Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/290

246 with each other; and on the 7th instant, a reconnaissance of the coast above and below the city, was made by General Scott and Commodore Conner, in the steamer Petrita. From the information obtained on this occasion, and that acquired from time to time by the naval officers employed in that station, it was thought best to effect a landing on the beach south of Vera Cruz, and due west of the island of Sacrificios.

While General Scott was on his way to the seat of war, and preparations were being made for the expedition against Vera Cruz, a third, and more specific proposition, was made to the Mexican government for the conclusion of a peace. On the 18th of January, 1847, Mr. Buchanan forwarded a dispatch to the minister of foreign relations, by the hands of one Mr. Atocha, whose diplomatic abilities do not appear to have been of the very highest order, in which it was proposed that a commissioner, or commissioners, should be appointed, to meet at Havana or Jalapa, clothed with full powers to conclude a treaty of peace. In the absence of Santa Anna, then advancing to meet General Taylor, the vice-president, Gomez Farias, signified his readiness to concur in the appointment of commissioners, but required as a preliminary condition, that the blockade should be raised, and that the American invading forces should evacuate the territory of Mexico; or, in other words, that all the advantages which had been gained should be sacrificed, and the American government once more trust solely to that faith which the experience of more than twenty years had shown to be as brittle as a rope of sand. It is almost unnecessary to say, that the President of the United States regarded these conditions as being wholly