Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/666

650 to trifle at the very outset with a stranger, as they had with Calleja, his orders received an energetic obedience that soon produced a radical change. In the autumn he ordered a formidable concentration of troops under Hevia, Bracho, and Obeso, against Teran, the most conspicuous among the insurgent leaders. Operations were to begin with the reduction of outlying towns; and on December 30, 1816, Hevia invested Tepeji with about a thousand men. The commandant, Juan Teran, had one fourth of that force. His brother hastened to the relief, and succeeded in repulsing La Madrid, who sought to check his advance; but the attack on the besieging lines proved a failure. Don Juan thereupon made his escape with nearly all his followers on the night of January 5th, and joined Teran, who most unaccountably had ordered the garrison of Teotitlan to evacuate this place. The loud remonstrance evoked opened the eyes of Teran to his mistake, and he resolved to repair it by marching against Obeso, who with nearly 600 men had advanced from Oajaca to occupy it. He met him at Ayotla, not far from the town, on January 12th, and gave proof of his superior tactics by utterly routing his opponent. This left the road open to Oajaca; and by merely threatening this point Teran might have frustrated the royalist campaign plan, but he did not deem it proper to abandon his district.

He proposed now to retake Teotitlan; but hearing that Colonel Bracho was marching toward Tehuacan with over a thousand men, he hastened instead to the relief of this place, which constituted his centre. He came too late to enter the adjoining fortress of Cerro Colorado, the stronghold of the region, and had to