Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/65

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DEATH OF VICTORIA.

45

action, and yet he has been accused of lending much protection.^[1]

Victoria retired to the hacienda El Jobo, which was wrongly supposed to be his own property. In the last four years of his life he repeatedly had epileptic attacks. At Tlapacoyam, in 1842, his sufferings, both on account of his country's troubles and of disease, were so great that for a change of climate he went in the latter part of the year to Teziutlan, and in February 1843 to Perote, where he expired on the 21st of March, his death being caused by enlargement of the heart. The body was embalmed and deposited in a vault in the chapel of the fortress, whence it was taken to Puebla in 1862. Santa Anna, when president, decreed^[2] that Victoria's name should be inscribed in letters of gold in the chamber of deputies, and that a monument should be erected at the national expense for the patriot's remains in Santa Paula; but it seems that it was never done.^[3]

↑ His inveterate contemner, Bustamante, attributes to his errors all the subsequent revolutions and miseries of Mexico.
↑ Dublan and Lozano, Legis. Mex., iv. 412.
↑ Breve Reseña Histórica de los Acontecimientos mas notables de la Nacion Mexicana, Mex., 1852. 8vo. 424 pp. The author, José María Tornel y Mendívil, was governor of the state of Mexico in 1828, and previously private secretary of President Victoria. He had intended to give a full history of Mexico from the date of the independence down to 1852, but death suddenly overtook him when he had only written the events to 1828 inclusive, thus leaving his work a fragment; in fact, nothing but a rapid improvisation, though as far as it goes very useful. The eventful year 1828 is fully treated, and a review of occurrences in general from the beginning of the war of independence is also given. He mostly narrates his own observations in a clear and elegant style, quoting a little from other authorities. His work was first given to the public in the columns of the Ilustracion newspaper. Lúcas Alaman took advantage of it to correct or amplify some facts — of which Tornel was better informed than any one else could be — but repeatedly disagrees with him in qualifying them.

[1] His inveterate contemner, Bustamante, attributes to his errors all the subsequent revolutions and miseries of Mexico.

[2] Dublan and Lozano, Legis. Mex., iv. 412.

[3] Breve Reseña Histórica de los Acontecimientos mas notables de la Nacion Mexicana, Mex., 1852. 8vo. 424 pp. The author, José María Tornel y Mendívil, was governor of the state of Mexico in 1828, and previously private secretary of President Victoria. He had intended to give a full history of Mexico from the date of the independence down to 1852, but death suddenly overtook him when he had only written the events to 1828 inclusive, thus leaving his work a fragment; in fact, nothing but a rapid improvisation, though as far as it goes very useful. The eventful year 1828 is fully treated, and a review of occurrences in general from the beginning of the war of independence is also given. He mostly narrates his own observations in a clear and elegant style, quoting a little from other authorities. His work was first given to the public in the columns of the Ilustracion newspaper. Lúcas Alaman took advantage of it to correct or amplify some facts — of which Tornel was better informed than any one else could be — but repeatedly disagrees with him in qualifying them.

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