Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/221

 MEXICO. 183 military stores, but as the only medium of communication with the United States. He left there, as I have already stated, a garrison of one hundred and thirteen men, under Major Sarda. On the 11th of June the place was invested by a division of two thousand two hundred men, with nine- teen pieces of artillery, under the orders of General Arre- d5nd6, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Internal pro- vinces. On the 14th, a constant fire was kept up, by which the few guns that defended the mud-walls of the fort were dismounted ; and on the 15th three general assaults were made, all of which were repulsed with the utmost gallantry by the garrison. Discouraged by these repeated checks, Ge- neral Arredondo proposed terms, which were acceded to by Major Sarda; and, after stipulating for the honours of war, liberty on parole for the officers, and the free departure of the men for their respective homes and countries, thirty-seven men and officers, (the little remnant of the garrison,) grounded their arms before fifteen hundred of the enemy. The Roy- alists lost three hundred men in the three assaults upon the fort,- a circumstance which may explain, though it cannot ex- cuse, their disgraceful violation of the capitulation. Instead of being treated as prisoners of war, and allowed to leave Mexico for the United States, Major Sarda and his men were transferred, in irons, by the most circuitous route, and amidst a thousand intentional aggravations of their sufferings, to the dungeons of the Castle of St. John, at Veracruz, where they were confined, with thirty other of Mina's men, taken after- wards in the Interior, until they were reduced to half their original number. The survivors were removed to Spain, where, by a special decree of the 11th of June 1818, they were condemned to the Presidios of Ceuta, Melilla, and Cadiz, where they all, I believe, have terminated their wretched ex- istence, as convicts (Presidiarios), linked with the refuse of Spanish gaols, and reduced to the lowest state of degrada- tion, of which human nature is susceptible.