Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/360

344 Spaniards, and to the collection, proper management, and legitimate application of public rents and church tithes within the territory under his control. In order to facilitate matters, early in October he formed a new province, which he named Tecpan, out of the southern portion of the territory which at that time comprised the intendencia of Mexico, and erected Tecpan as the capital, with the title of the city of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, while at the same time, as a punishment for the pertinacious opposition of the inhabitants of Acapulco, that port was degraded from its rank and title of Ciudad de los Reyes to that of la Congregacion de los Fieles, the lowest grade of municipal communities in the Indies.

The preëminence displayed by Morelos in ability to direct the revolutionary movement, continually exposed his life to other dangers than those of open war. Dark and secret plans were formed for his destruction by poison or capture. In September 1811 he received a letter from one Padre Alva, warning him of a plot to poison him, and informing him that two men were already on their way from Mexico with that object. As Alva had minutely described them, they were arrested on their arrival at Chilapa, and sent to Zacatula. About a year later a similar design was meditated, of which Calleja seems to have been aware; and still later Rayon apprised him of the