CHAPTER XVI.
PROGRESS OF THE WAR.
1812.
Capture of Tehuacan — Massacre of Prisoners — Curates of Maltrata and Zongolica Join the Revolution — Orizaba Captured and Retaken — Revolutionary Plans at Vera Cruz and Perote — Communication Reopened by Royalists — Insurgent Operations — Capture of Pachuca with Immense Booty — Cruel Shooting of Prisoners — Towns Recaptured by Royalists — Arrest of Leonardo Bravo and Companions — Their Execution — Noble Deed of Nicolás Bravo — Venegas Offers Pardon to Penitent Rebels, and a Reward for Morelos' Capture — Venegas and Calleja at Enmity — Rayon's Unsuccessful Attack on Toluca — Defeat at Tenango — Dispersion of the Supreme Junta.
Military operations had resulted more favorably for the royalist arms in the interior than in the eastern and southern provinces, owing, it would seem, to the fact that in the former locality the insurrectionary forces were in independent parties, more or less numerous, but nearly always acting without combination, which, though obstructing the public highways, interrupting traffic, and living by plunder, rarely attempted to assail fortified towns, or to confront their royalist foe in an open field. To the east and south of Mexico military affairs had been more skilfully conducted by the insurgent chiefs, who acted more in concert, and whose troops had been kept well in together and were better disciplined. Hence the rapid progress made by the revolution in these regions, and its strong and menacing attitude at the end of September 1812 toward the viceregal government. Prior to
