CHAPTER VI.
THE ALHÓNDIGA OF GUANAJUATO TAKEN BY STORM.
1810.
Local History of Ganajuato — Alarm in the City — Defensive Measures of Intendente Riaño — The Alhóndiga de Granaditas — An Interesting Manuscript — Riaño — Retires to the Alhóndiga — Hidalgo Summons Riaño to Surrender — The Attack — A Murderous Contest — Riaño's Death — His Biography — Confusion in the Alhóndiga — The Barricades Won by the Insurgents — They Gain Entrance — Berzábal's Fall — His Biography — Number of the killed — Acts of Heroism — Pillage and Devastation.
The province of Guanajuato was the theatre of the first tragic events of the revolution, and no city in the kingdom of New Spain suffered more cruelly in loss of life and ruin of prosperity than its capital, Santa Fé de Guanajuato, from which the province derived its name.[1] At the time of the conquest this territory was inhabited by barbarous tribes living on the produce of the chase, and the first Spaniards who penetrated it were the conquerors of Acámbaro, in which exploits joined the cacique of Jilotepec, Nicolás Montañez de San Luis, a near relative of Montezuma. In 1526 these adventurers apportioned out among themselves the districts of Acámbaro, Jerécuaro, and Coronéo.[2]
- ↑ The word is of Tarascan origin, and corrupted from Quanashuato, mean ing cerro de ranas, or froghill, a name given to the site, because of a rock shaped like a frog which was an object of worship to the natives. Medina, Chron. de S. Diego, 257-8. The capital at an early date was known by tho single appellation of Guanajuato.
- ↑ 'Segun aparece de la relacion inédita escrita por Montañez que copia íntegra el P. Fr. Pablo de la Concepcion Beaumont en su historia manuscrita de la provincia de Franciscanos de Michoacan, que existe en el archivo general.' Romero, Mich., 149-50.
