Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/420

404 a consignment of flour to Vera Cruz, and bringing back some paper. Llano deemed a small detachment sufficient for the merchandise service; and he would occupy himself meanwhile in bringing under viceregal subjection the towns in the vicinity of Jalapa. Leaving Puebla on the 3d of July, on the way to Perote Llano was attacked at Tepeyahualco by insurgents, who were defeated and put to flight with the loss of five guns, by Lieutenant-colonel José Moran of the cavalry. Llano found Jalapa beset by the enemy, and provisions scanty. The whole province was in a state of insurrection, and communications so interrupted that in Jalapa, as in Mexico and Puebla, nothing was known of affairs in Vera Cruz. From some insurgent prisoners he learned that Vera Cruz was surrounded by foes, who swarmed up to its very suburbs; that a regiment of the Castilla infantry from Spain and another from Campeche had been unable to cut their way through to the interior, though they had made several sallies; and that a permanent court-martial had been established under Colonel Daoiz, recently arrived from Spain. Llano saw at once that he had to abandon his original plans, and in spite of the deadly season he must go on to the much infected seaport. Taking troops native to that region that he found in Jalapa, he set out with the flour on the 24th of July, and after some fighting reached Vera Cruz the 30th. He found the once famous Castilla regiment reduced to a few dying men. On his return to Jalapa, Llano escorted 2,000 mules laden with merchandise, a large number of passengers in vehicles, and forty boxes of mail matter from Spain. At Perote he was joined by Olazábal with a few detachments. From Ojo de