Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/190

154 MEXICO. out allowing his troops time to repose, he advanced imme- diately against the town, and was repulsed by the Royalists with loss. On the following morning, Matamoros, (ignorant, probably, of the real strength of the garrison,) had the im- prudence to order a general review of the army, within half a mile of the walls. In the midst of it, Iturbide, by a sudden sally, threw the Mexicans into confusion. They rallied, however, by degrees, and had succeeded in repulsing the Spaniards, when an Insurgent party vmder Navarrete and el Pachon, (two partizans of the Independent cause in the BaxTo,) arrived on the field of battle in order to assist More- los, with a large body of cavalry. Not having agreed upon any general signals, they were not recognized as friends, and were fired upon by the Mexicans on their approach. They immediately made a furious charge upon the flank, and Itur- bide taking advantage of an error so fortunate for him, suc- ceeded in putting the whole army to the rout, with the loss of its best regiments, and all the artillery. Morelos retreated to Piiriiaran, where Iturbide attacked him again, on the 6th of January, 1814, and again obtained a complete victory. Matamoros was taken prisoner in the general dispersion. Morelos endeavoured to save his life by offering, in exchange for him, a number of Spanish prisoners, (principally of the regiment of Asturias,) taken at the Pal- mar, and confined at Acapulco ; but Calleja, who had, at that time, replaced Venegas as Viceroy, refused to listen to any proposal of the kind. Matamoros was shot, and the In- surgents, by Avay of reprisals, ordered all their prisoners to be put to death. This was the beginning of a series of reverses, which only terminated with the life of Morelos. While he himself en- deavoured to recruit his forces on his old scene of action, the Southern coast, he despatched Don Manuel Mier y Teran to take the command of the district of Tehuacan, (in La Pue- bla,) and Victoria, who had distinguished himself greatly in