Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/832

816 discipline carry out the plans of the viceroy, in whom is absorbed the credit for their achievements.

This applies even more to the rank and file on both sides, which are merged wholly in the leaders. The active royalist troops are entirely or mainly trained soldiers, often veterans of long standing with a large proportion fresh from peninsular battle-fields; while their opponents, as a rule, are undisciplined and uncontrolled recruits, who seek to supply the lack of skill and means with devotion and daring, or with numbers. Yet both parties are essentially brethren, the one enrolled for a noble purpose, the other enlisted by interests or compulsion to fratricidal war. The revolutionists are mainly composed of mestizos, the new-sprung race, ambitious and intelligent; of restless though uneven energy; with keen sense of its rights and wrongs, and with aspirations roused by mingled Spanish pride and aboriginal claims. The long-suffering Indian looks upon the issue with less eagerness. The assumption that the gain will be mainly absorbed by others counteracts greatly every inducement, even the traditions of a gilded past and the hopes of a roseate future, and draws him often back to a passive indifference, combined with a secret desire to behold the extermination of two objectionable rival races. The creoles waver frequently between a sense of injustice suffered and a class prejudice, which on one side binds them to the domineering Spaniards; between a longing for control and a timid fear for imperilled wealth. Their objection to fighting in a motley crowd renders them comparatively passive, except under compulsion, such as serving under royalist authorities as rural guard. Many prefer to manifest their revolutionary sympathies in contributions and intrigues.

Hidalgo sets out with a mere rabble, imposing in number, but easily vanquished. Morelos seeks to remedy the defeat by discipline and the organization of an army; and the result is a success which gains