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Rh Michoacan, Jalisco, and southern Puebla, but the imperialists were about to capture Acapulco and reduce Guerrero, to invade Sinaloa and advance in other directions, so that the position of the former party was precarious indeed. At the close of May, however, they still held the rather scantily inhabited provinces of Sinaloa and Sonora, Durango and Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and part of Tamaulipas, including control of some rich mining districts, and two valuable custom-houses at Matamoros and Mazatlan. In the south they occupied Guerrero, Oajaca, Tabasco, and Chiapas, where Diaz loomed as the only formidable bulwark; for the northern armies were about shattered, and their territory protected greatly by the sparseness of its settlements, with the attendant lack of supplies, and hardships.

The reason for the rapid advance of the Franco-Mexicans was due, not to superior valor, for the republicans fought well, but to discipline and arms, and above all to a better organization of troops, and carefully studied manœuvres. The Juarist forces, on the other hand, were largely of raw recruits, attracted by patriotism or a desire for plunder, or more generally pressed into service, and little able from lack of training and disposition to withstand the regular soldiers from European and Algerian battle-fields. They were deficient in armament and outfit, in quantity as well as quality, and discord reigned, one jealous leader opposing another, or refusing to act in accord, and so causing the failure of the best plans.

The successes of the Franco-Mexican columns might have been made even more effective had the regency displayed any proportionate energy in organizing the