Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/213

 MEXICO. 176 again into the woods during his short hved reign, from whence he only returned to give the signal for a general rising against the too ambitious Emperor. I have now brought the history of the Revolution up to the year 1817, which was distinguished by the expedition of Don Xavier Mina, the famous Spanish Guerilla chief, (ne- phew to Espoz y Mina, now in England,) who, driven from Spain by his unsuccessful attempt to create a rising in favour of the Cortes at Pampeluna, after the dissolution of that assembly by the King, resolved to advocate the same cause in Mexico, and landed for that purpose on the coast, with a small body of foreigners, (principally Americans,) on the 15th of April I8I7. Nothing could be more unfortunate than the moment chosen by Mina for this attempt. All the leaders of any note in the first Insurrection had, (as we have seen,) successively disappeared from the scene, and the cause of the Revolution had fallen into the hands of defenders, with whom it was a disgrace to be associated. Such was the infamous Padre Torres, who had established a sort of half-priestly, half-mili- tary despotism in the BaxTo, the whole of which he had par- celled out amongst his military commandants, — men, mostly, without principle or virtue, whose only recommendation was implicit obedience to the will of their chief. From his for- tress, on the top of the mountain of Los Remedies, Torres was the scourge of the country around : vindictive, sangui- nary, and treacherous by nature, he spared none who had the misfortune to offend him, whether Creole or Spaniard, and did more towards devastating the most fertile portion of the Mexican territory, by his capricious mandates for the destruc- tion of towns and villages, under pretence of cutting off the supplies of the enemy, than all those who had preceded him, whether Royalists or Insurgents, during the first five years of the war. Robinson mentions several instances of the most wanton barbarity on the part of this man, Avhich are confirm-