Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/225

MEXICO. 187 rising in succession one above the other. So large a space was inclosed by the ravines, that the fort contained six hun- dred head of cattle, two thousand sheep or goats, and three hundred large hogs, with twenty thou sand yawegas of Indian corn, ten thousand of wheat, and a large provision of flour. It was likewise well supplied with water and ammunition ; so that the garrison, which consisted of fifteen hundred men, conceived that they might bid defiance to any force that could be brought by the Royalists against them. On the approach of Linan's army, which appeared before Los Remedios on the 27th of August, Mina quitted it, in order to take the field, and the place was immediately invested in due form. On the 30th, he was joined by Don Encarna^ cion Ortiz at the head of his cavalry, and with him he found nineteen of his old followers, of whom six were officers : these, with thirty more, who had previously reached Los Reme- dios, and whom Mina left there to assist in the defence of the place, were the only survivors of the three hundred and fifty-nine men who landed with him at Soto la Marina in the preceding April : all the rest had perished ; and but few of those who remained were destined to escape the fate of their comrades. On the 31st of August, the siege of Los Remedios began, and with it, a desultory Guerrilla war, which was carried on, with but little success on Mina's side, against a division of eight hundred men, under the command of Colonel Orrantia, who was detached to watch his motions, and to protect the supplies of the army. After passing nearly the whole month of September in this manner, Mina, convinced both of the impossibility of attacking Linan's intrenchments with the troops under his command, and of the necessity of striking a blow of sufficient importance elsewhere, to induce the Royal- ists to raise the siege, resolved to attempt to surprise Guana- juato, where, it is said, that he had received assurances of a disposition to assist him being entertained by several of the