ported. Liceaga and Verdusco did the same soon after, the former bound to the Bajío of Guanajuato, as before stated, and the latter to Huétamo. The enemy used every effort to capture them, but the natural difficulties of a march in the sierra, rendered still worse by heavy rains, greatly favored the revolutionists, as it took the royalists four days to travel forty-eight miles, the distance between Toluca and Sultepec; so that when they reached the latter place on the 20th of June, it was found abandoned. Several priests and a few citizens who had previously kept in concealment, fearing persecution, reported themselves to the royalists, and through their influence the population of the town returned. Castillo destroyed the factories of cannon and gunpowder; granted amnesty to all insurgents who petitioned for it; organized a military court; and had all prisoners sentenced by it shot. He reëstablished the local government; gathered a considerable quantity of artillery and other arms and ammunition that the independents had left, and sent them to Mexico. The trophies, showing the advantages lately gained, which included thirty-one pieces of artillery captured at Tenango and found in Sultepec, were conveyed in triumph through the capital.[1] Castillo then divided his force into several columns, one of which under Enriquez was sent in pursuit of the revolutionary junta, which having had so much the start could not be overtaken. Enriquez, however, succeeded in coming up with Rayon's artillery and capturing five guns.
One party under José Calafat went to Zacualpan, placed itself in communication with troops at Tasco, and kept that mining district well provided. Rafael Calvillo, acting with great activity, sent detachments to Tejupilco and places near Zitácuaro, and brought under subjection all the towns of the sierra. Aguirre and Pardo with other parties kept up an
- ↑ Particulars are given in the commander's report from Toluca, August 8th. Gaz. de Mex., 1812, iii. 905-20.
