imagination; and the poet, a female relative of the Cacique, produced
a popular song entitled "The Poyais Emigrant," in which love and lucre
were attractively blended:
"Through smiling vales, 'neath lofty hills,
Through citron groves we'll stray together,
Our star of life will sweetly set,
When blessed in wealth and one another."
"With jewels rare, I'll busk your hair,
The fairest flowers for you I'll gather;
The rose's bloom, its rich perfume,
Is sweet as any Highland heather," etc.
When everything had been concluded, His Royal Highness, the Cacique of
Poyais, gave a regal reception to his court and faithful subjects,
when they were admitted to the presence of the Cacique and Caciquess,
who were seated on a dais, and graciously permitted to kiss their
hands. A collation was served, and as this was the only substantial
return obtained for their investments, it is to be hoped that they had
better appetite than the Kentucky Colonel, who, after an unsuccessful
night at the gaming table, was invited to stay and partake of some
refreshments, and responded with a vigorous negative, and the query:
"Do you suppose I can eat 1100 dollars worth of ham and get even?" A
party of unfortunate emigrants actually went out to the kingdom of
Poyais, where they found that the King of the Mosquitos did not
recognize any grant as having been made to the Cacique; but they were
graciously allowed to remain until the pestilential fevers carried off
most of them, and the remainder were rescued by a relief party. As for
Sir Gregor McGregor, he disappeared permanently from public view,
taking with him, it is presumed, the treasure chest of his Government.
Another stormy petrel blown from Europe to Mexican seas was Don
Francisco Javier Mina, who managed to compress a world of adventure
into his brief life. Born at Idocin in Spain in 1789, he won fame
while a mere youth by leading his hardy mountaineers in many a
guerrilla fight against the French. In his twenty-first year he had
gained the rank of colonel, and was on the high road to preferment
when the blind policy of King Ferdinand drove him into rebellion,
along with his uncle, the brave General Espoz y Mina. A well-planned
scheme of revolution having failed, he fled the country and made his
way to England, where he was warmly welcomed. His talents and courage
inspired the government of that country, which for reasons of its own
wished to foment insurrection in Spanish America, to equip him for a
renewal of warfare against Ferdinand on his transatlantic territory.
He arrived in the United States well supplied with money and letters
to the friends of the Mexican revolutionists, and on April 15, 1817,
he landed a force of 270 men from New Orleans at Soto la Marina.
Defeating a superior force of Royalists in several engagements, he
made a junction with the revolutionary army, and speedily drove the
enemy out of the Northern provinces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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