questionable whether they would have been brought to fire. But the Insurgents, struck with terror at the appearance of a regular army going through its evolutions in perfect silence, and beginning to advance upon them in five separate columns, dispersed in the greatest confusion at their approach, and began firing at random upon all who came within their reach. This was an insult with which the Creole Regulars were so irritated, that they were even more eager than the Spaniards in the pursuit; and, from this moment, their line, throughout the early part of the Revolution, was decided. For many years, they were the chief support of the cause of Spain, and the most inveterate enemies of the Insurgents; nor was it until the declaration of Ĭtŭrbīdĕ, in 1821, that they espoused the cause of Mexican Independence. One cannot but admire the dexterity with which this feeling in favour of the Mother country, was created, and kept up. The very men who enabled Căllējă, to gain the battles of Ăcūlcŏ and Căldĕrōn, would, under less skilful management, have put an end to the contest at once, by siding with their countrymen.[1]
- ↑ Vide Representation of Audiencia, paragraph 38, in which Căllējă is termed "a General, whose consummate skill converted into invincible soldiers, men who, under any other direction, would have turned against their General, and their Country;" that is, (in dispassionate language,) men, who, if left to themselves, would have joined Hidalgo instead of Calleja, and fought for the Independence of Mexico, instead of against it.
