The change arose less from the increase of population and material development than from a military standpoint, in view of the need for energetic suppression of hostile movements. The north-west section suffered rather from the usual Indian hostilities,[1] but eastward the revolutionary spirit had again sprung into alarming prominence. After the suppression of the insurrection in Nuevo Santander, Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, an inhabitant of the town of Revilla, and attached to the revolutionary cause, had sought an asylum in the United States, there to seek aid in behalf of his cause and to await developments. The attention accorded him by the government at Washington, and its known intentions regarding the Texan frontier, created no little alarm in New Spain,[2] and the insurgents grew correspondingly elated, loudly announcing in March that a large army was already marching to their assistance.[3]
Lara failed, however, to effect anything with the government, and the jubilation of his compatriots was founded merely on the march of some four hundred and fifty men, partly filibusters from the United States, with whom he had in the latter part of 1812 begun operations in Texas. He took possession successively of Nacogdoches, Trinidad, and Espíritu Santo, and with the coöperation of the Indians drove back the advancing forces of Governor Manuel Salcedo and Colonel Herrera, the proposed commander of the provincias internas de Oriente. In April following both these officers were captured and executed in retaliation for their share in the arrest of Hidalgo. A representative government was established at Béjar,
- ↑ As alluded to in Escudero, Son. y Sin., 58, etc., and as fully related in Hist. North Mex. States, ii., this series, from original sources.
- ↑ Onis, the Spanish minister, sent accounts in 1812 of American designs on the whole of New Spain, or at best the northern provinces, and Venegas issued orders for the provincial commanders to be on their guard against agents from the States. Letters in Alaman, Hist. Méj., iii. app. 45-9. See also Onis, Mem., Madrid, 1820, 1-60, with appendix.
- ↑ Correo del Sur, March 18, April 22, 1813. Lara, in a Manifiesto from Monterey, 1827, claims to have indignantly rejected every design on the national territory.
