Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/598

578 manner by the Indians, with their aggravated causes for discontent; with their number, exceeding that of all the other races; and with their many opportunities for outbreaks, midst civil wars and faction bids. Fortunately, the patient, long-suffering disposition of the aborigines, and above all their division into distinct tribes and nations, with different interests and sympathies, proved a barrier to any general and disastrous uprising.

Local movements have taken place, however, and although generally merged during the republican era in party strife, several were distinctly Indian revolutions, such as those in the Mizteca country. The late war of invasion gave opportunity and impulse to others, as we have seen. The futile though threatening pronunciamiento of Marquez for Santa Anna in February 1849, with a portion of the government troops engaged in subduing the rebellious Indians of Sierra Gorda, is claimed to have occurred at the turning-point in this campaign. The mountaineers certainly took advantage of the diversion to capture Rio Verde and several villages. The leader, Quiros, moreover, chose to ignore a convention lately arranged, as 1not sufficiently favorable to his ambitious views. Thus pressed, the governor appealed for aid to the adjoining states, and with the 2,000 additional men obtained, took such effective steps that the revolution was suppressed by October, Quiros being captured and executed.

Several hundred of his most active followers were exiled to different frontier colonies, there to vent their