and the return cargoes of quicksilver and other effects; and Calleja, who bore no spotless reputation, was widely accused of having favored convoys from Tampico to the exclusion of Vera Cruz trains.[1]
The most dangerous part of the route lay in Vera Cruz, which fairly swarmed with lusty bands, living partly by direct plunder, partly by the exemption tax obtained from traders, and unwilling to recognize any superior authority under which their profits might have to be shared or restricted. After the departure of Nicolás Bravo to join Morelos, their independence of spirit ripened into actual discord, and there was need for a guiding spirit to uphold the tottering cause. During the flight of the congress to Michoacan, Rosains ingratiated himself so far with the members as to be confirmed as comandante general of Puebla, Vera Cruz, and northern Mexico;[2] but on reaching his new field he found that Rayon had already claimed the command, on the strength of his superior rank as captain-general and minister of Hidalgo, and of the appeal to him of several chiefs who objected to Rosains, notably Perez, intendente of Puebla.[3]
Rayon would listen to no proposals from Rosains, who thereupon resolved to try his influence in the adjoining province of Vera Cruz, where Joaquin Aguilar, the congressional intendente, disputed for control with Rincon, the comandante general left in Morelos' name.[4] Rincon had been humbled in a severe encounter with the royalists under Álvarez,[5] while
- ↑ Arechederreta gives some interesting revelations to this effect in his Apuntes Hist. Also Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., v. 325, 335-44, 731, etc.
- ↑ Bustamante adds Oajaca, but Rosains does not claim it in his Justa Repulsa, 63-4.
- ↑ See Rayon's reply to Rosains in Revol. Verdad. Origen, 65-6. Alaman assumes that he had also obtained a commission similar to that of Rosains. To bind Perez, Rayon made him also brigadier and comandante of Puebla. Diario Rayon, 654.
- ↑ Aguilar was a late tobacco official, who had promised to capture Vera Cruz, and bring to the treasury half a million within six months. Rosains sought to cut the difficulty by appointing a new comandante in Colonel Aldana, a protégé of Rayon, but Aldana ignored him.
- ↑ The conqueror of Oajaca, Jan. 20th, at Jamapa. As a result, his fortifications and factories at Huatusco were destroyed. Gaz. de Mex., 1814, v. 152, 167-8. Bustamante claims that Álvarez was disfigured and nearly
