Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/261

Rh Having remained a few days at Querétaro, Cruz left on the 20th for Valladolid. His march was uneventful; for although a hostile force threatened to oppose his progress in the neighborhood of Acámbaro, it retreated to Valladolid as he approached. Pedro Celestino Negrete, a naval officer, was sent with a detachment in pursuit, but was unable to overtake the retreating enemy. I mention this apparently trivial circumstance because the name of Negrete, who afterward greatly signalized himself and contributed to the success of Cruz by his victories, appears for the first time in history on this occasion. On the 27th, passing through Indaparapeo, Cruz approached Valladolid and bivouacked for the night on the heights above the city.

As the royalists drew near, the revolutionary intendente, Ansorena, convinced that the forces which he had at his disposal would be unable to cope with those of Cruz, on the night of the 26th and 27th secretly left the city for Guadalajara, escorted by fifty chosen men; and on the following morning the officials appointed by Hidalgo also left, taking with them such treasures and archives as were under their charge.

On the 27th, as soon as the flight of the intendente became public, the populace rose in tumult, and led by a blacksmith of Toluca, who was from the United States, raising the cry of death to the gachupines, broke into the college formerly belonging to the Jesuits, in which a number of Europeans were confined, and put three of them to death before they