380

SANTA ANNA'S SECRET NEGOTIATIONS.

the matter to a council of general officers of the army. This body, however, was quite as timorous as Congress, and dismissed the project by declaring that "it was inexpedient to enter into negotiations for peace, until another opportunity had been afforded Mexico to retrieve her fortunes in the field."

These were the negotiations that met the public eye, and are reported in the military and diplomatic despatches of the day; but there was a secret correspondence, also, which denotes either the duplicity or stratagy of Santa Anna, and must be faithfully recorded. It seems that the Mexican President, about the time that the public answer was proclaimed, sent private communications to the American head quarters at Puebla, intimating that if a million of dollars were placed at his disposal, to be paid upon the conclusion of a treaty of peace, and ten thousand dollars were paid forthwith, he would appoint commissioners to negotiate! The proposal was received and discussed by General Scott, Mr. Trist, and the leading officers, and being agreed to, though not unanimously, the ten thousand dollars were disbursed from the secret service money which Scott had at his disposal, and communications were opened in cypher, the key of which had been sent from Mexico. Intimations soon reached Puebla, from Santa Anna, that it would be also necessary for the American army to advance and threaten the Capital;and, finally, another message was received, urging Scott to penetrate the valley and carry one of the outworks of the Mexican line of defences, in order to enable him to negotiate!1

The sincerity of these proposals from the Mexican President, is very questionable, and we are still in doubt whether he designed merely to procrastinate and feel the temper of the Americans, or whether he was in reality angling for the splendid bribe of a million which he might appropriate privately, in the event of playing successfully upon the feelings or fears of the masses. The attempt, however, proved abortive; and although both General Scott and Mr. Trist deemed it proper to entertain the proposal, the commander-in-chief never for a moment delayed his military preparations for an advance with all the force he could gather. Thus were the last efforts of the American authorities in Mexico and Washington repulsed in the same demagogue spirit that hastened the rupture between the nations in the spring of 1846, and nothing remained but to try again whether the sword was mightier than the pen.

'See Major Ripley's History of the War with Mexico, p. 148. et seq.

CHAPTER XIII.

1847.

SCOTT AT PUEBLA- TAMPICO AND ORIZABA TAKEN SCOTT'S TOPOGRAPHY OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO

ADVANCE

ROUTES TO. THE CAPITAL -EL PEÑON MEXICALZINGO

TEZCOCO

CHALCO

OUTER AND INNER LINES AROUND THE

CITY SCOTT'S ADVANCE BY CHALCO THE AMERICAN ARMY

AT SAN AGUSTIN.

THE American forces, as we have stated, had concentrated at Puebla on the main road to the city of Mexico, but their numbers had been thinned by desertion, disease and the return of many volunteers whose term of service was over or nearly completed. Meanwhile the Mexican army was increased by the arrival of General Valencia from San Luis with five thousand troops and thirty-six pieces of artillery, and General Alvarez with his Pinto Indians from the south and south-west, all of which, added to the regiments in the city and its immediate vicinity, swelled the numbers of the Mexican combatants to at least twenty-five or thirty thousand. It was discovered that General Taylor would not advance towards the south, and consequently the presence of Valencia's men was of more importance at the point where the vital blow would probably be struck.

Whilst the events we have related were occurring in the interior, Commodore Perry had swept down the coast and captured Tobasco, which, however, owing to its unhealthiness, was not long retained by the Americans. But every other important port in the Gulf, from the Rio Grande to Yucatan, was in our possession, while an active blockade was maintained before those in the Pacific. Colonel Bankhead subsequently, occupied Orizaba, and seized a large quantity of valuable public property. It had been the desire of the American authorities, from the earliest period of the war, to draw a large portion of the means for its support from Mexico, but the commanding Generals finding the system not only annoying to themselves but

exasperating to the people and difficult of accomplishment, refrained from the exercise of a right which invaders have generally used in other countries. Our officers, accordingly, paid for the supplies obtained from the natives. Nor did they confine this principle of action to the operations of the military authorities alone whilst acting for the army at large, but, wherever it was possible, restrained that spirit of private plunder and destruction which too commonly characterizes the common soldier when flushed with victory over a weak but opulent foe. When the ports of Mexico, however, had fallen into our possession and the blockade was raised, they were at once opened to the trade of all nations upon the payment of duties more moderate than those which had been collected by Mexico. The revenue, thus levied in the form of a military contribution from Mexican citizens upon articles they consumed, was devoted to the use of our army and navy. It was, in effect, the seizure of Mexican commercial duties and their application to our necessary purposes, and thus far, only, was the nation compelled to contribute towards the expense of the war it had provoked.

Early in August, General Scott had been reinforced by the arrival of new regiments at Puebla, and on the 7th of that month, he resolved to march upon the capital. Leaving a competent garrison in that city, under the command of Colonel Childs, and a large number of sick and enfeebled men in the hospitals, he departed with about ten thousand eager soldiers towards the renowned Valley of Mexico.

In the same month, three hundred and twenty-eight years before, Hernando Cortéz and his slender military train, departed from the eastern coasts of Mexico, on the splendid errand of Indian conquest. After fighting two battles, with the Tlascalans who then dwelt in the neighborhood of Puebla, and with the Cholulans whose solitary pyramid, a grand and solemn monument of the past,— still rises majestically from the beautiful plain, he slowly toiled across the steeps of the grand volcanic sierra which divides the valleys and hems in the plain of Mexico. Patiently winding up its wooded sides and passing the forests of its summit, the same grand panoramic scene lay spread out in sunshine at the feet of the American General that three centuries before had greeted the eager and longing eyes of the greatest Castilian soldier who ever trod the shores of America.

In order to comprehend the military movements which ended the drama of the Mexican war, it will be necessary for us to describe