Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/312

266, which surrendered to him without offering any resistance. Commodore Perry arrived on the 2nd with the squadron, but the towns on the river were already captured.

The dreaded vómito would soon be on the coast, and General Scott could not linger at Vera. Cruz. Owing to unavoidable delays and accidents, but one fourth of the necessary road-train had arrived, yet he determined to escape the pestilence, as he expressed it, "by pursuing the enemy." Lieutenant Colonel Belton was left with a detachment in command of Vera Cruz and the castle. On the 8th of April, General Twiggs took up the march with his division, and was followed in a few days by the remaining columns of the army. General Scott and his soldiers were now upon the high road to the Mexican capital, confidently trusting — and they were not disappointed — to find it strewn with the laurels and paved with the trophies of victory. After a period of more than three hundred