dada, and mail carriers, and such as might be found useless for military service.[1] This brilliant scheme failed, for when Venegas came to pay for the beasts, like Simple Simon, he had not the money. All this tended to the further disgust of the people, and to the advancement of the revolutionary cause. Nor were the continued offers of pardon emanating from the Spanish córtes sufficient to hold forever the good will of the Spanish Americans.[2]
There were several secret clubs in the capital at this time, one claiming special attention, called Los Guadalupes,[3] whose members, like others before mentioned, labored to spread discontent in regard to the viceregal government.
One of the richest towns of that period, now within the state of Tlascala, was Huamantla, situated on the line of trade between Vera Cruz and Mexico. The place was garrisoned by forty infantry of the line, 200 royalist auxiliaries, also infantry, most of them armed with lances, there being but few muskets among them, and sixty cavalrymen. Of artillery there were only three small guns. The commandant, Antonio García del Casal, having been apprised that a large force of insurgents meditated an attack upon the town, opened ditches and erected barricades. The insurgents, 2,000 strong, assailed the place on the 18th of March, 1812, and though repulsed at first, carried it next day, after nearly all the regulars and a number of officers had
- ↑ The owners of the last class were required to have a written license. And any one found riding a horse, unprovided with the license, fifteen days after the publication of the edict at the head town of his district was to be shot. Gaz. de Mex., 1812, iii. 174-7.
- ↑ This became evident in the reception given to the amnesty law of Nov. 8, 1811, published in Mexico in the Diario of April 3, 1812. In fact, decrees purporting to be for the general good were looked on, not as springing from a desire to benefit the colony, but as so many rights forced from the Spanish rulers. Alaman, Hist. Mej., iii. 136-41.
- ↑ Established for securing independence, when and by whom has not been ascertained; but it existed prior to 1808; it was said that Viceroy Iturrigaray had relations with them; and that in the differences between Venegas and Calleja they made proposals to the latter which were not looked upon with displeasure. The labors of these clubs were very important. They were in constant correspondence with the independent chiefs. Negrete, Mex. Sig. XIX., v. 14.
