This manuscript, tinged with blood and found between the sash and shirt of Agustín de Iturbide after his execution by firing squad on July 19, 1824, is an emotional defense of Iturbide’s public career. A former Royalist officer who joined the Mexican struggle for independence, Itrubide was crowned emperor of Mexico on May 21, 1822, under the name Agustín I. However, he was unable to achieve peace and abdicated on March 19, 1823, and went into exile. Without knowing that he had been declared a traitor and an outlaw, he returned to Mexico on July 14, 1824, where he was apprehended and executed in the village of Padilla, in the present-day state of Tamaulipas. This manifesto was written by Iturbide during his exile in Italy and is addressed to the British Ambassador. "I do not have the presumption of the literati, nor the pride that is often attributed to those in positions similar to the one I left; my desire is only to respond honestly to my detractors who slander me, and to those who are opposed to feelings such as love of humanity, idolizing my country, and wishing for order, coupled with the desire to expel from my country the slavery and ignorance which abides there.”