eral Cuéllar;[1] and afterward retired García from Oajaca, making him governor and comandante general of Vera Cruz, with headquarters at Orizaba; and to his former position as governor appointed J. M. Maldonado, and to that of military commandant Colonel Félix Diaz.
During Diaz' sojourn in Acatlan an episode occured which is worthy of mention. E. Bournouf, representing himself as an emissary from Maximilian, came to tender Diaz, in the emperor's name, the command of the imperial forces in Puebla and Mexico, coupled with the assurance that Marquez, Lares, and others of that clique, should be driven from power, and that Maximilian would leave the country, first placing the republican party in control of the situation. To which proposition Diaz answered that he had no right to hold with the archduke other relations than military laws and usages allowed with the commander of a hostile force.[2] Bournouf also asked that Maximilian should be permitted to pass unmolested with 5,000 Belgians and Austrians to Vera Cruz, where they would embark. Diaz' reply to this was that if such a force appeared near his lines he would certainly attack it.
On the 9th of March Diaz already had his headquarters on the Cerro de San Juan. His force consisted of two divisions of infantry under the respective command of Alatorre and Bonilla, and one of cavalry
- ↑ Early in March Diaz received the orders of the government adding to his command the federal district, and the three districts of the state of Mexico.
- ↑ Bournouf had been introduced in the camp blindfolded. Having signified his inability to go at once on account of ill health, Diaz deemed it advisable to communicate those facts to the governors and military commandants, which he did in a circular, saying, besides, that it was surprising such a proposition should be brought to him, who had indignantly rejected sinilar ones made him in Oajaca in 1864, and again when he was a prisoner in Puebla in 1865. He then concludes with words to this effect: These Europeans must hold us in poor estimation when they act with so little discretion, and in the manœuvres of their arduous diplomacy ignore even the plainest dictates of common sense.' Diaz, Datos Biog., MS., 275-80; Diaz, Porf., Biog., 97. The circular was published in nearly all the republican journals, among which may be mentioned La República of Jalapa, and La Estrella de Occid., May 3, 1867.
