infusion of the Cactus Opuntia (prickly pear), of which the men make a mucilaginous drink like benne, or gum water; it does not cure, though it has a favourable influence on the disease.

There has been great excitement in the camp in the last few days, from an officer, the adjutant of the 14th Infantry, having fallen into the hands of the Mexicans. He was walking out of the city, accompanied by a single soldier, when they were attacked by a party of rancheros, the soldier knocked down, a musket snapped at his head, and the officer captured after a desperate resistance. This happened within pistol-shot of the walls of Vera Cruz. The soldier made his escape and gave the information, when various parties went in pursuit, but they returned without any success. It is supposed the officer has been murdered.*

Let us put off our trip to the city to another day. We will rise betimes in the morning, take a sea-bath in the breakers, and then and there enjoy the only luxury known at Camp Vergara.

LETTER V.

Rumours corrected-Naval Service on the Coast-Malaria-Shops and Shopkeepers in Vera Cruz-Public Buildings-Preparations for Departure-Breaking Mules-Ambulances-Alarms-The Brigade moves for the Interior.

Camp near Vera Cruz, July.

The news of Cadwalader's defeat proved to be entirely false; that officer did not reach the main body of the army without considerable skirmishing, but so far as we can learn, he has overcome all obstacles. Such is the first information we got on our visit to Vera Cruz. He ought to have been defeated, no doubt; and the Mexicans, by a figure of speech not described in rhetoric, said he was.

* This gentleman, Lieutenant Whipple, was set at liberty at the end of the war. His fortunes during nearly a year of captivity were very varied.

The naval squadron on the coast is doing very efficient service, though less conspicuous than that done by the army. Commodore Perry, than whom there is not a more gallant or energetic officer in either service, has just returned in the steamer Mississippi from the capture of Tobasco. This is not a war favourable to naval distinction, yet the navy has to bear a heavy portion of the most arduous duties. There is no more trying duty than blockading;-spending weeks or months standing on and off shore; looking constantly upon a soil where you are not allowed to plant your foot; suffering for want of water and fresh provisions, with all the dangers of the sea, and a lee shore ever in prospect; no naval forces to contend with, and not allowed to strike a blow landward-these are some of the troubles of blockading. Then a bright look-out must be kept to see that no adventurer from beyond seas eludes your vigilance, and carries “aid and comfort" to the enemy. Now our sturdy tars have to expose their lives to a more fearful enemy than Mexican soldiery; every river has to be explored, and every port taken; the stars and stripes are to wave over all the battlements that guard the sea-shore. All service in the tierras calientes, the scorching lowlands, is fruitful in disease and death, and the river courses abound in deadly malaria. The garrisons of the enemy are of little importance, compared with the fell power that deals so lightly with those who have been born under its influence, and so fatally with the stranger. It takes stout hearts to face such dangers, where it may be said there are no commensurate honours. The Mexicans, indeed, have said emphatically that the vomito would soon end the war, by sweeping off both army and navy.

My occupations do not allow me any intercourse with the Veracruzanos, so I cannot say much about them. I occasionally make small purchases from the shopkeepers, who have one peculiarity common to their tribe everywhere, that is, to make strangers pay prices that ought to cover all losses from home-dealers. The shops throughout the town occupy the ground-floor, while the upper stories are used as dwellings. It is amusing to read the signs and advertisements;—Joneses, and Smiths, and Johnsons, and Thompsons are planted in and among Crapauds, and Ximenes, and Garcias, Rodri

guez, and Minas. For languages, Vera Cruz may be considered at present a miniature Babel.

All the public buildings are in the service of our officials: the quartermaster's department alone occupies a large portion of them. Time is now so precious, and sickness spreading so rapidly, that the most active exertions are being made to get our brigade on its way; but we have a large train to escort up, of provisions and ordnance stores, and as yet we have no teams to haul them. There are, to be sure, a thousand or fifteen hundred mules in the camp for the purpose; but it is as hard to make a wild mule draw as to make a horse drink, the difficulty of which has passed into a proverb. You may see at any time on the long white beach a hundred wagons, with a team of mules and a double team of men to each, some going forwards in a run, some in a trot, some backwards, and some sideways; every way but the right way. The mules go kicking, sprunting, rearing, pitching, running, backing, braying, all without rhyme or reason; and although it looks like a frolic to the spectators, it is anything else to those concerned. Several of the men have been kicked into disability for the campaign. The ambulances and some important wagons have teams of trusty northern horses. The ambulances, light four-horse wagons on springs, invented, as you know, by Baron Larrey, for the benefit of the wounded of the grande armée, are already kept very busy, carrying the sick from the camp to the general hospitals in the city. I am exceedingly harassed by my duties, not only attending to the sick, which keeps me constantly exposed to the broiling sun, but also in providing stores for them, giving or refusing sick tickets, &c. My fellow voyageur and late chum was assigned a place on the personal staff of the general, and for a time I was alone; but again I have a companion, whose intelligence and energy is likely to relieve my labours. These extend far beyond the command to which I am properly attached.

We have had, on more than one occasion, night alarms; indeed, nearly every night some raw sentinel imagines an enemy in a bush, and startles us by his fire. Once we had a general commotion— drums beat, and all hands called. Two sentinels gave the alarm at once-"Who goes there?-Speak, or I fire!" No answer. The

same is repeated twice, no answer given, and two muskets are discharged at once. The guards are formed immediately, and the entire camp as soon as possible. The sentinels swore to seeing persons prowling around in the bushes, how many they could not say. The poor fellows indeed were very much exposed; they were on the picket guard, on the hilltops, and their forms projecting against the sky were good marks for invisible guerrilleros. The bushes were beat, and no enemy found. Some days later, a poor half-starved white donkey was seen in search of water, badly crippled in the legs. Whether he was a spy or warrior, this deponent does not pretend

to say.

I must be drawing to a close my last letter from this place. We are under what is called afloat "sailing orders," that is, we strike tents with the morning's dawn, and take up the line of march for the interior. We are told the road is strewed with dead bodies; and I for one confess to going off with no light heart. Some of us

or may it be all?—will return no more to this our place of rendezvous. We leave home, happiness, and health behind us, to penetrate with hostile intent the land of the stranger. It looks like going into "exterior darkness,"--but allons! I chose my own profession and my own course; then "let fate do her worst," I mount my charger and pursue my line of duty.

Here we are, on the morning of the 16th, some twenty-five hundred men, new and old troops, artillery, dragoons, marines, infantry, regulars and volunteers, belonging to, filling up, and completing various regiments now in the interior. The men are all under arms; the advance is off, dragoons and artillery; then the trains, ordnance wagons first, with their flankers. There they go, yet so slowly that it will take hours to get fairly under way; men fall in the ranks, overpowered by heat, and the weight and constriction of their belts, muskets, and knapsacks. Those who are waiting suffer much more than their brethren in motion. At last, after many hours, the rearguard moves—the marines, accompanied by one piece of artillery. Good bye; I cannot loiter. A single ambulance and a few fallen stragglers are all that remain on the beach, this morning so populous. I must send you this by the last chance, see the sick stowed, and follow the fortunes of the army.

LETTER VI.

A Sick Army-Insubordination of an Important Portion of it-A Night on the Road-The Bivouac-Trouble with Horses-Santa Fe-Wild CattleLancers-Breakfast-The Road-Weariness of the Men--They throw off Incumbrances-Transporting the Sick-San Juan, or the Mud-Hole.

San Juan, July.

HAVING sent back our most unpromising cases to the hospitals at Vera Cruz, the remaining sick were supposed to be able to shoulder their muskets, and march with the column; being allowed such indulgences as their condition required and the nature of the circumstances would permit. It proves an uphill business though, I assure you; in our little command, I prescribe for at least one hundred persons daily, of whom some ninety-eight are cases of dysentery. Other surgeons have still more; and I hazard nothing in saying, that out of our brigade of twenty-five hundred men, fifteen hundred are suffering more or less from that disease.

The first night, en route, we had some experience in a soldier's life; the road for three leagues out from Vera Cruz, is of deep sand, and very heavy; the mules, at first, seemed willing to do their part, and half broken as they are, worked faithfully, but some slight hills overcame their good intentions; first, they would pause, then start, then stop still. Now came coaxing, swearing, and pounding from the drivers, but it would not do; when the leaders would pull, the wheel horses wouldn't; when the wheelers were willing, the leaders would turn short round in the road. Directly, one starts to pull honestly, and all the rest hold back; now the refractory parties are coaxed or whipped in, and the one that had just set such a good example stops stock still, to kick for a good half hour. When such a contre-temps happens in a narrow pass, all of the train in the rear is brought to a dead halt; the advance moves on, and thus the train becomes extended for miles along the road. There was but one way of getting the wagons up the hills, and that was to double the teams,