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496 aid of the ambition, the vices, and the ignorance of his countrymen. His war-cry was the proscription of the Europeans, who had been lulled into security by habitual confidence, and still more by the testimony of their own consciences: he was joined instantly by a host of curates, friars, and lawyers, all men of desperate fortunes, and all determined to seek in the public ruin the impunity of their own crimes. The great mass too of Indians, and mixed castes, which had taken no part till then in the affairs of the state, was roused at once into open rebellion against the Government; stimulated by the desire of indulging their vicious passions, concealed by the plea that the Europeans, against whom their enmity was directed, were agents of Napoleon, as stated in Paragraph thirty-five. In consequence of this, Hidalgo had in a few days whole towns and provinces at his devotion, and advanced upon the Capital with an army infinitely more numerous than that by which it was defended.

38.—The prudence and firmness of the Viceroy saved the state. The rebels were repulsed at Las Cruces, and defeated at Aculco, by a General, whose consummate skill converted into invincible soldiers men, who, under any other direction but his, would have turned against their General and their country. The same General drove them from Guanaxuato, and destroyed at last Hildalgo's whole force at the Puente de Calderon, while their chief expiated his crimes by the death which he had so well deserved in the Northern Provinces.

39.—But still the rebellion continues, has continued, and will continue, with no other change than the mere chances of war; and even should the force of the Cura Morelos, which is now the only formidable one, be destroyed, yet the day is far distant when we can hope to see security and order restored.

40.—Many wonder at the ferocious spirit that characterized Hidalgo's rebellion, exemplified in the Alhondiga of Guanaxnato, and in the ravines of Valladolid, Guadalajara, Tehuacan, and Sultepec.

41.—But Hidalgo knew perfectly all the peculiarities of his situation, and turned them to account. Without the riches of the Europeans, he could not pay his own debts, much less undertake an expensive war: without these same riches as a bait,