Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/450

434 Desirous of checking the advances of the independents, Brigadier Bernardo Bonavía gave the command of a force organized ad hoc to a native of Santander, in Spain, named José María de Régules Villasante, an old resident of Nochistlan, not a soldier by profession, but a hearty royalist, and possessed of much activity and a thorough knowledge of the ground in that mountainous country—qualifications more useful, perhaps, for that kind of warfare than a regular military training. Régules, together with other land owners friendly to the royal cause, raised and disciplined a considerable force from the laborers of their own estates. The bishop of Antequera, Antonio Bergosa y Jordan, a stanch royalist, who had been promoted to archbishop of Mexico and was making preparations to depart for his new field of episcopal duties, was requested by the ayuntamiento and some prominent citizens of Oajaca, at this critical period not to leave the diocese, where his influence would have great weight. He not only acquiesced and influenced public opinion in favor of the royal cause with his pastorals and sermons, but raised and armed a body of ecclesiastics. The independents, on the other hand, wasted no time. They organized a considerable body, and in January, 1812, deeming themselves strong enough to face the royalists in their lair, at Yanhuitlan, where Régules commanded and had erected strong fortifications, marched to the attack, 3,000 strong with three pieces of artillery, on the 8th and 9th of January, and met with defeat and the loss of their artillery, together with forty or more killed, and seventy prisoners, besides fifty mules laden with provisions and ammunition. The victorious Régules started in pursuit of the insurgents, and on the 26th of February met those of Bobadilla at San