432 SPANISH AMERICA. 



fell back to Indaparapeo, where he was 

 proclaimed generalissimo of the Mexican 

 armies : the troops under his command had 

 then increased to eighty thousand men, 

 whom he divided into regiments, and took 

 great pains to discipline. 



Hidalgo marched towards Mexico by the 

 way of Marabatio, Tepetongo, Jordana, and 

 Istlahuaca, and entered Toluca, twelve 

 leagues west of the capital, on the 27th of 

 October. The royalist troops were sepa- 

 rated, the different divisions being at con- 

 siderable distances from each other; and 

 Venegas, who had but a small number in 

 Mexico, resorted to an expedient which 

 produced a considerable effect : he applied 

 to the archbishop, and to the Inquisition, 

 who issued a sentence of excommunication 

 against Hidalgo and all his troops. Hi- 

 dalgo, being himself a priest, was enabled 

 to counteract in his own army, and amongst 

 his followers, the impression which would 



