Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/732

716 pursuit of Cruz, arriving in front of Durango on the 4th of August. Peace negotiations having failed, hostilities began, and for three weeks a brisk fire was maintained on both sides. On the 31st of August, however, the town displayed a white flag, and on the 3d of September a capitulation was signed, by which Cruz and the expeditionary troops were granted the honors' of war, and permitted to depart for Vera Cruz, to embark for Spain. The besiegers took possession of the city on the 6th of September, and the recognition of the plan of Iguala throughout Nueva Vizcaya immediately followed. The eastern provincias internas had meanwhile also yielded to the popular feeling. Arredondo in vain tried to suppress manifestations hostile to the government. The independence was proclaimed on the 1st of July, and being deposed from his command, he embarked at Tampico for Habana.

Meantime Iturbide had marched from Valladolid against Querétaro. The possession of this city as a centre of operations was equally important to the royalists and independents, and the viceroy was already concentrating troops at San Juan del Rio for its support. His design was, however, frustrated by the rapid movements of Joaquin Parrés, Colonel Bustamante, and Quintanar, who compelled Colonel Novoa, the comandante of San Juan del Rio, to capitulate on the 7th of June. Other operations conducive to