any force that could meet the army of Calleja in the field. Little, therefore, was done towards bringing the contest to a close, although the country was devastated, and hardly a day passed without some partial action being fought.
Răyōn seems to have been the first to perceive that nothing but a general coalition could enable his countrymen to contend with an enemy, who had the power of directing an overwhelming force upon any particular point, and thus destroying its opponents in detail. To effect this, he conceived the idea of a National Junta, to be created by some sort of popular election, and acknowledged by all the Insurgent chiefs; and he selected the town of Zitācŭarŏ, in the State of Valladolid, as the best residence for such an assembly; public opinion having pronounced itself more decidedly in favour of the Insurgents in that Province, than in any other.
With this view he occupied Zitācŭarŏ, about the end of May, (1811,) and having repulsed an attack made upon it, on the 22nd of June, by Brigadier Ĕmpărān, at the head of 2000 men, he proceeded in the execution of his favourite plan, in which he was so far successful, that, on the 10th of September 1811, a Junta, or Central Government, was installed, composed of five members, elected by as large an assembly of the most respectable farmers, and landed proprietors of the district, as could be collected for the occasion, in conjunction with the Ayuntamiento, and inhabitants of the town.
