A number of discontented Cubans sojourning in Mexico had urgently appealed to the government in 1823 to despatch 1,500 men to their island, which they declared was ripe for independence; but they gave so much publicity to their plans that even if Mexico had been able to furnish the men, fleet, and a competent leader, a failure might be reasonably expected.[1] The project was consequently abandoned as impracticable.
It will be remembered that the Spanish commissioners, Ranon Osés and Santiago Irisarri, had arrived at San Juan de Ulúa shortly before the fall of Iturbide. The circumstances connected with that event prevented the imperial government from coming to any arrangement with them. Afterward Victoria was commissioned to treat with Osés and Irisarri, with whom he held conferences at Jalapa, but the only result obtained was a provisional treaty of commerce, for which Victoria had been duly empowered by the government and congress. The Spaniards returned to San Juan de Ulúa with Mexican passports, and the constitutional régime being shortly after upset in Spain by the king with the aid of a powerful French army under the royal duc d'Angoulême, all efforts toward a peaceful solution of the difficulties between the mother country and Mexico were discontinued. Soon after, rumors came from Habana of an expedition about to sail for the invasion of Yucatan, which the deputies of that state assured the government would be well received by the inhabitants. The people of Yucatan, especially those of Campeche, suffered by the interruption of trade with Cuba, and were for this reason dissatisfied with the political change. Santa Anna, then governor and comandante general, heeding the demands of the merchants and others, permitted trade to be carried on, in Spanish
- ↑ Santa Anna was thought of as the proper leader; and it was said that he contemplated leading an expedition against Cuba from Yucatan. Bustamante, Voz de la Patria, ii. no. 6, 7, no. 11, 5; Id., Hist. Iturbide, 231; Zavala, Revol. Mex., i. 295–9; Pedraza, Manif., 28-9; Tornel, Breve Reseña Hist., 77.
