Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/573

Rh period published in English was presented to the public. The second volume is devoted to a consideration of Mexico during the time at which the author wrote. Its geological and geographical structure; its commerce and industries; its laws and constitutions; and its political and national condition — are severally discussed. Then follows a description of the individual states and territories, and their different antiquities, productions, and characteristics. The work concludes with similar notices of New Mexico and California as parts of the U. S. Mayer, during his residence in Mexico, obtained copies of a number of important documents filed in the general archive in the capital. I have been fortunate enough to obtain possession of 30 of them, ranging in date from 1689 to 1812. They comprise royal orders, viceroy's reports, and accounts of expeditions to and events in Texas, California, and New Mexico. I have had them bound into one large folio volume, and catalogued it under the title of ''Mayer's MSS. Mexicanos.''

Consideracion sobre la Situacion Política y Social de la Republica Mexicana. Mexico, 1848. 8vo, pp. 56. This anonymous pamphlet is signed 'Varios Mexicanos.' It gives a review of the general condition of the country in 1847, considered in a military, clerical, official, and social point of view, in order to explain the ruinous result of the war with the U. S. The language used is free, the Mexicans being described as a nation without nationality, full of corruption and vanity, and lacking any signs of seriousness or energy.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Apelacion al Buen Criterio de los Nacionales y Estrangeros. 8vo, pp. 71 and 184. Mexico, 1849. On the 27th of August, 1847, the deputy Ramon Gamboa laid before congress a series of charges against Santa Anna relative to his conduct of the war, accusing him of treachery. After the fall of the capital, Gamboa amplified his accusations, and on Nov. 15th presented them to the chamber. Santa Anna in 1848, having obtained a passport and safe-conduct from the American general, left Mexico in April, and proceeded to Kingston, Jamaica, whence in Feb. 1849 he addressed the above defence of his conduct to the president of the grand jury in Mexico. In it he reviews his career from the commencement of his campaign in Texas down to his departure from Mexico, and endeavors to refute Gamboa's charges. He naturally repudiates the accusations of bad generalship and treachery, and enters into explanations of what he considered the causes of the disasters which attended the Mexican arms. He supports his argument by a number of official documents, which occupy the last 184 pages of the Apelacion.

Bustamante, Invasion de Mexico por los Anglo Americanos, MS. This manuscript of 172 folios was one of the last efforts of the author at production, and is a revision and continuation of El Nuevo Bernal Diaz, of which I have already taken notice. Many of the pages are in Bustamante's own handwriting, but the greater portion of the work is written by an amanuensis. It carries on the narrative of the invasion from the time of Scott's departure from Puebla to the capture of the city of Mexico, which Bustamante thus stigmatizes: 'Ocupacion indecente y cobarde de Mexico, por el ejército Anglo Americano mandado por el General Scott por causa de la infame traycion y cobardia de Antonio Lopez de Sta Anna.' f. 148. Many other matters, political, internal, and military, occupy the attention of Bustamante in this production, besides the operations in the valley of Mexico. His usual want of order in arrangement is observable.

For additional authorities on this and three preceding chapters, consult ''Méx., Apuntes Hist. Guerra, 91, 115-27, 151-343, 362-403; Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex.,'' v. passim, vi. 46-7, 82, 379-85, 402-3, 530; ''Bustamante, Mem. Hist. Mex.,'' MS., iv. 209, 236-7, 250, v. 1-245, vi.-vii. passim, viii. 1-43, 79; Id., Méx, en 1848, MS., 3-44; Id., Nuevo Bernal Diaz, ii. 54-235; Id., Invasion de los Amer., MS., 12-13, 37-9, 51-6, 61-73, 87-152; Id., Campaña sin Gloria, 3-4, 6-37: Ramsey's Other Side, passim; Roa Bárcena, Recuerdos, passim; Méx., Col. Leyes Fund., 287-300; ''Id., Legisl. Mej.,'' 1848, 48, 28-108, 142-3, 195-7, 305-12; 1849, 318-19; 1850, 3-8, 42, 60-2, 113, 121-3, 180-1, 188-96, 206, 212-14; 1851, 116-18; 1852, 122-3; 1853, 619-21; 1856, 111-14;