Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/258

242 Cayetano and Maríano Anaya. On one occasion Venegas despatched under a strong escort a quantity of stores to Querétaro, and with it travelled the newly appointed auditor de guerra, Ignacio Velez de la Campa. The insurgents, however, attacked it in the narrow defile of Calpulalpan, and killing the passengers and part of the escort, carried off the stores. A huge rock was rolled down upon the carriage of Velez, crushing his head, after which he was despatched. Venegas decided to send a force to Huichapan for the security of the highway. The brigadier José de la Cruz had just arrived from Spain, and to him the viceroy gave the command of the expedition, with Torcuato Trujillo, of Las Cruces renown, as his second.

José de la Cruz does not appear to have begun his military career before 1808, when owing to the invasion of Spain by the French, he like many others abandoned his university for the profession, of arms. His rise was rapid; and after two years' service under General Gregorio de la Cuesta he was made brigadier. His success in New Spain was no less conspicuous than it had been in the peninsula, but it must be attributed to accident rather than ability. He was truculent and cruel. His rapid promotion was owing to the jealousy with which the viceroy came to regard the successes of Calleja; and such was the influence of Venegas in Spain, that after his return thither and the accession of Calleja to the viceroyalty he maintained Cruz in the high position to which he had elevated him, in order to mortify one whom he could never pardon for having succeeded him in his rôle of vice-king.

On the 16th of November, Cruz marched out of Mexico, his force constisting of the infantry regiment