Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/264

236 a little fort, in the centre of a marsh, in the Province of Valladolid, which was its usual residence; but it possessed little influence, and no authority, being composed entirely of creatures of the Padre Torres. The country was, however, still overrun by parties of Insurgent cavalry, and Torres was in possession of three fortified places; (Los Rĕmēdĭŏs, Jāūxīllă, and Sŏmbrērŏ,) but, with the exception of Guerrero's corps, with which, from the Eastern coast, no junction could possibly be effected, there was no force bearing a respectable character collected upon any one point. The armies of Hidalgo and Morelos were reduced to mere predatory bands; while the Royalist forces, increased by successive reinforcements from the Peninsula, were in possession of all the towns, and of most of the military stations calculated to maintain a communication between them.

Still there was a feeling in the country so decidedly in favour of the Independent cause,—a feeling so strong, so universal, (as was proved four years later,) that had Mina succeeded in awakening it, his success would have been almost certain; but he struck the wrong chord. He was a Spaniard, and, very naturally, did not forget the land of his birth, nor wish to deprive it of the most precious jewel in its Crown. Constitutional liberty therefore, or, in other words, such liberty as the Mexicans could hope to enjoy under the Constitution of 1812, without an absolute separation from the Mother-country, was