his departure from Chilapa for Cuautla and Izúcar in the latter end of 1811, Morelos directed his active lieutenant, Trujano, to spread the insurrection throughout the Miztec country, and parties wore accordingly despatched in all directions, appropriating to their own uses the grain, live-stock, and every other available thing belonging to the Spaniards or to those of royalist proclivities. One of those parties, commanded by Colonel Figueroa, paid a visit to Tehuacan, a rich city and the commercial centre of the provinces of Puebla, Oajaca, and Vera Cruz. The place had been abandoned by the Spaniards and authorities, and Figueroa entered it unopposed; but having no force to hold it, he went harvesting in the haciendas and farms of the surrounding country; upon which the Spaniards returned with seventy-five soldiers and two pieces of artillery, erected intrenchments, and organized volunteer companies. The insurgents, however, again made their appearance, and in February surrounded the city. Tho number of the besiegers increased rapidly, and the beleaguered in the latter part of April and beginning of May found themselves reduced to the last extremity. Their water supply had been cut off, and most of the garrison had perished. Despairing of any relief, the city capitulated under a guarantee that the lives of tho Spaniards and other royalists would be spared; to which stipulation, according to custom, not the slightest attention was subsequently paid.[1]
- ↑ The insurgent chiefs commanding the besiegers were José Sanchez de la Vega, vicar of Clacotepec the same who repulsed royalist brigadier, Llano, at Izúcar, the cura Tapia, the Franciscan friar Ibargüen, Ramon Sesma, Machorro, Arroyo, and others. The parish priest and other respectable ecclesiastics were present at the signing of the stipulations. After the garrison laid down their arms, on the 6th of May, the Spaniards were confined in the public jail, and their shops and dwellings were sacked. Hundreds of families were thus reduced to beggary. Next day the Spaniards were stripped of their clothes, bound in groups of three, and by the guerrilla Arroyo conveyed on foot to Techamachalco, where three of them were shot, the son of the subdelegado Sanchez, one of the victims, being compelled to be present at his father's execution. Hearing that the people of Techamachalco were on the point of rising to oppose the executions, Arroyo had the other prisoners, forty-three in number, taken out and shot. One of the unfortunates was a Frenchman named Basil Mazas, a man noted for his acts of benevolence and charity. A few days before, the Spaniards who capitulated in San Andrés
