military operations. But facts all tend to prove that the viceroy had no suspicion of Iturbide's real purpose. Apodaca was a faithful subject of Fernando, and his loyalty would not permit a project to detach Mexico from the Spanish crown.[1]
Iturbide's force on the 21st of December amounted to 2,479 men,[2] scattered throughout his district; and on the 22d he started from Teloloapan for the purpose of concentrating them, with the double object of assuming the offensive against the insurgents and placing himself in a position to effect the meditated revolution which, according to the plans formed, was to take place in March following. Dispositions were at once made to open the campaign. The troops were brought together and formed into strong divisions, and active operations opened. But sanguine as had been Iturbide's expectations of immediate success, a series of reverses followed. Both he and his officers were signally discomfited, both by Guerrero and Ascensio,[3] and the plan which he had formed of confining the former in the sierra lying between the
- ↑ Liceaga says that Apodaca's nobleness of character made him an easy dupe, and he could not suspect in others a perfidy he was himself incapable of. And yet he leans to the belief that he was in accord with Iturbide. Adic. y Rectijic., 396, 414, 420. The viceroy has been accused by some of having, together with the enemies of constitutional government, employed Iturbide to upset the new system and restore the old one. Ward's Mex., i. 262. It was even asserted that King Fernando had a hand in the plan; and in proof of it a letter to that effect was published as coming from the king, which has been subsequently pronounced apocryphal. Apodaca himself afterward contradicted the whole story. His son, Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, vindicated his memory from the aspersions thrown upon it by a writer named Rivero, Nov. 1847, in El Español of Madrid, which led to a correspondence between them.
- ↑ According to his report to the viceroy. Liceaga, Adic. y Rectific., 396.
- ↑ On the 27th of Dec. Lieut-col Berdejo was defeated near Chichihualco at the Cueva del Diablo, and on the 28th Iturbide himself was routed by Ascensio near San Martin de los Lubianos. In his report of the 31st he made things appear as well as possible; but the fact is, that he met with a very serious set back. On the 20th of Jan. 1821, Lieut-col Moya suffered severely at Guerrero's hands, the grenadiers of the south being cut to pieces, and his line of communication interrupted by the occupation of Sapatepec by Guerrero. Iturbide's irritation at this disaster was great, and his report to the viceroy was exceedingly unfavorable to Moya, whom he also addressed in a very acrimonious despatch. Again, on Jan. 25th, Lieut-col Torres was attacked near San Pablo. Id., 397-400; Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., v. 97-9. The fact that the official reports do not appear in the government gazette is proof of the seriousness of these defeats.
