could reënact the drama of Napoleon's return from Elba, and regain his throne by merely showing himself in Mexico. Accordingly, embarking with his family and two or three attendants, he landed in Mexico on the 12th of July, 1824. On attempting to proceed into the interior in disguise, he was discovered and arrested. The government had previously outlawed him, and he was shot by order of the local authorities at Padilla, in Tamaulipas, on the 19th of July.

Since the death of Iturbide, hardly anything has taken place in Mexico, which it is possible to make either interesting or intelligible to the reader. The country has been perpetually distracted by factions, conspiracies and revolutions. General Santa Ana placed himself at the head of the government in 1832, and with some vicissitudes of fortune, has continued to be the leading man down to the present day. The constitution of Mexico was formed in 1824, on the model of that of the United States. The state of Yucatan revolted a year or two since, and is now waging a war for independence, against the central government.

The REPUBLIC OF TEXAS has been formed out of that portion of Mexico adjoining Louisiana. This province, having been peopled by emigrants from the United States, did not readily submit to the arbitrary proceedings by which Santa Ana elevated himself to the supreme authority. Under the Mexican federal government, Texas and the adjoining province of Coahuila, formed a single state. The first symptom of disaffection was shown in an endeavor to procure a separation from Coahuila. An agent was despatched to Mexico for this purpose, in 1833, who was arrested and imprisoned on a charge of treason. This only increased the discontent of the people of Texas, and a revolutionary spirit soon manifested itself in popular meetings all over the country. Com mittees of safety were appointed, and a general convention of the states was convened in 1834. Both sides now prepared for war, and great numbers of volunteers flocked to Texas from the United States. Hostilities began in September, 1835, and on the 2d of October an ac ion took place at Gonzales, in which the Mexicans were defeated and put to the rout. On the 9th, the fort and town of Goliad were captured by the Texan forces. General Austin was appointed commander-in-chief.

The Texan army, amounting to one thousand men, next besieged the town of San Antonio de Bexar, which was defender by an equally strong Mexican force. After a close siege of a month, intelligence was received that a large body of Mexican troops was approaching for the relief of the garrison. This determined the besiegers to storm the place immediately. On the 6th of Decem

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Der, they advanced to the assault, and after a severe action, made prisoners of the whole garrison. Hardly had they taken possession of the town, when the Mexican reinforcement arrived, and another action was fought, which resulted in the capture of the whole detachment. These successes completed the triumph of the Texan cause; not a Mexican soldier remained upon the territory.

But this triumph was only temporary. In the meantime, Santa Ana was making vigorous preparations for crushing the insurrection. On the 23d of February, 1836, he appeared before the town of San Antonio, at the head of a body of one thousand men, the advanced guard of the Mexican army. The town was immediately taken, but the fort held out, although garrisoned by only one hundred and fifty men. A constant bombardment was kept up by the besiegers, yet, on the 1st of March, a detachment of thirtytwo men from Gonzales, succeeded in forcing their way through the Mexican lines and throwing themselves into the fort. The Mexicans were soon reinforced to the number of four thousand five hundred men, and at midnight of the 6th of March made a desperate assault upon the place. The garrison fought desperately till daylight, when only seven of them were found alive. These were all put to the sword. The Mexicans, it is said, lost a thousand men in this affair.

The Texans, however, were not dispirited by this disaster. On the 2d of March, a general convention, held at the town of Washington, declared Texas a sovereign and independent state. The Mexican army, immediately after the capture of San Antonio, advanced upon Goliad, which was garrisoned by a body of three hundred and fifty men under Colonel Fanning. That officer, in obedience to orders from his commander, blew up the fort and retreated, but after marching a few miles he was surrounded in a prairie, by a body of two thousand Mexicans. Fanning's party defended themselves with great courage, and the Mexican commander proposed a capitulation. Fanning agreed to the proposal, and surrendered on a stipulation that his men should be shipped to New Orleans within eight days. The Mexicans marched their prisoners off to Goliad, and, on the 26th of March, shot them all in cold blood, with the exception of four, who made their escape. General alarm and dismay now pervaded the country, and a great many inhabitants sought shelter in the American territory. The Indians were rising in the north, and the invading army continued to massacre all that opposed them. It was found necessary to order a strong force of United States troops to the Texan frontier to keep the savages in check. The Texan army, which

was now commanded by General Houston, retreated before Santa Ana, till they reached the river San Jacinto, where they made a stand. The Mexicans came up, and, on the 21st of April, a most sanguinary and decisive battle was fought at this place. The Mexicans were double in strength to their opponents, yet the attack of the Texans was made with such courage and fury, that in fifteen minutes the Mexicans were completely routed; six hundred of them were killed on the spot, and as many more taken prisoners. Of the Texans, twenty-six were killed and wounded. Santa Ana fled from the field, and was pursued fifteen miles by the Texan mounted riflemen, when his horse foundered and he took shelter in the woods. Here, after a long search, he was found hidden in the top of a tree, and made prisoner.

Santa Ana was compelled to sign a treaty, by which the Mexican troops were withdrawn from Texas, and agreed not to serve against that country during the war of independence. Santa Ana, after some detention occasioned by the exasperated feelings of the people against him, was set at liberty, and proceeded to Washington. President Jackson furnished him with a passage to Vera Cruz, in a ship of war of the United States. The independence of Texas seems to have been permanently established by the victory of San Jacinto. The United States formally recognised it on the 3d of March, 1837, and Great Britain on the 16th of November, 1840. These examples have been imitated by most of the other maritime powers of Europe. Hostilities have contin ued between Texas and Mexico to the present day, but no serious attempts at invasion have been made by the Mexicans. The government of Texas is modelled on that of the United States.

GUATEMALA, or the REPUBLIC OF CENTRAL AMERICA, proclaimed its independence on the 15th of September, 1821. When Iturbide became emperor of Mexico, three of the provinces of Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Chiapa, declared for a union with that empire. A civil war was the immediate consequence, but some little quiet being restored in 1823, the congress took measures for the regulation of affairs; and, on the 22d of November, the Constituent Assembly promulgated a constitution, establishing the government on a federal system. The republic of Central America has been the most unfortunate of all the Spanish American states. Its history, from the first moment, down to the hour at which this page is written, has been literally nothing but the history of an anarchy. The constitution has been a dead letter from the beginning; the union of the provinces has been discord and civil war the government has been military force; and authority and law nave existed only in the will and caprice of partisan leaders

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Civilization has retrograded, and the country labors under such a combination of evils continually augmenting, that it is difficult to imagine any conjuncture of circumstances which can, within any short period, restore order and regular government in this misera ble territory. The chief personage who figures in the anarchy of Guatemala, at present, is Carrera, a military leader of the lowest extraction. This personage, illiterate, narrow-minded, vindictive, ferocious, arbitrary, and devoured by ambition, controls all the proceedings of the nominal government, by being at the head of the army. He is the idol of the priests, the banditti and the soldiery; and is a strange compound of the Jacobin and the Inquisitor. His sway is absolute at the capital. The other provinces take care of themselves as well as they can.

BRITISH AMERICA.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CANADA.-Discovery of Canada by Cartier.-Second expedition.-Discovery of th St. Lawrence.-Roberval's expedition.-Pontgrave and Champlain.-Quebe founded.-Discoveries of Champlain.-Establishment of the company of Ne France.-Indian wars.-Jesuits in Canada.-Slow progress of the colony.Ecclesiastical government of Canada.-Hostilities of the Iroquois.-Earthquakes

CANADA was discovered by Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, France. He was entrusted, at the recommendation of Chab admiral of France, with a commission of discovery, as the Fren had begun to catch the general spirit of maritime enterpri Cartier sailed from St. Malo with two ships, on the 20th of Ap 1534. Though these were called ships in the narrations of that da they were neither above twenty tons burthen, which shows th naval architecture had made but small progress among the Fren On the 10th of May, they saw the shores of Newfoundla near Cape Bonavista, and steering to the south, along the cos landed at a harbor, which Cartier named St. Catherine's. Then proceeding westward and northward, he entered the Gulf of