282 HIDALGO ALLENDE FIRST OUTBREAK. 



In those times, a certain country curate, by name Miguel Hi- 

 dalgo y Costilla, dwelt in the Indian village of Dolores, adjacent to 

 the town of San Miguel el Grande, lying in the province of Guana- 

 juanto. One of the conspirators being about to die, sent for his 

 priest, and confessing the plot, revealed also the names of his ac- 

 complices. The curate Hidalgo was one of the chiefs of this 

 revolutionary band, and the viceroy Venegas hoping to crush the 

 league in its bud, despatched orders for his arrest and imprison- 

 ment, as soon as the confession of the dead conspirator was dis- 

 closed to him. Hidalgo's colleagues were also included in this 

 order, but some of the secret friends of the insurgents learned 

 what was occurring at court and apprised the patriot priest of 

 his imminent danger. The news first reached Don Ignacio Al- 

 lende, who commanded a small body of the king's troops in San 

 Miguel, and who hastened with the disastrous tidings to his friend 

 at Dolores. Concealment and flight were now equally unavailing. 

 The troops of Allende were speedily won to the cause of their 

 captain, while the Indians of Dolores rushed to defend their be- 

 loved pastor. As they marched from their village to San Miguel 

 ind thence to Zelaya, the natives, armed with clubs, slings, staves 

 \nd missiles, thronged to their ranks from every mountain and 

 •alley. The wretched equipment of the insurgents shows, their 

 legraded condition as well as the passionate fervor with which 

 they blindly rushed upon the enemies of their race. Hidalgo put 

 on his military coat over the cassock, and, perhaps unwisely, threw 

 himself at the head of a revolution, which rallied at the cry of 

 " Death to the Gachupines. " 1 



The result of this onslaught was dreadful. Wherever the rebel- 

 lious army passed, Spaniards and uncomplying Creoles they were in- 

 discriminately slaughtered, and though many of the latter were 

 originally combined with the conspirators and eagerly longed for 

 the emancipation of their country, they were dismayed by the 

 atrocities of the wild insurgents. As the rebel chief, armed with the 

 sword and cross, pressed onward, immense numbers of Indians 

 flocked to his banner, so that when he left Zelaya, a fierce and un- 

 disciplined mob of twenty thousand hailed him as undisputed com- 

 mander. At the head of this predatory band he descended upon 

 the noble city of Guanajuanto, in the heart of the wealthiest mining 

 district of Mexico. The Spaniards and some of the Creoles re- 



' This term has been variously interpreted; it is supposed to be an ancient In- 

 dian word significant of contempt. It is applied by the natives to the European 

 Spaniards or their full blooded descendants. See Robinson's His. Rev. Mex., 15. 



