Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/530

472 the low level are lined, on either side, by almost impervious thickets of chaparral, with openings, at rare intervals, through which glimpses may be obtained of the lovely sylvan bowers of i the tierra caliente, Spangled with flowers, and overhung with the arching trees loaded down with their abundant foliage, and the gay vines and creepers lovingly entwined about their branches. These thickets are intersected by narrow, blind paths, running hither and thither, and forming a maze as intricate as the windings of the Cretan labyrinth. Leading, as they do, to the haunts of the bandits and guerilleros, they are familiar to those who use them, in the darkest night. They thus serve, both as a covert from which an enemy may be fired on unseen, and as hiding-places in which it is easy to elude pursuit; and had those who frequented them, during the war with the United States, been animated only by that noble and exalted feeling of patriotism, which nerves the arm, and strengthens the heart, the losses of the American army would have been far greater, and more terrible and severe.

Father Jarauta, who seems to have been the leading chieftain among the guerilleros, from Perote to the Gulf, had given orders to his men to shoot every person who carried provisions into Vera Cruz. He had, doubtless, a twofold object in View: — to stop the supplies, and to excite the population to join his rapidly diminishing band. But his plans were soon defeated by the active and vigilant measures of General Patterson. The country between the Jalapa and Orizaba roads, was thoroughly scoured by the Texan rangers, under Colonel Hays, at all times the terror of the guerilleros, and the other volunteer cavalry. A great number of the bandits were killed; their haunts