Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/677

Rh New Spain appeared the most attractive country for the movement, and thither Mina proposed to sail direct, believing that able officers and arms were alone needed to give it impulse. At the last moment, however, came news of reverses in Vera Cruz, which induced him to change his course to the United States, There he bought or chartered three smaller vessels, prepared supplies, and enrolled, mainly at Baltimore, a number of recruits, including a large proportion of officers, with whom he sailed in September for Galveston, in Texas, by way of Port au Prince. Commodore Aury, a French freebooter who had received an insurgent commission as governor of Texas, and was preparing to invade it, gave him assistance; and after spending some time in refitting, he continued his course, in seven vessels, to Soto la Marina, in Tamaulipas, the only available landing place on the gulf coast. He disembarked in the middle of April, and took possession of the town, issuing proclamations in favor of independence under the title of General of the Relief Army of the Mexican Republic.