Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/623

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SMUGGLERS ON THE FRONTIER.
603

local issues, which only too frequently were the cloak for more serious designs to be revealed in case the attempt should succeed.[1]

The most serious movement was promoted on the north-east frontier by contrabandists. The extremely high duties imposed by this debt-ridden and badly administered country were in themselves an encouragement to illegal traffic. The officials were induced to close their eyes to it, and the inhabitants found enough profit therein to encourage it, disliking, as they besides did, a distant government which burdened them with disorderly and useless troops, while doing little toward their protection and welfare. Moreover, the merchants and manufacturers suffered so much from the undermining of their business that they secretly joined issue with the contraband party, in order to obtain some change for the better. The leader was the irrepressible Carbajal, who still labored to form an independent republic in this region, assisted by sympathizers in Texas and adjoining states, and meanwhile sought to benefit himself and his friends by smuggling. The moment appearing ripe for either project, he enlisted from his headquarters at Brownsville some 500 adventurers,[2] and crossed the border river on September 18th. He was joined by two hundred Mexicans, who had already been stirred by a confederate[3] to pronounce for a re-

  1. In San Luis Potosí, Olivares and Velarde rose in Jan. 1851 against the prefect of Tancanhuitz. In Vera Cruz certain Córdovans rebelled in Sept. against the local chief, and took to the hills, declaring for a division of the state, and in Dec. the militia at Acayucan had a conflict with the suspicious citizens, while Rebolledo pronounced at Jalapa against an excise tax. In Pucbla, Lopez demanded the reëstablishment of the bases of 1843, and at Tenancingo the presbyter Alcocer also declared for more general reforms. Details in Méx., Mem. Min. Guer., 1852, 9, 30-3, 77-9, no. 20; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iv. 252-61; Universal, May, passim, June 18, July 23, Aug. 5, 1850; Jan.-Dec. 1852, passim; Siglo XIX., Jan.-Dec. 1852, passim, etc.; Español, Jan. 3, 10, 1852. The southern movements which kept Chiapas and adjoining states in trouble have been spoken of.
  2. Who were offered $25 a month, besides booty and glory. Ávalos, commanding at Matamoros, had before this summoned troops on a false alarm, but relapsed into inactivity.
  3. J. M. Canales, who pronounced on the 3d near Guerrero, Méx., Mem. Min. Guer., 1852, 22, demanding the withdrawal of federal troops, the reform