Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/117

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PLOTS AT ACAPULCO.
97

to conjecture — Picaluga came to Mexico in December, 1830, and offered to Facio to remove his vessel from the control of the government's opponents, and place her at its disposal at Guatulco for the sum of $50,000, which would pay all damages he had already sustained, and compensate him for her use in the future. This is the story told by the government and by Picaluga himself. But the general belief is that Facio and Picaluga struck a bargain upon the spot for the latter to betray Guerrero into the government's hands.[1] Soon after Picaluga's departure, orders were issued to Captain Miguel Gonzalez to station himself with a force at Guatulco to receive the Colombo, or if enemies landed there to capture them. The enemies of the government have charged that the orders given Gonzalez were to receive Guerrero from on board the vessel as a prisoner. Gonzalez accordingly went to Guatulco, having with him two other officers, one of whom it is believed was expressly appointed to act as prosecutor and the other as his clerk.[2] The plotter Picaluga soon found an opportunity to earn his blood-money.[3] Manuel Primo Tapia and Manuel Zavala, who were in Acapulco, commissioned on the part of the government with General Barragan to make conciliatory proposals to the chiefs of the south,[4]

  1. Facio claimed that Picaluga's offer to surrender his vessel was spontaneous, and was accepted because it hastened the government's plans in a manner that could not have been foreseen. The success of the plan surprised the ministers, who, though ignorant when they first heard of all the circumstances connected therewith, were glad to avail themselves of the opportunity to pacify the country. Memoria, 33-5. Cárlos Bustamante, who was then a supporter of the government, gives the full account of the bargain made between Facio and Picaluga for the betrayal by the latter of Guerrero for $50,000, declaring that he knows the particulars as given by him to be true. Voz de la Patria, MS., vi. 23-6. The arrest was made the occasion of much rejoicing, with ringing of bells. The cabinet said to the congress that the proper measures demanded by the situation had been adopted.
  2. It is asserted that the government was so sure of its prey that even the stamped paper required by law for judicial proceedings had been provided, and was found on board the vessel. Suarez y Navarro, Hist. Mex., 227-30.
  3. General Duran paid Picaluga in Oajaca 3,000 gold doubloons. Gonzalez, Decl., in Mex. Proceso Instruct., 31.
  4. This appears in the declarations of Tapia and Zavala and in other documents. Mex., Proceso Instruct., 107-13, 115-16. Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, 612-13, says that Barragan's plan for conciliation had been treated by the government