assumed the reins of Government on the 4th March, 1813; and I entreat your Excellency to allow me to do this through your Excellency, in order that his Majesty may be enabled to take at once those measures which are necessary for the salvation of his Majesty's dominions here, in which rebellion has increased fearfully, in consequence of the road opened by the Constitution for the execution of its criminal projects.
This Constitution was sworn, and in part established, when I took the command of the country:—nothing could be more discouraging than the aspect of affairs; for the rebels, flushed with the advantages which they had already obtained, threatened the Capital, and were actually in possession of Oaxaca,—Acapulco,—a great part of the Western coast,—the capital of Texas, through which they drew supplies from the North Americans,—in short, of the largest portion of New Spain, as well as of innumerable towns, Haciendas, Mines, and roads.
Under such circumstances my situation was most critical. Compelled to make head against the attacks of an enemy disseminated over eight hundred leagues of country, and protected by the great majority of its inhabitants, with a very small military force at my disposal, and without hopes of succour from the Peninsula; surrounded by concealed enemies, who, under the shelter of the new Institutions, aided, directed, and encouraged the rebels, from this, and all the other principal towns in the kingdom, without my being able to counteract them, on account of the Constitution, and the decrees of the Cortes, which tied my hands;—deprived, too, of the support and assistance, which I might have derived from the principal Corporations, all of which had been filled by the popular elections with men interested in the ruin of the Spanish Government in this hemisphere,—I suffered the most cruel mental anguish, and despaired, at times, of being able to preserve for our beloved Sovereign this precious part of the possessions of the crown.
In vain I represented to the Regency, by every possible opportunity, that Mexico would be irrecoverably lost, unless a different system were adopted, and the Constitution suspended; my complaints were neither attended to, nor answered, and I was only charged publicly to adhere strictly to the new prin-
