Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/280

260 a change, and on June 3d he made his formal entry with the pomp suggested by fawning adherents and subordinates, who had gone so far as to erect a gilt bronze statue to him in the Plaza del Volador. The fears roused by his arrival among the oppressed tax-payers were only too speedily to be realized, and this time he came with cogent reasons. The United States were freely entertaining the proposal to annex Texas, their troops were gathering along its border, and a squadron of their fleet had just appeared off Vera Cruz. While the foreign office demanded an explanation of these threatening movements, Santa Anna seized the opportunity to obtain an extraordinary forced contribution of four million pesos for war preparations. His efforts to have the amount increased, and obtain special power to raise it, were thwarted in a manner that provoked his deep indignation. He had become so used to carry his points, or at least to a deferential attitude, that snappish resistance proved most irritating. As a relief to his feelings, he directed a bitter attack on the deputies through the government organs, including the official Diario, with a suggestion from one side of a dictatorship. The chambers demanded an explanation in order to make the ministry responsible, but could obtain no satisfaction. One result, however, was that the foreign portfolio changed from the hands of Bocanegra to Rejon, a talented but young and impulsive