“ Till about 1835 he pursued the policy of keeping his hold on his native province of Vera Cruz, and influencing the rest of the country by alternately supporting and upsetting the central government. He first helped to ruin Iturbide, who wished to make himself emperor. ”

“ He was neither a general nor a statesman, nor even an honest man, but he was the most conspicuous and continuously active of the military adventurers who filled Spanish America with violence during the first two generations of its independence. He entered the colonial army of Spain as a cadet in 1810, and served as one of the Creole supporters of the Spanish government till 1821. In that year Mexico fell away from the mother country. Iturbide, who was master of the country for the time, made Santa-Anna brigadier and governor of La Vera Cruz. ”