able hordes of ladrones and smugglers, were characteristic of his energy and determination. These wretches had, before his presidency, carried on their nefarious proceedings with the utmost daring and with perfect impunity, insomuch that it was impossible either to travel or transmit goods with safety. Santa Anna, however, vigorously put in force the existing laws against them, and created others; they were hunted from district to district, great numbers were taken prisoners, and some were garotted—strangled in the Mexican fashion—from week to week, till the various bands were, for a time, either broken up or intimidated.
An anecdote related to me by a distinguished relative of the merchant mentioned in it, may serve as an instance of the treachery and dissimulation of Santa Anna.
In one of the last years of Santa Anna's power, an English merchant and traveller, about to quit Mexico, having some very valuable goods in his possession, and being-aware of the unsettled state of the country, desired a private audience of the President, in order to solicit his advice and protection. An interview was granted, and the merchant had, as he thought, the good fortune to communicate
