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 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 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 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 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 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 pass 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 passed
to Orizaba where he captured artillery, vast quantities 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 assemblage 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 assailed 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 constitution 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 assault
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 pass 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 ejaculation, "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.]