Having remained a few days at Querétaro, Cruz left on the 20th for Valladolid. His march was uneventful; for although a hostile force threatened to oppose his progress in the neighborhood of Acámbaro, it retreated to Valladolid as he approached.[1] Pedro Celestino Negrete, a naval officer, was sent with a detachment in pursuit, but was unable to overtake the retreating enemy. I mention this apparently trivial circumstance because the name of Negrete, who afterward greatly signalized himself and contributed to the success of Cruz by his victories, appears for the first time in history on this occasion. On the 27th, passing through Indaparapeo, Cruz approached Valladolid and bivouacked for the night on the heights above the city.
As the royalists drew near, the revolutionary intendente, Ansorena, convinced that the forces which he had at his disposal would be unable to cope with those of Cruz, on the night of the 26th and 27th secretly left the city for Guadalajara, escorted by fifty chosen men; and on the following morning the officials appointed by Hidalgo also left, taking with them such treasures and archives as were under their charge.[2]
On the 27th, as soon as the flight of the intendente became public, the populace rose in tumult, and led by a blacksmith of Toluca, who was from the United States,[3] raising the cry of death to the gachupines, broke into the college formerly belonging to the Jesuits, in which a number of Europeans were confined,[4] and put three of them to death before they
- ↑ The insurgents numbered 3,000 or 4,000 horse and foot, and had six cannon. Gaz., de Mex., 1811, ii. 17-19.
- ↑ Ansorena, Defensa, 16.
- ↑ Described by the viceregal government as an ‘anglo-americano de nacion,' Gaz. de Mex., 1811, ii. 19; and by Ansorena as 'un toluqueño, á quien llamaban el anglo-americano.' Defensa, 16.
- ↑ After the massacres at the Bateas and cerro del Molcajete the remaining Spanish captives, to the number of 170, were distributed at the intercession of ecclesiastics in the convents and colleges. Gaz. de Mex., 1811, ii. 19. Ansorena's son, however, makes a different statement. His version is that on the 25th of Dec. the intendente convoked a junta, and stating that the forces in the city were inadequate to oppose Cruz, declared his intention of retiring to Guadalajara. He then proposed for the safe custody of the pris-
