arms, being closely pursued till midday. Some of his men who were captured enlisted in the independent service.[1]
Morelos had no intention of remaining at Orizaba; so after seizing the government tobacco, he took a portion for his own army, and returning to the planters such part as they claimed, he ordered the rest destroyed, and leaving there a small garrison under Rocha, took his departure. Soon after starting he saw the smoke rising from the burning tobacco. The loss to the government was considerable, but by no means so great as Morelos represented it in a letter to Rayon.[2] As soon as the news reached Puebla of Morelos' expedition to Orizaba, Águila marched after him with 1,250 men, and three pieces of artillery. At the same time Llano sent Águila the Zamora regiment, 150 dragoons, and three guns, leaving Rivas at Tepeaca with 300 men to keep the way open. Águila by forced marches reached the cañada de Iztapa the 31st, on the same day Morelos had left Orizaba. Both parties continuing their march, neither knowing the position of the other, they came together on the 1st of November, Morelos being on the heights of Aculcingo in an advantageous position, with his men in two lines, his artillery enfilading the public road. He opened fire as soon as Águila was within reach. The latter, who was with the right column,
- ↑ The officers taken were shot; among them was young Santa María, a native of Vera Cruz, and brother to Miguel Santa María, who in after years was Mexican minister to Spain, and with the Spanish minister of state, Calatrava, signed the treaty by which Mexico's independence was formally recognized. The young man had been one of the San Agustin del Palmar prisoners, and to escape death pretended to be a partisan of Morelos, being employed by him to instruct his troops, but at the first chance escaped and rejoined the royalists. Being now recaptured, a young woman to whom Santa María was betrothed presented a petition on his behalf to Morelos, who coolly wrote upon it, 'Let her choose a more decent swain.' The clergy and chief citizens interceded for the prisoners. Morelos gave an evasive answer, and during the mass, himself being in attendance, the prisoners were shot in the adjoining plaza. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., ii. 190-3; Alaman* Hist. Méj., iii. 310-12; Gaz de Mex., 1812, iii. 1184-6; Guerra, Revol. N. Esp., ii. 469; Mendíbil, Resúmen Hist., 151; Mora, Revol. Mex., iv. 388; Negrete, Méj. Siglo XIX., v. 324-6.
- ↑ He said that by the burning of fourteen million cigars the government had been deprived of resources to carry on seven years of war.
