194 



CUAUTLA AMILPAS. 



We were disappointed in the general appearance of 

 the town, which may 3 nevertheless, be termed the Sara- 

 gossa of New Spain, from the circumstances attending 

 its pertinacious defence in the war of the revolution, 

 when the famishing inhabitants, under the command of 

 Morelos, withstood the concentrated forces of the Span- 

 ish general, Calleja, for the space of several months.* 



Though upward of twenty years had since gone by, 

 the hatred of the inhabitants to the Gachupin and the for- 

 eigner seemed scarcely abated ; and we had not long 

 been in the town before we discovered jMt we, in our 

 general character of Europeans, were t6 be given to feel 

 it ; and to make experience of the kind of danger which 

 stills impends over the foreign traveller in the more un- 

 frequented parts of the country. 



A wordy squabble in a civilized country is a matter of 

 no great moment ; but here, where human life is consid- 

 ered of but little value, and where the cuchillo or knife is 

 instantly produced as the solver of all difficulties, the case 

 is far otherwise. 



* It was after the death of Hidalgo in 1811, that Morelos took the 

 lead, and early in February shut himself up in Cuautla Amiipas, with a 

 body of the insurgents. Calleja advanced from the capital, and made 

 his first attack with great impetuosity on the 17th instant. Properly 

 the town is indefensible, and had no other fortification than barricades 

 and intrenchments thrown up in haste. However, the Spaniards were 

 driven back by the fury with which they were confronted by the Mexi- 

 cans, aided by the slings of the Indians from the roofs of the houses. The 

 town was now regularly invested ; and on the 4th of March, the bom- 

 bardment commenced — but the defenders remained firm. An attempt 

 to cut off the supply of water from the town failed ; while a guerilla 

 warfare was carried on by other parties of the insurgents upon the roads 

 in the vicinity, and many of the reinforcements and detachments of the 

 besiegers were cut off. But no succour could be brought to Morelos 

 and his comrades, who soon began to suffer the extremity of famine, to 

 such a degree, that at the end of April, a cat sold for six dollars, a lizard 

 for two, and rats, and such vermin, for one. The object of Morelos was 

 to protract the siege till the rainy season should commence, when it was 

 to be supposed that sickness would force the besiegers to abandon the 

 blockade. 



The extremity to which he was reduced obliged him ultimately to 

 abandon the defence ; and this he did by departing secretly in the night 

 of the 2d or 3d of May, without detection : and in two days he reached 

 the town of Izucar, with the loss of but seventeen of his men. — See 

 Ward's Mexico. 



