Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/489

Naturally, from such a man as General Nicolás Bravo we should expect to hear much during these stirring times. Since his signal victory at San Agustin del Palmar his military prestige had increased. Civilians flocked to his standard; soldiers deserted from the enemy to serve under him. Spaniards, as well as Mexicans, came to regard him as less an enemy than a patriot; for his conduct, whether toward friend or foe, was always marked by that honesty, magnanimity, purity of sentiment, and austere virtue which were part of his nature.

Bravo now determined upon a campaign against Jalapa,^[1] a point of the highest importance to the viceregal government, on account of its proximity to the chief seaport, and its fine climate, which was free from the deadly vómito of Vera Cruz.^[2] Accordingly he appeared before the town in good force on the 11th of November. The inhabitants, being stanch royalists, brave and well armed, prepared for defence. The comandante of the garrison was the major of the Vera Cruz regiment, named Antonio Fajardo. At this time there were in the place Brigadier Porlier, with his marines, and Colonel Francisco Hevia, with the Castilla regiment. Fajardo tendered the chief command to those officers as of higher rank, but both declined, promising him their best aid. In command of the independent troops besides Bravo was Maríano Rincon, who since his disaster at Coatepec had again organized an efficient force; also Utrera, Martinez, and the brave Veracruzan mulatto, Francisco Zuzúnaga, who occupied the avenues leading to the city, and the adjacent heights. At two o'clock in the

Bravo's letter to Alaman, before quoted, makes no mention of such executions. Bravo was certainly opposed to killing prisoners.

1. Detailed royalist accounts of events at Jalapa for the period from Oct. 1811 to June 1812 may be seen in Gaz. de Mex., 1812, iii. 1271-8. Further on Bravo in Mendíbil, Resúmen Hist., 135-6; Torrente, Hist. Rev. N. Esp., ii. 402.
2. From 1780 to 1810 Jalapa had been the place of residence of the wealthy merchants of Vera Cruz, and a fair was held there on the arrival of the fleets from Spain. The town lost its importance after the independence, and declined still more after the railroad was made from Vera Cruz to Mexico.