MEXICO. 



ca, and forced him too to seek refnge in flight 

 I'M mi the country. 



|)i\z (PoRFiRio), a Mexican soldier and 

 statesman, President of the Mexican Republic, 

 \\ a- lorn on September 15, 1830, in Oajaca, 

 in the Institute of Sri, -HIT and Arts of which 

 city lie completed his education. He studied 

 law rather as a brilliant accessory to his other 

 acquirements than with the idea of attaining 

 cli.stinction in the forum. 



In 1847 he joined the National Guard and 

 was elected sub-lieutenant, and after the Guada- 

 lupo Hidalgo peace treaty he became lieuten- 

 ant, and studied military science under Com- 

 mandant I'ri-.-i until 1852, when he was made 

 captain of artillery. After the triumph of the 



Birty that called Santa Anna to the dictature, 

 iaz, in a fit of discouragement, quitted the 

 army, to devote his attention to the study and 

 practice of jurisprudence. 



At the outbreak of the 

 revolution provoked by 

 the plan of Ayutla in 

 1855, he again issued 

 from retirement to the 

 command of a battalion, 

 and the post of political 

 chief of the district of 

 Ixtlan, in Oajaca, where 

 he distinguished himself 

 by his zeal as a patriot, 

 and his consummate skill 

 in organizing troops, spite 

 of innumerable difficul- 

 ties. Such were the per- 

 severing energy and in- 

 domitable courage dis- 

 played by him in the suc- 

 ceeding encounters with 

 the reactionary troops, 

 that early in May, 1860, 

 he had achieved the com- 

 plete pacification of the 

 rebellious State of Oajaca, having been suc- 

 cessively promoted to the rank of lieutenant- 

 colonel and colonel. 



The following year he was elected deputy 

 to Congress ; he was, however, present at the 

 May session only; for in June he again took 

 the field, joining the division led by General 

 Gonzalez Ortega against the reactionary chief- 

 tain Marquez, the Panther of the South, and 

 obtaining over the latter such a splendid vic- 

 tory as to elicit the admiration of his superior, 

 who petitioned Government for the rank of 

 general for Diaz. 



But new and yet brighter laurels awaited the 

 youthful general in the trying period of the 

 intervention. At the head of a band of war- 

 riors from Oajaca he was the first to oppose 

 the arms of the invader, and aided in deciding 

 the victory of May 5, 1862. Shortly afterward 

 he was appointed Governor and military com- 

 mandant of the State of Vera Cruz, but was 

 before long, at his own earnest entreaty, trans- 

 ferred to the army of operations. 



Next proceeding to the capital, he DOOM- 

 SI vtly declined the command of the garrison and 

 the portfolio of war tendered to him by . 

 ident Juarez; but, after the flight of the Gov- 

 ernment, he was constrained to accept the 

 command-in-chief of the army, though on con- 

 dition that he should be relieved after a -Imrt 

 period, he apprehending that bis youthfulneu 

 might give rise to embarrassing jealousies. 



Leaving the Government installed at San 

 Luis Potosi, he marched southward, and, in 

 November, 1863, invested with full power for 

 the administration and defense of the eastern 

 States, took up his position between Puebla 

 and Oajaca, the centre of his future opera- 

 tions. During the remainder of the period of 

 intervention, he constituted the main stay of 

 the republican cause, through an uninterrupted 

 series of difficulties and hardships ; and, with 



an effective force that never exceeded 5,000, 

 including all arms, composed of troops for the 

 most part ill-armed and ill-munitioned, and 

 with insufficient means of support, he stemmed 

 and turned the tide of invasion. Besieged in 

 Oajaca, he was forced to capitulate in Febru- 

 ary, 1865; retained a prisoner in Puebla, he 

 escaped in the following September ; after the 

 lapse of another twelvemonth, he again led 

 the army of the East, now barely 900 strong, 

 to victory at Miahuatlan, routing a thoroughly- 

 equipped army of double that number; he re- 

 captured Puebla on April 2, 1867, and contin- 

 ued his triumph until the surrender of the 

 capital to the patriot forces, June 21st of the 

 same year. 



After the final reconstruction of the repub- 

 lic throughout the country, Diaz, modestly de- 

 clining (for the second time) the post of Min- 

 ister of "War, and other proffered honors, 

 withdrew, another Cincinnatus, to the pem-olul 

 and tranquil retirement of his estate (la Nona) 

 in Oajaca. 



