Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/172

136 MEXICO. meet the arm}' of Calleja in the field. Little, therefore, was done towards bringing the contest to a close, although the country was devastated, and hardly a day passed without some partial action being fought. Rayon seems to have been the first to perceive that nothing but a genei-al coalition could enable his countrymen to con- tend with an enemy, who had the power of directing an overwhelming force upon any particular point, and thus des- troying its opponents in detail. To effect this, he conceived the idea of a National Junta, to be created by some sort of popular election, and acknowledged by all the Insurgent chiefs ; and he selected the town of Zitaciiaro, in the State of Valladolid, as the best residence for such, an assembly ; public opinion having pronounced itself more decidedly in favour of the Insurgents in that Province, than in any other. With this view he occupied Zitaciiaro, about the end of May, (1811,) and having repulsed an attack made upon it, on the 22nd of June, by Brigadier Emparan, at the head of 2000 men, he proceeded in the execution of his favourite plan, in which he was so far successful, that, on the 10th of Sep- tember 1811, a Junta, or Central Government, was installed, composed of five members, elected by as large an assembly of the most respectable farmers, and landed proprietors of the district, as could be collected for the occasion, in conjunction with the Ayuntamiento, and inhabitants of the town. The principles laid down by the New Junta, in its first declarations, seem to have formed the basis of those adopted by Iturbide, ten years later, in his famous plan of Iguala : both, at least, agree in acknowledging Ferdinand VII. as Sovereign of Mexico, provided he would quit his European dominions, and occupy the throne in person, and both profess to desire an intimate union with Spain. But there can have been but little sincerity in this, on the part of the Junta, for Morelos, with whom, at that time. Rayon had held but little communication, but whose name was, soon afterwards, added