Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/428

412 Tepecuacuilco did the same. Royalist companies were hurriedly organized in the haciendas and towns of the cañada de Cuernavaca, who engaged in a hot war on the independents. Thus the whole country from La Cruz del Marqués to the approaches of the port of Acapulco now recognized the viceregal government. The Indians dwelling in the towns near Cuautla, after the place was occupied by Calleja, presented themselves with their curas, petitioning for amnesty, which was granted them.

Viceroy Venegas, with the view of winning the inhabitants of the south to the royal cause, proclaimed on the 11th of May that the course of Morelos at Cuautla, in preferring to suffer misery rather than surrender, was an inhuman act. He depicted him as a cruel man, who had forced the people of Cuautla to perish from famine. These and many other things did he say to blacken Morelos' character. The proclamation ended with a tender of general pardon and forgetfulness of the past to all who would forsake the independent ranks, together with a reward for the capture of Morelos. It carried with it likewise the threat of certain and pitiless punishment to all who refused. The offer of amnesty was accompanied for greater effect with a pastoral letter of the ecclesiastical chapter ruling the diocese of Mexico after Archbishop Lizana's death. After the fall of Cuautla, there being no further need in this vicinity for Calleja and his army, he returned to Mexico, Llano's division going to Puebla. Fourteen days after his victory, on the 16th of May, Calleja, being quite ill, entered Mexico in a carriage. The artillery, standards, and other military trophies taken at Cuautla were carried in triumph. The prisoners were in the centre of the division. Notwithstanding the apparent satisfaction with the result of the Cuautla