mined to undertake a march to the Coast with a part of his force, with the intention of occupying the mouth of the river Guăsăcūalcŏ, where he was to be met by a vessel from the United States. This hazardous attempt was made in July 1816, and, (though unsuccessful) appears to have been conducted in a very masterly manner. Tĕrān set out with an escort of only 300 men. The rest of his corps he left in the fortress of Cērrŏ Cŏlŏrādŏ, (a mountain in the vicinity of Tĕhŭacān), which he had fortified with extraordinary care, and where he had established a cannon-foundery, and a manufactory of powder. Surprised by the rainy season, he projected, and executed in ten days, with the aid of the Indian population of Tūstĕpēc, a military road across the marsh leading to Ămĭstān, (seven leagues in extent), which is even now acknowledged by the most scientific men of the day to be a very extraordinary work. From Ămĭstān, he proceeded, on the 7th of September, to Plāyă Vĭcēntĕ, a depôt for the Veracruz merchants in their trade with Ŏăxācă; there he was overtaken by a Royalist force of eleven hundred men, under Colonel Tŏpētĕ, which he defeated on the 10th of September, having selected so favourable a position for the engagement, that it more than compensated for the inferiority of his own numbers. But finding that his plan for occupying Guăsăcūalcŏ was discovered, he returned to Tĕhŭacān, where a force of 4,000 men, under Colonel Brāchŏ, was detached against him by the Viceroy,
