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MASSACRE AT GUANAJUATO CALLEJA. 285

entirely unknown to them. Their effort was simply to overwhelm by superiority of numbers. But the cool phalanx of creoles stood firm, until the Indian disorder became so great, and their strength so exhausted by repeated yet fruitless efforts, that the regulars commenced the work of slaughter with impunity. Calleja boasts that Hidalgo lost "ten thousand men, of whom five thousand were put to the sword." It seems, however, that he was unable to capture or disband the remaining insurgents; for Hidalgo retreated to Guanajuato, and then fell back on Guadalaxara, leaving in the former city a guard under his friend Allende.

Calleja next attacked the rebel forces at the hacienda of Marfil, and having defeated Allende, who defended himself bravely, rushed onward towards the city of Guanajuato. This place he entered as conqueror. "The sacrifice of the prisoners of Marfil," says Robinson, "was not sufficient to satiate his vindictive spirit. He glutted his vengeance on the defenceless population of Guanajuato. Men, women and children, were driven by his orders, into the great square; and fourteen thousand of these wretches, it is alleged, were butchered in a most barbarous manner. Their throats were The principal fountain of the city literally overflowed with blood. But, far from concealing these savage acts, Calleja, in his account of the conflict, exults in the honor of communicating the intelligence that he had purged the city of its rebellious population. The only apology offered for the sacrifice was that it would have wasted too much powder to have shot them, and therefore, on the principle of economy he cut their throats. Thus was this unfortunate city, in a single campaign, made the victim of both loyalists and insurgents.

cut.

Hidalgo and his division were soon joined by Allende, and although they suffered all the disasters of a bad retreat as well as of Spanish victories, he still numbered about eighty thousand under his banners. He awaited Calleja at Guadalaxara, which he had surrounded with fortifications and armed with cannon, dragged by the Indians, over mountain districts from the port of San Blas, on the Pacific; but it is painful to record the fact, that in this city Hidalgo was guilty of great cruelties to all the Europeans. Ward relates that between seven and eight hundred victims fell beneath the assassin's blade. A letter, produced on Hidalgo's trial, written to one of his lieutenants, charges the officer to seize as many Spaniards as he possibly can, and, moreover, directs him, if he has any reason to suspect his prisoners of entertaining seditious or restless ideas, to bury them at once in oblivion by putting such

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INSURGENTS DEFEATED- EXECUTION OF HIDALGO.

persons to death in some secret and solitary place, where their fate may remain forever unknown! As the cruelty of Old Spain to the Mexicans had well nigh driven them to despair, such savage assassinations, in turn, drove the Spaniards to revenge, or, at least furnished them with an excuse for their horrible atrocities.

Calleja, intent on the pursuit of his Indian prey, was not long in following Hidalgo. The insurgent chief endeavored to excite the ardor of his troops, while he preserved some show of discipline in their ranks; and, thus prepared, he gave battle to the Spaniards, at the bridge of Calderon, on the 17th of January, 1811. At first Hidalgo, was successful, but the rebels were no match for the royal troops kept in reserve by Calleja. With these he made a fierce charge upon the Indians, and sweeping through their broken masses he "pursued and massacred them by thousands."

Calleja was not a person either to conciliate or to pause in victory. He believed that rebellion could only be rooted out by utter destruction of the insurgents and their seed. Accordingly orders were issued to "exterminate the inhabitants of every town or village that showed symptoms of adherence to the rebels, " whilst, from the pulpit, new denunciations were fulminated against all who opposed the royal authority. The insurgent chiefs fled, and reached Saltillo with about four thousand men. There it was resolved to leave Rayon in command, while Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama and Absolo endeavored to reach the United States with an escort for the purpose of purchasing munitions of war with the treasure they had saved from the sacking of Guanajuato. But these fierce and vindictive soldiers were destined to end their lives by treachery. Hidalgo's associate rebel, Ignacio Elizondo, hoping to make his peace with the government by betraying so rich a prize, delivered them up to the authorities on the 21st of March, 1811, at Acatila de Bajan. Hidalgo was taken to Chihuahua, and, after being degraded from holy orders, was shot on the 27th of July, whilst Calleja was rewarded for his victories with the title of Conde de Calderon, won by his brilliant charge at the bridge near Guanajuato.

Such is an outline of the warfare between the Sylla and Marius of this continent, and of some of the most prominent events in the origin of that revolution which finally resulted in the Mexican independence.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL DON FRANCISCO XAVIER VENEGAS, LIX. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.

1810-1813.

AFTER Hidalgo's death the country was for a considerable time involved in a guerilla warfare which extended throughout the whole territory of Mexico, to the provincas internas of the north Rayon assumed command of the fragments of Hidalgo's forces at Saltillo and retired to Zacatecas, but he had no command, or indeed authority, except over his own men. The whole country was in ferment. The valley of Mexico was full of eager partisans, who lazo'd the sentinels even at the gates of the town; yet, in all the chief cities, the viceroy's authority was still permanently acknowledged.

Men of reflection immediately saw that the cause of liberation would be lost, if, amid all these elements of boiling discontent, there was no unity of opinion and action. The materials of success were ample throughout the nation; but they required organization under men in whose judgment and bravery the insurgent masses could rely.

Such were the opinions of Rayon and his friends, who, in May, 1811, occupied Zitacuaro, when on the 10th of the following September, they assembled a Juntá, or, central government, composed of five members chosen by a large body of the most respectable landed proprietors in the neighborhood, in conjunction with the Ayuntamiento and inhabitants of the town.

The doctrines of this Junta were liberal, but they maintained a close intimacy with Spain, and even admitted the people's willingness to receive Ferdinand VII. as sovereign of Mexico provided he

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PROCLAMATION BY THE JUNTA MORelos.

abandoned his European possessions for New Spain. When Morelos, joined the Junta he disapproved this last concession to the royalists, though it was chiefly defended by Rayon as an expedient measure when dealing with people over whom the name of king still exercised the greatest influence. This Junta was finally merged in the congress of Chilpanzingo. Its manifesto, directed to the viceroy in March, 1812, is worthy of rememberance, as it contains the several doctrines of the revolution admirably expressed by Dr. Cos, who was its author. He paints in forci ble language the misery created by the fifteen months of civil war, and the small reliance that Spain could place on creole troops, whose sympathies, at present, and whose efforts, in the end, would all be thrown into the scale of their country. He assumes as fundamental principles that America and Spain are naturally equal; that America has as much right to her Cortes as Spain has to hers; that the existing rulers in the Peninsula have no just authority over Mexico as long as their sovereign is a captive, and, finally, he proposes that if "the Europeans will consent to give up the offices they hold, and allow the assemblage of a general congress, their persons and property shall be religiously respected, their salaries paid, and the same privileges granted them as to native Mexicans, who, on their side, will acknowledge Ferdinand as the legitimate sovereign, and assist the Peninsula with their treasure, whilst they will at all times regard the Spaniards as fellow subjects of the same great empire."

The alternative of war was presented to the viceroy together with these moderate demands, but he was only requested to abate the personal cruelties that had hitherto been committed, and to save the towns and villages from sacking or destruction by fire. Yet the insane Venegas would listen to no terms with the rebels, and caused the manifesto to be burned in the great square, by the common executioner. The principles of the document, however, had been spread abroad among the people, and the flames of the hangman could no longer destroy the liberal doctrines which were deeply sown in the hearts of the people.

The distinguished revolutionary chief Morelos, a clergyman, now appears prominently upon the stage. He had been commissioned by Hidalgo as Captain General of the provinces on the south-west coast in 1810, and departed for his government with as sorry an army as the troop of Falstaff. His escort consisted of a few servants from his curacy, armed with six muskets and some old lances. But he gathered forces as he advanced. The Galeanas

ACAPULCO TAKEN SUCCESSES OF THE INSURGENTS.

289

joined him with their adherents. and swelled his numbers to near a thousand. They advanced to Acapulco, and having captured it. with abundant booty, the insurgents soon found their ranks joined by numerous important persons, and, among them the Cura Matamoros and the Bravos, whose names have, ever since, been prominently connected with the history and development of Mexico.

The year 1811 was passed in a series of petty engagements; but, in January, 1812, the insurgents penetrated within twentyfive leagues of the capital, where Galeana and Bravo took the town of Tasco.

Morelos was victorious in several other actions in the same and succeeding months, and pushed his advanced guards into the valley of Mexico, where he occupied Chalco and San Agustin de las Cuevas, about twelve miles from the metropolis. Morelos finally resolved to make his stand at Cuautla, in the tierra caliente, on the other side of the mountain ranges which hem in the valley; and, to this place the viceroy Venegas despatched Calleja, who was summoned from the north and west, where, as may readily be imagined, so fiery a spirit had not been idle or innocent since the defeat of Hidalgo.

On the 1st of January, 1812, Calleja reached Zitacuaro, whence the alarmed Junta fled to Sultepec. The insatiate Spaniard took the town, decimated the inhabitants, razed the walls to the ground, and burnt the dwellings, sparing only the churches and convents. After this dreadful revenge upon a settlement which had committed no crime but in harboring the Junta, he made a triumphal entrance into Mexico, and, on the 14th of February, after a quarrel with the viceroy, and a solemn Te Deum, he departed towards Morelos, who was shut up in Cuautla de Amilpas.

On the 19th Calleja attacked the town, but was forced to retreat. He then regularly besieged the place and its insurgent visiters for more than two months and a half. In this period, the troops on both sides were not unoccupied. Various skirmishes took place, but without signal results of importance to either party. Morelos strove to prolong the siege until the rainy season set in, when he felt confident that Calleja would be forced to withdraw his troops, who could not endure the combined heat and moisture of the tierra caliente during the summer months. Calleja, on the other hand, supposed that by sealing the town hermetically, and cutting off all supplies, its inhabitants and troops would soon be forced to surrender. Nor did he act unwisely for the success of his master. Famine prevailed in the besieged garrison. Corn was almost the