Positive information was at last received from a reliable source that Spain was preparing, in Habana, an expedition to land at Omoa and march on Guatemala, where it expected to find the requisite coöperation.[V-105] This report coincided with the departure of the Spanish expedition under Brigadier Barradas to Tampico.[V-106] President Barrundia, on the 3d of September, 1829, issued a stirring address; and the congress, in October and November, with the sanction of the executive, passed an act forbidding Spaniards to enter or land in Central American territory under any pretext. The ports of the republic were closed to the Spanish flag, and to the products and manufactures of Spain, her colonies, and dependencies. There were not a few Spaniards who, together with the self-styled nobles of native birth, desired to see the flag of the old country waving again over Central America. That anxiously wished for day had become almost the only subject of conversation in their circles, of which the assembly of Guatemala took due warning. In November it declared the sequestration of all property belonging to Spaniards who dwelt in the republic, coupled with the assurance that none should be restored till Spain had formally recognized the independence of Central America.[V-107] CHAPTER VI. CIVIL WAR. 1829-1838. REVOLUTION IN HONDURAS—CONSERVATIVES INVADE THE STATE—SECOND GENERAL ELECTIONS—FRANCISCO MORAZAN CHOSEN PRESIDENT—PLOTS OF THE SERVILES—ARCE'S INVASION FROM MEXICO—OCCUPATION OF HONDURAS PORTS BY EXILED REBELS—SPANISH FLAG HOISTED IN OMOA, AND AID FROM CUBA—SALVADORAN AUTHORITIES IN REBELLION—THIRD GENERAL ELECTIONS—MORAZAN REËLECTED—FAILURE OF COLONIZATION PLANS—RAVAGES OF CHOLERA—INDIAN REVOLT UNDER CARRERA—HIS EARLY LIFE. It is difficult for us to realize how long it takes and how hard it is for progressive man to throw away the fetters, temporal and spiritual, which in times past he stupidly forged for himself. Intellectual light breaking in on our old savagism finally tells us that the hurtful manifestations of nature are not the chastisements of offended deity; and then we wonder how we could have been so stupid so long, with our pope-worship and king-worship, and our servility to their satellites. Then when we first gain our liberty we know not what to do with it. We feel lost without the harness, the reins, the whip and spur. The people of Central America, high or low, knew little at this juncture of self-government. In times past they had observed that rulership consisted largely of personal wranglings for place, from king and pope down to the lowest aspirant; of wars, political and ecclesiastical, brother against brother, priests and people butchering and burning as if the great object of religion and civilization was to preserve upon this earth as long as possible the hell which we all hope in one way or another to escape hereafter.