Americans under Colonel Jim Bowie. All night they fought. Every man fell
at his post but seven, and these were killed while asking quarter. Here
died David Crockett, the famous American frontiersman, whose exploits had
made him so popular in Tennessee, that, though unable to read, he was
thrice elected to Congress. Joaquin Miller, the American poet, based on
this encounter his stirring ballad on "The Defence of the Alamo":

Santa Anna came storming, as a storm might come;
There was rumble of cannon; there was rattle of blade;
There was cavalry, infantry, bugle and drum,--
Full seven thousand, in pomp and parade,
The chivalry, flower of Mexico;
And a gaunt two hundred in the Alamo!

[Sidenote: Battle of San Jacinto]

On April 21 was fought the decisive battle of San Jacinto, in which Santa
Anna with 1500 men was defeated by 800 Texans under Sam Houston. On the
next day General Santa Anna was captured. He was compelled to acknowledge
the independence of Texas, but the people of Mexico refused to ratify his
act. Nonetheless serious hostilities against the Texans were abandoned.

[Sidenote: Peru and Bolivia joined]

The abolition of slavery in Bolivia gave a new impetus to the government of
that republic. President Santa Cruz of Bolivia felt encouraged by this to
attempt to carry out his pet project of the amalgamation of Peru with
Bolivia. A prolonged guerilla war was the result.

[Sidenote: Spanish rule in Cuba and Philippines]

[Sidenote: Civil war in the Peninsula]

[Sidenote: Portuguese slave trade abolished]

The example of these movements in Central and South America encouraged the
revolutionists of Cuba to keep up their struggle against the rule of Spain.
Unfortunately for them, the apparent weakness of the Spanish
constitutional government at Madrid did not extend to the more distant
possessions of Spain. The only result of the rising of Manuel Quesada was
that Cuba was deprived of her representation in the Spanish Cortes. In the
Philippine Islands, Spanish rule was extended to the Island of Sulu. On the
Peninsula, on the other hand, matters went from bad to worse. The Carlist
war continued unabated. On May 5, General Evans, commanding the
constitutional troops and foreign volunteers, won a victory over the
Carlists at Vigo, but within a few months he was himself defeated at San
Sebastian. On Christmas Day, another crushing defeat was inflicted on the
Constitutionalists by the Carlist leader E