Daily National Intelligencer

MINA'S EXPEDITION.

Our readers are already apprised that proposals have been issued for the publication of An Authentic Narrative of the Expedition conducted by the late General Mina, in aid of the Emancipation of Mexico, in the year 1816, carried down to the month of July, 1819, by the Commissary General of that Expedition, with introductory remarks and notes by William D. Robinson, who visited Mexico in 1816, and, after having suffered a long imprisonment in convents and dungeons in Mexico, Havana, and Cadiz, made his escape last March, from the city of Cadiz. This work is to be interspersed with anecdotes and a Sketch of the Mexican Revolution, showing the actual state of society in that viceroyalty, its royal military force, and the moral and physical resources of that interesting and extensive section of the American Continent, with some observations on the probable future importance of Mexico among civilized nations, when liberated from Spanish thraldom.

We have been favored with the perusal of a part of this work; and, in the hope of recommending it to a wide circle of readers, and with the certainty of interesting them, we publish the following extract, being the preliminary part of the work.

Xavier Mina was born in the month of December, 1789. He was the eldest son of a well born and respected proprietary, whose domains lay near the town of Monreal, in the province or kingdom of Navarre. Breathing from his infancy the mountain air, he was accustomed to wander in valleys rich with the fruits of Southern Europe, or to pursue the game which sought, in their mountains and isthmus of the Pyrenees. Thus nurtured and exercised, the faculties expanded, and the hardy qualities of the mind were matured in early life. The bold and rugged scenery of mountains; the cheerful and buoyant feelings they excite, and the wild aspect of nature, are well known to have a powerful effect upon the formation of character.

The simple and frugal mountaineer remains yet uncorrupted by the refinements of the old world; and the elevated valleys of Europe are still, as they have long been, "dignified as the abodes of bravery and virtue." In such a soil the elements of great and noble daring are cherished; patriotism is a spontaneous feeling; and from the combination of a few simple materials, spring those characters of heroism which have illustrated humanity by great and noble deeds.

The early studies of Mina were made at Pampeluna and at Saragossa. In 1808, at the commencement of the resistance of the Spaniards to the French invasion, he was a student in the University of Saragossa. Then between 18 and 19 years, he felt the strong enthusiasm of the time, and when the massacre at Madrid, of the 2d of May, shook all Spain, and the cry of vengeance was heard from the Ebro to the Guadiana, he abandoned his studies, joined the army in the north of Spain, as a volunteer, and was present at the battles of Atcornes, Maria, and Belchite. The events of that period are still fresh in our remembrance—the general rising of the Spanish nation, and the heroism of the Spanish people, suddenly awaking from the slumber which had bound them since the days of Charles the Fifth.

Irritated at the capture of his armies, Napoleon at this time began to pour fresh troops into Spain, and it became more important than ever for the Spaniards to have a communication with France, as the means of procuring intelligence. The gallant young Mina undertook the enterprize, and, availing himself of his knowledge of the country, the peasantry, and the passes of the mountains, he executed it with complete success; establishing a secret means of communication with the provinces of France adjacent to the Pyrenees, by which much valuable information of what was passing in France was obtained by the Spanish Generals.

The Spanish armies, however, were unable to cope with the numerous and veteran troops that Napoleon poured into the country, and, being defeated in every regular encounter, they retreated before the French. The Catalonian army, after being defeated at Belchite, a town to the southward of Saragossa, fell back to Tortosa, while the French occupied a line extending in the direction of the southern frontier of Arragon and Catalonia.

It was in this gloomy situation of affairs that Xavier Mina formed a determination which had the most important effects, not only upon his own fortune in life, but upon the whole war in Spain. He resolved to pass thro' the line of the French position, and, gaining his native province of Navarre, to make its mountains and fastnesses the theatre of his hostile operations; to hang on the rear of the invaders, to intercept their convoys and couriers and cut off their straggling detachments.

In an evening walk he first communicated to a friend and kinsman his plans and schemes, and unfolded his hopes and fears, his strong enthusiasm, and visions of glory. The sky was bright with the tints of a brilliant sun-set, and, as the sun descended below the horizon, his fancy drew the resemblance to the glorious death of the hero who falls in the cause of his country. His kinsman heard him to the end in silence, and then pointed to a gibbet that stood near—"If you succeed it will be great; if you fail there is your portion." In reply to his solicitation to be permitted to put his plans in execution, the Spanish General told him it would only be throwing away his life, as he would be cut off from the army. "Do not (replied Mina) think I am cut off, so long as I can find a path for my horse." Finally, he left Tortosa with twelve men, and, passing with skill through the line occupied by the French army, arrived in Navarre. Of those twelve one is at present a Lieutenant; another has retired with nine wounds: the rest fell in battle.

The first essay of Mina was upon a small guard of about a dozen French: he attacked them with about twenty men, and captured them without much resistance. The next attempt was on a party of thirty men. The Spaniards, having about the same number, lay concealed behind a stone wall, and rose and fired upon the enemy. Some of them defended themselves bravely; a tall grenadier fired at Mina with deliberate aim, and, taking shelter behind a tree, encouraged his party; but the Spaniards leaping the wall, rushed on, and settled the combat with their sabres. This successful beginning produced the most important results. The spirits of the peasantry were roused; many successful adventures took place; the French foraging parties were cut to pieces; their convoys attacked and plundered, and their couriers intercepted. When the Spanish government had scarcely finished their rejoicing for the first success of Mina, they were again surprised when he sent them a large body of prisoners, with a Lieutenant Colonel, and at another time seven hundred prisoners, with a quantity of military equipments, stores, and money.

The French were not passive spectators of these chivalrous exploits. Upwards of thirty individuals, nearly or remotely connected with Mina's family, were suddenly arrested and sent into France.

War, with all the ameliorations introduced by modern civilization, is sufficiently terrible to a reflecting mind; but it is in those political struggles where the relations and kindred of an individual are made answerable for his opinion and acts, that it comes armed with its severest afflictions.

Among the relatives of Mina, thus torn from their country, was an accomplished young lady, the object of his early attachment; separated from each other, time and the waves of an adverse fortune, bore them still further asunder; and the tender affections, the sport of events, sunk and were lost forever.

Repeated expeditions were undertaken to destroy Mina, but the affections of every peasant being with him, and having correct intelligence of every movement, he was enabled not only to baffle and elude his enemy, but frequently come on them unexpectedly, defeating and destroying his pursuers. When he found the forces opposed to him too numerous to be openly resisted, he appointed a place of rendezvous, dispersed his band, and, separating, eluded pursuit. The armed mountaineers retired to their homes or to secret recesses, and there waited till their leader gave the signal, when there appeared to spring from the earth, like the men of Cadmus, a legion of soldiers. Mina himself, with a select band, the nucleus of his army, retired to the mountains. A hill near his father's mansion, was his principal retreat. He was familiar with its fastnesses and solitary retreats; and the neglected flocks of his own family furnished him and his brave companions with food. When he determined on striking a blow, he gathered his forces like the tempest on the mountain top: then he descended in terror and swept the province to the very gates of Pampeluna.

Thus was begun the Spanish insurrection in the province of Navarre. From this period, bands of Guerillas were organized throughout the country, and thus commenced that system which was the great means of keeping up the spirit of desperate animosity, and, eventually, the principal means of delivering Spain from her invader.

The success of Mina ran through the country with a powerful stimulus on the minds of the people, and he soon raised a respectable division of troops, whose numbers were increased by the peasantry, when it was contemplated to strike a blow. The Central Junta at Seville conferred upon him the title of Colonel, and, soon after, the dignity of Commandant General of the army of Navarre. The Junta of Arragon also appointed him Commanding General of Upper Arragon. He won these honors most honorably, by his sword, in a gloomy and desperate hour; they were confirmed to him by his country, and he continued his brilliant career, lighting up an hostility and desperate resistance, which has made the French invasion of Spain one of the most remarkable events in the history of modern Europe.

In the winter of 1810-11., Mina was directed by the Spanish government to destroy, if possible, an iron foundry near Pampeluna, from which the French were supplied with a number of articles for the service of the war. Whether it was from one of those accidents which no prudence can perceive, or that the enemy had information of his movements, this unfortunate enterprize was fatal to Mina. Two strong bodies of French troops, (commanded, it is supposed, by General Belliard,) on their march in contrary directions, arrived at the same time at the two entrances of a narrow valley, and completely enclosed Mina and his corps, who were in at the same time. The fight that ensued was obstinate and bloody. The gallant Mina, defending himself with his sword, fell, pierced with wounds, a prisoner in the hands of the French.

Thus ended the rapid but brilliant Guerilla career of Xavier Mina. Fortune, as if jealous of the skill and heroism which threatened to raise him above her capricious favors, played him false at last. But the spirit which he had roused, was still alive; the rage of his warrior mountaineers was kindled, and they chose one of his family to lead them to revenge. His uncle, Espoz, was the chief whom they selected, and he proved himself worthy of the high trust. He stands first amongst those whose names are chaunted through Spain in the hymns of triumph of a delivered people. He watched faithfully through the dark and perilous night which overhung his country, and when the morning of her deliverance broke, Espoz was seen chasing the last Frenchman from Spain.

But let not the full glory of the uncle diminish that of the nephew. Xavier Mina was less fortunate, but not less deserving than Espoz. Ego feci, tulit alter honores. It was Xavier who first taught the mountaineers of his province where to strike at the invader, and gave system to their irregular valor; he encouraged, by his successes, the Spaniards to follow his daring example; he braved the terrors of Napoleon's vengeance; and opened with his sword the path which led to the deliverance of his country. He was not one and twenty when taken prisoner. What might not have been expected from this heroic youth, if he had continued his career?

Mina was taken to Paris after his capture, and shut up in the castle of Vincennes. The afflictions which press upon the unfortunate state prisoner were there aggravated by the care with which all intelligence of the fate of his relations or struggling country was carefully concealed from him. His hair came out, and his person completely changed. In time, however, the rigors of his imprisonment were softened, and books were given him. He applied himself with great industry to the study of the military art, in which he derived great assistance from some of the veteran officers who were his fellow prisoners. In Vincennes he remained till the allied armies entered France; nor was he set at liberty until the general peace, which took place upon the abdication of the Emperor Napoleon.

It is well known that King Ferdinand, on his return to Spain, was met by a deputation bearing, for his approval, the constitution under which Spain was governed during the captivity of the King; and which constitution was founded on the basis of an ameliorated and limited monarchy. There is reason to believe that it was formed to meet the liberal opinions of enlightened Spaniards, and those changes which the age and modern ideas demand. One out of the many instances of this amelioration may be cited from the article No. 304, which forever abolishes all confiscation of the property of a person condemned for crimes against the state; and the humane reason assigned is, that confiscation is a punishment of the innocent children, and not of the criminal. Nor will the merit of this distinction be fully understood until we reflect that there is scarcely a state or kingdom in Europe where the contrary doctrine is not still held.

The conduct of Ferdinand, on his return to Spain, is known to the world. The sympathies of the liberal and enlightened in every country, once so strong in his favor, have been destroyed by the persecution of the Cortes, and the proscription of the Patriot leaders; by the prohibition of foreign books and journals; by the destruction of the opening sources of national improvement; and by the revival of the Inquisition, with its demon train of judicial murders and midnight tortures. The dungeons of the Holy Office, the fortifications and galleys, where soldiers of honor were condemned to work with the vilest criminals, and the list of banishments, confiscations, and executions, forcibly shew in what manner bigotry and political interest will kill the generous feelings, and sanction the vilest ingratitude.

Being conspicuous members of the party of Liberales or Constitutionalists, the two Minas soon experienced the displeasure of the Court and the frowns of the King.—Xavier, however, who was in Madrid, was offered the command of the military forces in Mexico, a situation next to that of the viceroy of New Spain. He declined it, and, apprehensive of the consequences, retired into Navarre. Espoz y Mina, who still remained at the head of his mountain warriors in Navarre, immediately received an order depriving him of the command. Matters being thus brought to a crisis, it was determined by the two Minas to raise the standard of the Cortes and the Constitution. They had no time to form any extensive plan; it was agreed to strike immediately, before the order depriving Espoz of his command should be publicly known. The details of this bold and chivalrous attempt are interesting, and present some features of romance; but we can only glance slightly at them. While Espoz was to put his troops in motion so as to arrive at a concerted hour under the walls of Pampeluna, Xavier Mina entered the fortress. There he soon communicated with a few officers who were known to him, and whose sentiments were favorable to the Cortes. Popular in the whole Spanish army, and his name endeared to these soldiers of freedom, he selected a few of them to be his guests at a convivial banquet. After supper, as the time drew nigh, Mina rose up suddenly amidst them; addressed them in a nervous and enthusiastic harangue; unfolded the ingratitude and injustice of the Court; and, finally exhorted them to give the blessings of freedom to the country they had saved. The effect was electric and complete. They arose, and crossed their swords as they stood around the banqueting table, and swore to be faithful. The sentinels on the appointed bastion were already withdrawn. The ladders were fixed, and, from the dead of night almost till the dawn of day, they waited, with breathless anxiety, the troops under Espoz y Mina. Had they then arrived, a new era, pregnant with important events, would have opened on Spain.

The causes which led to the failure of this bold enterprize are partly accidental, and implicate the policy, but not the bravery, of Espoz. It is understood that the troops, instead of being stimulated and excited for such an occasion, by his orders they were kept rigidly from liquor and refreshment. They were kept in total ignorance of the reason and nature of an expedition now so strange to them in time of peace, and, after marching to a late hour in the night, they began to murmur. Some confusion arose in a corps whose commander was unpopular; the march was delayed; a nocturnal tumult arose; and the soldiers lay down in scattered parties in the fields, or wandered in search of refreshments. Espoz, who had rode on ahead, found, in the darkness of the night, a scene of confusion which baffled all his exertions; it was irremediable, and the opportunity lost. The confederates in Pampeluna speedily received the fatal intelligence, and immediately quitted the fortress.

Although the Spaniards are accustomed to obedience, and the "King's name is a tower of strength," yet, on this occasion, they scorned to do any injury to their Generals.

Xavier Mina traversed the whole province in safety, collected all those friends who he thought might be compromised by his attempt, and entered France, in full uniform, with thirty officers. He was arrested by the orders of the French government, and imprisoned near Bayonne; but was afterwards liberated, and passed over to England. From the British government, he received a liberal pension; we believe £2000 per annum.

During his sojourn in England, he was treated by several eminent characters there with flattering attentions, but particularly an English nobleman, alike distinguished for his attachment to the cause of freedom throughout the world, and his urbanity to strangers; by this nobleman, Mina was introduced, in the winter of 1815, to General Scott, who was at that time on a visit to England. The object of that introduction was to procure for Mina some introductory letters to gentlemen in the United States from General Scott, in order to show the high standing Mina enjoyed in Europe, and that his enterprise against Mexico was not only countenanced by the nobleman above alluded to, but by several others known to General Scott, who ardently desired the liberation of Spanish America.

Mina arrived at Baltimore in the month of July, 1816, and delivered to John E. Howard, Esq. of that city, an introductory letter from General Scott; and it is to the kindness of Mr. Howard that we are indebted for the preceding biographical information, as well as other highly interesting matter which we have incorporated with our narrative; and we feel great pleasure in thus acknowledging our obligations to Mr. Howard and General Scott, and more especially as it tends to demonstrate that our hero, as well from his character and brilliant career in Spain as from his extraordinary exploits in Mexico, has a claim on the esteem and sympathy of every friend of freedom throughout the world.

During Mina's stay at Baltimore, the simplicity and modesty of his demeanor, the honesty of his transactions, and the deportment of a gentleman, gained him the esteem of a considerable portion of its society. He was applied to, while in the United States, to lend his assistance to South American privateers to cruise against Spain, and, though the offer was highly advantageous, he refused it with indignation. "What reason," said he, "have you to suppose that Xavier Mina would plunder his unoffending countrymen; I war," exclaimed the gallant youth, "against Ferdinand and tyranny, not against Spaniards."

He drew his sword in favor of the Independence of Mexico; he considered it a cause consonant to those sacred principles for which he became an exile. Power and place might have been his, if he had chosen to float the eddy of court favor; his character and principles forbade him; he believed, with many of the philosophers of the last century, and with some of the enlightened men of his own country, that the treasures of the new world had a fatal effect on the prosperity and glory of Spain; therefore he cannot be justly accused of doing an injury to his own country. Nor did he owe allegiance to the ungrateful Ferdinand. A banished exile, cut off from every tie by the act of his sovereign, who had set a bloody price on his head, there was no longer any ligament to bind him, nor any rule, even in the code of forgotten villainage, to forbid his embarking in the glorious cause of liberating Mexico. He did not, like Coriolanus, league with his country's enemies, nor, like Eugene, devote himself to a foreign court. Defeated in his attempt to uphold the Cortez and the cause of Spanish freedom in Europe, he devoted himself to Spanish emancipation in America. He boldly entered on a dangerous and desperate path of toil, bearing in his view the prospect of that fate which once menaced a Hancock and a Washington, and which overtook a Fitzgerald and an Emmet.

The pretensions of Spain to the dominion and rule of the vast regions of the new world are too lofty and extravagant for the jurists of the 19th century. The time has gone by when the decrees of the court of Madrid, and the bulls of a Pope, are to be obeyed and worshipped as infallible mandates by sixteen millions of the human race on the continent of America. Spain has, it is true, by a watchful jealousy, by the discouragement of learning, of commerce, and improvement, by a persecuting hierarchy, and by the dreadful tribunal of the Inquisition, bound the inhabitants of Spanish America in strong fetters. But the voice of that spirit which echoed along the Allegany in 1776, has already been heard on the Table Lands of Mexico, is now rolling among the Andes, and will, ere long, break the chains of servitude for ever. We are aware that many circumstances which gave a peculiar character to the contest of the North American colonies for independence, do not exist with regard to the South Americans. The English and Spanish colonies were planted in a manner as widely different as the characters of Cortez and Pizarro from Sir Walter Raleigh and William Penn.

On the basis of equal laws, trial by jury, liberty of person, conscience, and speech, a beautiful fabric of society has been erected in the North American colonies, and the Declaration of Independence was the Corinthian capital which decorated and finished the columns of the temple.

The revolutions in Spanish America, on the contrary, are at this moment affording a signal proof of the effect of early dispositions implanted on nations; and perhaps (although the idea may not be in accordance with the opinions of some modern philosophers) of the punishment which national crime prepares for posterity. The predictions of the benevolent and venerable Las Casas have already been fulfilled. A desolating civil war has acquired, from the oppressions of a tyrannic government and the cruel disposition which has been encouraged in the mass of the people, uncommon features of horror, and the frequent refusal of quarter, the sacrifice of prisoners in cold blood, the proscription and destruction of whole districts, the mutilations and butchery of females and children, avenge, terribly avenge, the sufferings of the simple and peaceable aborigines, as well as the outrages under which the Creoles have been so long groaning.

It is a political fact, now admitted to be true in its utmost extent, that the government of Spain over her American colonies was worse than any recorded in the page of history. In vain have her apologists referred us to the ponderous volumes of "Las Leyes or Las Indias," or to her ecclesiastical regulations, for proofs of her moderation and wisdom. We have an unerring and melancholy proof in the past and present condition of society in those regions, of the pestilential influence of the Spanish government. It has in every way tended to awe, to depress and brutalize the people, to cut off all means of improvement, to destroy in its infancy every germ of its amelioration, and to deprive them of the great physical blessings which their fine country afforded them. In the vast empire of New Spain, containing from six to seven millions of people, there are but two newspapers printed, and these under the immediate control of a vigilant and jealous government. No foreign or domestic intelligence was ever inserted in these papers, but such as comported with the spirit and policy of the government. In this state of wretchedness and ignorance has the great mass of society been kept, in Spanish America, for more than three hundred years.

A great change, however, has taken place within the last ten years—and every friend of humanity must rejoice that the emancipation of South America and Mexico, from Spanish thraldom, is an event now no longer doubtful; it may be retarded to a period more distant than many sanguine friends of the cause suppose, but every day unfolds new evidences, not only of the impracticability of Spain resubjugating such of her colonies as are already in open revolt, but of the very precarious tenure on which she holds her dominion over certain sections who still acknowledge her sovereignty. This important fact will be more clearly developed in the following narrative of Mina's expedition; and although the gallant youth and his brave companions have been sacrificed, they have perished in a noble cause, and we shall demonstrate, by a plain statement of the extraordinary circumstances relating to that expedition, that had Xavier Mina landed with fifteen hundred, or two thousand soldiers, instead of three hundred, in any part of the Mexican kingdom, he could have marched direct upon the City of Mexico, and overturned the Spanish government almost without a struggle. We are aware that this assertion may surprise those who are uninformed of the character and feelings of the Mexican population, and we are likewise aware that the truths we are about to develope may be a source of mortification to the pride of the Spanish government: but, be that as it may, we pledge ourselves for the fidelity of our narrative, and leave the intelligent reader to draw his own conclusions.