Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/351

Rh This was the capture and surrender of Montercy in Upper California, by Commodore Thomas Ap C. Jones.

The Texas question was one pregnant with disagreeable complications for Mexico. Projects being contemplated to introduce French and English colonists into Texas, under concessions of the Texan government, the secretary of foreign relations, on the 19th of April, 1843, notified the diplomatic corps that such immigrants would not be recognized by his government as bona fide settlers. To translate his own words, "They will be treated as real invaders and enemies of Mexico, . . . and will receive condign punishment;" that Mexican troops in Texas would accord to persons calling themselves consuls only the rights of foreign neutrals. The representatives of powers that had recognized Texas as a nation insisted on the right of their governments to accredit consuls in Texas, and of their citizens or subjects to settle in the country, holding Mexico amenable for any disrespect to their agents, or for injuries to the persons or property of their innocent subjects.