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PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
to provide for themselves by a timely change. These were unequivocal indications that the final triumph of the cause of Independence was near at hand. All felt that it was so; and the nation a,t large rejoiced in the prospect of a speedy fruition of its long cherished hopes.- At this interesting crisis of affairs, 0 'Donoju, the Constitutional Vice-Roy, sent to supercede Apadoca, arrived in the country. He landed at Vera Cruz in July 1821. He saw at a single glance the real condition of the country - he saw that her colonial bondage was broken forever. The authority of the Insurgents was everywhere recognized except in the Capital, and it was obvious that this city would be compelled in a short time to succumb to the powerful force of circumstances. It was idle for O'Donoju to struggle against destiny. He could do nothing. He had neither army nor money. His only alternative was to return to Spain or to enter into negociation with Iturbede. He chose the latter course; and .accordingly cooperated with the liberator in consemating the Independence of the country. This was done by a Treaty at Cordova in the month of August;- Iturbede advanced immediately upon the Capital; & through the influ- ence of O 'Donoju, after a siege of a few days only, the "Army of the Three Guarantees'' was permitted to enter the city unresisted on the 27th day of September 1821. 'l'hus was the Independence of Mexico effected by a sudden, brief and almost bloodless Revolution.- While this triumphant struggle was going on in the Interior of the country, no movements by the Royalists were made against the establishment at Bolivar Point. :Martinez, Governor of Bexar, deemed the occupancy of that section of the coast by Genl. Long as a trivial and unimportant matter; and accordingly he wrote to the Vice-Roy in the following language- "You will see by the accom- panying communication from the Counsel that Long's assembly and present position is not of sufficient importance to excite any inquie- tude; nevertheless, I will not be put off my guard by such appear- ances. So soon as I receive the auxiliaries which Your Excellency has despatched me, I will send about sixty or eighty men to rout and break him totally up."- This extract is taken from a document dated 25th December 1820. His Excellency, having only a few days previously recommended the establishment of an American Colony on the Brazos, doubtless felt himself in duty bound to exterminate the unauthorized one· at Galvezton. The task, however, was one which he neither execnted nor attempted; for after the reception of the expected auxilliaries, he still continued to think, that the Gov- ernment which the General had organized in the country, ·was too insignificant for his attention, and accordingly permitted him to remain unmolested in the prosecution of his colonizing operations.- The truth is the resources of the Royalists were exhausted; and at the date of the above document. the· whole l\fexican n11tion was on the verge of a dreadful outbreak; and instead of expelling General Long from the country, it would have been a much more easy matter for the General to have driwn His Excellency from San Antonio. - Subsequent events proved this; for only two months elapsed between the writing of this letter and the publication of the Plan of Igaula, when the royal authority throughout the land was swept away like
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