Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican Part 23

It is related by the historians of these wars, that in spite of all Venegas's boasted valor and a.s.surance, he was not a little dismayed by the approach of Hidalgo. The people shared his alarm, and would probably have yielded at once to the insurgents, whose imposing forces were crowding into the valley. But in this strait the viceroy had recourse to the well known superst.i.tions of the people, in order to allay their fears. He caused the celebrated image of the Virgin of Remedios to be brought from the mountain village, where it was generally kept in a chapel, to the cathedral, with great pomp and ceremony. Thither he proceeded, in full uniform, to pay his respects to the figure, and after imploring the Virgin to take the government into her own hands, he terminated his appeal by laying his baton of command at her feet.[58]

It is now that we first encounter in Mexican history the name of Don Felix Maria Calleja,--a name that is coupled with all that is shameless, b.l.o.o.d.y, and atrocious, in modern warfare. Calleja was placed at the head of a well appointed creole army of ten thousand men and a train of artillery, and with these disciplined forces, which he had been for some time concentrating, he was ordered to pursue Hidalgo.[59] The armies met at Aculco, and the Indians, in their first encounter with a body of regulars, exhibited an enthusiastic bravery that nearly defies belief. They were almost as completely ignorant of the use or power of fire arms as their Aztec ancestors three hundred years before. They threw themselves upon the serried ranks of infantry with clubs and staves. Rus.h.i.+ng up to the mouths of the cannon they drove their _sombreros_ or hats of straw, into the muzzles. Order, command, or discipline, were 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 cut. The princ.i.p.al 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.

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 a.s.sa.s.sin'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 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 a.s.sa.s.sinations, 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 ma.s.ses he "pursued and ma.s.sacred 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 a.s.sociate 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 t.i.tle 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.

[Footnote 51: John Quincy Adams's letter to Mr. Anderson, minister to Columbia, May 27, 1823. See President's message on the Panama Congress, March, 1823.]

[Footnote 52: Zavala, Historia, vol. 1, p. 38.]

[Footnote 53: Robinson's Hist. Mex. Rev. p. 10.]

[Footnote 54: Ward's Mexico, vol. 1, p. 127. Id. p. 157.]

[Footnote 55: This term has been variously interpreted; it is supposed to be an ancient Indian word significant of contempt. It is applied by the natives to the European Spaniards or their full blooded descendants. See Robinson's His. Rey. Mex., 15.]

[Footnote 56: Robinson Memoir Mex. Rev. 19.]

[Footnote 57: Ib. p. 20.]

[Footnote 58: Wards' Mexico in 1827, vol. i. p. 169.]

[Footnote 59: The creoles although unfriendly to the Spaniards, and ready to rebel against them, were nevertheless willing to aid them against the Indians whom they more reasonably regarded, under the circ.u.mstances as the more dangerous of the two cla.s.ses.]

CHAPTER II.

1810-1816.

VENEGAS VICEROY.--RAYON.--JUNTA IN 1811--ITS WILLINGNESS TO RECEIVE FERDINAND VII.--PROCLAMATION BY THE JUNTA--MORELOS.--ACAPULCO TAKEN--SUCCESSES OF THE INSURGENTS.--SIEGE OF CUAUTLA--IZUCAR--ORIZABA--OAXACA-- CHILPANZINGO.--CALLEJA VICEROY--ITURBIDE.--REVERSES OF INSURGENTS--MORELOS SHOT.

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 a.s.sumed 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 ma.s.ses 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 a.s.sembled a Junta, 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 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 forcible 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 a.s.sumes 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 a.s.semblage 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 a.s.sist 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 doc.u.ment, 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 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 pa.s.sed in a series of petty engagements; but, in January, 1812, the insurgents penetrated within twenty-five 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 visitors 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 only food. A cat sold for six dollars, a lizard for two, and rats and other vermin for one. But Morelos still continued firm, hoping by procrastination and endurance, to preserve the constancy of his men until the month of June, when the country is generally deluged with rain and rendered insalubrious to all who dwell habitually in colder regions, or are unacclimated in the lower vallies and table lands of Mexico. His hopes, however, were not destined to be realized, for, upon consultation, it was found absolutely necessary to risk a general engagement or to abandon the town. The general engagement was considered injudicious in the present condition of his troops, so that no alternative remained but that of retreat. This was safely effected on the night of the 2d of May, 1812, notwithstanding the whole army of the insurgents was obliged to pa.s.s between the enemy's batteries. After quitting the town, the forces were ordered to disperse, so as to avoid forming any concentrated point of attack for the pursuing Spaniards, and to reunite as soon as possible at Izucar, which was held by Don Miguel Bravo. Calleja entered the abandoned town cautiously after the departure of the besieged, but the cruel revenge he took on the innocent inhabitants and harmless edifices, is indelibly imprinted in Mexican history as one of the darkest stains on the character of a soldier, whose memory deserves the execration of civilized men.

From Izucar, Morelos entered Tehuacan triumphantly, whence he pa.s.sed to Orizaba where he captured artillery, vast quant.i.ties of tobacco, and a large amount of treasure. But he was not allowed to rest long in peace. The regular forces pursued his partizan warriors; and we next hear of him at Oaxaca, where he took possession of the town after a brief resistance. It was at this place that Guadalupe Victoria, afterwards president of the republic, performed a feat which merits special remembrance as an act of extraordinary heroism and daring in the face of an enemy. The town was moated and the single drawbridge suspended, so as to cut off the approach of the insurgents. There were no boats to cross the stagnant water; and the insurgents, as they approached, were dismayed by the difficulty of reaching a town which seemed almost in their grasp. At this moment Guadalupe Victoria, sprang into the moat, swam across the strait in sight of the soldiers in the town who seem to have been panic struck by his signal courage, and cut the ropes that suspended the drawbridge, which, immediately falling over the moat, allowed the soldiers of Morelos a free entrance into the city!

Here he rested for some time undisturbed by the Spaniards. He conquered the whole of the province with the exception of Acapulco, to which he laid siege in February, 1813, but it did not lower its flag until the following August. The control of a whole province, and the victories of Bravo and Matamoros, elsewhere in 1812 and 1813, considerably increased the importance and influence of Morelos, who now devoted himself to the a.s.semblage of a national Congress at Chilpanzingo composed of the original Junta of Zitacuaro, the deputies elected by the province of Oaxaca, and others selected by them as representatives of the provinces which were in the royalists' hands.

On the 13th of November, 1813, this body published a declaration of the absolute independence of Mexico.[60]

DON FELIX MARIA CALLEJA, LX. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.--1813-1816.

This was the period at which the star of the great leader, Morelos, culminated. Bravo was still occasionally successful, and the commander-in-chief, concentrating his forces at Chilpanzingo, prepared an expedition against the province of Valladolid. He departed on the 8th of November, 1813; and, marching across a hitherto untraversed country of a hundred leagues, he reached this point about Christmas.

But here he found a large force under Llano and COLONEL ITURBIDE,--who was still a loyalist--drawn up to encounter him. He attacked the enemy rashly with his jaded troops, and on the following day, was routed, with the loss of his best regiments and all his artillery.

At Puruaran, Iturbide again a.s.sailed Morelos successfully, and Matamoros was taken prisoner. Efforts were made to save the life of this eminent soldier, yet Calleja, who had succeeded Venegas as viceroy was too cruelly ungenerous to spare so daring a rebel. He was shot, and his death was avenged by the slaughter of all the prisoners who were in the hands of the insurgents.

For a while Morelos struggled bravely against adversity, his character and resources rising with every new danger, difficulty or loss. But the die was cast. Oaxaca was recaptured by the royalists on the 28th of March, 1814. Miguel Bravo died at Puebla on the scaffold; Galeana fell in battle; and the Congress was driven from Chilpanzingo to the forest of Apatzingo, where, on the 22d of October, 1814, it enacted the const.i.tution which bears the name of its wild birth-place.

From this temporary refuge the insurgents resolved to cross the country by rapid marches to Tehuacan in the province of Puebla, where Mier y Teran had gathered a considerable force, which Morelos imagined would become the nucleus of an overwhelming army, as soon as he joined them. But his hopes were not destined to be realized. He had advanced as far as Tesmaluca, when the Indians of the village betrayed his slender forces to General Concha, who fell upon them, on the 5th of November, 1815, in the narrow gorge of a mountain road. The a.s.sault was from the rear; so that Morelos, ordering Nocalas Bravo to hasten his march with the main body of the army as an escort for the ill-starred congress, resolved to fight the royalists until he placed the national legislature out of danger. "My life"--said he--"is of little consequence, provided congress be saved:--my race was run when I saw an independent government established!"

The brave soldier-priest, with fifty men, maintained the pa.s.s against Concha, until only one trooper was left beside him. So furious was his personal bearing, during this mortal conflict, that the royalists feared to advance until he was bereft of all support. When finally captured, he was stripped, chained, treated with the most shameless cruelty, and carried back to Tesmaluca. Concha, however, was less cruel than his men. He received the rebel chief politely, and despatched him to the capital for trial. Crowds of eager citizens flocked to see the celebrated partizan warrior who had so long held the Spanish forces at bay. But his doom was sealed; and, on the 22d of December, 1815, Concha removed him to the hospital of San Cristoval.

After dining with the general, and thanking him for his kindness, he walked to the rear of the building, where, kneeling down, he bound a handkerchief over his eyes and uttering the simple e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, "Lord, if I have done well, thou knowest it;--if ill, to thy infinite mercy I commend my soul,"--he gave the fatal signal to the soldiers who were drawn up to shoot him.

[Footnote 60: We must mention an event, characteristic of Bravo, which occurred during this period. Bravo took Palmar, by storm, after a resistance of three days. Three hundred prisoners fell into his hands, who were placed at his disposal by Morelos. Bravo immediately offered them to the viceroy Venegas in exchange for _his father_, Don Leonardo Bravo, who had been sentenced to death in the capital. The offer was rejected, and Don Leonardo ordered to immediate execution. But the son at once commanded the prisoners to be liberated,--saying that he "wished to put it out of his power to avenge his parent's death, lest, in the first moments of grief the temptation should prove irresistible."--Ward, 1 vol. 204.]

CHAPTER III.

1816-1821.

APODACA VICEROY.--SPANISH CONSt.i.tUTION OF 1812 PROCLAIMED IN MEXICO.--CONDITION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY.--VICTORIA--MINA LANDS AT SOTO LA MARINA--HIS EFFORTS--LOS REMEDIOS--GUERILLAS--HE IS SHOT.--PADRE TORRES--ITURBIDE--APODOCA SELECTS HIM TO ESTABLISH ABSOLUTISM.--ITURBIDE PROMULGATES THE PLAN OF IGUA LA--ARMY OF THE THREE GUARANTIES.

DON JUAN RUIZ DE APODACA, CONDE DEL VENADITO, LXI. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN. 1816-1821.