THE AUSTIN PAPERS. 815 the enterprize-Suffice it to sa.y that I raised the means at all costs, for success was now no longer Considered by me so much a matter of Speculation as a point of honor to redeem my pledged word to the Settlers-I therefore disregarded my own Interest which the then prospects justified the belief would have been more promoted by an abanclmonment than a further prosecution of the enterprize--I ar- rived in the City of Mexico in April without Acquantances, without friends,-A Stranger in a City where untill very recently, foreigners were prescribed by the Laws and Discountenanced by the people from prejudice--Ignorant of the Language, of the Laws, the forms, the dispositions, and feeling of the Government, with barely the means of paying my Expences for a few months, and in fact I may say destitute of almost every thing necessary to insure success in such a Mission as I had undertaken, but the integrity of my intentions- Added to all this I found the City in an unsettled State, the whole people and Country still Agitated by the revolutionary Convulsion which had just terminated in their emancipation, public Opinion Vac- illating as to the form of Government which ought to be adopted-_ Party spirit raging with that Acrimony which political Collision is Calculated to excite .And the recently established Govern.mt- almost sinking under its efforts to preserve the public peace and Order-In ·this unfavourable State of things and Surrounded on every side by difficulties I entered upon the Objects of my Mission, formed Acquain- fances with the members of Congress, the Officers of Governmt. and Men of influence And by the 12 th o:f May had my business in a favourable train before the Regency which then Composed the Su- 'preme Executive power of the Nation-And my Memorial was a.lso before Congress and probably would soon have been acted on-But on the night of the 18 th of May a new flame burst from the revolu- tionary c.rater whose fires it seemed had only subsided for a time but were not extinguished. The provisional Government was Overturned, And the Army in the City usurping the Voice of the Nation proclaimed the Emperor a.nd enforced his election by Congress at the point of the Bayonet- It is easy to imagine the Commotion which an event of such magnitude was calculated to produce-fear silenced every tongue, but the sullen gloom that hung round the Old and best tried patriots of the revolution portended the Storm that was only Smothered for a time that it might burst with greater effect upon those who had usurped the Na.tions rights by the forcible establishment of a system of Government which was evidently in Opposition to the will of the majority of the people-The newly established Govern- ment foresaw the impending Storm And all their Attention was tleYoted to such :Measures as they thought likely to Arnrt it-Hepub-
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