on May 5th, but certain mishaps delayed him for one day. This saved the assembly; for warning came just as the session began, whereupon the startled members rose in tumultuous flight. Deeply mortified at the failure of his project, Iturbide allowed his resentment free play, leaving a bloody track to mark the return route by way of Pátzcuaro,[1] and destroying the valuable though neglected stronghold of Chimilpa.[2]
The three fugitive insurgent powers reunited at Uruapan, save Morelos, who had gone to the borders of Tecpan to assist the struggling guerillas,[3] and Cos, who flattered by the appeal of several old followers cast aside his legislative duties to place himself at their head in the field, selecting for his headquarters the fortress of Zacapo, south of Puruandiro. This change was due to more than a military whim; for when the congress remonstrated against this infringement of the constitution, his choleric nature took fire, and he circulated a manifesto declaring that body arbitrary and illegal. The members had not been elected by popular vote and were exceeding their usurped faculty in controlling executive and judicial powers, and in authorizing abuses against the church, revealing besides a traitorous disposition.[4] Such charges could not be left unchallenged, and Morelos was instructed to arrest the rebellious member. Doctor Cos prepared to resist, but his own men delivered him up at the command of the generalissimo, and the congress
- ↑ Among those who succumbed before his anger was Commandant Abarca, of Pátzcuaro, a worthy citizen who had accepted the position from Cos under compulsion, as related from original sources by Alaman. Hist. Méj., iv. 281. Cos and others took terrible vengeance for this act. Diary of Iturbide's march in Gaz. de Mex., 1815, vi. 612-16. Bustamante reproduces a part in Cuad. Hist., iii. 151-5.
- ↑ Seven leagues from Uruapan. It covered a fertile spot three leagues in length surrounded by steep ravines and approachable only on one side. Doctor San Martin discovered the place and added stockades and other fortifications, but it had not been appreciated.
- ↑ With him went as prisoner a priest named Muñoz, who soon escaped to reveal the misery of this march, during which several men died of hunger. His report in Gaz. de Mex., 1815, vi. 815-20.
- ↑ The document is reproduced in Zamacois, Hist. Méj., ix. 899-906, from the Gazeta of Oct. 19, 1815.
