Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/393

Rh, and mail carriers, and such as might be found useless for military service. This brilliant scheme failed, for when Venegas came to pay for the beasts, like Simple Simon, he had not the money. All this tended to the further disgust of the people, and to the advancement of the revolutionary cause. Nor were the continued offers of pardon emanating from the Spanish córtes sufficient to hold forever the good will of the Spanish Americans.

There were several secret clubs in the capital at this time, one claiming special attention, called Los Guadalupes, whose members, like others before mentioned, labored to spread discontent in regard to the viceregal government.

One of the richest towns of that period, now within the state of Tlascala, was Huamantla, situated on the line of trade between Vera Cruz and Mexico. The place was garrisoned by forty infantry of the line, 200 royalist auxiliaries, also infantry, most of them armed with lances, there being but few muskets among them, and sixty cavalrymen. Of artillery there were only three small guns. The commandant, Antonio García del Casal, having been apprised that a large force of insurgents meditated an attack upon the town, opened ditches and erected barricades. The insurgents, 2,000 strong, assailed the place on the 18th of March, 1812, and though repulsed at first, carried it next day, after nearly all the regulars and a number of officers had