Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/189

MEXICO. 153 defended it for two months, (September and October, 1813,) against a force of three thousand men, under the orders of Colonel Aguila. Forced at last, by want of provisions, to evacuate the place, he retired in the night without the loss of a single man, and rejoined Morelos in Oaxaca, with his whole division. But the most serious check received by the Spaniards, during the whole war, was that sustained by them in the second battle of the Palmar, on the 18th of October, 1813, where the regiment of Asturias, composed entirely of European troops, was cut oft' by Matamoros, after a severe action, which lasted eight hours. This regiment (which had been at the battle of Baylen,) came out from Spain with the proud title of " the invincible victors of the victors of Auster- litz ;■" and its loss was regarded by all the Spaniards as fatal to the prestige which had before attached to the European troops. The Insurgents, however, derived but little advan- tage from this victory. The time was come, when it seemed decreed that their affairs should take an unfavourable turn, nor did fortune once smile upon them afterwards. The divi- sion of Matam5r6s shortly rejoined Morelos in Oaxaca, who was then concentrating his forces at ChilpanzTngo, in order to prepare for an expedition against the province of Valladolid, the possession of which would have brought him into more immediate contact with the Insurgents of the Interior, and enabled him, with their co-operation, to strike a decisive blow against the Capital itself. With these hopes Morelos collected seven thousand men, and a large train of artillery, with which force he left Chil- panzTngo, on the 8th of November, 1813. After a march of one hundred leagues across a country which no one had ever traversed before, he arrived before Valladolid on the 23d of December, where he found a formidable force under Briga- dier Llano, and Iturbide, (who had then attained the rank of Colonel,) prepared to receive him. Rendered too confident by the success which had constantly attended his arms, with-