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Rh Mexico at a time when the administration was defenceless. As an effort to avert a revolution, however, it despatched Zavala to represent to the rebels the unreasonableness of their proceeding. He landed at Sisal, where the comandante, Sandoval, refused him permisssion to go into the interior. After some correspondence with the dictator Carbajal, an order came for his immediate departure, coupled with a threat to shoot him if he again stepped upon Yucatan soil without express permission.

Lorenzo de Zavala was born in Mérida, October 3, 1788. During the revolutionary war of Mexico he was closely confined in irons for three years in a dark dungeon of San Juan de Ulúa. On being liberated he visited Paris, London, and the United States, returning to his country early in 1822. He was chosen a member of the first Mexican congress. At the age of 33 he had experienced much suffering; but his reputation for learning and political ability was well established. Afterward a president of the constituent congress, in 1824 he was the first to sign and swear support to the federal constitution. Zavala served his country loyally, and yet for his defence of the Texans he was branded a traitor by those who could not see the justice and wisdom of his purpose. He died on the 15th of November, 1835, and his remains were conveyed by four friends to a plain grave prepared by his son in a small cedar forest on the banks of the river San Jacinto in Texas. There they lie in a foreign country till such time as his countrymen, remembering his services, may do justice to his memory. Zavala was not only a distinguished