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distant points, where he will arrive worn out and harrassed by long marches, privations, sickness and desertion; in a word, incapable of sustaining the sudden and rude assault which your troops will then be able to make, as these will then find themselves concentratt'd within a line, in which, while nothing can prevent the timely arrival of succour both in troops and provisi(;ms, a ready and secure retreat , will be opened to them in case of reverses.'.' These predictions were correct; but they remained buried in the pocket-book of Col. Owings, and hundreds of gallant 'l'exians fell fruitlessly beneath the remorse- less steel of the treachorous foe. On the 9th February 1836, the first number of a periodical was issued in New-Orleans, printed in French and Spanish, and entitled "La. Estrell(JJ lYiejicana," evidently destined to favour the views of General Santa Anna, and to hasten the ruin of Texas. It was a mysterious paper which was to be read every where else save in•the place where it was published; for all the copies of every number were transmitted to Mexico, in order that that credulous nation might be certain of foreign opinion being in favor of her strife with Texas. Chance placed the first number of this publication in my hands, and fore seeing the results of this intrigue, I beheld the neces- sity of opposing this secret journal by another, which should be written equally in Spanish, and in the same city, but which would be pttblic, and would bear the name of a responsible editor. I pro- posed, then, to a number of Mexican federalists, who had been the victims of Santa Anna's centralizing fury, and who tfled to this city, to continue my "Correo Atlfmtico," which had been suspended in Mexico, on account of my exile. This proposition pleased these gentlemen, and they determined to defray the expenses of printing, while I should incur those of rent, distribution, news and money collecting, etc. The limited subscription which the "Correo" ob- tained, scarcely reimbursed me for these expenses, without affording me any remuneration for my personal labor, nor for the loss of my evening classes of students of foreign languages, which I was com- pelled to give up to devote my time to the duties of editor of the paper in question. The "Correo" was issued on the 29th of February 1836 in New- Orleans; it was numbered 17, in continuation of the sixteen preced- ing numbers which I had published in Mexico. I advocated at first the cause of Texas under its constitutional and federal aspect, as the Texians themselves were at that -period defending their liberties in the s~me views; but as soon as they declared themselevs free, I supported their absolute independence. This change, however just and reasonable in the eyes of all impartial readers, deprived me of the favor, assistance and even of the personal friendship of the federal Mexicans above alluded to, who at the end of the second month of the publication of the Correo, abandoned me entirely. These gentlemen had taken it into their heads that the independence of 'l'exas, although it was the inevitable result of unjust and ferocious aggression, and of the apathy of the other J\Iexican States in oppos- ing the march of centralism, was neither more nor less than a dis- memberment of the :Mexican territory, as if confederated States conld
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