took a very active part in the Revolution, the advocate (el lĭcĕncĭādŏ) Don Ignācĭŏ Lōpĕz Răyōn, whom Hidalgo immediately appointed his confidential secretary: Răyōn is one of those who did most towards reducing the Insurrection to a regularly organized system; he established the Junta of Zitācŭarŏ, which was the first step taken towards creating an independent government, and gave to the Patriot cause a character of respectability, which it had not before possessed.
On the 24th of November, Hidalgo made a triumphal entry into Guădălaxāră, where he was received with the greatest pomp, and, apparently, with the greatest enthusiasm. Although the excommunication originally pronounced against him had not been taken off, he assisted at a grand Te Deum, in the Cathedral, from whence he was conducted to the palace, where all the great Corporations came to place themselves at his orders. Soon after his arrival he was joined by Ăllēndĕ, in conjunction with whom, though a great degree of irritation had existed between them since the retreat from Mexico, he proceeded, with his usual activity, to take measures for increasing his forces, and replacing the artillery which he had lost. This he effected, by bringing a number of cannon from Săn Blās, (the great dock-yard and arsenal of the Spaniards, on the Western coast;) some of which, though of a very large size, (24-pounders) were conveyed, by the Indians, over a mountainous dis-
