PAPERS O:F MIRABEAU BUONAPARTE LA~IAR 181 force made its appearance under Arredondo. Our Genl. Bernardo was superceded by Toledo. The change was disagreeable to the soldiers- he led our army to l\fedena, and there was entirely destroyed- PRISONER AT BEXAR When :Mrs Long was at Bexar, there was one day a great parade in the Streets; when enquiring the cause, she saw a prisoner just lead from Jail, tied on a mule; his hat covered over with silver immita- tions of every variety of animals- He was emaciated and was begone, a mere skeleton, who could not to all appearances live many clays- He was now started to }fonterrey, whence he had been brought. His history was brief. He had suddenly appeared in the streets of Mon- terrey a stranger to every body and without being able to give an account of himself. He spoke no language known to any one in the Interior or in Texas; but by signs, the people at Monterrey learnt or or [sic] thought that they under stood him to lay claims to Texas as his province & that he was supreme Govr. of it. He was apprehended as a spy, brought to Bexar long_ imprisoned there, speaking fluently in some unknown language, without understanding any one or being understood by any; and after being worn down to an anatomy in prison, they now started with him back to Monterrey, having nothing to urge against him other than that he could speak none of the dead or living languages known to the Mexicans- He was never heard of more-his fate as well as his history being a mystery-
No. 2409. HISTORICAL NOTES-ANONYMOUS
[Translation from the Spanish J [About 184- ?] A beginning so bloody, the disorder necessarily consequent because of the ignorance of the leaders, and the absolute moral incapacity of those tumultuous masses, could not fail to produce confusion, an abso- lute lack of all discipline. The hordes of Mexicans under the stand- ard of the Aztecs had more order and greater uniformity than the tumultuous cohorts of insurgents swayed by Hidalgo. Such were the results. The country was made a field of depredations comparable to those of the Vandals or Goths; and the standard-bearers of independ- ence seemed to me rather more like imitators of Atilla than successors of Washington. This was, nevertheless, the origin of the independence of :Mexico. A few troops disciplined by the Spanish chiefs were pursuing and routing those colossal bodies, which like the giant of Daniel had feet of clay. Indeed eighty thousand .men in Las Cruces seven leagues from Mexico routed forth the Spaniards; but before three months, these same conquerors were destroyed in Aculto, twenty leagues to the north west of the same city, whence they retired, and the Spanish General Calleja began his cruelties from that time forward imitating his enemies. Afterwards nothing stopped the triumphs of the Spanish, and Guanajuato, Guadalajara, and all the places which they entered were the theater of bloody executions, of butcheries, even greater than that of Alipodromo. Those among the Spanish chiefs most clistin-
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