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VICEROY APODACA AND HIS VIGOROUS MEASURES.

be comandante general of this region, and who ignominiously stopped to lead the royalists in pursuit of his late comrades, and to influence the surrender of Cuiristaran fortress. A similar misstep was taken by Muñiz. Incensed with Rosales, who after being driven from Zacatecas claimed the post of comandante general in Michoacan, he joined the pursuers against him, and the brave Rosales, overtaken near Tacambaro, fell fighting for the cause.[1]

In Zacatecas revolutionary movements had hardly ever passed beyond Colotlan and the south-east border, and even these dwindled to a shadow under the energetic brigadier Diego García Conde, who infused also greater discipline among his troops.[2] San Luis Potosí was also undisturbed save by frontier movements along its southern lines, and beyond, in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, slight local disturbances alone broke the quiet.[3] In Chihuahua a revolutionary plot had been promptly suppressed in November 1814.[4]

The most northern province in which the war continued to prevail was Guanajuato, the cradle of the revolution; and but for the mining resources, its condition might under the attendant ravages have been reduced to the same deplorable level as in Michoacan. Favored by the mountainous nature of the country, the insurgents managed to find encouragement in occasional successes, and ample supplies to maintain a considerable force under several leaders, as Rosas,

  1. In June 1817. Gaz. de Mex., 1817, viii. 653-4. For previous submissions, see Id., 1816, vii. 2033, 2085, etc.
  2. Those who showed cowardice in battle were shot. After Rosales' departure, Hermosillo of Colotlan stood the foremost leader in the northern region; and as late as 1816 he and his adherents are said to have mustered as many as 700 men. A formidable opponent of his was the cura Álvarez. See Gaz. de Mex., 1815-16 passim; Noticioso Gen., Id.; Torrente, Hist. Rev., ii. 276-7; Gonzales, Hist. Aguascal., 83-5; Mora, Méj., iv. 439, 443-4. Conde was in 1816 succeeded by Gayangos.
  3. For scattered details, see Gaz. de Mex., 1815-16; Noticioso Gen., Id.; Torrente, Hist. Rev., ii. 279.
  4. Through the treachery of a conspirator, Hidalgo's former colonel, Arrieta, which caused the arrest of Trespalacios and Caballero on November 4th. The former escaped while on the way to Spain, the other was finally pardoned, as will be related in Hist. North Mex., ii., this series.