Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/643

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COMPARATIVE FORCES.
627

northward in the Querétaro region, and in the lake ranges of Mexico. Torres led 800 in the Bajío of Guanajuato, with as many more to the north-eastward under Correa and others. Resales still held out in Zacatecas with 300, and Vargas claimed to control 700 men along the southern border of Nueva Galicia, including Chapala Lake. In Michoacan were the Rayon brothers, Carbajal, and Yarza, with from 500 to 800 each, besides unenrolled adherents, extending from Cóporo along the range westward to Zacapo Lake, and connected southward in Tecpan with Ávila, Pablo Galeana, and Montesdeoca, who controlled from 500 to 700 men in all.[1] To these forces Morelos assigns from 7,000 to 8,000 muskets, 1,000 pairs of pistols, and 200 pieces of artillery, the greater part of the former either worn out or not generally used. The resources from farms under their control might be placed at a million pesos a year, to which has to be added tribute levied on convoys and traders, a little excise, and the yield from raiding expeditions. All this was insufficient to support more than a limited body; but the number could, when occasion demanded it, especially with the hope of booty, be raised to triple the figure representing the fire-arms.

The royalists, on the other hand, could boast of 30,000 men, half of them regular troops, and the remainder local militia. Of this force over 6,000 were distributed in Vera Cruz, over 8,000 in Puebla, 4,500 in and round the lake valley, 2,600 under Armijo in the south, nearly 4,000 in the army of the north under Iturbide, 1,600 in Querétaro and San Luis Potosí, besides 4,000 in the Provincias Internas de Oriente,

  1. Morelos, Declaracion, 42, adds that Carbajal, who commanded Muñiz' former force, could generally obtain more than 1,000 men for any expedition, and Yarza, stationed at Zacapo, fully 1,600; while Rayon could, with the aid of Vargas and Atilano García, muster 600 musketeers, which implied a similar number of men with inferior arms. Nicolás Bravo commanded along the South Sea, Galeana and the others being his lieutenants. Slightly varying details are given on page 31. A report from Valladolid with earlier data indicates that arms were readily manufactured by more than one leader, Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., vi. 241-5; but this is doubtful.