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and he left Houston during the last week of December for New Orleans by way of Galveston. In New Orleans, Anaya frequented the French Café at the corner of Market Square, but soon lost interest in the political leadership of the northern Federalists and their separatist tendency and turned his attention to giving aid to the revolutionists of Yucatán, even going so far as to draft a constitution for the contemplated new nation.[15] In the meantime, the other members of Anaya's delegation in Texas proceeded by way of Texana, Victoria, and Refugio to the Federalist camp on the Nueces, recruiting men and supplies at each of the places through which they passed. Taking up position at Lipantitlán, near desirable landing places for sea communication, Canales issued a proclamation inviting the Texans to join him, promising an equal division of the spoils, twenty-five dollars per month, and a half league of land to such as would serve during the war. He then proceeded to recruit, on soil claimed by Texas, a force composed of Mexicans from the Río Grande, a number of poorly armed Carrizo Indians,[16] and more 15. Freund (trans. and ed.), Gustav Dresel's Houston Journal, p. 100. Later, in three Texan and three Yucatec vessels, Anaya launched an invasion of Tabasco in November 1840, where he served as governor from November 17 to December 6, 1840. Being defeated, however, he fled to Yucatán. In 1841 he was defeated at Comitán in Chiapas, after which the inhabitants of Tabasco and Campeche turned away from him. He now gave up his ideas of revolution. In 1847 he was acting President of Mexico for a brief period, but was defeated in the battle of Mexico City. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Mexico, V, 215 n, 219; "Information derived from Dr. John Long, Resident of Santa Rosa, Coahuila, Mexico," in Lamar Papers, VI, 157. H. Yoakum in his History of Texas from its First Settlement in 1685 to its Annexation to the United States in 1846, p. 274, makes the mistake of saying that Anaya was captured and put to death at Tampico. 16. On hearing that the Carrizo (Cane) Indians living about Reinosa were about to join the Federalists, the Centralist authorities arrested and imprisoned those of the tribe who were at Matamoros. There the Indians lay in jail for some time until their chief proposed to the Commandant of the town to let his men come out and take exercise, which their health required. The commandant consented; and the Indians were brought out naked. They propose[d] a favorite game of kicking the Ball. Bets were made for and against their kicking the Ball from Monterey [Matamoros] to Rinoso a distance of sixty miles. Guards mounted on good horses were ordered to follow. . . . If they kicked the ball to Rinoso, [the story goes] they won; if not they lost. . . . The game was opened -- the ball was tossed and all pursued it to give it a kick. They kept it rolling onward until the horsemen appointed to guard them broke down -- and were not able to keep up. The ball was kicked [to] Rinoso, where the Indians made their escape and joined Canales.Lamar Papers, VI, 105-106. |