times regard the Spaniards as fellow subjects of the same great empire." The alternative of war was presented to the viceroy together with these moderate demands, but he was only requested to abate the personal cruelties that had hitherto been committed, and to save the towns and villages from sacking or destruction by fire. Yet the insane Venegas would listen to no terms with the rebels, and caused the manifesto to be burned in the great square, by the common executioner. The principles of the document, however, had been spread abroad among the people, and the flames of the hangman could no longer destroy the liberal doctrines which were deeply sown in the hearts of the people. The distinguished revolutionary chief Morelos, a clergyman, now appears prominently upon the stage. He had been commissioned by Hidalgo as Captain General of the provinces on the south-west coast in 1810, and departed for his government with as sorry an army as the troop of Falstaff. His escort consisted of a few servants from his curacy, armed with six muskets and some old lances. But he gathered forces as he advanced. The Galeanas joined him with their adherents and swelled his numbers to near a thousand. They advanced to Acapulco, and having captured it with abundant booty, the insurgents soon found their ranks joined by numerous important persons, and, among them the _Cura_ Matamoros and the Bravos, whose names have, ever since, been prominently connected with the history and development of Mexico. The year 1811 was passed in a series of petty engagements; but, in January, 1812, the insurgents penetrated within twenty-five leagues of the capital, where Galeana and Bravo took the town of Tasco. Morelos was victorious in several other actions in the same and succeeding months, and pushed his advanced guards into the valley of Mexico, where he occupied Chalco and San Agustin de las Cuevas, about twelve miles from the metropolis. Morelos finally resolved to make his stand at Cuautla, in the _tierra caliente_, on the other side of the mountain ranges which hem in the valley; and, to this place the viceroy Venegas despatched Calleja, who was summoned from the north and west, where, as may readily be imagined, so fiery a spirit had not been idle or innocent since the defeat of Hidalgo. On the 1st of January, 1812, Calleja reached Zitacuaro, whence the alarmed Junta fled to Sultepec. The insatiate Spaniard took the town, decimated the inhabitants, razed the walls to the ground, and burnt the dwellings, sparing only the churches and convents. After this dreadful revenge upon a settlement which had committed no crime but in harboring the Junta, he made a triumphal entrance into Mexico, and, on the 14th of February, after a quarrel with the viceroy, and a solemn Te Deum, he departed towards Morelos, who was shut up in Cuautla de Amilpas.