and the approach enfiladed by three batteries, which rose in succession one above the other. So large a space was inclosed by the ravines, that the fort contained six hundred head of cattle, two thousand sheep or goats, and three hundred large hogs, with twenty thousand fanegas of Indian corn, ten thousand of wheat, and a large provision of flour. It was likewise well supplied with water and ammunition; so that the garrison, which consisted of fifteen hundred men, conceived that they might bid defiance to any force that could be brought by the Royalists against them.
On the approach of Liñan's army, which appeared before Los Remedios on the 27th of August, Mina quitted it, in order to take the field, and the place was immediately invested in due form. On the 30th, he was joined by Don Encarnacion Ortiz at the head of his cavalry, and with him he found nineteen of his old followers, of whom six were officers: these, with thirty more who had previously reached Los Remedios, and whom Mina left there to assist in the defence of the place, were the only survivors of the three hundred and fifty-nine men who landed with him at Sŏtŏ lă Mărīnă in the preceding April: all the rest had perished; and but few of those who remained were destined to escape the fate of their comrades.
On the 31st of August, the siege of Los Remedios began, and with it, a desultory Guerrilla war, which was carried on, with but little success on Mina's side,
