mexicohermilitar01robi

30
MEXICO AND HER MILITARY CHIEFTAINS.
on the American continent, of which he could not he.
ignorant, and the events of later date in Europe officially
promulgated had awakened a deep feeling in the whole
people, to which he was no stranger. A quiet, unam-
bitious, meditative man, he was far in advance of the
most of his countrymen, but might have continued to
dream of freedom, yet restricted his sphere of action to
his own cure, had he not been called forth by one of
those personal wTongs, in all cases found to be the most
powerful means of awakening man to a perception of the
sufferings of his neighbour.
It had ever been the policy of Spain not only to
wring from Mexico and the other Indies the produce of
their mines and peculiar wealth, but to prohibit them
from the pursuit of all industry w^hich would conflict with
the interests of the mother country. Therefore, except
in one remote part of the country whence it could never
be brought to a market, the production of wine and the
cultivation of vineyards had always been prohibited in
New Spain or Mexico. Hidalgo had planted around
his modest curacy a vineyard, which he was, by a posi-
tive order from the audiencia at Mexico, ordered lo
destroy. The quiet student had planted his vines in his
leisure hours. In his lonely life they had been to him
as children. He would not obey, and soldiers were
sent to enforce the order. The fruits of his labor were
destroyed ; the vines were cut down and burned ; but
from their ashes arose a more maddening spirit than pos-
sibly even the vine had previously given birth to.
This private wrong, added to the many oppressions
to which he was subjected together with the mass of his
countrymen, animated him, and may account for the
stern, dogged, almost Saxon perseverance with which
he began this contest, in which every chance was against