Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/187

M EX ICO. 151 and the approach to it defended by the Royalist infantry. The Insurgents paused on perceiving this new obstacle ; but their irresolution Avas only momentary. Guadalupe Victoria, who was in the front rank, threw himself into the moat, sword in hand, and swam across ; the enemies were so sur- prised at his temerity, that they allowed him to land, and even to cut the ropes, by which the drawbridge was sus- pended, without receiving a single wound : the troops of Morelos rushed across it, and soon made themselves masters of the town. After releasing those who were in confinement for political opinions, and replacing the Spanish authorities by Mexicans, Morelos proceeded to execute his darling scheme of forming a National Congress. In order to give to this idea all pos- sible extension, the conquest of the rest of the province was indispensable. A very short time enabled him to effect this, with the exception of Acapulco, to which he laid siege on the 15th of February, 1813. This enterprise, the most impor- tant, as well as the most hazardous, that had ever been under- taken by the Insurgent armies, detained him several months : in the course of it, Morelos, whose great fault as a general was being too fond of exposing his person, had several very narrow escapes ; nor was it until the 20th of August, 1813, that his object was attained. As soon as the Mexican flag had taken the place of the Spanish colours on the fortress of San Diego, Morelos re- turned to Oaxaca, where he found every thing prepared, by Matamoros, for the meeting of the Congress, which was com- posed of the original members of the Junta of Zitacuaro, the deputies elected by the Province of Oaxaca, and others, again, selected by them as representatives for the Provinces in the possession of the Royal troops. Such was the Assembly, which opened its sessions on the 13th of September 1813, in the town of ChilpanzTngo. Its most remarkable act was the declaration of the absolute Independence of Mexico, pub^