but this was not achieved because the rest of the Serrano government opposed it. "García Ruiz was a unitary and anti-federalist who had been attacking Pi y Margall in the House and in the press for years. Pi's firmness in his convictions, his inflexible character and perhaps even his status as a Catalan irritated García Ruiz, who upon being appointed Minister of the Interior believed he found the opportunity to re-express his hatred against federalism in a reliable way. " García Ruiz imprisoned and deported hundreds of anonymous people without any other charge than that of being "cantonalists", "internationalists" or simply "agitators", and without the records of whether or not they were put on trial. Most of the deportees were sent to the Spanish colony of the Mariana Islands located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 3000 kilometers away from the Philippine Islands – which also received "cantonal" deportees – so they were practically isolated and their families had no news of them. They presented numerous requests to the authorities, requesting that their whereabouts be ascertained – and that they are still preserved in the National Historical Archive -, which means that the authorities did not report the deaths. "In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with a suffocating humid heat, due to its tropical situation, the deportees suffered many hardships." Only one escape from the Mariana islands is known: eight prisoners who escaped "in one of the few fishing boats that, very occasionally, made a stop there". The official figure of those deported to the Marianas and the Philippines was 1,099, but there are no data on those who were deported to Cuba, nor on those who served sentences in Spanish prisons. As for the leaders of the cantonal movement, most escaped to Oran where they arrived on 13 January 1873. There they were detained by the French authorities until they were released on 9 February. The frigate "Numancia" was returned to the Spanish government on 17 January, but not the people traveling on board as the Spanish representatives intended. The Bourbon Restoration in Spain allowed Antonete'' Gálvez, through amnesty, to return to his native Torreagüera. At this time he would establish a strange and intimate friendship with Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, the person in charge of the Restoration, who considered Galvez a sincere, honest and brave man, although with exaggerated political ideas. Roque Barcia did not flee