Morelos on receiving the news exclaimed in a tone of despair, "Both my arms are gone; I am now nothing!" Galeana was a warrior by instinct, with a vast fund of resources, although illiterate, and withal of greater gentleness than the other commanders, a trait that commended him also to the royalists.[1]
Another prominent leader had been taken shortly before, in the person of Miguel Bravo, mariscal de campo,[2] surprised at Chila by La Madrid. This officer, commanding at Iztúcar, and Villasana in charge of the Mescala district, assisted greatly to suppress revolutionary operations,[3] so that with the fall of Galeana the province of Tecpan, the cradle of revolutionary movements since the time of Hidalgo, might be regarded as practically subjugated, an achievement on which Armijo failed not to pride himself.[4]
Equally great had been the royalist success in the adjoining province of Oajaca. Morelos had not fully appreciated the value of this acquisition, with its large wealth and natural strength, and had allowed unfit ad ministrators to misdirect or neglect its resources, there by fostering a reaction against the cause among an
- ↑ He was repeatedly approached with offers of pardon, but remained true to the cause. He was born at Tecpan about 1762, and passed most of his time on the hacienda of his cousin till called to fight for his beloved Morelos. If the latter slighted him of late, it was perhaps mainly due to his illiteracy. Bustamante calls him the right arm of Morelos, Matamoros being the left. Cuad. Hist., ii. 423; iii. 80-5; Mendíbil, Resúmen, 214.
- ↑ He was the second of his family to be executed for the cause. He was shot on April 15th, at Puebla, where a monument now records his services. Col Robles claims that Bravo surrendered only on condition of being granted his life, but Ortega ignored the promise. Bustamante, Cuadro, iii. 97-9. But this Alaman doubts. No allusion is made in Gaz. de Mex., 1814, v. 313-14, to any condition, yet the fact that Bravo was remitted to Puebla lends color to Robles' version.
- ↑ The former destroyed the fortifications at San Juan del Rio, organized defence movements in the villages, and executed a number of petty leaders. Villasana took Zimatepec, and occupied a strong central position at Teloloapan. Details in Gaz. de Mex., 1814, v. 227-8, 302 et seq., 304-8.
- ↑ In his report of May 25th, already he wrote: 'Ya está cumplida enteramente la conquista del sur,' and this in 52 days, with 1,000 men. Id., 604. Armijo now established his headquarters in the more temperate region of Tixtla, leaving sufficient forces at Acapulco and other points, and keeping open communication with Mexico.
