Corchado, on his return, gathered up some of the scoria and carried it to Puebla, when it was found to contain so large a percentage of sulphur as to warrant its 'denouncement' as a sulphur-mine. Capital was procured at Puebla sufficient to set up the rude apparatus we have already described, by means of which a very handsome profit on the adventure was realized. But, owing to a lawsuit, in which the affair was at that time (1852) involved, no effort had yet been made to pierce the mountain, or to explore a passage through some vent or fissure. A good path had been made up the mountain, and in the month of May it was considered quite a safe undertaking to visit these sulphur-works. [14] This must have been the great fissure, and not the crater. I see no objection to this statement; for in this Cortez had no motive to falsify, and it is the ordinary appearance of an active volcano. CHAPTER X. Texas.--Battle of Madina.--First Introduction of Americans into Texas.--Usurpation of Bustamente.--Texas owed no Allegiance to the Usurper.--The good Faith of the United States in the Acquisition of Louisiana and Texas.--Santa Anna pronounces against Bustamente.--Santa Anna in Texas.--A Mexican's Denunciation of the Texan War.--His Idea of our Revolution,--He complains of our grasping Spirit.--The right of the United States to occupy unsettled Territory.--A few more Pronunciamientos of Santa Anna.--The Adventures of Santa Anna to the present Date. We must resume again the narrative of historical events, in order better to set forth the condition of the country through which we are traveling. Texas is a turning-point in the history of Mexico. Captain Don Alonzo de Leon, in the year 1689,[15] by command of the Vice-King of New Spain, took formal possession of Texas, in the name of His Most Catholic Majesty of Spain. Afterward a few military and missionary settlements were commenced, with indifferent success, as the Indians were of a less docile character than those of the southern provinces. They were ever restive under the yoke of spiritual taskmasters, so that the feeble missions and presidios had only a sickly existence down to the time of the breaking out of the civil wars of Mexico. We have already noticed the statement that, in the year 1819, a Mexican general routed at the River Madina a party of 3000 men, who were on their way to join the Mexican insurgents. The above number is somewhat improbable; say there were 500, which would be about as many as could well be mustered at that early period for a filibustering expedition at New Orleans.