of Toluca, 250 dragoons, and two pieces of artillery, afterward reënforced by the provincial infantry regiment of Puebla, and a battalion of marines commanded by Captain Porlier, of the frigate Atocha. Arriving at Nopala on the 20th, he proceeded on the following day to Huichapan, hoping to come in contact with the insurgents; but Villagran, timely informed of the danger, had retreated with all his followers to the sierra of the Real del Doctor and taken up a position on the inaccessible heights of Nasteje or the Muñeca. Cruz on arriving at the town recovered the merchandise and ammunition which had lately been taken by the insurgents in the Calpulalpan defile. His reception by those of the inhabitants who had not fled was joyful; but in order to prevent any further insurrectionary acts, he deprived them of every article of use that could be converted into a weapon, sparing neither the housewife's scissors, the laborer's implements, nor the artisan's tools.[1] He gave imperative orders to the commander of a detachment which he sent out in quest of the Anayas, to put to death the inhabitants of every town or hacienda in which insurgents might be found, or where they had received shelter, reducing the places to ashes.[2] Before his departure from Huichapan, Cruz amply avenged the death of Velez; pendent from the trees on the roadsides all through the defile where the deed was perpetrated swung the corpses of victims hanged in reprisal.[3] On the 14th of December, in
- ↑ In a letter to Calleja, dated Huichapan, 23d of Nov., he says: 'Los cuchillos de la mesa, las tijeras y todo cuanto pueda ser ofensivo recojo; instrumentos de herreros, cerrajeros, etc., estoy encajonando.' Alaman, Hist. Mej., ii. ap. 17. Negrete states that this letter, as well as the one mentioned in the following note, was addressed to the viceroy. Mex. Sig. XIX., ii. 250.
- ↑ Alaman, Hist. Mej., ii. ap. 18. The date of this letter is the 29th of Nov. On the previous day the Anayas had killed seven Europeans, and Cruz suspects that his correspondence had been intercepted, as he had received no despatches from Mexico for four days, whereas he expected daily communication. The expression he uses, 'Supongo que me han interceptado la correspondencia, pues que hace cuatro dias que no tengo pliegos de Mexico, que debia recibir todos los dias,' and the tone of the letters, lead me to agree with Alaman that they were addressed to Calleja, and not to the viceroy.
- ↑ Alaman, who saw the bodies hanging in Dec., does not mention the num-
