Thus after eight years of a desolating war, the country, raised from ruin, was beginning to taste the pleasures of peace. The revolution in its first period had terminated. The efforts of Hidalgo, Morelos, Bravo, and others had apparently been in vain; the sacrifices of blood and treasure, the heroic sufferings, the great examples of pure and exalted character and high courage, the prowess of men like Victoria, Matamoros, Trujano, Galeana, Mina, and hundreds of others had availed naught; the noble spirit shown in the defence of Cuautla, Izúcar, Huajuapan, Cóporo, Sombrero, Los Remedios, and other places had been barren of benefit to the cause. And this result was due mainly to the absence of union among a number of the prominent chiefs; to rivalries and jealousies on the part of others; and, generally speaking, to the lack of discipline shown by so many leaders, who, instead of lending a joint coöperation under a central authority that might have been made very useful, had become a scourge to the country by their depredations and crimes. The Indian masses had become uncontrollable and dangerous to the respectable portion of society; this drove many to seek the viceregal protection, and restrained for a time the general desire for independence which had pervaded even the royalist ranks. This will be made evident by coming events.
The revolution now had but one faint light burning far away in a rough corner of the mountains in the south, kept alive by the indomitable patriot, Vicente Guerrero. It was a dying flame, apparently, that neither caused the government fear nor inspired hope in the patriot heart; yet Guerrero would not let it die; he hoped and prayed and labored that the day might come when new men and new leaders would rally round the banner of liberty. But after the old way there was to be no such happy consummation. All the same it was to be, however, but as the work of different men and unexpected combinations, as the
