Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/198

178 under generals Houston, Green, and Barton. In September large bodies of Texans appeared in New Mexico, the chief ones in the cañada de Trujillo, and on the banks of the Pecos, A few trifling encounters took place with the Mexicans under García Conde.

In the midst of his labors, President Barragan was attacked by a putrid fever, which put an end to his life on the 1st of March, 1836. His death was universally regretted, and his political crrors condoned even by the most advanced liberals in consideration of his good personal traits, and patriotic services, especially that of capturing San Juan de Ulúa.

Owing to General Barragan's illness, the chamber of deputies, on the 27th of February, 1836, chose José Justo Corro, of Guadalajara, to fill the position of acting president. Corro was called to govern the nation at a time when it was beset with troubles both internal and external, and showed himself entirely unfit for so responsible a position. He was a man of excessive piety and timidity, and utterly ignorant of military affairs, when the country might have to bring into use at any moment its resources and energies in a war with the United States on the Texas question.

Amid the confusion in the interior a plan of 'concordia,' as it was called, was brought forward in June,