Santa Anna had disappeared during the battle, and next day General
Houston ordered a thorough search of the surrounding territory for him.
In the afternoon Sergeant J. A. Sylvester[6] spotted a Mexican slipping
through the woods toward Vince's Bayou. Sylvester and his comrades
caught the fugitive trying to hide in the high grass. He wore a common
soldier's apparel--round jacket, blue cotton pantaloons, skin cap and
soldier's shoes.
They took the captive to camp, and on the way Mexican prisoners
recognized him and cried, "El Presidente!" Thus his identity was
betrayed; it was indeed the dictator from below the Rio Grande. He was
brought to General Houston, who lay under the headquarters oak, nursing
his wounded foot.
The Mexican President pompously announced, "I am General Antonio Lopez
de Santa Anna, and a prisoner of war at your disposition."
General Houston, suffering with pain, received him coldly. He sent for
young Moses Austin Bryan and Lorenzo de Zavala Jr. to act as
interpreters. Santa Anna cringed with fright as the excited Texas
soldiers pressed around him, fearing mob violence. He pleaded for the
treatment due a prisoner of war. "You can afford to be generous," he
whined; "you have captured the Napoleon of the West."
"What claim have you to mercy?" Houston retorted, "when you showed none
at the Alamo or at Goliad?"
They talked for nearly two hours, using Bryan, de Zavala and Almonte as
interpreters. In the end Santa Anna agreed to write an order commanding
all Mexican troops to evacuate Texas. Later, treaties were signed at
Velasco, looking to the adjustment of all differences and the
recognition of Texas independence.
Thus ended the revolution of 1836, with an eighteen-minute battle which
established Texas as a free republic and opened the way for the United
States to extend its boundaries to the Rio Grande on the southwest and
to the Pacific on the west. Few military engagements in history have
been more decisive or of more far-reaching ultimate influence than the
battle of San Jacinto.
[Illustration: Outline of Texas]