Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/239

MEXICO. 201 treaty, of the plan of Igiiala, as the only means of securing the lives and property of his countrymen established in Mexico, and of fixing the right to the throne on the house of Bourbon. With these terms CDonoju complied. In the name of the King, his Master, he recognized the Indepen- dence of Mexico, and gave up the Capital to the army of the Three Guarantees, which took possession of it, without effu- sion of blood, on the 27th of September, 1821. Novella, and such of his troops as chose to quit the Mexican territory, were allowed to do so, and the expenses of their voyage to the Havanna defrayed. Civilians were treated with similar indulgence, and their private property most strictly respected. O'Donoju himself, was empowered to watch over the obser- vance of the articles of the treaty favourable to his country- men, as one of the members of the Junta, which was to be entrusted with the direction of affairs, until the King's deci- sion could be known : while a Congress was to be assembled, to fix the bounds, which were to be prescribed to the Royal Authority. Such was the Treaty of Cordova, which was signed by Iturbide, "as the depository of the will of the Mexican people," and by O'Donoju, as the representative of Spain, on the 24th of August, 1821. The best excuse for the conces- sions made by the latter is, as stated by Iturbide,* the fact, that he had no alternative. He must have signed the treaty, or becom.e a prisoner, or returned at once to Spain, in which case his countrymen would have been compromised, and his Government deprived of those advantages, which the Mexi- cans were still willing to concede. Under these circumstances, it is not easy to point out what CDonoju could have done for Spain better than what he did; although the advantages were, at first, most apparent upon the Creole side. Iturbide obtained, in virtue of the treaty of Cordova, immediate pos- session of the Capital, which he entered in triumph on the 27th of September, 1821, and, on the following day, the