Meanwhile Calleja retraced his steps and marched toward Querétaro. As he repassed through San Juan de los Rios he made proclamation offering ten thousand pesos for the head of any one of the five leaders, Hidalgo, Allende, the two Aldamas, and Abasolo.[1]
Though the revolution had apparently received a deadly blow at Aculco, and the royalists confidently expected its near termination, the end was not yet. Hidalgo's agents had not been idle. Though often disappointed, they were not wholly cast down. In the northern provinces, and in those bordering on the Pacific, the revolution had widely spread. At the time of the disaster at Aculco, the arms of the independents had triumphed in Nueva Galicia, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi, and those provinces were wholly in their power. In the south the star of Morelos, Hidalgo's worthy successor, was just rising above the horizon. At Huichapan a body of insurgents, headed by Julian Villagran,[2] interrupted communication on the highway between the capital and Querétaro, capturing convoys, killing royalists, and when threatened with capture, escaping to the mountains. Thus it was that a movement, regarded by the government as an affair of two short months, now about ended, was indeed but begun, and was practically never to be extinguished. As the future operations of Hidalgo
- ↑ The offer was ratified by the viceroy. Calleja on previously passing through San Juan de los Rios, which had been held for a time by Sanchez, demanded all arms to be delivered up within six hours, extending on those conditions a pardon to those who had aided the insurgents, adding that in case of further disobedience the inhabitants 'serán tratados sin conmiseracion alguna, pasados á cuchillo, y el pueblo reducido a cenizas.' The viceroy approved of the edicts of Calleja, and extended the indulto to all towns in New Spain, promising that if one of the leaders would deliver up the rest he should benefit by the pardon. Dispos. Varias, ii. f. 8; Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., ii. 206, 219-21.
- ↑ This movement was initiated, as before stated, by Miguel Sanchez. Villagran, who was of a ferocious character and addicted to drunkenness and all other vices, murdered Sanchez for some slight offence soon after his repulse at Querétaro. His son Francisco, known by the name of Chito, and as notorious for his crimes as his father, was also one of these insurgents. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., 135-C.
