532 



MEXICO. 



cupied by the federals. To these successes of 

 the latter may be added several smaller tri- 

 umphs in the State of Vera Cruz. 



A brother-in-law of Porfirio Diaz, Vicente 

 Lebrija, a deputy to Congress from Oajaca 

 City, died there in March. The demise of 

 another member of Congress was reported in 

 the same month, that of Colonel T. G. Alba, 

 of Vera Cruz, by small-pox, which disease 

 prevailed in an epidemic form in Mexico City, 

 Tacubaya, San Luis, and half a dozen other 

 places. In San Luis there were over six hun- 

 dred deaths from it in January, in Mexico City 

 five hundred persons perished per month, and 

 in other places the mortality was, relatively 

 to their populations, nearly as large. Vacci- 

 nation was shamefully neglected in this coun- 

 try, as a general rule, and this accounts in 

 part for the frightful ravages of small-pox at 

 the national capital and elsewhere. 



Meantime the long strain upon the strength 

 of the country, consequent upon thirty years 

 of revolutionary struggle, had almost reduced 

 it to a state of chronic debility; continued 

 intestine commotions were further undermin- 

 ing its remaining vitality ; social disorders and 

 moral depravity were still on the increase, and 

 robberies, kidnappings, and murders, became 

 more and more frequent. Stage robberies 

 were of much more than daily occurrence, and 

 the inquiry was no longer what stages have 

 been robbed, but what ones have been so for- 

 tunate as to escape. Kidnappings, the worst 

 form of Mexican rascality, were committed 

 with incredible boldness. In the suburbs of 

 Mexico City a young girl of thirteen years was 

 kidnapped in broad day by three men, taken 

 to the mountains, and not returned to her 

 parents until a ransom of $1,200 had been paid 

 to her kidnappers. In the city of Guadalajara 

 a druggist was kidnapped in his own garden 

 on the 2d of March, and released only upon 

 the payment by his wife of $1,500 ransom. 

 Near Pachuca, a rich Frenchman, named 

 Masse, while riding on horseback, was also 

 kidnapped, and, as the ransom of $30,000 asked 

 for his release had not been paid, it was feared 

 by his friends that he had been put to death. 

 The Government's energies were too much 

 taken up by the revolution to allow of its 

 dealing with bandits and malefactors with the 

 required determination and vigor, so that 

 these persons enjoyed considerable immunity 

 from prosecution, only occasional measures 

 being taken against them. 



On March 2d a battle for the possession of 

 Zacatecas City was won by the Government 

 troops ; the action lasted five hours, and the 

 revolutionists lost about 1,800 men killed 

 and wounded, and over 1,200 were taken 

 prisoners. But in the States of Puebla, 

 Tlaxcala, and Hidalgo, the Government fared 

 worse. Negrete, unquestionably the most 

 bitter, untiring, and dashing of President 

 Juarez's enemies, surprisingly extended the 

 sway of the revolution. A number of vil- 



lages and towns were takela in rapid succes- 

 sion, principally in Hidalgo, by General Manuel 

 Gonzalez, one of the ablest of the revolution- 

 ary leaders, acting under Negrete's orders. 

 And under the latter's immediate directions 

 those important places for a struggle for the 

 mastery in the Puebla Sierras and large por- 

 tions of Tlaxcala and Hidalgo Tlatlanqui, 

 Zantla, and Tepeacuilco were occupied and 

 garrisoned, he having with him over 1,600 men. 

 Several times the trains of the Mexico City & 

 Vera Cruz Railroad, upper division, had been 

 interfered with by his lieutenants, Torrentera 

 and Carrillo, at and near Apizaco, and at one 

 time a constructor of the road, Mr. John 

 Queen, an American, was taken prisoner 

 and marched off to the mountains. He was, 

 however, soon afterward released and allowed 

 to go to Mexico City. ISTegrete assessed the 

 road for $40,000, payment of which having 

 been refused, he in consequence resolved to 

 annoy the company and interfere with its 

 trains to the utmost of Ms abilities. To 

 strengthen his cause as much as possible, he 

 incorporated into his army such bandits as 

 Sotero Lozano, Juan Garcia, Canuto Sandoval, 

 and their desperate followers, and these men, 

 while warring for the revolution, also mur- 

 dered, robbed, and kidnapped, in furtherance 

 of their adopted calling. 



On March 9th, died at Mexico City, at the 

 age of 77 years, Dofia Carmen Fagoaga de 

 Mariscal, mother of (then) Prime- Minister Don 

 Ignacio Mariscal, now minister plenipoten- 

 tiary at Washington. 



About April 1st, the revolutionists still hold 

 Saltillo and Monterey in the interior, and Ca- 

 margo, Mier, Guerrero, Nuevo Laredo, and 

 Piedras Negras on the frontier, at which places 

 they had some 12,000 troops. 



On April 22d the National Congress passed 

 the law granting extraordinary faculties to 

 the President, which furnished an additional 

 element of strength for securing peace. Al- 

 though the votes were 72 against 68, that cir- 

 cumstance did not indicate the strength of 

 the Juarez members ; for many of them voted 

 "no," for the alleged reason that they did not 

 consider that, as the revolution was in great 

 part put down, it was necessary to confer fur- 

 ther power upon the Executive, especially as 

 Congress, with which he could consult, was 

 then, and would continue for some weeks, in 

 session. A large number of Americans were 

 at this time in Mexico City, inquiring into 

 railway and other interests in the republic. 

 Mr. E. L. Plumb, formerly Charge of the United 

 States to Mexico, as representative of the 

 Texas International Railroad Company, was 

 seeking from the National Congress a conces- 

 sion for the construction of a railroad from 

 some point on the Rio Grande south of San 

 Antonio, to the Pacific Ocean, with a branch 

 from the main line at about San Luis Potosi, 

 and terminating at Mexico. 



General Rosecrans arrived in the 



