After a close confinement at Puebla of over seven months, General Diaz escaped[1] and gained Guerrero, where Alvarez readily granted the necessary assistance to form a new army. This province had been left to the republicans after the evacuation of Acapulco in the preceding autumn; but the designs of Santa Anna induced the imperialists to reoccupy it on the 11th of September, with the aid of French vessels.[2] Beyond this, however, no advance was made, and the nearest allied forces eastward were stationed in the valley of Rio Mescala,[3] so that the opportunity was not unfavorable for reviving the spirit of patriotism.[4]
In the central provinces of Mexico, Querétaro, Guanajuato, and those adjoining, the patriotic fire was still kept alive, though feebly, and by scattered guerrillas, prepared to form the nuclei for larger uprisings at an opportune moment. In Jalisco the recent operations of Douay's forces, culminating with the defeat and death of the redoubtable Rojas,[5] had restored comparative quiet, which the proximity of large French bodies, and those under Lozada of Tepic, served to insure.[6]
- ↑ On the night of Sept. 20tlı, by means of ropes. Diaz, Biog., MS., 222; Vega, Docs, ii. 524. Evidently with the aid of friendly hands, to judge from his own statement. 'Se generalizó la idea de que por órden superior se le habían facilitado los medios,' says Arrangoiz, Méj., iii. 269, but the term 'órden superior' is probably unwarranted.
- ↑ Four hundred Mexicans from Manzanillo, under Montenegro, forming the garrison. Vega, Ausiliares, MS.; Vega. Docs, pt 24. The inhabitants nearly all left the place. Niox mentions Aug. 11th as the date, and Gen. Oroñoz as commandant.
- ↑ Under Peña, who had succeeded Vicario.
- ↑ Fever proved another check to the imperialists at Acapulco, as it had to many of their expeditions on this lower coast. Iglesias, Revistas, iii. 677.
- ↑ Jan. 28th, at Potrerillos. He fell, together with 60 of his men, and loss of 500 horses. Antonio Rojas left an unenviable record for cruelty, which in 1858 had caused him to be outlawed by his chief to save appearances.
- ↑ Echeagaray, for a time commander-in-chief of the central army, Rómulo del Valle, Solis, Neri, and other republicans now gave in their allegiance. 280, 393; Barrciro, Yuc., 60, etc. See also above journals. In June the imperialists had taken the adjoining town of Jonuta, in Tabasco, with the aid of a gunboat, but this was their only gain westward. Pap. Var., civ., pt v. 39, etc.; Niox, Expéd. du Mex., 510-1. Où pas un soldat français n'a paru,' writes Maximilian in 1869, in alluding to Guerrero, Tabasco, and Chiapas. Id., 558.
