Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/594

578 the general in command. A few shots from the royalists sufficed to scatter the 1,500 insurgent recruits. Armijo followed by forced marches to Tlacotepec in the hope of surprising the congress; and indeed, so narrow was the escape of this body that.the archives, seal, and baggage were captured; and Morelos himself would have been taken but for the heroic self-sacrifice of Colonel Ramirez, who made a stand till he got safely away. The deputies passed onward into Michoacan, and Morelos with a small escort took refuge in Acapulco.

Armijo, now promoted to the rank of colonel, resolved to complete his task by sweeping the whole province. He set out from Chilpancingo in the beginning of April, with over a thousand men, and appeared before Acapulco on the 12th, only to find it in flames and abandoned, with immense loss to the inhabitants as well the merchants in Mexico. Thus was surrendered without a blow, and to smoke, the richest port on the northern Pacific, the capture of which had shortly before required a costly campaign of seven months. Without loss of time, Armijo hastened up the coast in pursuit of Morelos, who had left a track of bloody retaliation, notably at Tecpan and Zacatula, on his way to the fastnesses of Michoacan. But if the pursuit proved vain, royalist control was