Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/167

M F.XICO. 131 authors, who are most zealous in the cause of the Revolution, can prove the number of those who really suffered by the sentence of decimation, pronounced afterwards against a part of the population, to have been greater than that of the Euro- peans, who had fallen victims to their ferocity. Besides, it must not be forgotten that, at the commencement of a Revo- lution, however just its causes, all those who engage in open hostilities against the established government, do it at their own peril. They must expect to be treated as traitors, until success makes heroes of them. I do not blame the Spanish Authorities so much for having done, in the first instance, what most governments would have done in their place, as I do, for having persevered in their system of severity, when time had proved its inefficacy, and when they were entreated by the Insurgents themselves, to avoid such an unnecessary effusion of blood. Hidalgo arrived at Valladolid on the 14th of November, from whence, after allowing three days for his followers to recruit after their late losses, he proceeded, without delay, to Guadalaxara, which town had been occupied by one of his lieutenants, on the very day that the battle of Aculco was lost by himself During this short stay at Valladolid, he was joined by another man, who, afterwards, took a very active part in the Revolution, the advocate (el licenciado) Don Ignacio L5pez Ray5n, whom Hidalgo appointed his confidential secretary : Rayon is one of those who did most towards reducing the Insurrection to a regularly organized system ; he established the Junta of Zitacuaro, which was the first step taken towards creating an independent govern- ment, and gave to the Patriot cause a character of respecta- bility, which it had not before possessed. On the 24th of November, Hidalgo made a triumphal entry into Guadalaxara, where he was received with great pomp, and, apparently, with great enthusiasm. Although the excommunication originally pronounced against him had K 2