he Ecosces decreed the overthrow of Iturbide, and sent
orders to General Echevarri, who was a member of the order, to unite
his forces to those of Santa Anna in overturning the empire. This was a
bitter pill for that general to swallow, but he swallowed it; and the
two leaders together swallowed the empire.

Iturbide, being unable to stem the torrent of insurrection, had
abdicated; a Republic had been established upon the ruins of the
empire, and Victoria, the "wild man of the woods," was elected first
President. He served out his time; but the last year of his government
was disturbed by the terrible insurrection of the Acordada, which had
arisen out of the election of Pedraza as his successor. Santa Anna was,
at the time of this election, at Jalapa, discharging the duties of
Vice-Governor of Vera Cruz, when the people of the town surrounded his
house and called upon him to pronounce against the election. Thus
becoming implicated, he was forced to make a new insurrection. This
third _pronunciamiento_ of Santa Anna, was on the 5th of September,
1828.

He made his first stand at the Castle of Perote; but finding this too
isolated a position, he marched to Oajaca, in the extreme southwest of
the Republic, and took up his quarters in the Dominican convent of that
city. As he was closely hemmed in by an active enemy, provisions grew
scarce, and he was forced to resort to a novel method of supplying
himself. On a feast-day, at the San Franciscan church, he dressed a
party of his soldiers in the garb of monks, and, having placed them in
a convenient position, he made prisoners of the whole assembled
congregation, and then proceeded to divest them of all ready cash on
hand, and then emptied the contribution-box of the money destined for
the poor saints[8] at Jerusalem, and retired and ended the war; for the
successful termination of the insurrection of the Acordada in the city
of Mexico accomplished the object for which Santa Anna took up
arms--the declaration by Congress, that General Guerrero, a man of
mixed blood was the real President elect, instead of Pedraza, a white
man, and the candidate of the aristocracy.

CAPTURE OF THE ARMADA.

When King Ferdinand had regained his despotic authority, in 1825, by
the aid of French bayonets, he bethought himself of Mexico, the most
productive of his lost colonial possessions in America, which had
yielded, to his predecessors, the total sum of $2,040,048,426,[9] or
rather an an