crossing the Rio Grande, marched due east, through the centre of Natchez, which he found completely depopulated, but in a high state of cultivation, until he reached the Mississippi river, in lat. 30° 29′ north. Here he crossed the Mississippi, and pursued his march as far as the confines of West Florida, where he was led by many fresh trails, and several concurring circumstances, to suppose the Natchez had retired. But before he could overtake the tribe whose track he was following, he and his troops were reduced to such extreme distress by famine, that they ate such of their own companions as happened to die. This appeared so dreadful to the Indians, who accompanied Narvaez on this expedition, and who had hitherto believed the Spaniards to be beings of a superior nature, far above the reach of such necessitudes as they constantly experienced in their savage life, in which however they were accustomed to devour none but prisoners, that it filled them with horror and indignation against the Spaniards, who were compelled to return with all possible despatch to Mexico.

On reaching Mexico, having informed Cortes that the Natchez were extinct, or had suddenly disappeared, leaving their whole country which was highly cultivated to become a wilderness, Cortes' doubts as to the fate of the Natchez being thus far resolved, and, seeing that the whole of their immense territory could at any moment be annexed to Mexico, whose subjection he had now nearly completed, turned his attention to the conquest

of Peru: an undertaking which, however, was reserved, and subsequently carried into execution by others.

Notwithstanding that Narvaez' expedition to Natchez and Florida proved most disastrous, still the Viceroy of Mexico was resolved to make an attempt to colonize the western part of the latter country. Two ships being engaged at Vera Cruz to convey settlers to Florida, many Spaniards and Mexicans eagerly embarked in this new undertaking, but when the expedition reached, and the colonists beheld the dreary and inhospitable shores of Florida, nothing could equal their disappointment and consternation. After sailing a whole day along the shore, seeing no chance of carrying out the object they had in view, they refused to land, and therefore directed their course towards the Mississippi river, which they ascended, as far as the point where Narvaez and his followers had crossed. Here the climate appeared more congenial, the soil more productive, and the aspect of the country generally better suited to their views; seeing a prospect of success, they landed with the greatest alacrity, choosing the west bank of the Mississippi as their future location. The first settlers were soon followed by many of their countrymen from Mexico and Cuba; and thus that portion of the Natchez territory, which lies between the Mississippi and the Sabine rivers, now called Louisiana, soon became inhabited, while the rest of the territory of the Natchez, west of the Sabine river, to the

river Nueces, which is now called Texas, and from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, the extreme western boundary of Natchez, remained a complete wilderness from the fall of Natchez, about 1528, until the year 1692, when the descendants of the conquerors of Mexico built the town of San Antonio de Bejar on the San Antonio river.

1716. The Spaniards having held possession of San Antonio unmolested for four-and-twenty years, commenced to build the town of La Bahia del Espiritu Santo (now called Goliad,) on the same stream, about thirty miles to the south of San Antonio. The establishment of these two points led the viceroy of Mexico to inquire into the extent and capabilities of this newly acquired territory, to which was soon after given the name of Texas, and under that title formally annexed to the viceroyalty of Mexico. Subsequent to the annexation of Texas, several expeditions were sent from Mexico to explore the country east of San Antonio river, but no further acquisitions were made until the year 1732, when the Spaniards established a military post on the banks of the Arroyo de la Nana, situate between the rivers Angelina and Sabine, when all that territory east of the San Antonio river to the Sabine was also annexed to the viceroyalty of Mexico, under the title of Eastern Texas.

But those who undertook the establishment of towns and military posts at this period (1732) were

strangers to that love of conquest, and energy of character, which were the true characteristics of the conquerors of Mexico. The government of points so far removed from the seat of Government, was left by the responsible representatives of the court of Spain in the hands of the missionaries, whose zeal for the spiritual welfare of the settlers and soldiers led them to demand so much of their attention, that all temporal affairs were quite overlooked, consequently agriculture and commerce, the two first elements of national prosperity were totally neglected; education and industry were never deemed the only and indispensable medium of advancing civilisation, or developing the resources of the country. Fanatical superstition and abuses soon crept into these remote points, and were rigidly enforced by spiritual and military rulers. Under such a system, if aggression ceased, a great portion of the vast possessions which had been acquired, remained a wilderness. But who that has ever watched the current of human affairs could for a moment suppose that any country could long continue in the condition of the viceroyalty of Mexico; a country, the magnitude and variety of whose resources, scattered over a prodigious extent of territory, are as yet but imperfectly known. They will only be fully developed when it shall contain what it is certainly capable of, a population as large as any country in the world, of which Mexico appears destined by nature to become independ

ent both in a commercial and political point of view. Had this assertion been addressed to the political economists of the mother country previous to the revolution of 1810, insanity would have been imputed to its author; but the result of that one event alone, would have entitled it to some degree of credit, while a thousand subsequent events concur to establish it as a matter of fact that their impolitic rule has shorn them of great interests, which now excite the attention of other nations, particularly England, who is vitally concerned in this and every other subject connected with New Spain. And as the independence of the territory of Texas originated in the dismemberment of Mexico, which was the result of Spanish misrule, it is necessary to recur briefly to the long series of events which led to the final subversion of the power of the Spaniards in New Spain, in order that the reader may be able to take a correct view of the Texan cause.

Those whose avocations in this life are the most tedious, would shudder at the thoughts of tracing the slow progress of civilisation among the Aborigines of Mexico, while the most sanguinary despot in Christendom would blush at his ignorance of the arts of torture, tyranny, and bloodshed, after reading the history of New Spain, from the conquest down to the year 1810; and as the recital of events which occurred during that period can contribute nothing to enhance the value of this