Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/429

Rh seven diputados permanentes passed a decree, September 10th, deposing Cepeda, and appointing Ismael Salás as governor ad interim, and then removed to Monclova. Cepeda retaliated by denouncing them as rebels, and on the 19th hostilities broke out. Both parties appealed to the general government for aid, which was refused; but by the interposition of federal troops, and the appointment of a military provisional governor in the person of General Fuero, by the central executive, the state was pacified.

In Yucatan a serious local rebellion broke out. This state had long been distracted by internal strife. The pacific arrangements entered into with the Indian chief Tzuc in 1853 were of short duration. There was an uprising again in the following year, and two expeditions directed against Chan Santa Cruz resulted in serious reverses to the Yucatec troops. Emboldened by this failure to punish them, the Indians assumed the offensive. Tecax and other pueblos were assaulted, and more than 2,000 persons of both sexes and all ages were put to death. Valladolid was next attacked, and though the assailants were repulsed, it was at the cost of a great number of lives. In 1860 a force of 3,000 men under Colonel Acéreto was sent against Chan Santa Cruz, which, after much hard fighting and discouraging difficulties, was occupied. Acéreto then endeavored to advance farther into the enemy's country, but met with such tenacious resistance that he returned to Chan Santa Cruz; and seeing that his men were demoralized, and their spirit broken by the losses sustained in this warfare in thick forests against ambuscades and an invisible foe, he gave up the expedition and returned, with the loss of