CHAP. XXV.

IN MEXICO.

229

Hidalgo was however at length entrapped andput to death. Other adventurers succeeded himin the command, sometimes of large bodies,and sometimes of only irregular and fugitivebands. The most distinguished of the leadersof the bands, Rayon, Teran, and the energeticpriest Morellos, were in succession taken and exe-cuted ; but the restoration of tranquillity, andthat of a doubtful nature, was not accomplishedbefore the year 1815. It was, however, a trucerather than a settled peace ; for a small expeditionunder the younger Mina, with a few hundred ad-venturers collected in Europe and in the UnitedStates of America , was sufficient again to kindleinto action the turbulent spirits of Mexico . Thatbold young man with some of his followers were,after wonderful bravery and perseverance, takenand executed; but not till in their operationsthey had destroyed the great works of the mineof Valenciana. The Spanish authority which hadbeen re-established over the exhausted countrycould do but little to restore prosperity in theshort interval, till the revolution in Spain itselfburst forth and soon spread to Mexico .

The Cortes of Spain , whatever love of freedomthey may have expressed as regards the European peninsula, certainly discovered no disposition todiminish the authority their predecessors in powerhad exercised over the transatlantic dominions,