tist, philosopher, and political economist, and was, besides, a linguist of high order. He invested his means in various ways; grew silkworms, planted grape-vines, put into successful operation a porcelain factory, and many other industries for the advancement of the people about him.
When the sphere of his knowledge is considered, he is found to have possessed an amount of information far in advance of his contemporaries, while his social and conversational gifts were exceptionally fine.
Hidalgo was fifty-eight years old when he raised the grito, but he had been long maturing the plan that finally triumphed over all obstacles.
We now return to Dolores, where the disaffected had already swelled into a formidable insurgent force. From thence they proceeded to San Felipe, gathering reinforcements by the way. They next surprised San Miguel, arriving at dark. They were received enthusiastically by the population, and proceeded without bloodshed to arrest the Spaniards; Allende, who was Hidalgo's chief support, and a brave officer, assuring them that no harm should come to them. A cheer was raised for independence, the colonel taken prisoner, and a thousand royalist troops added to the insurgent army. Here they procured the picture of the Virgin Guadalupe, which was transferred to their banner to lead them to victory.
They next advanced on Guanajuato, a city of seventy thousand inhabitants, the capital of the province, and the emporium of the Spanish treasures. Only thirty miles from the starting-point at Dolores, but in this short distance, the gentle zephyr of insurrection had become a perfect hurricane of revolution, and though the arms of the insurgents were so rude and miscellaneous in character, consisting of clubs, stones, machetes, arrows, lances and heavy swords, they did not hesitate to oppose themselves to the trained and armed Spanish garrison, and were victorious through enthusiasm and force of numbers.
Here Hidalgo remained for ten days, during which he proclaimed
