Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/555

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THE WAR IN MICHOACAN.
539

first demonstrations.[1] Protected by their distance from shore and by the precipitous sides of the rock, they felt secure in their retreat, and could devote their whole attention to descents upon the inimical settlements along the lake shore, choosing their own time and place and keeping them in constant alarm. These well planned operations were under the direction of the presbyter Marcos Castellanos, assisted by Encarnacion Rosas and José Santa Ana.[2]

Chapala Lake.

Cruz directed a considerable force to guard the shore, under Lieutenant-colonel Linares, while suit able vessels could be built at San Bias for a formal assault. During a reconnoitring tour in February,

  1. Comandante Serrato in Nov. 1812 attacked Rosas at San Pedro Ixican, near Ocotlan, but reënforced by Santa Ana, the latter took a telling revenge on his assailant, and pursued the advantage by routing Hernandez at Poneitlan and the curate Alvarez.
  2. The latter governor of the adjoining shore village of Mescala. The account is from the report furnished by Castellanos in 1824 in response to Bustamante's appeal to the congress. Castellanos had burned all documents at the time of capitulation to prevent exposures, and testified from memory. Cuad. Hist., iii. 87 et seq., iv. 545, with plans.