amer- ica, they were considered as being confined within very narrow hmits ; in fact, it had long been established as a principle, that to supply Spain with the greatest quantity of the precious metals, and to gratify her nobility and influential persons with lucrative situations fox themselves or their dependants, were the only purposes for which these countries could be rendered available without endangering the perpetuity of the dominion over them. The people were divided into seven great classes ; 1st, The old Spaniards, known as Guachupines in the history of the civil wars ; 2d, the Creoles, or whites of pure European race but born in America ; 3d, the Indigenes, or Indians ; 4th, the Mestizos, of mixed breeds of whites and Indians, gradually merging into Creoles as the Indian parentage became more and more remote ; 5th, the Mulattoes, or descendants of whites and negroes, and 7th, the African Negroes ; of these classes, the last named was very small, and the others were inter- mingled^ so as to produce crosses, to be defined by no possible degree of anthropological science. The white population was chiefly collected in the table land, near the centre of which the Indian race also concen- trated (near Puebla, Oaxaca, Mexico, Guanajuato, and Valladolid) ; while the northern frontier was inhabited almost entirely by whites, the Indian population having retired before them. In Durango, New Mexico, and the interior provinces, the true Indian breed was almost unknown. In Sonora it again appears. The coasts both of the Gulf and the Pacific, to the south, were inhab- ited by a race, in which there was a great mixture of Afri- can blood, from the fact, that to these unhealthy pro- vinces, the few slaves imported into Mexico were sent. 22 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. There they have multipled with the fecundity peculiar to the descendants of African parentage, and now form a mixed breed, peculiar to the tierra caliente, and unlike any other in the world. The mestizos are found every where, from the fact that but few Spanish women emi- grated early to America, and the great mass of the popula- tion is of this class ; and now too that a connexion with the aboriginal race confers no disadvantage, few pretend to deny it. The pure Indians in 1803 exceeded two millions and and a half, and next to them are the mes- tizos. At the time of the revolution the pure whites were estimated at one million two hundred thousand, of whom eighty thousand only were Europeans. These distinctions were, however, soon annihilated, and at an early day in the revolution the only distinction known was of Americans and Europeans. The events of the present war have so universally directed attention to Mexico, that its geography and topography are well known, and will excuse any more minute allusion to it than the following. The Cordillera of the Andes, after passing along the whole western coast of South America and through the Isthmus of Panama, immediately on entering the northern continent is divi- ded into two branches, which leave between them an immense plateau, the central point of which is seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. This elevation towards the eastern coast gradually subsides to a level with the ocean, but on the west maintains itself in its stern rigidity till it becomes lost in the ices of the north. This table land presents some rare vegetable phenomena. On the coast its tropical latitude exhibits itself in its pro- ductions, but the rarefaction of the air attendant on ele- vation gradually neutralizes this, until at the central points we find growing the productions of colder climes. MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS. 23 Thus Mexico, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas, enjoy a far different temperature from that of Vera Cruz, Tampico, and other cities on the coast. On the ascent from Vera Cruz to Mexico, Humboldt says that climates succeed each other by stories, and in the course of forty-eight hours we pass through every variety of vegetation. The tropical plants are succeeded by the oak, and the salu- brious air of Jalapa replaces the deadly atmosphere of Vera Cruz. The sky is generally cloudless and without rain, and a succession of hills, seemingly at some remote day the boundaries of lakes, are now the limits of exten- sive plains or llanos. The country is barren because it is dry, and every stream is accompanied with fertility. The first of these stories is called the tierra caliente, or hot, where the fruits and diseases of the tropics are pro- duced ; the tierra templada, or temperate, a term needing no explanation ; while far beyond the city is the tierra fria^ where the vegetation is alpine and the hills are covered with eternal snow. The present states of Mexico are nineteen in number : Yucatan, Tabasco, Chiapas, and Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Tamaulipas, St. Luis de Potosi, New Leon, Coahuila, Puebla, Mexico, Valladolid, Guadalajara, Sonora, Sina- loa, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Zacatecas, Durango, Chi- huahua, New Mexico, and the Californias. In several instances two of these are united to form one state. Thus was the country divided previous to the revolu- tion, and so it has continued ; with the exception only, that the governments of the Intendentes de provincias have now become states, and that some of the southern provinces have (as now they may) occupied a position difficult to define, now claiming to belong to Central America, now to Mexico, and again to be independent. CHAPTER II. THE REVOLUTION. Abdication of the Bourbons in Spain — Effects in Spain — Effects in Mexico — Supreme central junta resigns — Change in the Spadish constitution — Insurrections in America — Vanegas appointed viceroy — Hidalgo. On the 5th of May, 1808, by means of a series of fraud, and treason, which recalls to us the annals of that prince whom Machiavelli immortalized, Charles IV. of Spain, his son and rival Ferdinand VII., and the male members of his family, were induced to place themselves in the power of Napoleon at Bayonne, and to surrender, for themselves and their heirs, all right to the crown of Spain. Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of the emperor of the French, was immediately placed in the vacant throne, and a constitution promulgated for the government of the Spanish empire, by which the subjects of the American colonies were to enjoy all the privileges of the mother country, and to be represented by deputies in the Cortes or General Congress at Madrid. The nobles of Spain, effete with luxury and forgetful of the chivalry which had made them the admi- ration of Europe, submitted to the new authorities im- posed by fraud and violence on the nation, while the great mass of the people rejected the rule with scorn. Insurrections broke out every where in the kingdom, and Juntas or boards of direction were formed in every place for the support of the national cause. Success attends all popular movements. When a people rises in its might it is sure of success. The THE REVOLUTION. 25 attacks of the French were repelled with great valor ; at Baylen a whole army was forced to surrender, and those who kept the field began gradually to waste away, under the influence of what might be considered assas- sination, were not all things justifiable in a people fighting for its liberty and integrity. The country was at last partially freed from the pollution of the French, and a supreme junta established at Seville, to watch over the interests of Ferdinand VII., yet a prisoner, which claimed from every Spanish subject the same obedience due the monarch. The news of the captivity of the monarch and the abdication of the princes they had been so faithful to, produced in Mexico and in all the Spanish colonies a feeling of the greatest dismay. It shook loose the whole social system, it broke all the links of society, and revealed to all the necessity of some provision against the eflfects of convulsion not to be influenced or controlled by the action of persons on this side of the Atlantic. The feelings called forth were, however, various in character, and the only universal sentiment seemed that of opposition to the French. The dethronement of the Spanish Bourbons was first proclaimed to the people of Mexico on the 20th of July, 1808, by the viceroy, who declared himself deter- mined to sustain their interest in his government. This seemed a general determination throughout all Spanish America. In Havana the captain-general Somruelos decided on this course, in which he was sustained by the people, the ecclesiastical authority, and the army. In Buenos Ayres, Liniers, an officer of French extrac- tion, who had been made viceroy in consequence of the valor displayed in resisting the English invasion under Sir Home Popham, having exhibited some dispo- 26 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. sition to favor King Joseph, or at least to remain neu- tral until the difficulties of the peninsula should be set- tled, insisting that Buenos Ayres should be a dependency of the Spanish crown, was at once displaced, and Don Baltasar de Cisneros was sent to replace him by the junta. So it was in Grenada, where war was declared by the audiencia against all the partisans of Bonaparte, and at Popayan and Quito. Iturrigaray, the viceroy, soon after made known the establishment of the junta, and required the ayuntamiento to submit to its orders. The seed had now begun to ripen : they were yet faithful to Ferdinand ; he was still their monarch ; but they re- collected that Mexico and Spain were two kingdoms, that the Junta had no authority, either direct or by im- plication, in Mexico, and refused it obedience, at the same time recommending the establishment of a similar body, to be composed of deputies from all the local ca- UldoSj in Mexico, to take care of the interests of Ferdi- nand VII. in his Mexican possessions. Iturrigaray was inclined to give his assent to this scheme ; and judging from this fact and his great popularity, it is probable he was a kind, sensible man, too good for those with whom he had to deal. We may here state that in the ayunta- miento of Mexico there chanced to be a majority of natives of the soil. This action of Iturrigaray was of course opposed by the audiencia, composed as it will be remembered oioidores, Jiscales and the military and civil officers sent out from Spain, erected into a species of oligarchy and forbidden by law to marry with the children of the soil. Finding their remonstrances vain, the audiencia arrested the viceroy in his palace, and confided his functions temporarily to the archbishop of Lizana. The audiencia, by a system of bold and op- pressive action, drowned all opposition to the authority THE REVOLUTION. 27 of the central junta, which, on its becoming evident that the archbishop was incompetent, endowed it with all the viceroy's authority, until some noble could be found in Spain on whom it might confer the vacant ap- pointment. Thus things continued during 1809, a year of great distress in Spain, the French having overrun the whole country and the junta being driven to Cadiz, its last foothold, from Seville. The junta was now evi- dently incompetent, and it laid down its power. It how- ever previously summoned a Cortes, or council of the whole nation, which was to convene at Cadiz on the 1st of March, 1810, and in which the American kingdoms were to be represented as integral portions of the em- pire. As they could not be notified in time, the places of American deputies were to be filled temporarily by per- sons chosen in Spain. The supreme central junta having appointed a regency of five to administer the government until the meeting of the cortes in February, 1810, disappeared from history. The regency imme- diately addressed a circular decree to the different pro- vinces of the Indies, calling upon them w^ithout delay to elect their deputies, who were to be in number twenty- six ; this decree was accompanied by an appeal to the people, reminding them that " they were now raised to the dignity of freemen,'^^ and imploring those who would be called on to vote for the deputies, to remember that " their lot no longer depended upon the will of Icings , viceroys, or governors, but would be determined by themselves.''^ There was now no withdrawal ; the die was cast, the collars were cast from the necks of the slaves, and no event which could occur would rivet them again. Thus it seemed to the governing class in America, and to those who had so long submitted. The feeling of the former was that the existing government 28 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. was subverted; of the latter, that joy those only could know who had been taught that ^^ while one Spaniard remained, he had a right to govern the Ameri- cans.''^ The reverses sustained by the Spanish arms had taught the Mexicans to hope they would be able to free themselves from the control of the audiencia, the idea of popular rights not seeming to have entered their minds, while even the Spanish office-holders seemed to be divided, a large party wishing to remain neutrals, as had been done in the dispute between the first Bourbon king and the house of Austria. The people took ad- vantage of this ; parties were formed, and it become evi- dent that a slight spark would produce a general confla- gration. Rebellion had taken place in La Plata, which was suppressed, and in Quito, where the people over- awed the presidente, and a confederation of the pro- vinces of Guayaquil, Popayan, Panama and Quito arose, which professed obedience to Ferdinand VII. at the same time that it denounced the authority of the cen- tral junta. In all the American dominions, except Mexico, there had been difficulties ; and there, too, the match was burning slowly but surely. As the news of the Spanish disasters became known through Mexico, associations were formed far and wide to further the general scheme of independence of the Spanish junta or audiencia. The exertions of these, however, a watchful government contrived to foil, and by prompt action prevented more than one attempt at revolution ; as at Vallodolid, in May, 1810, where the conspirators were arrested, and we need not say, executed just as all had been prepared for action. At this crisis came Don Francisco Xavier Vanegas to assume the viceroyalty. He was the last man to whom, THE REVOLUTION. * 29 at this crisis, authority should have been confided ; he was brave, and valor was needed to enable him to fulfil the duties of ruler of a realm on the eve of convulsion, but he was passionate when he should have been careful, and hasty when every word should have been uttered with consideration and reflection. The mild Iturriga- ray might have restored quiet. Vanegas but hurried on the outbreak. He most imprudently continued, with greater vigor, the course marked out by the audiencia, and left to the people no hopes, but of resistance, or doing what never yet people did, resuming duties from which they had been released. The insurrection had been suppressed at Valladolid, the capital of Michoa- can, but oroke out in Guanajuato, where a remarkable man appeared on the stage. HIDALGO. Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was the Cura^ or parish priest of Dolores, a quiet and secluded town in the state, or as it was then called, intendencia of Guana- juato, midway between San Luis de Potosi and Guana- juato. He was a man of undeniable acquirements, who had read much and thought more, who was devoted to his duties and evidently anxious to promote a knowledge of the branches of industry then almost unknown in Mexico. He had introduced the silk-worm, in the rear- ing of which in 1810 his people had made much pro- gress, and had turned his attention to the cultivation of the vine, seeing, as all must who look at the peculiarities of the soil and climate of Mexico, that it was calculated to become a great source of wealth. Hidalgo was a man of books ; a mighty revolution had taken place 30 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. on the American continent, of which he could not he. ignorant, and the events of later date in Europe officially promulgated had awakened a deep feeling in the whole people, to which he was no stranger. A quiet, unam- bitious, meditative man, he was far in advance of the most of his countrymen, but might have continued to dream of freedom, yet restricted his sphere of action to his own cure, had he not been called forth by one of those personal wTongs, in all cases found to be the most powerful means of awakening man to a perception of the sufferings of his neighbour. It had ever been the policy of Spain not only to wring from Mexico and the other Indies the produce of their mines and peculiar wealth, but to prohibit them from the pursuit of all industry w^hich would conflict with the interests of the mother country. Therefore, except in one remote part of the country whence it could never be brought to a market, the production of wine and the cultivation of vineyards had always been prohibited in New Spain or Mexico. Hidalgo had planted around his modest curacy a vineyard, which he was, by a posi- tive order from the audiencia at Mexico, ordered lo destroy. The quiet student had planted his vines in his leisure hours. In his lonely life they had been to him as children. He would not obey, and soldiers were sent to enforce the order. The fruits of his labor were destroyed ; the vines were cut down and burned ; but from their ashes arose a more maddening spirit than pos- sibly even the vine had previously given birth to. This private wrong, added to the many oppressions to which he was subjected together with the mass of his countrymen, animated him, and may account for the stern, dogged, almost Saxon perseverance with which he began this contest, in which every chance was against THE REVOLUTION. 31 him personally, and in favor of his country, in the result. The dark spirit of the Spanish rule had met the only feeling which could contend with it, the resolution of a man who knew his country's rights and was deter- mined to maintain them. The whole people thought as he did, and it was not difficult to form a party to sustain him. It has been said that the pulpit and confessional were used by him to promote his view^s ; and if so, never were the powers which are sheltered by it, applied to ^^ purpose against which so little can be said with justice. Certain it is, that he used so little concealment that AUende, Aldama, and Abasolo, three Mexican officers in garrison at Guanajuato, and the first to whom he im- parted his plans, w^ere ordered by the superior powers of Intcndencia to be arrested. This mischance did not destroy the confidence of Hidalgo, who, having been joined by AUende on the 13th of September, 1810, three days after, on the anniversary almost of the arrest of Iturrigaray two years before, commenced the revolt by seizing on seven Europeans living in Dolores, and the confiscation of their property, which he immediately distributed among his parishoners. There is a hackneyed proverb, that no man is a hero to his valet- de-chambre, and that a prophet is without honor in his ow^n country. This may be so generally ; but if so, it enhances the merit of Hidalgo, who was followed by all his parishioners. The news of his enter- prise spread wide among the people, who had evidently been waiting long for the signal to act ; so that within twenty- four hours, the patriot-priest was at the head of a force powerful enough to enable him, on the 17th of September, to occupy San Felipe, and on the next day San Miguel el Grande ; of which places the united population was more than thirty thousand. The property 32 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. of the Spaniards was confiscated, and enabled him to add yet more to his numbers. In this enterprise Hidalgo had unfurled a rude copy of the picture of our Lady of Guadelupe, whose shrine has ever been looked on with peculiar reverence in Mexico, and gave to his undertaking the air more of crusade than a civil war. Unfortunately, the worst features of crusades and pil- grimages were imitated by his followers. He wished to attack Guanajuato, the capital of the province, and the depot of the wealth of the Spaniards in that country. The chief of the province, Riailon, a great favorite in Mexico, and a man universally respected for his courage and humanity, w^as in com- mand of a large body of troops ; and as the population, seventy-five thousand men, had not as yet pronounced ; Hidalgo was afraid to risk the attempt. The people, however, began at last to give evidence of a disposition to take sides with Hidalgo. Rianon determined not to defend the city, but shut himself up with all the Euro- peans, and the gold, silver, and quicksilver in the Alhondega or granary, a strong building and amply provisioned, in which he evidently intended to defend himself. On the morning of September 28lh, Don Ma- riano Abasolo, one of the Mexican officers before referred to as partisans of Hidalgo, appeared before the town in the uniform of the insurgents, and presented a letter from the cura Hidalgo, ^<- announcing that he had been elected captain-general of America," by the unan- imous choice of his followers, and been recognised by the ayuntamientos of the towns of Celaya, San Muguel, San Felipe, &c. That he had proclaimed the indepen- dence of the country, the only difficulty in the way of which was the presence of the Europeans, whom it was necessary to banish, and whose property, obtained by THE REVOLUTION. 33 the authority of oppressive laws, injurious to the people, should be confiscated. He promised, however, protec- tion to the Spainards if they would submit, and that their persons should be conveyed to a place of safety. Rianon replied modestly, but decidedly ; and as he de- clined to capitulate, Hidalgo at once marched to the attack. His army consisted of twenty thousand men, but the mass of them were Indians, armed with bows, arrows, slings, machetes^ and lances. Arms of obsidian^ the volcanic glass so constantly referred to by the early historians of Mexico, which lay neglected since the days of Cortez, were now brought out ; and a stranger «!ontrast can scarcely be imagined than that presented Oy the Aztec levies, and the beautiful regiment of La Reina and a portion of the troops of Celaya, which had joined Hidalgo on his march to Guanajuato. The itrmy of Hidalgo immediately occupied numerous emi- nences, which commanded the Alhondega, and with their slings kept up such a rain of stones that scarcely a person could appear on the fortifications. The mus- ketry, however, did great execution, scarcely a single ball being lost, so dense was the crowd around the building. The whole population of the town declared in favor of Hidalgo, and the fate of the garrison was sealed ; though Rianon still persisted in his defence, which he prolonged by means of shells formed by filling with powder the iron flasks in which the quick- silver was contained, which were thrown by hand among the besiegers. The Spaniards at last, however, became confused, and resistance was given up. The great gate was forced open, and Rianon fell dead as all was lost. The number of persons w^ho fell in the defence and after it, is not known, and among them were many Mexican families connected by marriage with the ob- 34 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. noxious Spaniards. One family alone is said to have lost seventeen members; and the obstinate and pro- longed defence could only have been made by a con- siderable number. We wish we could close our eyes to what followed ; but justice requires us to mention that all in the Alhondega were slain. The Indians seemed to delight in repaying on their victims the grudges ot three centuries ; a matter of surprise to all, for they had lain so long dormant and submissive that it was sup- posed they had forgotten or become regardless of their former distinct nationality. This is not, however, aston- ishing, for the history of that people which has been enslaved and forgotten its lost freedom is yet to be wTit- ten. In the Alhondega was found a vast sum, estimated at five millions of dollars, the possession of which materially altered Hidalgo's views, and promised success to what had seemed at first to all but a premature attempt. The property of the Spaniards or Guachupines was sur- rendered to Hidalgo's troops ; and so diligent w^ere they in the lesson of rapine, that the Mexican troops of to- day, after thirty-six years of civil war, have scarcely improved on them. The action terminated on Friday night only, and on the next morning not one building belonging to a European was left standing. The greatest scenes of outrage were committed, which Hidalgo cer- tainly could not prevent. He, too, was a Mexican, wdth the blood of the aborigines in his veins ; though a priest, human, and smarting under recent wrongs, and it is doubtful if he wished to. Policy, too, may have influenced him. He himself, if unsuccessful, was doomed, and he may have wished all around him should so deeply dye their hands in blood, they would be com- pelled to abide by him in the contest which had begun. The siege of the Alhondega of Guanajuato was the Bun- THE REVOLUTION. 35 ker-hill of Mexico, and deserves the attention bestowed on it. Hidalgo did not remain long at Guanajuato, but while there established a mint and a foundry of cannon, for which he made use of all the bells found in the houses of the Spaniards. On the 10th of October he left Guanajuato for Valladolid, which he entered on the 17th without resistance, the bishop and the old Span- iards flying before him. The news of his successes had spread far and wide, and recruits joined him from all parts of the country. By universal consent he was looked on as the head of the revolution, and distributed commissions and organized boards, which yet more ex- tensively diffused his schemes and augmented the num- ber of his partisans. The city of Mexico was taken aghast at the capture of Guanajuato, in which, besides the mere town, much more had been lost. The prestige of tacit obedience had been broken, the whole country was in arms, and the depot of one of the mining districts had been sacked, yanegas, the new viceroy, who had been installed but two days previous to the outbreak, displayed great firm- ness and prudence, in spite of the persuasions of his counsellors, who utterly contemned the Mexican people, and maintained that the first tuck of the drum would put them to flight. This was but natural ; they had been long obedient, and persons who submit are always despised. It will be remembered that during the American Revolution, after more than one collision had taken place, persons quite as wise maintained that two regiments would suffice to march through the colonies. The viceroy ordered troops from Puebla, Orizaba, and Toluca, to the capital ; and at the same time, to con- ciliate the Mexicans, conferred important military com- 36 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. mands on many Creoles. In this way he corrupted one from whom much was expected, the Conde de Cadena, who forgot his country and died afterwards in defence of the Spanish authority. Calleja was ordered to march with his troops, a brigade, from San Luis de Potosi, against Hidalgo, who was excommunicated by his supe- perior, the bishop of Valladolid. As people naturally asked what offence he had committed to bring on him the ecclesiastical censure, the archbishop Lizana and the inquisition, against the authority of whom he was a bold man who would appeal, were induced to ratify this sentence, and pronounce an excommunication against any who should doubt its validity. The assistance de- rived from this spiritual power was more than neutral- ized by the conferring of offices on all the Spaniards who participated in the deposition of the viceroy Iturrigaray, whom the Mexicans considered to be a sufferer in their cause. This most injudicious course renewed all the feelings of disaffection which had been excited by the deposition of the viceroy, and was turned to the best advantage by the friends of liberty. When Hidalgo reached Valladolid he was at the head of fifty thousand men, and in addition to the numbers who joined him there, he was reinforced by the militia of the province and the dragoons of Michoacan, both of which were well equipped and in good discipline. The most valuable addition he received, however, was in the per- son of Don Jose Maria Morelos, also a priest, cura of the town of Nucapetaro, an old friend whom he knew well, and on whom he conferred the command of the whole south-western coast. On Morelos, after the death of Hidalgo, rested the mantle of command : and some idea of his enthusiasm may be formed from the fact that he set out, on the receipt of his commission, accom- THE REVOLUTION. 37 panied with but five badly armed servants, with the pro- mise that within a year he would take Acapulco, a feat which he absolutely achieved. On the 19th Hidalgo left Valladolid, and on the 28th reached Toluca, which is but twelve leagues from the city of Mexico. Vanegas had found means to collect about seven thou- sand men in and near the city of Mexico, under the com- mand of Colonel Truxillo, and the afterwards celebrated Don Augustino Iturbide, then a subordinate officer in the royal artillery. This force was defeated by the insurgents commanded by AUende and Hidalgo in person, on the 30th of October, at Las Cruces^ a mountain pass between Mexico and Toluca. Hidalgo's forces were supposed to have been in number not less than sixty thousand ; those commanded by Truxillo did not exceed seven thousand. In the first action, as might have been reasonably antici- pated, the royal troops were worsted ; the native regu- lars, however, behaved with gallantry and determination, and it was easy to see that the undisciplined and badly armed mob of Indians, of which the curate's army con- sisted almost entirely, would be unable to resist the attack of a force much larger than that which had been repulsed. In this action, it may be remarked, Truxillo com- mitted an act which was ever considered by the patriots to justify all their subsequent outrages. An insurgent officer with a flag was decoyed within gunshot of the royal lines and basely assassinated. This Truxillo boasted of in his despatch, and was justified and ap- plauded subsequently by the viceroy Vanegas, who main- tained that the ordinary rules of war were not to be observed towards Hidalgo's forces. Vanegas was, however, so much terrified at the near approach of the native army, that he, too, found it necessary to appeal to 2* S8 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. superstition; and having ordered the image of the Virgin of Los Remedios to be brought in great state from its famous chapel, besought her aid, and laid at its feet his baton of command. This may account for the often repeated story, that in a proclamation the Blessed Virgin had been appointed captain-general of the forces of the viceroy. The public accounts circulated in Mexico represented Truxillo as having gained a great victory, though circumstances compelled him to retreat, and recall to our minds some of the events of our own day. It is a matter of curiosity, that no Mexican general before or since the revolution ever could be induced to confess that he was defeated. Every preparation was made to defend the capital, against which Hidalgo advanced till he was in sight of the towers and domes, when he first halted and then began to recede. On this occasion his conduct has been gravely censured, and Allende, a true soldier, was, it is said, most indignant. His courage cannot be suspected ; he had witnessed, without attempt- ing to check them, too many excesses, for his conduct to be attributed to humanity and a desire to save Mexico from the horrors of a siege or an assault, neces- sary evils, which all who appeal to arms are aware can neither be vindicated or prevented. The true reason was, probably, that he could not conceive that the viceroy could collect such a force, and was aware that another victory like that of Las Cruces would be his ruin. His forces had committed all possible excesses, and had suffered from the batteries of Truxillo so fearfully, that he knew they could not again be brought to the charge. So ignorant were they of artillery, that they had attempted to muzzle the guns by cramming them with their straw hats, until hundreds had been thus slain. He was also THE REVOLUTION, 39 pearly without ammunition ; and we need not ask for more reasons. He therefore commenced a retreat, but on the 7th of November fell in with the advance of the viceroy's army, commanded by Calleja. The viceroy's troops were chiefly Creoles, who w^ere wavering in their duty; and it is stated on the authority of officers who served there, that had Hidalgo delayed his attack, there is no doubt they would have sided with their countrymen. This was not done; the battle com- menced, Calleja advancing in five separate columns, which broke the insurgent line and made all that followed a pursuit and a slaughter. The Creole troops now had chosen their course, and for many years continued the chief support of Spain and the terror of the insurgents. They seem to have been ever led by their officers, Cadena, Iturbide, &c., and it was not until the dethronement of the latter, when the Spanish flag v/as furled for ever in Mexico, that they seem to have remembered they had a country. We cannot but admire the consummate skill which enabled the viceroy to make men fight against their own interests ; and the history of this part of the Mexican revolution w^ll more than once recall to us that part of the history of Italy made famous by the crimes and the talent of the Borgia and Sforza. The number of Indians killed at Aculco is said to have exceeded ten thousand, but Hidalgo managed to collect a large army from the fugitives, and with most of the officers effected an escape to Valladolid. AUende retreated to Guanajuato, w^here he murdered in cold blood two hundred and forty-nine Europeans. Too much censure cannot be bestowed on this atrocity, which, however, will find a precedent in the history of most revolutions. At all events, it should not be ccm- 40 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. plained of by the partisans of the viceroy, Avho had officially announced, that the customs of civilized war did not apply to the followers of the heretic and rebel, Hidalgo. There is much excuse to be made for all insurgents, who are ever" treated as traitors until their success covers them with the glare of fame, if not the true gold of patriotism. Hidalgo arrived at Valladolid on the 14th of Novem- ber, whence he proceeded to Guadalajara, which his subordinates had occupied on the day of his defeat at Aculco. Here he w^as joined by the licenciate Ignacio Lopez Rayon, who afterwards became his recretary, and was to the establishment of a civil government in the provinces successively conquered by the insurgents, what Hidalgo and Morelos were in the military conduct of the revolution. Previous to the establishment of the junta of Zitacuaro, Rayon's first service, the insurgent was a man recognising no authority but arms, and their army but a band of men without any colorable authority. On the 24th of November Hidalgo made a triumphal entry into Guadalajara, where, though still under ex- communication, he participated in the Te Deam, in honor of his successes. It is here worthy of remark, that the native clergy generally sustained him in his course, and paid no attention to the ecclesiastical decree against him. Allende here joined him, and the two proceeded to provide artillery to replace the guns they had lost at Aculco. This was effected by bringing from San Bias, the great dock-yard on the Pacific, of the Spanish government, of which Morelos had possessed himself, a great number of guns, some of which were of heavy calibre, transported by Indians over the western Cordil- THE REVOLUTION. 41 lera, thought then impassable, and over which no road has as yet been constructed, except at a few widely dis- tant spots. Here he committed one of those actions which must forever stain his character. Upwards of seven" hundred Europeans who had remained quiet at home, were imprisoned and brought out by twenties and thirties at night, taken to quiet places, and murdered. This system he had commenced at Valladolid, where during three days seventy persons were beheaded in the public square, because tliey were Spaniards. There is reason to believe he intended to act on this principle throughout the war ; for, on his trial, an authen- tic letter w^as produced, written by him to one of his subordinates, in which he orders him to continue to arrest as many Spaniards as possible, and '^ if you find any among them entertaining dangerous opinions, bury tliem in oblivion by putting them to death in some secret place, where their fate may be for ever unknown." If this be from an authentic letter, we can but be thank- ful that Hidalgo's career was soon terminated. He had, however, lived long enough to accomplish his mission, to arouse his people, and to take the steps which cast his country in that sea of strife from which it could only emerge with the boon of independence. This atrocity so disgusted AUende, who was by no means mawkishly sentimental, that he was only pre- vented from leaving him by the approach of Calleja. The cannon obtained from San Bias were so nu- merous that Hidalgo determined, though he had but twelve hundred muskets, to risk a battle. Allende fore- saw the consequences of the total want of discipline, and sought to dissuade him. A council of war was called, and as these bodies generally decide incorrectly, he was -outvoted ; and the bridge of Calderon, sixteen leagues 42 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. from Guadalajara, was selected as the place of resist- ance and fortified. Calleja, after a delay of six weeks in Guanjauato, came in sight on the 16th of January, 1811, wheu a general battle took place, which realized all of Allende's predictions. The Mexicans were par- tially successful in the beginning, repulsing two or three attacks, in one of which the Conde de Cadena was killed. They were finally thrown into confusion by the explo- sion of an ammunition wagon, and compelled to retreat, w^hich they did in an orderly manner, commanded by Allende and Hidalgo, towards the provincias internas. Rayon returned to Guadalajara to secure the military chest, which contained three hundred thousand dollars. So delighted was Calleja at his success, that he did not attempt to pursue the insurgents, or to enter Guadala- jora until four days after the battle. For this he was made Conde de Calderon, a title under which he reap- pears in the history of Mexico after the lapse of ten years. The insurgent generals retreated to Saltillo, at the head of four thousand troops, and there it was deter- mined to leave them under the command of Rayon, while Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, and Abasolo, who had ever been the souls of the revolution, were to set out for the United States to purchase arms and procure the assistance of experienced officers. On the road, however, they were surprised by a for- mer partisan, Don Ignacio Elizondo, who could not resist the temptation of so valuable a capture. They were taken to Chihuahua on the 21st of March, 1811 ; where, from anxiety to extort a knowledge of their schemes, the trial was prolonged till July, when Hidalgo, who had previously been degraded from the priesthood, was shot, his comrades sharing his fate. With the cow- ardice and pusillanimity peculiar to weak governments, THE REVOLUTION. 43 an attempt was made to produce an impression that they repented ; but persons are now living in Chihuahua who testify that they died bravely and boldly as they had fought, and Hidalgo persisted in his conviction that the knell of the Spanish rule had been sounded ; that though the viceroy might resist, the end would come. He was buried in Chihuahua; and a few years since, before the breaking out of the present war, the place of his execu- tion was pointed out to a party of American travellers almost as a holy spot, sanctified by the blood of the fighting Cura of Dolores. None can deny his valor and patriotism, and his excesses were perhaps to be attributed as much to the character of the enemies against whom he contended as to himself. Had it been his lot to contend against a humaner foe, it is not improbable that he would have been merciful. The cause he fought in was holy, and it is therefore the more to be regretted that he suffered it to be suUied with unnecessary blood- shed. In the long roll of Mexican leaders we shall have occasion to refer to, one thing is sure : few, indeed, are less bloodstained than Don Miguel Hidalgo y Cos- tilla. CHAPTER III. THE REVOLUTION SUBSEQUENT TO THE DEATH OF HIDALGO. Guerilla warfare — National junta — Manifesto of the revo- lutionists — Morelos — Evacuation of Cuautla — Expedition against Oaxaca — ^Valladolid — Morelos defeated — Expedition to Tehuacan — Morelos taken prisoner — Executed. After the death of Hidalgo, the character of the contest changed its phase materially. Rayon maintained the command of the remnant of the army which escaped from the bridge of Calderon ; the Baxio was laid under contribution by Muniz and Naverrete, another priest of the country ; Puebla was taken possession of by Ser- rano and Osorno, and far in the valley of Mexico parti- sans were so numerous that there was no communication between the capital and the provinces above it ; even the sentinels at the gates of the city were not unfrequently lassoed. Notwithstanding this, the Creoles were unable to keep the field in any body, and the royalists con- trolled most of the cities. It is impossible to follow the separate chiefs through all the mazes of a guerilla war, when every day some partial action occurred, without any other result than a slaughter of prisoners, quarter being never claimed or given. Rayon, we have already said, appears to have been the first who saw the neces- sity of union, the only thing which could enable the partisans to oppose an enemy then conquering them in -detail. He conceived the iaea of a national junta^ to be created by some popular election, and to Ix THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 45 acknowledged by all the insurgent chiefs. As the seat of this body, he selected the town of Ziticuaro, in Valladolid, public opinion decidedly sustaining the insurgents in that province. With this view he occu- pied that town towards the end of May, 1811, and was lucky enough to repulse an attack made on it by Gene- ral Emperan, with two thousand men. He was enabled on the 10th of September, following, -to instal a junta or provisional government of five persons, elected by as many landholders as could be collected for the occasion, in conjunction with the authorities and people of the town. The principles propounded by- the junta were nearly those afterwards made famous as the plan of Iguala, acknowledging Ferdinand VIL, on condition that he would reside in Mexico, and professing a wish for an intimate union with Spain. This, however, was probably mere profession, as Morelos, who had pro- nounced in favor of the junta, had refused to ac- knowledge a king on any terms ; and Rayon defended the proposition, only on the terms of expediency, the lower orders not having as yet shaken off all respect for the royal name, though they were in flagrant rebel- lion against his authority. The establishment of this government was hailed with great enthusiasm by the Creoles throughout New Spain, which was never fully realized. The junta was no doubt honest, but its authority at first was not generally recognised; and when Morelos acceded to it, Calleja contrived to disperse its members. It was, however, the nucleus around which was formed the congress of Chilpanzingo, which gave consistency to the action of the insurgent chiefs. The manifesto it published is characterized with great moderation, and contained one proposition 46 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. which placed the insurgents in the best position before the tribunal of the world. It offered to conduct the war on the principles of civilized nations, and to prevent, the wanton sacrifice of prisoners. This docu- ment, which has been attributed to Doctor Cos, father of the present general, pointed out to Vanegas the cer- tainty of the final triumph of the patriot cause, boldly challenging the right of any junta in Spain to control Mexico during the imprisonment of the king; and finally proposed, if the Spaniards would lay down their offices, and permit a general congress to be called, not only their property should be respected, but their salaries paid. If they did this, the Mexicans would admit them to all privileges, recognise the king, and assist Spain in her struggle with their men and treasure. Had this offer been accepted, how vastly differently situated would Spain now have been ? She need never have placed herself at the beck of England to shake off the weight of France, or perhaps now have been forced to cast her queen at the feet of Louis Philippe, to disenthral herself from the influence of England. Mexico might now have been a crown-property of Spain, as devotedly attached to her as Cuba and Porto Rico — the only colonies she retains in America, because they were the only ones the central junta did not interfere with. Vanegas had the proposals burned by the executioner of Mexico, and thereby the destiny of two nations was decided. It now becomes necessary to refer to one repeatedly mentioned already, the history of whose life is that of the Mexican revolution from the death of Hidalgo to his own. Don Jo^e M.'iiia Moiek THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 47 MORELOS. When Hidalgo was in Valladolid in October, 1810, previous to the battle of Las Cruces, he was joined by Don Jose Maria Morelos, cura of Nucupetaro, a tov/n of that province, on whom he conferred a commission to act as captain-general of the provinces on the south- western coast, for which he set out with no other escort than a few servants armed with old muskets and lances. The first reinforcement he received was by a numerous party of slaves, who were eager to win their freedom ; and his exigencies were so great that the discovery of twenty muskets at Petatan was thought an especial mat- ter of congratulation. He was afterwards joined by Don Jose and Don Antonio Galeano ; and in November, 1810, was at the head of one thousand men, and marched against Acapulco. This, as is well known, was the great depot of the Manilla trade, probably the busiest town in Mexico, with a population as industrious as any people with Spanish blood and education can reasonably be expected to be. The possession of this city might in that quarter be expected to put an end to the strife. The commandant of the district, Don Francisco Paris, marched against him at the head of a numerous body of troops, and Acapulco was evidently to be no blood- less conquest. Though commanding an inferior force, Morelos did not hesitate to attack him, and under the cover of night, surprised and signally defeated the royalist force, Janu- ary 25th, 1811. The result of this battle was the posses- sion of eight hundred muskets, five pieces of artillery, a large quantity of ammunition, and Paris's chest, in which 48 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. was a large sum of money. At the same time seven hundred prisoners were taken, and, it is pleasant to sa}', treated with humanity. This was the first of Mo- relos's triumphs, and the base of the superstructure of fame he raised for himself. His success was not unno- ticed ; and having baffled the parties commanded by Llano and Fuentes subsequently, he became at once the idol of his countrymen and the terror of the Spaniards. Men of talent flocked to his army, among whom were Ermengildo Galeano, the three Bravos, two of whom were executed by Calleja afterwards, and the other sub- sequently was placed w^ith Victoria at the head of government in 1828. The whole of 1811 was, as we have said, consumed in a series of petty engagements, and by the great and successful efforts of Morelos to discipline his army, the mass of whom w^ere negroes. With such an army, he deserves credit for the humane manner in which he generally w^as able to conduct the war. After a series of successful actions, in January, 1812 Morelos pushed forward his advanced guard, under Bravo, to Calco, with outposts reaching to San Augus- tino de las Cuevas. Calleja had just defeated Hidalgo, and was summoned to oppose him with his his army, which Morelos was determined to fight at Cuautla Amilpas, about twenty-two leagues from Mexico. Calleja immediately set out to obey the order of Vanegas, to oppose Morelos ; but it is now necessary to describe the events which occurred on his march. The junta established by Rayon at Ziticuaro, was con- sidered by the Spaniards as their most formidable enemy, and Calleja was ordered positively to disperse it. On the 1st of January, after a march of great hard- ship, he reached this place, and on the 2d carried it. THE RETOLUTION CONTINUED. 49 The junta escaped to Sultepec, and Calleja immediately rased the walls of the town, after having passed a fort- night there in the examination of Rayon's papers. This was not all; the people were decimated, and every house, except the churches, burned. From Ziticuaro he proceeded to Mexico, into which he made a procession, and a Te Dmm in honor of his victories was sung in the cathedral. On the 14th Calleja left the capital to oppose Morelos, who, as we have said, was at Cuautla Amilpas. On the 18th of February the two forces first came in contact ; on which occasion Morelos, who had gone out to reconnoitre, was near being taken, and owed his safety entirely to Ermengildo Galeano. On this occasion Jose Maria Fernandez, afterwards known as General Victoria, first appeared on the stage. His father was a land-owner in the neighborhood of San Luis de Potosi, and when the cura Hidalgo first pronounced against the government, Fernandez, just twenty-two, had concluded his studies for the law. He immediately determined to adopt the popular cause, but did not declare himself until he saw a man appear, whom he thought capable of ruling the storm. As soon as Morelos became known he at once recognised him as the man he sought, and left Mexico to place himself under his orders. In this skirmish he received a severe wound and saved Ga- leano's life. On this occasion Morelos had the satisfac- tion to see his negro levies meet the Spanish veterans with a firmness which realized all he had hoped, but dared not anticipate. On the 19th, Calleja assaulted the town in four columns, with great fierceness. The Mexicans suffered him to approach till within one hundred yards, when they opened on them a fire which could not be withstood. The Spaniards fled precipitately, and Ga- 50 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. leaiio having discovered a Spanish colonel seeking to rally his men, sallied out, and in a hand to hand contest killed him. The consequence was, that all four columns were repulsed, after an action which lasted from seven A. M. till three P. M., and Calleja was forced to retreat, having lost five hundred men. So completely was he discouraged, that he wrote for a siege train to the vice- roy, who immediately complied with his request, and sent him reinforcements under Llano, who had previ- ously served against Morelos. The courier, however, who conveyed to Llano his orders, fell into the hands of the insurgents, and Morelos was informed of the approach of this body. He, however, was aware that all Mexico looked anxiously at Cuautla. He determined, therefore, to defend himself, and did so with the gallantry which was his characteristic. Llano was, when he received the viceroy's orders, about to attack Izucar, defended by Guerrero. During the revolution this general has received forty wounds, and undergone perils, his escape from which seem miraculous. In one instance a shell exploded in a house in which he was asleep and killed every individual but himself. Llano immediately de- serted this formidable opponent, and on the first of March joined Calleja. On the 4th both attacked the place with their batteries. The cannonade continued for a long time, but Cuautla held out manfully. The Bravos and Lorios attempted to attack Calleja's rear, but failed. Calleja attempted to cut off the small stream which supplied Cuautla with water, but Galeano, in his turn, contrived to thwart this plan. After various other attempts, which were sometimes made by one and then by the other party, Morelos determined to evacuate the town, which he did success- fully in the presence of a superior force, by a manoeuvrf THE REVOLUTION— CONTINUED. 51 SO peculiar, that it deserves especial mention. On the 2d of May, in the middle of the night, the troops were formed, the main body under command of Morelos, the van of Galeano, and the rear of the Bravos. They reached the Spanish lines and passed two of the batte- ries unobserved ; nor was it until they reached a deep baranca or ravine, that they were noticed. Over this they were obhged to construct a bridge, w^hich was done with hurdles borne by the Indians, so that a sentinel gave the alarm before Galeano was able to cut him down. Immediately on crossing the baranca, the column w^as attacked both by Llano and Calleja. This had been fore- seen, and orders given, should it occur, for a general dis- persion and to rendezvous at Izucar. So w^ell was it effected, that like the children of the mist, the patriots became invisible ; and the royal troops, completely amazed, began to fire on each other. Izucar was in possession of Don Miguel Bravo, and on his arrival there Morelos had the satisfaction to find but seventeen were missing ; among w^hom, however, was Don Leon- ardo Bravo, who was made prisoner. Calleja was for a long time afraid to enter Cuautla ; w^hen he did so it was to commit outrages which must ever stain his reputation. On the 16th the army returned to the capi- tal, and an attempt was made to magnify its achieve- ments into a triumph. Rumor had, however, preceded the army ; and every one knew the victor had first been defeated and then outwitted, so that Calleja was ridi- culed. Morelos had received a slight injury at Cuautla, which detained him some time at Izucar. On his reco- very he again took the field at the head of his troops, whom one of his lieutenants, the Padre Matamoras, had brought to a high state of dicipline. He successively defeated three Spanish divisions, and made a triumphal 52 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. entry into Tehuacan, a city of La Puebla, on the 16th of September, 1812. He carried the city of Orizaba by a coup de main^ captnring nine pieces of artillery and an immense booty in money and tobacco. On being driven by a superior force from that place, he undertook his famous expedition against Oaxaca, the most beauti- ful spot perhaps of all Mexico. At that time there were no roads in Mexi(;o except those connecting the great cities, and the army suf- fered much hardship on the march. The city was commanded by the Brigadier Regules, who sought to defend it. The artillery of the insurgents, commanded by Don Miguel Mier y Teran, having silenced that of Regules, he made a last stand on the edge of the moat which surrounded the city, over which there was but one drawbridge, which was elevated, and the approach to it defended by the royalist infantry. The insurgents having paused at this obstacle, Guadalupe Victoria swam the moat, sword in hand, and cut the ropes of the bridge unresisted; the battle was thus won, and the capital of the vale of Oaxaca taken possession of by Morelos. He then released all political offenders (and many were confined in the prisons), and set about the conquest of the rest of the province, which he completed on the 30th of August, 1813, when Acapulco surren- dered, having been besieged from the 15th of February by his army, now equal to any in discipline and effec- tiveness. The Spanish flag having been hauled down for ever at Acapulco, Morelos returned to Oaxaca, where Mata- moros had prepared all for the meeting of the national congress, which was composed of the junta ofZiticuaro, deputies elected by Oaxaca and selected from all those provinces in which the people dared not meet. This THE RKYOLUTION CONTINUED. 53 body convened September 13th, 1813, at the town of Chilpanzingo, and declared the independence of Mexi- co the 13th of November of that year. Had this event taken place earlier, it might have resulted in good ; but Morelos soon after had an enemy to oppose him, so numerous, that he was unable fully to protect it. We have mentioned that, at Cuautla, one of the Bravos was taken prisoner, and refer to it again to mention an act of forbearance which would do honor to any country. Several engagements having taken place, the patriots were in possession of more than three hundred Span- iards, whom Morelos placed at the disposal of Nicolas Bravo, to enable him to effect an exchange for his father Leonardo, the captive, then under sentence of death in Mexico. The whole of these prisoners were offered to Vanegas for Leonardo, whom the viceroy immediately ordered to be executed. The son, instead of making reprisals, liberated the whole body, and assigned as his reason for doing so, that he feared he might not be able to resist the constant temptation to revenge, their presence exposed him to. On the 18th of November, 1813, at Palmar, Matamoros defeated the Spaniards after a severe fight, which lasted eight hours ; cutting off the regiment of Astmias, which had been at Baylen, and won there the cogiiomen of invincible. This is not the only instance in which reputations won in the penin- sular campaigns, were lost in America. The capture of this regiment, composed altogether of Europeans, w^as considered to have finally destroyed the prestige of Spanish superiority, which had long trembled before the fierceness of the attacks of Hidalgo and Morelos. An expedition against Valladolid was agreed on, which would have placed Morelos in connexion with the insurgents of the provincias intemas, to effect which he 8 54 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. collected seven thousand men. At Valladblid, where he arrived on the 23d of December, he found Llano and Iturbide at the head of a formidable body of men, whom he immediately attacked, and by whom he was repulsed. On the next morning Iturbide made a sally which would have failed, the insurgents having after a short check been rallied. Unfortunately, a body of reinforcements for them, which arrived just then, were mistaken for enemies and fired upon. They immediately charged the force of Morelos. Of this scene of confusion Iturbide took advantage, and routed the whole army, which fled to Puruaran. There they were again attacked, and Matamoros made prisoner. The patriot forces being signally defeated, January 6th, 1814, Morelos sought in vain to exchange for Matamoros a number of the prisoners taken at Pal- mar, when the regiment of Asturias was cut to pieces. Calleja, however, was now viceroy, and was inexorable, ordering Matamoros to be shot. We cannot censure the fearful retribution taken by the patriots, who imme- diately, in retaliation for him and Don Valentino Bravo, ordered all their prisoners to be put to death. Morelos sent Don Manuel Mier y Teran to take com- mand in La Puebla, and Victoria to the district of Vera Cruz. This was a dark period to the patriots ; and after suffering several defeats, losing Miguel Bravo, who was executed, Galeano, who died in battle, and being unable to protect the Congress, which was driven from Chil- panzingo to the woods of Aputzingan, where, however, it continued its labors and put forth the constitution of 1814 ; Morelos was induced to undertake the expedition to Tehuacan, in Puebla, where Teran had collected a body of five hundred men. On this expedition Morelos had but five hundred men, and had to march THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 55 Sixty leagues across a country in possession of the loy- alists. Couriers he had sent to Guerrero and Teran were intercepted, so that these generals could not learn his position ; and the royalists having ascertained how feeble he was, attacked him on the morning of the 15th, in a mountainous road. An admirable writer thus describes what follows of his history : « He immediately ordered Don Nicolas Bravo to con- tinue his march with the main body, as an escort to the congress, while he himself with a few men endeavored to check the advance of the Spaniards. " < My life,' he said, « is of little consequence, pro- vided the congress be saved. My race was run from the moment that I saw an independent government established.' " His orders were obeyed, and Morelos remained with about fifty men, most of whom abandoned him when the firing became hot. He succeeded, however, in gaining time, which was his great object, nor did the royalists venture to advance upon him, until only one man was left by his side. He was then taken prisoner, though he had sought death in vain during the action. There can be little doubt that his late reverses had inspired him with a disgust for life, and that he wished to end his days by a proof of devotion to his country worthy the most brilliant part of his former career. « Morelos was treated with the greatest brutality by the Spanish soldiers into whose hands he first fell. They stripped him, and conducted him, loaded with chains, to Tesmalaca. But Concha (to his honor be it said), on his prisoner being presented to him, received him with the respect due to a fallen enemy, and treated him with unwonted humanity and attention. He was transferred, with as little delay as possible, to the capi- 56 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. tal, and the whole population of Mexico flocked out to San Agustin de las Cuevas, to see (and some to insult) the man, whose name had so long been their terror. But Morelos, both on his way to prison, and while in confinement, is said to have shown a coolness which he preserved to the last. Indeed, the only thing that seemed to affect him at all was his degradation ; a cere- mony humiliating in itself, but rendered doubly so, in his case, by the publicity which was given to it. His examination was conducted by the Oidor Bataller (whose insolent assertion of the natural superiority of the Spaniards to the Creoles, is said to have roused Morelos into action), and was not of long duration. On the 22d of December, 1815, Concha was charged to remove him from the prisons of the Inquisition to the hospital of San Christoval, behind which, the sentence pronounced against him was to be carried into execu- tion. On arriving there, he dined in company with Concha, whom he afterwards embraced, and thanked for his kindness. He then confessed himself, and walked, with the most perfect serenity, to the place of execution. The short prayer which he pronounced there, deserves to be recorded for its affecting simpli- city. < Lord, if I have done well, thou knowest it ; if ill, to thy infinite mercy I commend my soul !' " After this appeal to the Supreme Judge, he fastened with his own hands a handkerchief about his eyes, gave the signal to the soldiers to fire, and met death with as much composure as he had ever shown when facing it on the field of battle." CHAPTER IV. REVOLUTION— FROM THE DEATH OF MORELOS, DECEMBER 22d, 1815, TO 1820. Dissolution of the Mexican congress — New Spanish constitu- tion — Battles in Texas — Teran — Rayon — ^Nicolas Bravo— Guadalupe Victoria — Mina — Gloomy aspect of the revolu- tionary cause. The heroic days of the revolution thus terminated, and with Morelos apparently died all union, no one else seeming to have the power to induce the insur- gent chiefs to act in concert. Each province considered itself independent ; and in consequence of this fatal dis- union, though supported in many parts of the country by great military ability, the cause of liberty decidedly lost ground. Morelos always intended the congress to be a source of union, to which his lieutenants might look, as to himself, in case of accident ; but few of his officers recognised its authority as fully as he had done. On the 22d of October, 1814, the congress was driven by Itur- bide from Apatzingan to Michoacan, whence Bravo es- corted it to Tehuacan ; there some difficulties having arisen between the military and civil authorities, Teran, on the 15th of December, 1815, forcibly dissolved it. This act has been severely reprobated, but has been perhaps misunderstood. There is no doubt but that the congress was valuable as a point of union, but it is also true that the demands of this body would have ruined the district he commanded. Among other things, the congress appropriated eight thousand dollars a year for each of its members, and took the management of 58 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. the funds from the military commandant to yield it to one of its own officers ; which made Teran, whose ser- vices had been great, a mere dependant. The remoter chiefs having refused to contribute to this body, Teran was in self-defence forced to dissolve it. The effects of the dissolution of this only central government Mexi- co had yet had were most disastrous, and resulted in the crushing, in succession, of Victoria, Rayon, Bravo, Guerrero, and Teran, each of whom was unable to call on the other for aid. A multitude of minor chiefs shared the same fate; and the arrival of fresh troops from the peninsula enabled the viceroy to keep open a communication through the whole country, and almost to restore Spanish authority. To effecting this consum- mation, not the least important adjunct was the publica- tion of the indulto or pardon to all who would lay down their arms, which the viceroy Apodaca ( Villeja having gone to Spain ) was authorized to make, and which re- duced to an inconsiderable number the insurgents who yet kept the field. These reverses were, however, fully compensated for by the effect produced by the introduction into Mexico of the Spanish constitution sanctioned by the cortes of Cadiz, in which sat representatives from America to the number of fifty, while from all the rest of the empire there were but one hundred and thirty-two members, on the 29th of March, 1812. Some account of this constitution is necessary to the correct intelli- gence of the subsequent history of the Mexican war of independence. By its provisions the Spanish nation was declared to consist of all Spaniards in either hemisphere. Spaniards were all free men, born and residing in the Spanish dominions, and others to whom the same privileges THE REVOLUTION — CJONTINUED. 59 might be granted. Spanish citizens, who alone could vote, be elected, or be appointed to civil trusts and offices, were all Spaniards except those who were, by either parent, of African descent ; the latter might, how- ever, be admitted to those privileges under certain cir- cumstances. The government was to be an hereditary- monarchy, Ferdinand VII. being recognised as the king ; the powers of the state, however, were divided into three branches — the legislative, the executive, and the judicial — the attributes of each of which were dis- tinctly defined. The legislative power was to be exer- cised by a single body of deputies, chosen indirectly for two years, by the citizens, the king possessing only a limited right of veto upon its enactments ; the executive duties were committed to the king, who was aided by a council of state, and acted through nine responsible ministers; to the audiencias or courts alone belonged the application of the laws in civil and criminal cases. The territories of the empire were to be divided into provinces, all of which w^ere to be governed in the same manner by a chief, whom the king would appoint, and a provincial deputation composed of members chosen biennially by the citizens ; the basis of the national repre- sentation was to be the same in every part of the dominions, the number of deputies sent by each pro- vince being proportioned to the number of Spanish citi- zens inhabiting it. The council of the Indies, which had disappeared in the course of the great political tem- pest, was replaced by a minister of the Jdngdom beyond sea ; the press was freed from all restrictions, and from all responsibility, except such as might be imposed on it by the laws. In fine, throughout the whole Spanish empire, the same forms of administration were esta- blished, and the same civil rights were recognised, no 60 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHiiEFTAINS. privilege or disability being founded on birth-place or descent, except with regard to persons of African origin. The central government was empowered to delay the extension of the privileges in those parts of the dominions to which it should not be considered judicious to apply them immediately. The constitution was made known in some parts of America before, and in others after, the arrival of the forces sent from Spain to reduce them to submission. Neither the arrow nor the olive branch proved effectual for that purpose ; resistance was opposed to the former wherever it was practicable ; the latter was generally rejected with scorn, and when accepted was only used as a means of offence against those who offered it. Long experience of the falsehood and injustice of the Spanish government had rendered the Americans suspicious with regard to its concessions ; no confidence was placed in the sincerity of the cortes, in holding out these liberal terms, or in the power of that body to maintain the new institutions. Distrust was felt, if not expressed, by every thinking individual, and the patriots absolutely disre- garded it in America. It had been published there under the viceroyalty of Vanegas, who soon saw he could not maintain his authority in the face of this con^ stitution, and therefore, after two months, began to sus- pend provision after provision, till but its inanimate skeleton remained. It was, however, a concession which could not be revoked, and made the after revolution more popular and universal. The people had been deter- mined to make use of their new privileges, and made this virtual revocation necessary. We have previously neglected to mention that from time to time, in the northern provinces of Mexico, several attempts were made by persons coming from the United THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 61 Stales, either to co-operate with the insurgents, or to establish a new republic. During the year 1812 and 1813, several bloody battles were fought between the invaders and the royal forces in the province of Texas ; the latter w^re ultimately successful, but the islands in the vicinity of the coasts became places of refuge and rendezvous for pirates, professing to act against Spain under commissions from various independent govern- ments in America. It is impossible to follow in detail the events of this period, but it wuU be necessary to give some sketch of the military events, and of the leaders who intervene between this period and the rise of Iturbide. Teran, the first w^ho presents himself to us after the dissolution of the congress on the 22d of December, 1815, was engaged for some months in an adventurous strife, in which he was generally successful, though his efforts were cramped for w^ant of arms ; to obtain which, he made an expedition to the mouth of the river Guasa- coalco, where he was to be met by a vessel from the United States. To accomplish this, he had an escort of but three hundred men, having left the rest of his troops at a powder manufactory he had established at Cerro Colorado. Being overtaken by the rainy season, he made in ten days a road across the marsh leading to Amistar, which yet exists, and is acknowledged to be a most wonderful work. Thence he proceeded to Plaza Vicente, the depot of the Vera Cruz traders, and defeated a force of eleven hundred royalists, commanded by Topete, which attacked him on the 10th of Septem- ber. His plan for seizing Guasacoalco having been dis- covered, he returned to Tehuacan, where he was forced to surrender, January 21st, 1817, to four thousand troops, detached by the viceroy against him, and com- 62 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. manded by Col. Bracho, who besieged him at Colorado. He then lived in obscurity until the revolution of 1821 at La Puebla, his life having been secured by the terms of his capitulation. He has been minister of war and plenipotentiary to England in 1825. He had the repu- tation always of being a good officer, and commanded probably the best brigade in the patriot service. He has never recovered from the prejudice excited against him for his suppression of the congress, and therefore has not held office as often as his high talents would have entitled him to. He was but a short time since alive, and if now living, can be but little over fifty. Rayon had a far shorter career, and probably of all the men in the service was the most accomplished. He has been pointed out by those who knew him as an example of Cervantes' proverb, that the lance never dulled the pen or the pen the lance. He was one of Morelos's lieutenants, and exercised an independent command in the mountains of Valladolid, where betook advantage of the natural difficulties of the country and of the devotion of the natives to him. His principal strong hold was the Cerro de Corporo, in which he was besieged by Llano and Iturbide in January 1815, whom he beat off on the 4th of March. Corporo was after- wards besieged by Aguierre in Rayon's absence, and was surrendered January 2d, 1817. Don Ignacio Rayon was subsequently deserted by his followers and fell into the hands of Armijo, and was imprisoned in the capital till 1821. He was in 1828 a general, and occu- pied a high position in the esteem of the people. Amid the turmoils of the later revolutions he has disappeared from history. Nicolas Bravo was one of a family of patriots with ^'hom the reader is now familiar. After the dissolution THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 63 of the congress, he wandered at the head of his com- mand over Mexico, without being able to make head against any of his pursuers. When Mina landed (of whom more anon), he sought to fortify Corporo, but was driven from it by a royalist force, and afterwards taken by Armijo, in December, 1817, and confined in the capi- tal till 1821. After aiding Iturbide to establish inde- pendence, he declared against him when he dissolved the congress, and contributed greatly to his deposition. He ultimately became the first vice-president of the re- public, when Guadalupe Victoria was placed at the head of the nation. No one of the insurgent chiefs were pursued with such inveteracy, by the royal troops, as this general, whose position, in the province of Vera Cruz, was a constant source of uneasiness to the viceroy. From the moment that he was deputed by Morelos to take the eastern line of coast, (1814,) he succeeded in cutting off almost all communication between the capital and the only port through which intercourse with Europe w^as, at that time, carried on. This he effected at the head of a force which seldom exceeded two thousand men ; but a perfect acquaintance with the country, (which is extremely mountainous and intricate), and an unlimited influence over the minds of his followers, made up for all deficiencies in point of numbers, and rendered Victoria, very shortly, the terror of the Spanish forces. It was his practice to keep but a small body of men about his person, and only to collect his force upon great occasions : a mode of w^arfkre well suited to the wild habits of the natives, and, at the same time, calcu- lated to baffle pursuit. The instant a blow was struck, a general dispersion followed : in the event of a failure. 64 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEiTAINS. a rendezvous was fixed for some distant point ; and thus losses were often repaired, before it was known in the capital that they had been sustained at all. Nor were Victoria's exploits confined to this desul tory warfare : in 1815 he detained a convoy of six thou- sand mules, escorted by two thousand men, under the command of Colonel Aguila, at Puente del Rey, (a pass, the natural strength of which the insurgents had in- creased by placing artillery upon the heights, by which it is commanded), nor did it reach Vera Cruz for up- ward of six months. The necessity of keeping the channel of communication with Europe open, induced Calleja, in December 1815, to intrust the chief command, both civil and military, of the province of Vera Cruz, to Don Fernando Miyares, (an officer of high rank and distinguished attainments, recently arrived from Spain), for the special purpose of establishing a chain of fortified posts, on the whole ascent to the table-land, sufficiently strong to curb Victoria's incursions. The execution of this plan was preceded, and accompanied, by a series of actions between the insurgents and royalists, in the course of which Miyares gradually drove Victoria from his strong-holds at Puente del Rey and Puente de San Juan, (September 1815) ; and although the latter main- tained the unequal struggle for upwards of two years, he never was able to obtain any decisive advantage over the reinforcements, which the government was continu- ally sending to the seat of war. Two thousand Euro- pean troops landed with Miyares, and one thousand more with Apodaca, (in 1816) ; and notwithstanding the des- perate effiDrts of Victoria's men, their courage was of no avail against the superior discipline and arras of their adversaries. In the course of the year 1816, most of bis old soldiers fell : those by whom he replaced them THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 65 had neither the same enthusiasm, nor the same attach- ment to his person. The zeal with which the inhabitants had enofao^ed in the cause of the revolution, was worn out : with each reverse their discouragement increased, and, as the disastrous accounts from the interior left them but little hope of bringing the contest to a favora- ble issue, the villages refused to furnish any farther sup- plies ; the last remnant of Victoria's foUow^ers deserted him, and he was left absolutely alone. Still his courage w^as unsubdued, and his resolution not to yield, on any terms, to the Spaniards, unshaken. He refused the rank and rewards which Apodaca proffered as the price of his submission, and determined to seek an asylum in the solitudes of the forests, rather than accept the in- dulto, on the faith of which so many of the insurgents yielded up their arms. This extraordinary project was carried into execution with a decision highly character- istic of the man. Unaccompanied by a single attendant, and provided only w^ith a little linen, and a sword, Vic- toria threw himself into the mountainous district which occupies so large a portion of the province of Vera Cruz, and disappeared to the eyes of his countrymen. His after-history is so extremely wild, that I should hardly venture to relate it here, did not the unanimous evi- dence of his countrymen confirm the story of his suffer- ings, many of them heard it from his own mouth. During the first few weeks, Victoria was supplied with provisions by the Indians, who all knew and r^pected his name ; but Apodaca was so apprehensive that he would again emerge from his retreat, that a thousand men were ordered out, in small detachments, literally to hunt him down. Wherever it was discov ered that a village had either received him, or relieved his wants, it was burnt without mercy ; and this rigor 5 66 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. struck the Indians with such terror, that they either fled at the sight of Victoria, or were the first to denounce the approach of a man, whose presence might prove so fatal to them. For upwards of six months, he was fol- lowed like a wild beast by his pursuers, who were often so near him, that he could hear their imprecations against himself, and Apodaca too, for having con- demned them to so fruitless a search. On one occasion he escaped a detachment, which he fell in with unex- pectedly, by swimming a river, which they were unable to cross ; and on several others, he concealed himself, when in the immediate vicinity of the royal troops, beneath the thick shrubs and creepers with which the woods of Vera Cruz abound. At last a story was made up, to satisfy the viceroy, of a body having been found, which had been recognised as that of Victoria. A minute description was given of his person, which was inserted officially in the Gazette of Mexico, and the troops were recalled to more pressing labors in the interior. But Victoria's trials did not cease with the pursuit : harassed and worn out by the fatigues which he had undergone, his clothes torn to pieces, and his body lace- rated by the thorny underwood of the tropics, he was indeed allowed a little tranquillity, but his sufferings were still almost incredible : during the summer he managed to subsist upon the fruits of which nature is so lavish in those climates ; but in winter he was attenuated by hunger, and he has been repeatedly heard to affirm, that no repast has afforded him so much pleasure since, as he experienced, after being long deprived of food, in gnawing the bones of horses, or other animals, that he happened to find dead in the woods. By degrees he accustomed himself to such abstinence, that he could THE REVOLUTION— CONTINUED. 67 remain four, and even five days, without taking any thing but water, without experiencing any serious in- convenience ; but whenever he was deprived of suste- nance for a longer period, his sufferings were very acute. For thirty months he never tasted bread, nor saw a hu- man being, nor thought, at times, ever to see one again. His clothes were reduced to a single wrapper of cotton, which he found one day, when driven by hunger he had approached nearer than usual to some Indian huts, and this he regarded as an inestimable treasure. The mode in which Victoria, cut off, as he was, from all communication with the world, received intelligence of the revolution of 1821, is hardly less extraordinary than the fact of his having been able to support existence amidst so many hardships, during the intervening period. When, in 1818, he was abandoned by all the rest of his men, he was asked by two Indians, who lingered with him to the last, and on whose fidelity he knew that he could rely, if any change took place, where he wished them to look for him ? He pointed, in reply, to a mountain at some distance, and told them that, on that mountain, perhaps, they might find his bones. His only reason for selecting it, w^as its being particularly ragged, and inaccessible, and surrounded by forests of a vast extent. The Indians treasured up this hint, and as soon as the first news of Iturbide's declaration reached them, they set out in quest of Victoria. They separated on arriving at the foot of the mountain, and employed six whole weeks in examining the woods with which it was covered ; during this time, they lived principally by the chase ; but finding their stock of maize exhausted, and all their efforts unavailing, they were about to give up the attempt, when one of them discovered, in crossing a ravine, which Victoria occasionally frequented, the 68 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. print of a foot, which he immediately recogiiised to be that of a European. By European, is meant of Euro- pean descent, and consequently accustomed to wear shoes, which always give a difference of shape to the foot, very perceptible to the eye of a native. The Indian waited two days upon the spot ; but seeing nothing of Victoria, and finding his supply of provisions quite at an end, he suspended upon a tree, near the place, four tortillas, or little maize cakes, which were all he had left, and set out for his village, in order to replenish his wallets, hoping that if Victoria should pass in the mean time, the tortillas would attract his attention, and convince him that some friend was in search of him. His little plan succeeded completely : Victoria, on crossing the ravine, two days afterwards, perceived the maize cakes, which the birds had fortunately not devoured. He had then been four whole days without eating, and upwards of two years without tasting bread ; and, he says himself, that 'he devoured the tortillas be- fore the cravings of his appetite would allow him to reflect upon the singularity of finding them on this soli- tary spot, where he had never before seen any trace of a human being. He was at a loss to determine whether they had been left there by friend or foe ; but feeling sure that whoever left them intended to return, he con- cealed himself near the place, in order to observe his motions, and to take his own measures accordingly. Within a short time the Indian returned, and Victo- ria, who recognised him, abruptly started from his con- cealment, to welcome his faithful follower; but the man, terrified at seeing a phantom covered with hair, emaciated, and clothed only with on old cotton wrap- her, advancing upon him with a sword in his hand, from amongst the bushes, took to flight ; and it was THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 69 only on hearing himself repeatedly called by his name, that he recovered his composure sufficiently to recog- nise his old general. He was affected beyond measure at the state in which he found him, and conducted him instantly to the village, where Victoria was received with the greatest enthusiasm. The report of his reappearance spread, like lightning, through the province, where it was not credited at first, so firmly was every one convinced of his death; but as soon as it was known that Guada- lupe Victoria was indeed in existence, all the old insur- gents rallied around him. In an incredibly short time, he induced the whole province, with the exception of the fortified towns, to declare for independence, and then set out to join Iturbide, who was, at that time, preparing for the siege of Mexico. He was received with great apparent cordiality; but his independent spirit was too little in unison with Iturbide's projects, for this good understanding to continue long. Victoria had fought for a liberal form of government, and not merely for a change of masters ; and Iturbide, unable to gain him over, drove him again into the woods during his short-lived reign, from whence ne only returned to give the signal for a general rising against the too ambi- tious emperor. The history of the revolution now becomes identified with the life of Xavier Mina, who, while all in Spain thought the royal cause prospering, nearly ruined it. Among those who had been obliged to fly from Spain after the overthrow of the constitution by Ferdinand, in 1814, was Xavier Mina, a relation of the well known general of the same name. Burning with indignation and a desire of revenge, not only against the monarch who had, as he conceived, acted thus unworthily, but also, in fact, against the nation, which had so joyfully 70 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. seconded the shameful deed, this young man came to the United States, where he succeeded in obtaining the means of fitting out a small expedition. With this force he sailed from the Chesapeake on the 1st of September, 1816 ; and, after various delays at Port au Prince, Gal- veston, and other places, where he made small additions to his troops and equipments, he landed on the 15th of April following, with three hundred men of all nations, near Soto la Marina, a small place on the western shore of the Mexican Gulf, at the mouth of the river Santander, and about eighty miles south of the entrance of the Rio del Norte. At this time, the fortunes of the independ- ents in Mexico were in the ebb. The congress had published a republican constitution on the 22d of Octo- ber, 1814 ; but all the advantages which were anticipa- ted from this act, as a means of promoting union and subordination among the partisans of the cause, were lost before the end of the following year, by the seizure and subsequent execution of Morelos. While this devo- ted and energetic leader was in command, obedience was paid by all the insurgents to the orders of the con- gress ; after his capture, however, this body w^as regarded rather as an incumbrance than otherw^ise, and was at length forcibly dissolved, or rather dispersed, by Don Manuel de Mier y Teran, a young chief to w^hose charge its defence had been committed. The insurgent leaders then partitioned the country among themselves, and each from his fort or fastness kept the surrounding district in awe and trouble. Guerrero betook himself to the Pacific coast near Acapulco ; Rayon ruled in the moun- tains of Valladolid, and Guadalupe Victoria in those of Vera Cruz ; Teran established himself on the borders of Oaxaca and Puebla; the barbarian, Padre Torres, with his band ravaged the beautiful region called the THE REVOLUTION— CONTINUED. 7i Baxio of Guanaxuato, while Nicolas, the sole survivor of the gallant Bravo family, wandered about with his followers. The arrival of troops from Spain, after the restoration of Ferdinand, enabled Calleja, however, to keep up his chains of posts throughout the country, by means of which the insurgents were becoming daily more straitened, and their communications with each other were rendered more difficult. In 1816 Calleja returned to Spain, having been replaced as viceroy of Mexico by Don Ruiz de Apo- daca, a man of a comparatively mild disposition, who was charged to offer more favorable terms to the insur- gents. As his character was well known, those terms were readily accepted, and ere he had been in power a year, many, not only of the subordinates, but also of the chiefs of the independents, accepted the indulto, or act of indemnity proclaimed by him, and returned to the occupations of peaceful life. Among the chiefs who thus submitted, were Nicolas Bravo, Osourno, and Rayon, all of whom remained in obscurity until 1821 ; Victoria about the same time disappeared, and was believed to be dead, and the only leader of consequence among the insurgents who, in 1817, remained in com- mand, was the priest Jose Torres. The viceroy had received notice from Havana, of the approach of Mina's expedition, to intercept which, he had sent out several ships of war ; as he, however, could not learn where the invaders intended to land, his other preparations for defence w^ere necessarily of a general character. From these circumstances, Mina found little or no opposition at Soto la Marina, and hav- ing built a temporary fort near that place, in which some men were lefl as a garrison, he commenced his march into the interior on the 24th of May, and the first action 72 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. with the royalist forces took place on the 12th of June, at Peotillos, about forty miles from the city of San Luis Potosi ; in this Mina was successful, and before the end of the month he effected a juncture with the redoubtable Father Torres, in the Baxio of Guanaxuato. We cannot particularize the events of the short but brilliant career of Mina in Mexico ; brilliant it was, from the constant display of boldness, energy and courage, under difficulties which, as he could not but have seen within a short time after his landing in Mexico, were insuperable. The number of his followers increased but little; the natives who joined him being scarcely more than sufficient to supply the place of those who fell in cattle or from fatigue ; while on the other hand, they fought with the incumbrances of women and children; to crown all, Mina soon found that he was himself the object of jealousy and hatred, on the part of Father Torres. Concert of action was thus impossible ; the foreigners were viewed with mistrust and dislike by the people ; and except when their protection was wanted, were soon left to provide for and to defend themselves as they might. Meanwhile the viceroy was unremitting in his exertions to destroy them ; troops were gathering around them from every direction ; escape was impos- sible, and they had only to sell their lives as dearly as they could. The fort at Soto la Marina fell first ; garrisoned by only a hundred and thirteen men, under Major Sarda, an Italian, it was attacked by General Arredondo, the commander of the eastern provinces, with no less than two thousand regular soldiers. The garrison held out for some days, until at length, its numbers having been reduced to thirty seven, the fort was surrendered by capitulation, on the 15th of June. The terms of the THE REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 73 capitulation were of course disregarded ; and the unfor- tunate foreigners expiated their rashness and folly by imprisonment for the remainder of their lives in loath- some dungeons at Ulua, Ceuta, Cadiz, and other places. The Sombrero, a fort in Guanaxuato, occupied by a body of Mina's men, under Colonel Young, an Ameri- can, was also invested by a considerable force of royal- ists, commanded by General Lilian. On the night of the 19th of August, the able-bodied soldiers of the gar- rison, with the women and children, evacuated the place, leaving the sick and the wounded to the tender mercies of the Spaniards. Linan, however, having learned their intention, set upon them during their retreat, and killed the greater part ; he then butchered the wounded whom he found in the fort, and sent the prisoners, some to execution, others to join their comrades in their dun- geons. Mina had in the interval so far gained upon the feel- ings of the Mexicans, that he had assembled nearly a thousand men under his command. With these he at first established himself in another fort in Baxio, called Remedios, when he was joined by the remnants of the garrison of Sombrero ; and removing thence, he, in a short space of time, reduced several of the strongholds of the royalists. At length, on the 23d day of October, he ventured to attack the city of Guanaxuato ; having no artillery, his attempt proved vain, he w^as obliged to retreat and immediately found himself almost deserted. On the 27th, while reposing in a farm-house called the Venadito, he was betrayed, surrounded, and made pri- soner. The news of Mina's seizure was celebrated by public rejoicings and religious thanksgivings throughout Mexico. He was of course ordered to be instantly executed, and 74 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. was accordingly shot on the 11th of November, at Te- peaca, in sight of the fort of Remedios, which was then besieged by the Spaniards. That fort soon after fell, and before the year 1817, not more than twenty of those who had landed with Mina at Soto la Marina in April, were alive and not in dungeons. In reward for the success of his efforts in effecting the overthrow of Mina, Apo- daca was made Count of Venadito. After the death of Morel os, the dismissal of the Mexican congress by Teran, and the complete destruc- tion of Mina and his followers, the hopes of the partisans of independence rapidly sunk. The system of energy on the one hand, and of conciliation on the other, pursued by the viceroy, Apodaca, daily overthrew or disarmed the enemies of the Spanish authority. There was no longer among the insurgents any directing power, to which the various chiefs would bow ; each was absolute over his own followers, and would brook no interference on the part of another leader ; and combination of movements among them was rendered impossible by mutual jeal- ousies and mistrusts. Under these circumstances, the war gradually became merely a series of contests between the legal authorities and hordes of banditti, and the wealthy and intelligent part of the population began to look to the standard of Spain as the symbol of order, and there was every prospect that quiet would be gradually restored. The pride of the people had also been flattered by the employment of natives in offices of trust, profit, and honor ; in this w^ay the elevation of Don Antonio Perez, a Mexican priest, of great talent, learning, and character, to the high ecclesiastical dignity of Bishop of Puebla, had great effect in reconciling the inferior clergy, hitherto the most determined oppo- nents of European domination. The Spanish troops in THE REVOLUTION— CONTINUED. 75 Mexico at this time did not exceed five thousand ; there was, however, a large force of native soldiers, who were all well disciplined, and to secure whose fidelity every means consistent with prudence was employed by the government. The most prominent among the officers of this latter force, was Augustin Iturbide, a native of Michoacan, who had elevated himself to the rank of colonel, by his courage, his activity, and his ferocity towards the insurgents ; soon after the arrival of Apo- daca, however, he had for some reasons retired from the service, and devoted himself to the performance of religious acts, in which his scrupulous perseverance had caused him to be as much esteemed by the people, for the supposed sanctity of his character, as he had been before dreaded on account of its manifest ruthlessness. This was the man, whom the viceroy selected to carry into effect his scheme for maintaining the absolute authority of the king in Mexico. CHAPTER V. DON AUGUSTINO ITURBIDE. Rise of Iturbide — His services in the Spanish cause — Plan of Iguala — O'Donoju — Treaty of Cordova — Iturbide proclaimed emperor — Abdicates — His "Statement" — ^Returns to Mexico — Arrested and executed — RepubHcan constitution framed. This person was, at the period we have reached, the leading character of his country. When the revolution broke out, he was a lieutenant in the militia of Valladolid, of which province he was a native. He was very handsome, of elegant address, and with polished manners, as well as bold and daring. He was one of the first to look into the nature of the quarrel between Mexico and the mother country, and to adopt the cause of his native land. How this con- nexion terminated is now a mystery, two stories having been told, the one by Iturbide, that he was disgusted with their projects and refused to participate in them, in spite of the great offers they made him ; and the other by the insurgents, that he demanded more than they thought his services worth, so young and so little known as he was. One thing is, however, sure, the insurgents committed a great oversight, as Iturbide would have been an invaluable acquisition at any price. Be this as it may, all negotiations were broken off, and Iturbide joined the troops assembled by the viceroy Vanegas for the defence of Mexico in 1810, and dis- tinguished himself under the orders of Truxillo at Las Cruces. From that moment his rise was rapid, and his knowledge of the country and people rendered his Don Auorustino Iturbide. DON AUGUSTINO ITUUBIDE. 77 services invaluable in every expedition. As a guerilla chieftain his services were important, and he inflicted on the insurgents two of the most important blows they sustained, at Valladolid and Puruaran (where Morelos's army was defeated and Matamoros captured). He never failed but once, which w^as in the attack on Corporo in 1815 ; w'hen he was foiled, as will be remembered, by one of the ablest men Mexico has yet produced. He was appointed afterwards to a separate command in the Baxio, a rare honor for a Creole. In this command he sullied his high reputation by wanton cruelty ; writing to the viceroy after a battle he had won at Salvatierra, he says: ««In honor of the day (Good Friday) I have just ordered three hundred excommunicados to be shot!" Iturbide's friends deny the authenticity of this letter, but the original is said to be in the archives of Mexico. He, however, shared this reproach with almost all who were engaged in that war. He was afterwards recalled for rapacity and extor- tion, to Mexico, where he remained from 1816 to 1820, when Apodaca again employed him as the fittest agent to overthrow the remnant of the constitution, and sent him to the western coast, at the head of a body of men, with the assistance of whom he was to proclaim the restoration of the king's absolute authority. During his retirement, Iturbide had devoted himself to religious exercises, and extended his intercourse among the clergy, by whom he was highly esteemed, and through whose influence he regained much of the popularity he had destroyed by his cruelty. In the month of February, 1821, Iturbide left the city of Mexico to take the command of a large native force, ostensibly with a view to act against the insur- gents in the south, who, under Guerrero, were again 4 78 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. becoming formidable ; it is, however, supposed that he was really charged to keep in check the Spanish troops, who were principally collected in that quarter, whilst the viceroy should declare the re-establishment of the authority of the absolute sovereign at the capital. Thus far, we have stated what appear to have been the facts ; the remainder of Iturbide's proceedings are well known. On the 24th of February, 1821, he assembled the chief officers of his army at Iguala, and presented them a set of propositions for the institution of a national government in Mexico, which are termed in the history of that country, Tlie Plan of Iguala. The amount of these propositions was : 1. That Mexico should form an independent empire, the crown of which should be offered to the king of Spain, and, in the event of his refusal, to the other princes of his family in succession, on condition that the person accepting should reside in the country, and should swear to observe a constitution to be fixed by a congress ; 2. That the Roman Catholic religion should be sup- ported, and the rights, immunities, and property of its clergy should be preserved and secured ; 3. That all the actual inhabitants of Mexico, whrit- ever might be their birth-place or descent, should enjoy the same civil rights. These three propositions were termed The three Guarantees, and an army was to be raised for their establishment and defence. This plan is generally sup- posed to have been drawn up by the heads of the reli- gious congregation of the Profesa in Mexico, under the direction of the bishop of Puebla, who was one of the most attached friends of Iturbide ; the latter, however, always insisted that he himself had been the sole deviser DON AUGUSTIN ITURBIDE. 79 of it, although he admits that it was shown to and ap- proved by the other persons mentioned. The proposed arrangements having been agreed to by the officers, were, on the 2d of March following, sub- mitted to the troops, who received them with enthusiasm, and immediately assumed the name and colors of the Army of the three Guarantees. Guerrero, soon after, added his forces to those of Iturbide, and they also re- ceived an important accession in the person of Guada- lupe Victoria, who had for the three years previous wandered in the forests of Vera Cruz without seeing or being seen by a human being. The news of the revo- lution spread rapidly throughout Mexico. At San Luis Potosi, Colonel Anastasio Bustamente, (afterwards presi- dent of the Mexican republic), with his whole regiment, declared in favor of the plan of Iguala ; the province of Vera Cruz was in insurrection, and the city was be- sieged by Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, then a young officer ; Puebla, Guanaxuato, Queretaro, Duran- go, Valladolid, and all the principal places except the capital, were soon in quiet possession of the indepen- dents. The Mexicans, indeed, scrupled a little at first at the idea of receiving a Bourbon prince ; but they soon became assured, that there was but little prospect of the execution of that part of the plan. The viceroy, it is believed, was at first inclined to accede to the plan of Iguala ; certain it is, that he took no very decided measures to oppose it, and he was on account of his apathy or apparent acquiescence deposed on the 6th of July, by the Spanish troops at the capital, who then placed General Novella at the head of the government. Ere the opposing parties could be brought in presence of each other. General O'Donoju, an old and highly respected officer, arrived at Vera Cruz from 80 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. Spain, with the commission of captain-general of Mexi- co ; and seeing at once that all efforts to arrest the revo- lution by means of the Spanish forces in Mexico would be unavailing, he proposed to treat with Iturbide. This proposition was accepted, and the two generals met at Cordova, about sixty miles from Vera Cruz, on the 24th of August. The result of their conference was a treaty signed on the day of their meeting, by which the captain general recognised the independence of the Mexican empire upon the basis contained in the plan of Iguala : and it was agreed, that two commissioners should in- stantly be sent to Spain, to communicate it to the government of that country, and to offer the crown of Mexico as therein arranged. It was also agreed, that a junta should instantly be appointed, which should select persons to form a regency for the administration of the affairs of the empire, until the arrival of the sovereign, and that a cortes should be convened for the purpose of forming a constitution ; moreover, that the army of the three guarantees should occupy the capital and strong places, and that the Spanish troops should, as soon as possible, be sent out of the country. The independence of Mexico may be considered as commencing on the 24th of August, 1821, when this treaty of Cordova was signed by the highest legitimate Spanish authority in the country on the one hand, and on the other, by the person actually possessing the supreme power over it, by the will of the great majority of its inhabitants. Agreeably to its terms, the commis- sioners were immediately sent to Spain, the Spanish troops were withdrawn to places assigned for their recep- tion, and the army of the three guarantees entered the capital on the 27th of September. On that same day, the junta was formed, its members being all chosen by DON AUGUSTINO ITURBIDE. 81 the general-in-chief ; this board immediately elected the bishop of Puebla as its president, drew up a manifesto to the nation which was issued on the 13th of October, summoned a cortes of the empire to meet in February following, and appointed a regency, the presidency of which was, of course, conferred upon Iturbide. This daring man was, at the same time, made generalissimo of all the forces, and invested with almost regal powers and dignities, for the support of which he was to receive one hundred and twenty thousand dollars per annum. O'Donoju could not survive the mortification of being obliged to countenance these proceedings, by which his country was robbed of its most valuable possessions, and on the 8th of October he died in the city of Mexico. Iturbide now employed himself diligently, in pre- paring the Mexicans for receiving him as the chief of the nation. With this view, he did all in his power to ingratiate himself with the aristocracy, the clergy, and the army, sedulously separating himself from those by whom the war of independence had been maintained. His plans for the organization of the congress, w^ere how^ever, not accepted by the junta ; instead of two houses, but one was allowed, composed of deputies elected by the people ; it was, however, arranged, that those provinces which sent more than four members, should choose one ecclesiastic, one military man, and one lawyer. The Mexican cortes or congress, thus constituted, met at the capital on the 24th of February, 1822 ; and ere they began their operations, an oath was taken by each member, separately, to support the provisions of the plan of Iguala. Notwithstanding this oath, however, they were soon divided into three parties ; the Repuhli- cans, anxious to adopt a system similar to that of the 6 82 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. United States ; the Bourbonists, in favor of the exact execution of the plan of Iguala ; and the Iturbidists, who wished their idol to be elevated at once to the throne. The Republicans and the Bourbonists united against the third party, and the discussions became violent. While these things were going on in Mexico, the Spanish cortes had, among other serious matters, been deliberating on the measures which should be adopted with regard to America, and various plans of pacifica- tion were proposed. At length arrived the news of the insurrectionary movement at Iguala, and afterwards, the commissioners who were empowered to offer the crown of the Mexican empire to the king and the other mem- bers of the royal family. How these propositions were likely to be received by the cortes, may be easily imagined ; the convention of Cordova between Iturbide and O'Donoju was declared void, and orders were sent to the representatives of Spain, in other countries, to protest against any recognition of the independence of Mexico. It was also resolved, that eflfbrts should be made for the preservation or recovery of the American possessions, by reinforcing the Spanish troops in those countries ; this resolution could, however, only be regarded as an energetic expression of opinion on the part of the cortes, as not a man nor a dollar could then have been spared from the kingdom, torn by internal disturbances, and threatened by foreign enemies. These determinations of the cortes, taken on the 12th of February, 1822, were made known in Mexico in April following, where they excited considerable sensa- tion. In anticipation of such replies to the propositions made agreeably to the plan of Iguala, Iturbide had been employing every means in his power, to create a strong feeling in his favor among the people, as well as DON AUGUSTINO ITURBIDE. 83 in the army. The congress, however, were in general opposed to him, and many of its members wished to retire, in order to avoid the scenes which they saw must follow. The crisis at length took place on the 18th of May, when the army and the people of the capital proclaimed Iturbide emperor of Mexico, and the remaining deputies of the congress sanctioned the choice by a decree. On the following day, the regency resigned its powers, the new emperor took the oath to support the independence, religion, and constitution of Mexico, and -was installed in the ancient palace of the viceroys, under the title of Augustin the First. It may be supposed, that this choice was not hailed with universal satisfaction, and that the old chiefs of the insurgents, who had for so many years been submitting to dangers and miseries, could scarcely by pleased to see one of their most bitter persecutors raised to supreme power over them in a moment. Accordingly, Guerrero, Bravo, and Guadalupe Victoria, soon prepared to betake them- selves to their old haunts, and to reassemble their fol- lowers in opposition to the new sovereign; and even Santa Anna, the most ardent partisan of the imperial cause, showed signs of discontent. The congress, too, was loud in its complaints against the extravagance and the despotism of its master ; who, having endeavored in vain to quiet this body, by imprisoning some of its members, at length, on the 30th of October, closed its doors, and replaced it by a constituent junta, composed of forty-five persons of his own selection. The constituent junta, established by Iturbide, did nothing to satisfy the people ; and an insurrection broke out in the northern provinces, headed by a man named Garza. This was soon put down by the forces of the government ; Iturbide w-as not, however, equally sue- 84 ]VIEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. cessful with regard to the second attack made upon his authority. He had conceived suspicions of Santa Anna's fidelity, which induced him to withdraw that officer from his command, and he ordered him to appear at the capital. Santa Anna learned the news of his removal at Jalapa, a city on the road between Mexico and Vera Cruz ; and without losing a moment, he set off for the latter place, which he reached before the arrival of the emperor's orders. Assembling the garrison, he harangued them upon the subject of the injustice and despotism of the existing government, and called upon them to aid him in overthrowing it ; they received his pro- position wdth joy, and immediately joined him in pro- claiming a republic. Santa Anna having then reduced to submission the neighboring towns, marched against Jalapa ; from this place, however, he was repulsed by Echavarri, the captain-general of the province, and forced to take refuge for a time in a mountain, overlooking the celebrated royal bridge, thirty miles from Vera Cruz. Here he was joined by Guadalupe Victoria, on whose appearance many flocked to the standard of the insur- gents ; their success nevertheless remained a matter of doubt, until Echavarri took part wdth them, and a new plan was formed gn the 2d of February, 1823, called the Act of Casas Matas, by which that of Iguala was entirely superseded. The Act of Casas Matas, guarantying a republican form of government, was universally adopted, and Itur- bide, finding himself deserted by all parties, abdicated the throne on the 19th of March, just ten months after he had first ascended it. He w^as escorted to the coast near Vera Cruz, and on the 11th of May embarked with his family for Leghorn. No one can suspect Iturbide of cowardice, and what prompted him to abdicate is a mys- DON AUGUSTINO ITURBIDE. 85 tery which, perhaps, can best be solved by his own statement : The epoch in which I have lived has been a critical one ; equally critical is the moment at which I am about to submit to the world a sketch of my political career. The public are not uninformed of my name, or of my actions ; but they have known both through a medium greatly discolored by the interests of those persons who have transmitted them to distant countries. There is one great nation particularly, in w^hich several individ- uals have disapproved of my conduct, and have misrepre- sented my character. It becomes my duty, therefore, to relate my own history. I shall teU with the frank- ness of ,a soldier, both what I have been and what I am. My actions and their motives may thus be fairly judged by every impartial person of the present age, still more by posterity. I know no other passion or interest save that of transmitting to my children a name which they need not be ashamed to bear. It would be an idle waste of time to set about refu- ting the various, attacks which have been circulated against me ; they are framed in terms calculated only to reflect dishonor upon their authors. % It was my good fortune to break the chains which enthralled my country : I proclaimed her independence : I yielded to the voice of a grateful and a generous people, and allowed myself to be seated on a throne which I had created, and had destined for others; I repressed the spirit of intrigue and disorder. These are my crimes ; notwithstanding which I now appear, and shall continue to appear, with as sincere a countenance before the Spaniards and their king, as I have worn before the Mexicans and their new rulers. To both bb MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. countries I have rendered important services, though neither knew how to profit by the advantages which I acquired for them. In the year 1810, I was simply a subaltern officer ; a lieutenant in the provincial regiment of Valladolid, my native city. It is well known, that the individuals who serve in those troops receive no pay. The military pro- fession was not the principal object of my pursuit. I possessed an independence, and attended to the im- provement of my property, without disturbing my mind with the desire of obtaining public employments. I did not stand in need of them, either for the purpose of affording me a subsistence, or of adding distinction to my name, as it pleased Providence to give me an hon- orable origin, which my forefathers have never stained, and which down to my time all my kinsmen have sup- ported by their conduct. When the revolution^ set on foot by Don Miguel Hidalgo, curate of Dolores, broke out, he offered me the rank of lieutenant-general. The offer was one that might have tempted any young man without experience, and at an age when his ambition might be excited. I declined it, however, because I was satisfied that the plans of the curate were ill contrived, and that they would produce only disorder, massacre, and devastation, without accomplishing the object which he had in view. The result demonstrated the truth of my predictions. Hidalgo, and those who followed his example, desolated the country, destroyed private property, deepened the hatred between the Americans and Europeans, sacrificed thousands of victims, obstructed the fountains of public wealth, disorganized the army, anniliilated industry, rendered the condition of the Americans worse than it was before, by exciting the Spaniards to a sense of the DON AUGUSTINO ITURBIDE. 87 e wished to benefit. After his expulsion in 1832, Gene- ral Bustamente had been in Europe, it is not improba- ble in want, certainly in dependence. It is doubtful if Mexico possesses a purer man than him, against whom even his enemies have not been able to make one allega- tion of dishonesty or peculation. Though he had long been in office, his salary was small, and for several months undrawn ; and he is said to have been so poor that he sold everything he possessed to pay his debts, including even his watch and cane, the latter of which was offered for sale SANTA ANNA. 175 to Mr. W. Thompson, during his mission to Mexico. This anecdote, as Mr. T. says, recalls to mind the stories of those days in ancient Rome, when her dicta- tors were so poor as to require to be buried at the public expense. This is especially creditable to one who has been president of Mexico, where so little check is im- posed either by law or reputation, on the desire and man- ner of becoming rich. Bustamente was at once aware that the government, as proposed to be administered, could not last ; and had, in the early part of 1837, re- turned to Mexico. He was then elected president, and entered on his duties in May of that year. During the administration of Bustamente, Mexico became involved in a serious difficulty with France, arising from outrages on the persons and property of French citizens, at different periods since the revolu- tions. In the spring of 1838, the French government, wearied with making ineffectual demands for reparation, proposed the following ultimata^ which were placed in the hands of Admiral Baudin : The government of France required pecuniary reparation for all losses in- curred by Frenchmen, the dismissal of certain obnoxious functionaries, a concession that henceforth Frenchmen should enjoy the privileges of the most favored nations, and the restoration of the right of carrying on the retaiV trade. After some months spent in negotiation, the French admiral, on the 27th November, 1838, made an attack on the Castle of St. John de Uloa. In 1582, sixty-one years after they had set foot on Aztec soil, the Spaniards began this fortress, in order to confirm their power. The centre of the space which it occupies, is a small island, where the Spaniard, Juan de Grijalva, arrived one year before Cortes reached the Mexican continent. Having found the remains of two 176 MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. human victims there, they asked the natives why they sacrificed men to their idols, and receiving for answer, that it was by orders of the kings of Acolhua^ the Spaniards gave the island the name of Ulua, by a natu- ral corruption of that word. It is pretended that the fortress, cost four millions; and though this immense sura is no doubt an exaggera- tion, the expense must have been very great, when we consider that its foundations are below the water, and that for nearly three centuries it has resisted all the force of the stormy waves that continually beat against it. Many improvements and additions were gradually made to the castle ; and, in the time of the viceroys, a first- rate engineer paid it an annual visit, to ascertain its con- dition and to consider its best mode of defence, in case of an attack. In 1603, however. Vera Cruz was sacked by the English corsair, Nicholas Agramont, incited by one Lorencillo, who had been condemned to death for murder in Vera Cruz, and had escaped to Jamaica. Seven millions of dollars were carried off, besides three hundred persons of both sexes, whom the pirates aban- doned in the Island of Sacrificios, when they re-em- barked. In 1771, the viceroy, then the Marquis de la Croix, remitted a million and a half of dollars to the gover- nor, in order that he might put the castle in a state of defence ; and the strong bulwarks which still remain, attest the labor that has been bestowed upon it. The outer polygon, which looks towards Vera Cruz, is three hundred yards in extent ; to the north it is defended by another of two hundred yards, whilst a low battery is situated as a rear guard in the bastion of Santiago ; and on the opposite front is the battery of San Miguel. The whole fortress is composed of a stone which abounds in SANTA ANNA. 177 the neighboring island, a species of coral, excellent for building, piedra mucara. In 1822, no stronghold of Spanish power remained but this castle, whose garrison was frequently reinforced by troops from Havana. Vera Cruz itself was then in- habited by wealthy and influential Spaniards. Santa Anna then commanded in the province, under the orders of Echavarri, the captain-general, and with in- structions from Iturbide, relative to the taking of the castle. The commandant was the Spanish general Don Jose Davila. It was not, however, till the follow- ing year, when Lemaur succeeded Davila in the com- mand of the citade], that hostilities were begun by bom- barding Vera Cruz. Men, women and children, then abandoned the city. The merchants went to Alvarado, twelve leagues off, whilst those who were driven from their houses by a shower of balls, sought a miserable asylum amongst the burning plains and miserable huts in the environs. Some made their way to Jalapa, thirty leagues off; others to Cordova and Orizava, equally distant. With some interruptions, hostilities lasted two years, during which there was nearly a constant firing from the city to the castle, and from the castle to the city. The object of General Barragan, now commander- in-chief, was to cut off all communication between the garrison of the castle and the coasts, and to reduce them to live solely upon salt provisions, fatal in this w^arm and unhealthy country. In 1824, the garrison, diminished to a mere handful, was replaced by five hundred men from the peninsula ; and very soon these soldiers, shut up on the barren rocks, surrounded by water, and exposed to the dangers of the climate, without provisions and with- out assistance, were reduced to the most miserable con- 12 178 ME^KICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS. (lition. The next year, Don Jose Copinger succeedec? Lemaur, and continued hostilities with fresh vigor. This brave general, with his valiant troops, sur- rounded by the sick and the dying, provisions growing scarcer every day, and those that remained corrupt and unfit to eat, yet resolved to do his duty, and hold out to the last. . No assistance arrived from Spain. A Mexi- can fleet was stationed off the Island of Sacrificios and other points, to attack any squadron that might come from thence ; while the north winds blew with violence, keeping back all ships that might approach the coasts. "Gods and men," says a zealous republican (Zavala), <