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Rh refused to listen to any proposal of the kind. Matamoros was shot, and the Insurgents, by way of reprisals, immediately ordered all their prisoners to be put to death.

This was the beginning of a series of reverses, which only terminated with the life of Morelos. While he himself endeavoured to recruit his forces on his old scene of action, the Southern coast, he despatched Don Manuel Mier y Tĕrān to take the command of the district of Tĕhŭacān, (in La Puebla,) and Victoria, who had distinguished himself greatly in the unfortunate affair before Valladolid, to act as Captain-general in the Province of Veracruz. But although Morelos displayed as much resolution and activity as ever, in struggling against the tide of adversity, all his efforts to retrieve his sinking fortune were ineffectual. He lost action after action; Oaxaca was retaken by a Royalist division under Brigadier Ălvărēz, (28th March, 1814,) Don Miguel Bravo was made prisoner, and died upon the scaffold, at La Puebla; Gălĕānă perished on the field of battle, (27th June, 1814,) the Congress of Chilpănzīngŏ was driven from that town, and forced to take refuge in the woods of Apătzīngăn, where, however, it continued its labours, and sanctioned, on the 22nd of October, 1814, the Constitution known by that name. Here it was very nearly surprised by Iturbide, (in 1815,) who, by a rapid and masterly march across the mountains of Mīchŏăcān, came upon the Deputies almost before