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OPENING OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

de la Vega and Chamacuero,[1] he moved toward Celaya, and approached the town on the evening of the 19th. The officers in command of the troops stationed there, deeming resistance useless, retired at night with some companions of the provincial regiment to Querétaro, accompanied by the European residents. On the night of the 19th, Hidalgo and Allende conjointly addressed a letter to the ayuntamiento, summoning the town to surrender, and threatening to put to death

Province of Guanjuato

their prisoners to the number of seventy-eight if opposition was offered.[2]

    appointed treasurer. One dollar a day was paid a cavalryman and half that sum to a foot-soldier. Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. 381.

  1. At this last place he made captive the cura, who was a European. Gaz. de Mex., 1810, 811.
  2. The captive Spaniards had been brought with them, surrounded by the dragoons of the queen's regiment. The following is a translation of the document, a copy of which is to be found in Alaman, Hint. Mej., i. app. 50-1: 'We have approached this city with the object of securing the persons of all the European Spaniards. If they surrender at discretion, their persons will be treated with humanity; but if on the contrary resistance should be made,