[Footnote 60: We must mention an event, characteristic of Bravo, which occurred during this period. Bravo took Palmar, by storm, after a resistance of three days. Three hundred prisoners fell into his hands, who were placed at his disposal by Morelos. Bravo immediately offered them to the viceroy Venegas in exchange for _his father_, Don Leonardo Bravo, who had been sentenced to death in the capital. The offer was rejected, and Don Leonardo ordered to immediate execution. But the son at once commanded the prisoners to be liberated,--saying that he "wished to put it out of his power to avenge his parent's death, lest, in the first moments of grief the temptation should prove irresistible."--Ward, 1 vol. 204.] CHAPTER III. 1816-1821. APODACA VICEROY.--SPANISH CONSTITUTION OF 1812 PROCLAIMED IN MEXICO.--CONDITION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY.--VICTORIA--MINA LANDS AT SOTO LA MARINA--HIS EFFORTS--LOS REMEDIOS--GUERILLAS--HE IS SHOT.--PADRE TORRES--ITURBIDE--APODOCA SELECTS HIM TO ESTABLISH ABSOLUTISM.--ITURBIDE PROMULGATES THE PLAN OF IGUA LA--ARMY OF THE THREE GUARANTIES. DON JUAN RUIZ DE APODACA, CONDE DEL VENADITO, LXI. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN. 1816-1821. With the death of Morelos the hopes of the insurgents were crushed and their efforts paralyzed. This extraordinary man, so fertile in resources, and blending in himself the mingled power of priest and general, had secured the confidence of the masses, who found among his officers, none upon whom they could rally with perfect reliance. Besides this, the congress which had been conducted safely to Tehuacan by Bravo, was summarily dissolved by General Teran, who considered it an "inconvenient appendage of a camp." We cannot but regard this act of the general as unwise at a moment, when the insurgents lost such a commander as Morelos. By the dissolution of the congress the nation abandoned another point of reunion; and from that moment, the cause began to fail in all parts of the country. The CONSTITUTION, sanctioned by the Cortes in 1812, had, meanwhile, been proclaimed in Mexico, on the 29th of September of that year; and, whilst the people felt somewhat freer under it, they were enabled, by the liberty of the press, which lasted sixty-six days, to expend their new-born patriotism on paper instead of in battles. These popular excitements, served to sustain the spirits of the people, notwithstanding the losses of the army; so that when Apodaca, assumed the reins of the viceroyalty in 1816, the country was still republican at heart, though all the insurgent generals were either captured or hidden in the wilderness, whilst their disbanded forces, in most instances, had accepted the _indulto_, or pardon, proffered for their return to allegiance. * * * * *