land At this time there was much political unrest in Texas, as the colonists did not trust Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna to abide by the promises that had been made in the Mexican Constitution of 1824. The Mexican government believed that the colonists were preparing to revolt and hand Texas to the United States. After having been held in a Mexican prison for over 18 months, a newly released Austin returned to Texas with stories of what he had seen in the Mexican capital, and on September 19, 1835, he issued a call to arms. The first shot of the Texas Revolution soon occurred at Gonzales. General Martín Perfecto de Cos, the commander of the Mexican army in San Antonio, was distrustful of the Anglos in the area, and on October 16 he placed a guard at the door of the home where Maverick was staying. Maverick, his host John Smith, and another boarder, A.C. Holmes, were forbidden to leave the city. The Texan army soon arrived and, by October 24, had initiated the Siege of Bexar. Maverick had long kept a diary, which provided a "generally faithful eyewitness record of the events" of the siege. During this time, Maverick and his fellow prisoners sent missives to the Texans with information about the occurrences within the city, with many of them going to his childhood friend Thomas Jefferson Rusk. On December 1, Cos allowed Maverick and Smith to leave the city. They approached the Texan army, offered their first-hand knowledge of the situation, and urged an attack. The commander of the army, Edward Burleson, recommended a retreat instead. Ben Milam offered to lead an attack, and several hundred men volunteered to accompany him. On the morning of December 5, Maverick guided Milam's detachment into the city, while Smith guided a second detachment under Colonel Frank Johnson. For five days the men fought building-to-building. During the fighting, Milam took a bullet to the head, and Maverick caught his body as it fell. Cos surrendered on the morning of the sixth day, and Maverick attended the surrender ceremony with Burleson and Johnson. The provisional Texas government had decided in November that all land sales in Texas after August 20, 1835, would be voided, but with the hostilities temporarily over, Maverick continued to buy land in and around San Antonio. He remained with the army stationed at the Alamo. The