all the southern parts of Puebla and Vera Cruz, and the present Oajaca and Guerrero, except Acapulco, which was even then about to fall. North of Jalapa, Vera Cruz was overrun by bands whose strongholds lay within the Sierra Madre, whence they extended from the gulf inland, and to the south line of Tamaulipas. Prominent among their leaders was the elder Villagran, who held sway at Zimapan, in semi-independence of the other revolutionary chiefs, and under the pompous title of Julian I., emperor of the Huasteca.[1] Further inland his son, known as Chito,[2] occupied the districts centring in Huichapan and carried his operations into the valley of Mexico, while Osorno controlled the region south and east, in northern Puebla, to the gulf shore, with his headquarters at Zacatlan, where he had important factories of arms and ammunition. He was the terror of the highway to Vera Cruz, and the main reliance of all oppressed and discontented refugees from the royalist lines. While following his own plans he recognized the insurgent council, although discord had broken out among its members, to the detriment of the cause.
The latter held different sections of Michoacan and Guanajuato; Ignacio Rayon from his retreat at Tlalpujahua commanding the region from Zitácuaro to Toluca and northward, his brother Ramon obstructing traffic on the high road to Querétaro, while Cañas, Sanchez, and other followers kept the lake valley in alarm from the mountains of Chapa de Mota, even threatening the neighborhood of the capital. The coast districts of Michoacan also adhered to Rayon, and most of the southern towns, among which Verdusco was recruiting his forces and extending his influence. In this province, indeed, the government could claim little more than Valladolid and Zamora; but in Guanajuato nearly all the large towns stood on
