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142 who offers a civility which, at the same time, he dreads will be accepted, experience greater feelings of embarrassment than I did in rejecting the sincere overtures of this kind and liberal man.

I very soon got acquainted with the history and character of Don Ramon Casaus: he is a person of engaging manners, and vigorous with respect to years and intellect. He informed me that he had thought it his duty, in the first instance, to oppose the measures of the independent party, as being subversive of the principles of the government which he was bound to uphold, and by which his authority was protected; but that, as the march of public opinion gained ground, and when he found it was absolutely the wish of the people at large to have an independent government, he was induced to relax his opposition, and, afterwards, to prevent the bloodshed which must, naturally, have taken place, pending a conflict of such a domestic nature, to give his firm and decided support to the newly