284 MEXICO MENACED INDIAN BRAVERY AT ACULCO. 



gas, it is said, contrived to introduce secret emmissaries into his 

 camp, who impressed Hidalgo and his officers with the belief that 

 the capital was abundantly prepared for defence, and that an assault 

 upon the disciplined troops of Spain, by a disordered multitude 

 without fire arms, would only terminate in the rout and destruction 

 of all his forces. In fact, he seems to have been panic stricken, 

 and to have felt unable to control the revolutionary tempest he had 

 raised. Accordingly, in an evil moment for his cause, he com- 

 menced a retreat, after having remained several days in sight of 

 the beautiful city of Mexico, upon which he might easily have 

 swept down from the mountain like an eagle to his prey. 



It is related by the historians of these wars, that in spite of all 

 Venegas's boasted valor and assurance, he was not a little dis- 

 mayed by the approach of Hidalgo. The people shared his alarm, 

 and would probably have yielded at once to the insurgents, whose 

 imposing forces were crowding into the valley. But in this strait 

 the viceroy had recourse to the well known superstitions of the 

 people, in order to allay their fears. He caused the celebrated 

 image of the Virgin of Remedios to be brought from the mountain 

 village, where it was generally kept in a chapel, to the cathedral, 

 with great pomp and ceremony. Thither he proceeded, in full 

 uniform, to pay his respects to the figure, and after imploring the 

 Virgin to take the government into her own hands, he terminated 

 his appeal by laying his baton of command at her feet. 1 



It is now that we first encounter in Mexican history the name 

 of Don Felix Maria Calleja, — a name that is coupled with all that 

 is shameless, bloody, and atrocious, in modern warfare. Calleja 

 was placed at the head of a well appointed Creole army of ten thou- 

 sand men and a train of artillery, and with these disciplined forces, 

 which he had been for some time concentrating, he was ordered to 

 pursue Hidalgo. 2 The armies met at Aculco, and the Indians, in 

 their first encounter with a body of regulars, exhibited an enthusi- 

 astic bravery that nearly defies belief. They were almost as com- 

 pletely ignorant of the use or power of fire arms as their Aztec 

 ancestors three hundred years before. They threw themselves 

 upon the serried ranks of infantry with clubs and staves. Rushing 

 up to the mouths of the cannon they drove their sombreros or hats 

 of straw, into the muzzles. Order, command, or discipline, were 



1 Wards' Mexico in 1827, vol. i. p, 169. 



2 The Creoles although unfriendly to the Spaniards, and ready to rebel against 

 them, were nevertheless willing to aid them against the Indians whom they more 

 reasonably regarded, under the circumstances as the more dangerous of the two 

 classes. 



