Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/189

Rh "our Lady of Gaudalupe," to protect and shield them from the invader. But when the army under General Taylor came upon the track of the Mexican cavalry. they found that the poor and inoffensive inhabitants had been stripped of their property, or compelled to witness its destruction, in order, as they were assured, that no supplies might be left on the route for the enemy; and los buenos Americanos were repeatedly entreated to save them from the cruelty of Torrejon and the rancheros.

The different corps of the American army were concentrated at Marin, 107 miles from Camargo, and within 24 miles of Monterey, on the 17th of September. Early in the morning of the 18th, they were again in motion. In case the enemy were met in force on the march, the line of battle was ordered to be formed, with the first division on the right, the second division on the left, and the. volunteer division in the centre. After leaving Marin, the country appeared much more fertile than between that town and the Rio Grande. The valleys, irrigated by the mountain streams, abounded in the most luxuriant vegetation; there were large fields of corn and sugar cane, tempting patches of melons, gay parterres of tropical flowers, groves of figs and olives, with an occasional thicket of Chaparral, whose dark foliage added a great deal to the beauty of the landscape; and the soft breeze that sighed among the jagged cliffs of the Sierra Madre, or rippled the waters of the San Juan, was laden with the fragrance of the wild rose and the jasmine, the orange and the pomegranate.

Numerous copies of proclamations issued by General Ampudia, repeating the inducements to desert offered to the American soldiers opposite Matamoras, were