ciples, which every day deprived me of the few means that I had left for curbing the Insurrection.
Happily, my military operations were so fortunate, that I succeeded in destroying the rebel Curate Morelos, whose success at one time seemed to menace the ruin of Spanish dominion here. I recovered Oaxaca, with the port and fortress of Acapulco, and succeeded in driving out of Texas the rebels, with their Anglo-American Allies; a number of the Insurgent chiefs were taken; some of their principal bands dispersed, whose vicinity to the Capital threatened us with a scarcity, by impeding the introduction of supplies; and the roads so far cleared, that but small escorts were required in order to keep up the communications with the Interior. If that with Vera Cruz be not yet established, it is principally the fault of the Governor of that district, who, notwithstanding my being responsible for the measures of the Government, has more than once alleged direct orders from the Regency as an excuse for disregarding mine, and thus deprived our operations of all unity of plan. This want of subordination in the local authorities has tended greatly to increase the general disorder, and to render fruitless, for want of co-operation, the prodigious efforts of the troops.
This, and other causes which I shall have the honour of pointing out to your Excellency as I proceed, have counterbalanced the decisive advantages which we have obtained in the field; and I am compelled to confess that, notwithstanding our victories, but little has been done against the spirit of the rebellion, the focus of which is in the great towns, and more particularly in this capital. On one side, the elections,—the fanatical elections,—destroyed, in a moment, the fruits of the labour, the efforts, the combinations of months;—and, on the other, the want of power to chastise those, who constantly corresponded with the rebels, and informed them of all the military preparations of the Government, prevented the execution of our plans. For your Excellency must take as the corner-stone of my whole argument the fact, that the great majority of the natives of this country is most decidedly in favour of the Insurrection, and of Independence; without their frequent invocation of the respectable name of our Sovereign, being any thing more than a
