Only muleteers and others whose occupations so required it were allowed a hatchet, and knife without a point. In the country haciendas and ranches, moreover, armed squadrons were organized, composed of members varying from six or eight to fifty, according to the relative importance of the places. This system, afterward adopted with some modifications by Morelos and the other independent leaders, resulted in placing all Mexico on a war footing; but it did not accomplish at this time exactly what Calleja desired. Practically it arrayed the nation against itself. At the commencement of the strife the creole regulars even could not be relied upon, and in the first engagements great misgivings had been entertained by the viceroy in regard to them. Their conduct at Las Cruces, and the subsequent skilful management by Calleja of the troops under his command, had greatly relieved this anxiety, and now by enforcing armed resistance in the towns against the attacks of the insurgents, friends and brothers were sometimes brought face to face as enemies.
Well aware that Zacatecas was still far from secure, and that Guanajuato was exposed to invasion at any time by the insurgent forces in Michoacan, Calleja made such dispositions for the protection of those provinces as the circumstances of his position admitted. As the northern and eastern provinces, called the provincias internas,[1] were now free from insurrectionary movements, the troops in those regions could be advantageously employed in securing Zacatecas and Guanajuato against hostile inroads, and at the same time protecting the frontier of Durango. Calleja accordingly addressed a letter to Governor Salcedo, urging him to instruct Lopez and Ochoa to occupy with their divisions the defiles of Colotlan, Tlaltenango, and Juchipila; at the same time he
- ↑ In May 1811 the provincias internas were divided into two comandancias generales, subject to the viceroy's authority, by an order of the Spanish government, which was confirmed by the regency in July 1812. Prov. Inter. Carta del Ministro, and Id., Real orden Mayor, MS., nos. 6 y 7.
