436 SPANISH AMERICA. 



Morelos, and more particularly, Don Y. 

 Rayon, a lawyer by profession, who took 

 up a position at Zacatecas. A body of 

 guerillas also, under the command of Co- 

 lonel Lopez, fortified Zitaquaro; and being 

 there attacked by a royalist force under 

 Torre and Mora, on the 22d of May 1811, 

 the latter were completely defeated, — the 

 two commanders being killed in the action. 

 Rayon, after failing in an attempt upon 

 Valladolid, established his head-quarters at 

 Zitaquaro, where he was attacked, on the 

 4th of June, by Emparan, a royalist com- 

 mander, who, after losing eight hundred 

 men, was compelled to retreat to Zoluca. 



A Junta was formed at Zitaquaro, by 

 Rayon, who continued there till the 2d of 

 January 1812, when the town was taken by 

 Calleja; who, with that spirit of vengeance 

 which almost uniformly influenced the con- 

 duct of the royalists, ordered every building 

 in Zitaquaro to be rased to the ground, or 



