The earlier of these two documents dates from the period where Santa Anna was a prisoner of the Texans, a few months after his humiliating capture at San Jacinto. It is an order directed to Cayetano Rubio in San Luis Potosí, to pay 2000 pesos to diplomat Francisco Pizarro Martínez. Document Signed "Ant'o Lopez de Santa Anna," 3 1/2 x 8 inches; full vertical separation at fold. "Prision de Oracimbo" [Orozimbo Planation, Brazoria County, TX], 13 November 1836. The other document is yet more colorful, although not executed in Santa Anna's hand. It is an early secretarial transcript of a letter from Santa Anna to José Maria Tornel, a general who had generally supported Santa Anna. Written during one of Santa Anna's periods outside the presidency, he accuses Tornel of betraying their friendship. During a recent trip to Puebla, Tornel had allegedly accused Santa Anna of fraud in the sale of livestock, of addiction to gambling, of killing liberal José Antonio Mejía during the 1836 uprising in Tampico, and of being "a prostituted man" who did not care about the fate of Mexico: (in translation) "In that miserable city [Puebla] in in which you breathed the fumes of that miserable and low flattery, you had the gall to slander my name and reputation, perhaps because the vapors in the dense atmosphere there inflated your head, and you believed yourself elevated to the highest regions, without taking into account that a balloon may be deflated by an aeronaut with the slightest effort." Santa Anna also accuses Tornel of falsely claiming to have tried to save Mejía to curry favor with liberals. He concludes with a threat: "sacaré esa lengua de vivo ra y le atraveraré el corazon"--to tear out his snake tongue and stab him in the heart. The letter does not seem to be widely known, but was published in José Trinidad Laris, "Historia de modismos y refranes méxicanos", page 25. 8 pages, 12 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches, on 2 folding sheets; minor worming, foxing, and wear. Np, 8 May 1844.
