Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/216

178 MEXICO. (Creole) cavalry, occupied the road to the Interior, and an engagement in the field, or a siege in the Hacienda, became inevitable. Mina resolved upon the first, aware that delay would only bring reinforcements to the Royalist army, while he had none to expect. He therefore posted his whole force, consisting of one hundred and seventy-two men, (a small de- tachment was left in charge of the baggage and ammunition,) upon a little eminence, which commanded the surrounding plain, and there awaited Armiilan's approach. He was soon enveloped by the Royalist forces ; but his men, rendered des- perate by the apparent hopelessness of their situation, invited him to lead them down into the plain, where they made so furious a charge upon the Spanish line, that, notwithstanding their immense superiority in point of numbers, Arminan's troops were put to the rout, and sought safety in a precipitate flight. It is said that the use of buckshot, in lieu of balls, by the soldiers of Mina, contributed not a little to the panic, with which their opponents were struck : many of his men loaded their muskets with eighteen of these shot, and reserved their fire until they were within a few paces of the Royal ranks. Be this as it may, the dispersion was general ; and although there was no pursuit, Arminan and his staff did not stop in their flight for many leagues from the field of battle : the cavalry was not heard of for four days. But on his side, Mina sustained a serious loss ; eleven officers, and nineteen men were killed, and twenty-six wounded, some so severely as to be unable -to follow the march of the army. Nor did circumstances admit of his delaying, for a single day, his ad- vance towards the Baxio, where alone he could hope to in- crease the number of his adherents. While unsupported by the Insurgents, another such victory as that of PeotTllos, wo'dd have proved fatal to him. The division, therefore, movea xV^ward on the morning of the 16th June. On the 18th it reached Pinos, a small mining town in the Intendancy of Zacatecas, which, though defended by three hundred Roy-