Notwithstanding late reverses, Hidalgo was enthusiastically received wherever he went. The hope of liberty, once having been harbored in the breasts of the people, could never be relinquished. The march to Guadalajara was triumphal; and at every town the people sallied forth to welcome the apostle of independence and do him honor. At Zamora, solemn mass was held, thanksgivings were offered, and contributions poured into his coffer. During the few days he remained in Valladolid he displayed a wonderful energy. Besides the writing he had to do, and the political matters to regulate, he organized a force of 7,000 cavalry and 250 infantry, with several pieces of artillery. With these troops he approached the capital of Nueva Galicia. On the 24th of November he arrived at the hacienda of Atequiza, a few leagues from the city. Here all the authorities, municipal corporations, and distinguished citizens had made preparations to meet him. These, in twenty-two carriages, arrived at the hacienda, and a duly appointed commission offered him congratulations, placed all Nueva Galicia at his disposal, and invited him to
Gutierrez de Teran, who displayed great fortitude. Id., 41. Hidalgo states that the total number was about 60. Hern, y Dávalos, Col. Doc., i. 14. The two men under whose command the orders were executed were Manuel Muñiz, captain of the provincial infantry regiment of Valladolid, and Padre Luciano Navarrete, who acquired an infamous notoriety for his cruelty. Id., i. 839. It was an ecclesiastic also who made out the death lists, and thereby obtained the name of Padre Chocolate, because he said the victims were going to take chocolate that night. The intendente Ansorena, it is asserted by Alaman, who gained his information from Mucio Valdovinos, conducted the arrangement for the departure and execution of the two bodies of Spaniards. See Doc. i., in Hist. Mex., ii. ap. Alaman's statements were replied to by the son of Ansorena, the licentiate José Ignacio de Ansorena. In this pamphlet, published in 1850, he defends his father's memory by maintaining that he was ignorant of the purpose for which the prisoners were removed. He assails Mucio Valdovinos with some acerbity, but his arguments amount to simple personal statements without the production of any evidence. Ansorena, Defensa. This met with a retort from Valdovinos, who produces some evidence, but hardly to more effect than that the popular opinion was that Ansorena was fully implicated. Valdovinos, Content., pp. 55. This provoked a second pamphlet, written by José Maríano Ansorena; and with it the tedious and inconclusive controversy ends. Ansorena, Respuesta. Negrete points out the contradictions observable between Alaman's account and that of Valdovinos, and believes that the butcheries were committed on one day, or two consecutive days, the 17th and 18th, and that Hidalgo was not in Valladolid at the time. Mex. Sig. XIX., ii. 271.
