The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 17, July 1913 - April, 1914 Page: 67

British Correspondence Concerning Texas

CORRESPONDENCE FROM TIIE BRITISH ARCHIVES
CONCERNING TEXAS, 1837-1846
VII
EDITED BY EPHRAIM DOUGLASS ADAMS
DOYLE TO ELLIOT1
[Enclosure.] Mexico, 27 May. 1843.
Copy.
Charles Elliot.
Sir,
I have the honor to inform you that at an interview which took
place with His Excellency the President General Santa Afia on
the 24th Instant, He spoke to me a good deal about the present po-
sition of this Country with Texas, and added that He was ready to
treat upon the terms proposed by him and forwarded through Mr
Robinson, with which you axe acquainted. I pressed him as much
as possible with respect to the fallacy of the plan with respect to
the Sovereignty of Mexico being acknowledged by Texas; but at
present He does not seem at all inclined to give way on that point.
*I further stated to him how useless I felt it would be to send
Commissioners to treat on any terms so long as the present warfare
was carried on; and His Excellency has Authorized me to acquaint
you for the information of General Houston, that He will agree
to an Armistice, and He told me he would at once give orders for a
total cessation of hostilities on his part, and requested that General
Houston would send similar orders to the different Officers Com-
manding the Texian forces; and that in such case He was ready to
receive any Commissioners which might be sent from Texas to treat
on the terms proposed by him*2
I am of the same opinion with yourself respecting the total
fallacy and impolicy of that part of the plan of the President
Santa. Afia claiming an empty Sovereignty over Texas, but as I
1F. O., Texas, Vol. 6.
2This paragraph only is printed in Garrison, Diplomatic Correspondence
of the Republic of Texas, Ill, 1091; ,in Am. Hist. Assoc. Report, 1908, II.
"The portion of this Despatch contained within the crosses [asterisks], is.
the portion which has been communicated to the Government of Texas.-
CHARLES ELLIOT."