Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/257

Rh Manuel Santa María, in favor of the revolution, and the whole of that province acquiesced in his action. In Texas, also, the royalist party for a time succumbed to the independents. On the 22d of January, Juan Bautista Casas made himself master of San Antonio de Bejar, the capital, capturing the governor, Manuel de Salcedo, the lieutenant-colonel, Simon Herrera, commander of the frontier militia, and a number of officers and Europeans. Thus without much bloodshed the whole of that portion of New Spain which extends from San Luis Potosí to the borders of United States declared for independence. The sufferings and indignities, however, to which the fallen Spaniards were subjected were in many cases very great, not even priests escaping by reason of their cloth.

Shortly after the grito de Dolores, Villagran, as the reader will recollect, established himself at Huichapan, and proved extremely troublesome to the royalists by interrupting their communication between the capital and Querétaro. With him two others later associated,