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Co11,tinued Foreign Intrigues and. Turmoil, I8IJ-I8I8
opposed the foolhardy division of the forces proposed by Mina. Perry realized that Mina's experience had been limited to guerilla warfare in the mountains of Navarre and Aragon. Colonel Perry announced that rather than split the forces for the march to the interior he would re- turn with his regiment of fifty Anglo-Americans to Texas. Mina could do nothing, for his force was too small to attempt detaining the mal- contents. One of the officers who stayed with Mina declared that Perry possessed superior ability, excellent judgment and unbounded courage, but dissipated these superb gifts in drunkenness.u One passion, a bitter hatred for the Spanish Government in Texas, seemed to dominate all his actions. Evidently he had joined Mina in the hope of renewing the struggle against San Antonio. Conditions in Te%as. Early in March Viceroy Apodaca appointed Colonel Antonio Martinez governor of Texas to replace Pardo, who had been unable to take possession of his office. On March 27 Martinez arrived and formally took charge of the Government. His report to the Viceroy revealed that the garrison, composed of fragmentary units from the adjacent provinces, had not one serviceable horse; the men could no longer soldier; and the ragged, half-starved troops could scarcely walk. Their families were no better. 63 Panic had seized the city of San Antonio. Exaggerated reports-about Mina and Aury at Galveston, and of a French invasion of more than two thousand men had reached the inhabitants. Governor Martinez immediately sent for a Bidai Indian who had just come from the mouth of the Trinity to learn from him about the activities of foreigners on the coast." Captain Juan de Castaneda, the new commander of La Bahia, reported on June 7 the landing of a group of Americans at Matagorda. He had learned this news from some Refugio Mission Karankawas who had en- gaged in a brief skirmish with the intruders. Governor Martinez was unable to send reinforcements, because he had just dispatched a party of 50 men to the Ri6 Grande for urgently needed supplies and another I 10 6ZJ. M. Hebb to Baldomero Lopez, January 12, 1819, Audencia de Mexko, Pa'11les de Estado, A.G. I. 63 Antonio Martinez to the Viceroy, San Antonio de Bejar, May JI, 1817, Na&og• doclies Arcl,ives. "Martinez to Joaquin Arredondo, San Antonio de Bejar, March 27, 1817; Martinez to the Viceroy, June 13, 1817, Bexar Arcliives.
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