Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/165

 M EX ICO. 129 taken, that one might ahiiost imagine him to have sought the peril from which he was endeavouring to escape. After a march of six days, his advanced guard, most unexpectedly, fell in with Calleja's outposts, who, on their side, were equally ignorant of the approach of the Insurgents. Calleja's troops were composed principally of Creole regiments. His cavalry was commanded by the Conde de la Cadena; and his army possessed all the advantages that superior discipline and arms could give ; but it remained to be seen what effect the ap- pearance of their countrymen, fighting for a cause, in which all Mexicans were equally interested, might produce upon their minds. This great question was decided, on the 7th of November, 1810, in the plains of Aculco. Officers who were present at the action have assured me, that the troops were wavering when they went into the field ; and that, if Hidalgo had pre- vented his men from beginning hostilities, it was more than questionable whether they would have been brought to fire. But the Insurgents, struck with terror at the appearance of a regular army going through its evolutions in perfect silence, and beginning to advance upon them in five separate columns, dispersed in the greatest confusion at their approach, and be- gan firing at random upon all who came within their reach. This was an insult with which the Creole regulars were so irritated, that they were even more eager than the Spaniards in the pursuit ; and, from this moment, their hne, through- out the early part of the Revolution, was decided. For many years, they were the chief support of the cause of Spain, and the most inveterate enemies of the Insurgents; nor was it until the declaration of Iturbide, in 1821, that they espoused the cause of Mexican Independence. One cannot but admire the dexterity with which this feeling in favour of the Mother country, was created, and kept up. The very men who enabled Calleja to gain the battles of Aculco and Calder5n, VOL. I. K