Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/235

M EX I CO. 197 consonance with the spirit of the time ; and that, although it is impossible now to determine with which party they ori- ginated, they were almost universally practised by both. These were not, however, the only causes of complaint against ItiirbTde ; his rapacity and extortions in his government led to such numerous representations against him, that he was recalled, in 1816, to Mexico, where an inquiry was instituted into his conduct, which was, however, stifled, because the malversations of which he had been guilty extended, more or less, to the whole army, which was, consequently disposed to make common cause with Iturbide, in repelling an attack so dangerous to all. From this time Iturbide remained unemployed until the year 1820, at the close of which Apodaca had recourse to him, as I have already stated, as the fittest agent for carrying into execution his plans for the overthrow of the Constitu- tion, and offered him the command of a small body of troops upon the Western coast, at the head of which he was to proclaim the re-establishment of the absolute authority of the King. Iturbide accepted the commission, but with intentions very diff'erent from those with which it was conferred upon him. He had had leisure, during the four years which he had passed in retirement, to reflect upon the state of Mexico, and to convince himself of the facility with which the autho- rity of Spain might be shaken off, if the Creole troops could be brought to co-operate with the old Insurgents in the at- tempt. The European troops in the country consisted only of eleven Spanish Expeditionary regiments ; and these, though supported by from seventy to eighty thousand old Spaniards, disseminated through the different Provinces, could not op- pose any sort of resistance to seven Veteran and seventeen Provincial regiments of Natives, aided by the great mass of the population of the country, which had given ample proofs of its devotion to the Independent cause during the earlier