HE IS SHOT PADRE TORRES ITURBIDE. 



297 



dito where he designed passing the night in order to consult upon 

 his future plans with his friend Mariano Herrera. Here he was 

 detected by a friar, who apprised Orrantia of the brave Mina's 

 presence, and, on the morning of the 27th of October, he was 

 seized and conveyed to Irapuato. On the 11th of November, 

 1817, in the 28th year of his age, he was shot by order of Apo- 

 daca, on a rock, in sight of Los Remedios. 



At the end of December the ammunition of the insurgents in this 

 stronghold was entirely exhausted, and its evacuation was resolved 

 on. This was attempted on the 1st of January, 1818, but, with 

 the exception of Padre Torres, the commander, and twelve of 

 Mina's division, few or none of the daring fugitives escaped. The 

 wretched inmates of the fort, the women, and garrison hospitals of 

 wounded, were cut down, bayoneted, and burned. On the 6th of 

 March, the fort of Jauxilla, the insurgents' last stronghold in the 

 central parts of the country, fell, while, towards the middle of the 

 year, all the revolutionary chiefs were dislodged and without com- 

 mands, except Guerrero, who still maintained himself on the right 

 bank of the river Zacatula, near Colima, on the Pacific. But even 

 he was cut off from communication w T ith the interior, and was al- 

 together without hope of assistance from without. The heart of 

 the nation, and the east coast, — which was of most importance so 

 far as the reception of auxiliaries by the independents was con- 

 cerned, — were, thus, in complete possession of the royalists; so 

 that a viceroy declared in his despatches to Spain, " that he 

 would be answerable for the safety of Mexico without a single ad- 

 ditional soldier being sent out to reinforce the armies that were in 

 the field. " 



But the viceroy Apodaca, confident as he was of the defeat of 

 the insurrection, did not know the people with whom he dealt as 

 well as his predecessor Calleja, 1 who, with all his cruelty, seems 

 to have enjoyed sagacious intervals in which he comprehended 

 perfectly the deep seated causes of revolutionary feeling in Mexico, 

 even if he was indisposed to sympathize w T ith them or to permit 

 their manifestation by the people. In fact, the revolution was not 

 quelled. It slept, for want of a leader ; — but, at last he appeared 

 in the person of Agustin de Iturbide, a native Mexican, whose 

 military career, in the loyalist cause had been not only brilliant but 

 eminently useful, for it was in consequence of the two severe blows 

 inflicted by him upon the insurgents in the actions of Valladolid 



' See Calleja's confidential letter to the Spanish minister of war, with a private 

 report on the Mexican Revolution. Ward, vol. i, p. 509 — Appendix. 



