with the utmost gallantry, by the garrison. Discouraged by these repeated checks, General Arredoudo proposed terms, which were acceded to by Major Sarda; and, after stipulating for the honours of war, liberty on parole for the officers, and the free departure of the men for their respective homes and countries, thirty-seven men and officers, (the little remnant of the garrison,) grounded their arms before fifteen hundred of the enemy. The Royalists lost three hundred men in the three assaults upon the fort, a circumstance which may explain, though it cannot excuse, their disgraceful violation of the capitulation. Instead of being treated as prisoners of war, and allowed to leave Mexico for the United States, Major Sarda and his men were transferred, in irons, by the most circuitous route, and amidst a thousand intentional aggravations of their sufferings, to the dungeons of the Castle of St. John, at Veracruz, where they were confined, with thirty others of Mina's men, taken afterwards in the Interior, until they were reduced to half their original number. The survivors were removed to Spain, where, by a special decree of the 11th of June 1818, they were condemned to the Presidios of Ceuta, Melilla, and Cadiz, where they all, I believe, have terminated their wretched existence, as convicts (Presidiarios) linked with the refuse of Spanish gaols, and reduced to the lowest state of degradation, of which human nature is susceptible.
Mina was greatly affected by this reverse, the
