Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/459

Rh thousand; in Tobasco and Chiapas there were two thousand; Urrea, Carrabajal and Canales commanded two thousand; Filisola was at San Luis Potosi with three thousand; Peña y Barragan had two thousand at Toluca; one thousand were in Oajaca, while nearly three thousand guerrilleros harassed the road between Puebla and Vera Cruz and rendered it impassable after the victories in the valley. The conflict was now almost given up to these miscreants under Padre Jarauta and Zenobio, for, in the eastern districts, General Lane with his ardent partizans held Rincon, Alvarez, and Rea in complete check.

These guerrilla bands had inflicted such injury upon our people that it became necessary to destroy them at all hazards. This severe task was accomplished by Colonel Hughes and Major John R. Kenly who commanded at Jalapa, and by General Patterson, whose division of four thousand new levies was shortly to be reinforced by General Butler with several thousand more. Patterson garrisoned the National Bridge in the midst of these bandit's haunts, and having executed, at Jalapa, two paroled Mexican officers captured in one of the marauding corps, and refused the surrender of Jarauta, he drove that recreant priest from the neighborhood into the valley of Mexico, in which Lane pursued and destroyed his re-organized band.

Whilst, these scattered military events were occurring, Peña-y-Peña, as President of the Republic, had endeavored, both at Toluca and at Querétaro, to combine once more the elements of a congress and a government. He summoned, moreover, the Governors of States to convene and consult upon the condition of affairs; he suspended Santa Anna; ordered Paredes into nominal arrest at Tololopan; directed a court martial upon Valencia for his conduct at Contreras; attempted to reform the army, and in all his acts seems to have been animated by a sincere spirit of national re-organization and peace. Nevertheless, among the deputies who were assembled, the same quarrels that disgraced former sessions again arose between the Puros, the Moderados, the Monarquistas, and Santannistas or friends of Santa Anna, who now formed themselves into a zealous party, notwithstanding the disgraceful downfall of their leader. These contests were continued until early in November, when a quorum of the members reached Querétaro and elected Señor Anaya, the former President substitute, to serve until the month of January, to which period the counting of votes for the Presidency had been postponed, as we have already stated, by the