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cannon to the force assembled at Turtle Bayou for the siege of Anahuac; but, on arriving there, he learned that the object of the colonists had been accomplished. It appeared that Bradburn had conveyed intelligence of his situation to Colonel Piedras, commandant of the Eastern frontier, at Nacogdoches, and requested him to repair to Anahuac with reinforcements. Piedras started with a considerable force; but, intercepted by the colonists posted at Turtle Bayou, who were now 300 strong, he was obliged to capitulate without a contest. consideration of being permitted to return unmolested to Nacogdoches, he engaged, as the superior in command, to release the prisoners at Anahuac, and to bring Bradburn to trial. The latter escaped from the fort, and fled to New Orleans.

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Thus far the colonists had proceeded triumphantly in resistance to military oppression; but subsequent reflection brought with it apprehensions of evil consequences from their temerity in taking arms against the Federal troops. For the purpose of depriving their acts of the rebellious aspect which they were certain to assume in the eyes of the Mexican authorities, they adopted a series of resolutions, setting forth that, in expelling Bradburn and Ugartechea, they were influenced chiefly by zeal for the Plan of Vera Cruz, proclaimed by Santa Anna in the beginning of the year 1832.

The agitation of this Plan, which was a movement on popular and constitutional grounds against Bustamente and his arbitrary encroachments, commenced with the garrison of Vera Cruz, and extended over the whole interior of Mexico. Pedraza,

who had been ejected from the Presidential chair and banished, was recalled. After a struggle of nearly a year, attended by the usual proportion of anarchy and bloodshed, Bustamente, depressed by defeat and the death of his favourite general Teran, the of the Texan colonists, proposed an arenemy mistice to Santa Anna, which terminated in an arrangement between them, whereby it was agreed that Pedraza should be received as the constitutional President, by virtue of the election of 1828, and that the armies of both parties should unite in support of the Federal Constitution in its original purity. The Mexican Congress refused its assent to this treaty; upon which the rival chiefs entered into a fresh compact to enforce its stipulations, without regard to the opposition of the legislative body. Pedraza was installed as President on the 26th of December, 1832; and, after serving the small remainder of his constitutional term, which expired on the 1st of April, 1833, he was succeeded by Santa Anna, with Gomez Farias as Vice-President, the first that had been chosen from civil life. Entering the capital on the 15th of May, the new President assumed the duties of his office. The Federal system, which had been outraged by the usurpations of the Centralist leader, Bustamente, was again recognised, and apparently re-established, under the new administration.

During the of these events, intelligence progress of the rising in Texas had been communicated to Santa Anna, who believing that the object of the Anglo-Americans was separation from Mexico, despatched against them Colonel Mexia, who sailed

from the Barra Santiago, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the 14th of July, with five vessels, and a force of 400 men. Stephen Austin, then a representative from Texas in the State Legislature, embarked with Mexia, and on the 16th the fleet anchored off the entrance of the Brazos. An official letter was addressed by Mexia to the second Alcalde of the second department of Austin's colony (John Austin), who, in reply, detailed the late events in Texas, and the motives of the colonists in appealing to arms.

"We are farmers, and not soldiers," said Austin; "therefore desire that the military commandants shall not interfere with us at all. Since 1830, we have been pretty much governed militarily, and in such a despotic manner that we were finally driven to arms, to resist within their limits the military subalterns of the general government. We have not insulted the flag of our adopted country, as had been surmised from our first movements; but, on the contrary, we have sustained its true dignity, and attacked those who have outraged it, by using it as a pretext for their encroachments upon the Constitution and Sovereignty of the State of Coahuila and Texas, and as a cover for their baseness and personal crimes.

"The commandant of Fort Velasco acted under the orders of the commandant of Anahuac, Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn. An investigation of the conduct of that officer will inform you fully of the details of many despotic and arbitrary acts. He was sustained by the commandant of Nacogdoches, Colonel Piedras, and by that of Fort Velasco, Lieu

tenant Colonel Ugartechea, and, consequently, we were compelled to oppose them all.

"Therefore we attacked Fort Velasco on the 26th of last month, with 112 farmers, hastily collected, without discipline, and badly armed; and, after an obstinate and bloody engagement of eleven hours, it surrendered, on the terms expressed in the enclosed copy of the capitulation-every article of which has been strictly complied with on our part, besides furnishing the provisions needed for the troops."

Representatives from the different Ayuntamientos were convened at San Felipe, by whom the causes of the disturbances were fully investigated, and a formal explanatory statement drawn up and presented to Mexia, to be by him transmitted to General Santa Anna. This statement, after reciting the arbitrary measures of Colonel Bradburn, expressed the earnest desire of the colonists that the government should be restored to its constitutional basis, according to the principles of the Federal republican party headed by Santa Anna; and conveyed their declaration that their only aim was to sustain the Constitution and the laws, which the military had violated. Professing to be satisfied with the explanations and assurances offered by the Texans, Mexia sailed with his fleet to Matamoras, taking with him, as a re-inforcement to the army of Santa Anna, the garrison of the dismantled fort at Velasco, and such other Mexican troops as were disposed to act against Bustamente. Piedras, the commandant at Nacogdoches, declined Mexia's invitation to join the "Liberating Army" in Mexico,

which afforded the inhabitants of that place a pretext for expelling him. Declaring in favour of the Vera Cruz Plan, the Nacogdoches settlers attacked the garrison in their "quartel," and after protracted skirmishing, in which three Texans were killed and seven wounded, and eighteen Mexicans killed and twenty-two wounded, the latter evacuated their quarters during the night, and retreated towards the river Angelina. Pursued by a party of twenty mounted men, who killed two of their number and wounded several, their leader, Piedras, proposed a temporary cessation of hostilities; as it was late in the evening, he was allowed to occupy the house of an Anglo-American without molestation from the Texans. The next morning, the Mexicans, terrified by a deceptive report of the approach of a large hostile force, surrendered at discretion, and, after being disarmed, were permitted to continue their route to San Antonio de Bexar. Other garrisons withdrew into the interior about the same time. The citizens of Bexar and the governor of the State openly declared for the Plan of Vera Cruz ; political unanimity generally prevailed, and, in August, 1832, Texas was free from military domination and internal strife.

The Texan colonists were exposed to severe trials at the close of this year. Hardly had they been relieved from the aggressions of the Mexican soldiery, when they were threatened with a formidable irruption of frontier Indians. Against these savages their own moral and physical resources constituted the sole means of defence, with the exception of less than seventy soldiers, maintained by the citizens of Bexar.

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