Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/222

184 MEXICO. Mina was greatly affected by this reverse, the news of which reached him at the time when his exertions to organize a re- spectable force, in the vicinity of Sombrero, were counter- acted by the jealousy of the Padre Torres, who could not be induced to co-operate with a man, of whose superior abilities he was, at once, jealous and afraid. The time lost by his procrastination, and bad faith, was turned by the Royalists to account. Apodaca gradually concentrated his forces, and placed them under the orders of the Mariscal de campo Don Pascual Linan, who, about the middle of July, was known to be upon his route towards the Baxio, at the head of five thousand men. Mina's troops did not exceed five hundred in number, and these were diminished by an ill-judged at- tempt upon the town of Le5n, by the occupation of which he wished to anticipate Linan's arrival. The place was garri- soned, unexpectedly, by an advanced corps of the Royal army, and when Mina attacked it, he was repulsed with the loss of one hundred men. He retired immediately to Som- brero, which was invested, soon afterwards, by Linan, who appeared before it, on the 30th of July, with a force of three thousand five hundred and forty-one men. The garrison, which, (including women and children,) amounted to nine hundred, was soon reduced to the greatest distress by the want of water, the fort having previously drawn its supplies from a barranca, (ravine,) at the foot of the mountain, all communication with which was cut off by one of the enemy ""s batteries. There was no well in the place, and, although in the midst of the rainy season, the clouds, which deluged the country around, passed over the rock upon which this ill-fated fortress stood. At length, a few partial showers afforded some relief, and Mina, seeing the spirits of his men revive, made an attemjyt on the entrenchments of the enemy, on the night of the 8th of August, in which he was unsuccessful. His good star seemed to have deserted him :