CHAP. XXV. IN MEXICO. 229 



Hidalgo was however at length entrapped and 

 put to death. Other adventurers succeeded him 

 in the command, sometimes of large bodies, 

 and sometimes of only irregular and fugitive 

 bands. The most distinguished of the leaders 

 of the bands, Rayon, Teran, and the energetic 

 priest Morellos, were in succession taken and exe- 

 cuted ; but the restoration of tranquillity, and 

 that of a doubtful nature, was not accomplished 

 before the year 1815. It was, however, a truce 

 rather than a settled peace ; for a small expedition 

 under the younger Mina, with a few hundred ad- 

 venturers collected in Europe and in the United 

 States of America, was sufficient again to kindle 

 into action the turbulent spirits of Mexico. That 

 bold young man with some of his followers were, 

 after wonderful bravery and perseverance, taken 

 and executed ; but not till in their operations 

 they had destroyed the great works of the mine 

 of Valenciana. The Spanish authority which had 

 been re-established over the exhausted country 

 could do but little to restore prosperity in the 

 short interval, till the revolution in Spain itself 

 burst forth and soon spread to Mexico. 



The Cortes of Spain, whatever love of freedom 

 they may have expressed as regards the European 

 peninsula, certainly discovered no disposition to 

 diminish the authority their predecessors in power 

 had exercised over the transatlantic dominions. 



