Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/755

Rh provoked which produced bad results. For the purpose of securing the tranquillity of the country, and the mutual support of the political and military powers, Iturbide on the 17th divided the country into live captain-generalcies, which he placed under the directions of Anastasio Bustamante, Pedro Celestino Negrete, Manuel Sotarriva, Domingo Estanislao Luaces, and Vicente Guerrero.

The dissolution of the. viceregal government was followed by the surrender of the few remaining places which had held out to the last. The only exception was the castle of San Juan de Ulúa, which by the end of October was Spain's solitary possession in the country. On the 9th of that month the fortress of Perote was surrendered by Captain Patricio Tejedor, the officer in command, to Santa Anna, who occupied the town the same day; and on the 15th the governor of Acapulco capitulated, the independent commander Isidoro Montesdeoca taking possession on the 16th. At Vera Cruz the climax in affairs had wrought a change in the opinions of the consulado and ayuntamiento, and those corporations were no longer eager to oppose the battalions of the independents as they had been a few months before. Aware that a Spanish force had been ordered to the port, the consulado addressed a letter to the ayuntamiento on October 6th, setting forth the impossibility of successful resistance, and the destruction and disasters which would follow if hostilities were persisted in. The