ment chosen by Mina for this attempt. All the leaders of any note in the first Insurrection had, (as we have seen) successively disappeared from the scene, and the cause of the Revolution had fallen into the hands of defenders, with whom it was a disgrace to be associated. Such was the infamous Padre Torres, who had established a sort of half-priestly, half-military despotism in the Băxīŏ, the whole of which he had parcelled out amongst his Military Commandants,—men, mostly, without principle or virtue, whose only recommendation was implicit obedience to the will of their Chief. From his fortress, on the top of the mountain of Los Rĕmēdĭŏs, Torres was the scourge of the whole country around; vindictive, sanguinary, and treacherous by nature, he spared none who had the misfortune to offend him, whether Creole or Spaniard, and did more towards devastating the most fertile portion of the Mexican territory, by his capricious mandates for the destruction of towns and villages, under pretence of cutting off the supplies of the enemy, than all those who had preceded him, whether Royalists or Insurgents, during the five first years of the war. Robinson mentions several instances of the most wanton barbarity on the part of this man, which are confirmed by the general detestation in which his name is held, to this day, by his countrymen: yet, under his auspices, existed the only shadow of a Government, that was still kept up by the Insurgents. It was termed the Junta of Jāūxīllă, from
