PBA Galleries

Single sheet, printed on one side in Spanish. 29.5x19.5 cm (11½x7¾").

Rare document from the final throes of Mexican control of Texas (or the first pangs of Texas' birth). Following his defeat and capture at the Battle of San Jacinto, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, general and president of Mexico, ordered the withdrawal of all troops from Texas. Interim President José Justo Corro, however, had no plans to capitulate to the Texans. Issued two weeks before the signing of the Treaties of Velasco, Corro is authorizing the hiring of a civilian ship to aid the Mexican Navy. In translation the document reads, in part: "The interim President of the Republic of Mexico, to its inhabitants, decrees that the General congress has decreed the following: The Government has employed for the National Navy the services of Frigate Captain D. José Martinez, and those other individuals of the same origin, if there arises a need and they are deemed competent, to end the war with Texas and to block contraband in the ports and shores of the Republic... As such, I order that this decree be published, displayed, circulated and given its proper due." Though the Revolution had ended, the conflict between independent Texas and Mexico, which involved episodes of occasional violence, lasted another 12 years. We could find not copies listed in OCLC.