Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/358

338 Cuéllar; and afterward retired García from Oajaca, making him governor and comandante general of Vera Cruz, with headquarters at Orizaba; and to his former position as governor appointed J. M. Maldonado, and to that of military commandant Colonel Félix Diaz.

During Diaz' sojourn in Acatlan an episode occured which is worthy of mention. E. Bournouf, representing himself as an emissary from Maximilian, came to tender Diaz, in the emperor's name, the command of the imperial forces in Puebla and Mexico, coupled with the assurance that Marquez, Lares, and others of that clique, should be driven from power, and that Maximilian would leave the country, first placing the republican party in control of the situation. To which proposition Diaz answered that he had no right to hold with the archduke other relations than military laws and usages allowed with the commander of a hostile force. Bournouf also asked that Maximilian should be permitted to pass unmolested with 5,000 Belgians and Austrians to Vera Cruz, where they would embark. Diaz' reply to this was that if such a force appeared near his lines he would certainly attack it.

On the 9th of March Diaz already had his headquarters on the Cerro de San Juan. His force consisted of two divisions of infantry under the respective command of Alatorre and Bonilla, and one of cavalry