VICTORIA MINA LANDS AT SOTO LA MARINA. 295 



wandered for thirty months, living on the fruits of the forest and 

 gnawing the bones of dead animals found in their recesses. Nor 

 did he emerge from this impenetrable concealment, until two faith- 

 ful Indians, whom he had known in prosperous days, sought him 

 out with great difficulty, and, communicating the joyous intelli- 

 gence of the revolution of 1821, brought him back once more to 

 their villages where he was received with enthusiastic reverence as 

 a patriot raised from the dead. When discovered by the Indians 

 he was worn to a skeleton, covered with hair, and clad in a tattered 

 wrapper ; but, amid all his distresses and losses, he had preserved 

 and treasured his loyalty to the cause of liberty and his untarnish- 

 ed sword ! 



Meanwhile another actor in this revolutionary army had appeared 

 upon the stage. This was Xavier Mina, a guerilla chief of old 

 Spain, who fled from his country, in consequence of the unfortu- 

 nate effort to organize an outbreak in favor of the Cortes, at 

 Pampeluna, after the dissolution of that assembly by the king. He 

 landed on the coast of Mexico at Soto la Marina with a brave band 

 of foreigners, chiefly North Americans, on the 15th of April, 1817. 

 His forces amounted to only three hundred and fifty-nine men, 

 including officers, of whom fifty-one deserted before he marched 

 into the interior. Leaving one hundred of these soldiers at Soto la 

 Marina under the command of Major Sarda, he attempted with the 

 remainder, to join the independents in the heart of the country. 



Mina pressed onwards successfully, defeating several royalist 

 parties, until he reached Sombrero, whence he sallied forth upon 

 numerous expeditions, one of which was against the fortified 

 hacienda or plantation of the Marques of Jaral, a Creole nobleman, 

 from which the inhabitants and the owner fled at his approach. 

 His troops sacked this wealthy establishment, and Mina transferred 

 to the public chest one hundred and forty thousand dollars, found 

 concealed in the house. This nobleman, it is true, had given in 

 his adhesion to the royal cause and fortified his dwelling against 

 the insurgents who hitherto refrained from attacking him. Never- 

 theless, the unprovoked blow of an independent leader against a 

 native of the country, and especially against a man whose exten- 

 sive farming operations concentrated the interests of so large a 

 laboring class, was not calculated to inspire confidence in Mina 

 among the masses of the people. 



Whilst the guerilla chief was thus pursuing his way successfully 

 in the heart of the country, and receiving occasional reinforcements 

 from the natives, the garrison he left at Soto la Marina fell into the 



