Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/721

Rh their colleagues, and becoming alarmed, the deputies, to the number of thirty-seven, finally embarked.

The command given Iturbide was not the most suitable for carrying out his purposes, and he even accepted it with some reluctance. It comprised the region extending from the districts of Tasco and Iguala to the coast, and was divided from one end to the other by the river Mescala, which separated the Goleta range, occupied by Ascensio Alquisiras as a subordinate of Guerrero, from the Sierra Madre on the south, where Guerrero had established his headquarters, in the vicinity of Ajuchitlan and the Coronilla Mountains.

Iturbide endeavored to prevail on the viceroy to place at his command the largest possible force and pecuniary means; and his correspondence is replete with flattering promises and assurances of devotion, couched in phraseology, however, carrying a double meaning. The call for an increased force was apparently well grounded. The troops hitherto serving