Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/568

552 rose anew into life during the siege of Acapulco. Páris and Reguera had retired to that port, where the former died April 15th, the latter effecting his escape from the besieged castle on the 6th of May. Having collected a force of about 400 men, he attacked Vicente Guerrero on the 1st of July, 1813, at Cuautepec, but being repulsed retired to Cruz Grande. Manuel Mier y Teran, independent, was unsuccessfully attacked at the Trapiche de Santa Ana on the 16th of August, and on the 25th of September he took Tututepec. But on the 5th of November the largest place in that region, Ometepec, hoisted the royal standard and received Reguera with open arms on the 10th. His forces now amounted to 1,200 men, and he believed himself able even to assail Oajaca.

A body of royalist troops under Moreno Daoiz had its headquarters in Tepecuacuilco, and from it parties were sent to the right bank of the Mescala, where they were well received, the inhabitants being tired of the war and desirous of protection. That force was strengthened in September with the battalion of Lovera sent by the viceroy to Cuernavaca. In September Teloloapam was occupied by Captain Manuel Gomez Pedraza, who was in later years a famous statesman of Mexico. Lieutenant-colonel Armijo directed operations from Izúcar; and Matamoros, having on the 10th of August issued a proclamation, stationed himself at Tehuicingo waiting for an opportunity to recover Izúcar. Some distance south of this place, at Piaxtla, on the 20th of August an action took place between a portion of Armijo's command under the captain of dragoons, Juan B. Miota, and a party of Ramon Sesma's force, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Ojeda, a man of little or no military