Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/291

Rh Don Agustin de Iturbide was the person chosen to carry this plan into execution; and, to all appearance, it would have been impossible to select a fitter instrument. He was a Creole born, and could therefore address the Mexicans as his countrymen; while, from the brilliancy of his military career, he was almost sure to be followed by the army. In addition to this, he was much esteemed by the high clergy, having been employed, for some time, in expiating the excesses of his former life, by a rigid course of penance and mortification, in the College of the Professa in the Capital.

It is difficult in speaking of events so very recent as Iturbide's rise and fall, to arrive at the exact truth, particularly, where every thing is distorted by party-colouring; the following facts, however, seem to be universally admitted respecting the career of this extraordinary man. He was of a respectable, but by no means a wealthy family, of the Province of Valladolid; and, at the commencement of the Revolution, was serving as lieutenant in a regiment of Provincial Militia. Distinguished by a fine person, a most captivating address, and polished manners, as well as by a daring and ambitious spirit, he was amongst the first of those, who dipped in the plans for shaking off the yoke of Spain, in which the years 1808, and 1809, abounded. Of the termination of his connexion with the first Insurgents, two very different stories are told. He