Santa Anna was drawn to New York by a Cuban who was running a con, claiming that if Anna could up the money, he could get Cuba to back him regaining the Mexican Presidency. Anna had no money, but he DID have a warehouse full of Sapodilla Sap and figured that it might be the key to making a rubber substitute and making a fortune in the burgeoning industrial revolution, that would bankroll his political revolution. instead he lost his shirt, skipped town to avoid debt, and left one Thomas Adams, his inventor/collaborator, with a big bunch of the Sapodilla sap.
