Page:Into Mexico with General Scott (1920).djvu/213

 expects General Scott to advance upon the city by the eastern approaches, and I understand that he has concentrated his batteries and men so as to defend these approaches. Now you'll see by the map that beyond Mexicalcingo the cut-off road joins a main road from the south, named the Acapulco road. And that farther west there is still another main road from the south."

"Yes, sir," mused Jerry, pouring over the map and following the lieutenant's finger.

"There is a way to strike the Acapulco road, or the other road, without reducing Mexicalcingo. An army might—I do not say it could—but an army of brave men might march around south of Lake Chalco, here, and away south of Mexicalcingo, over a very rough country, and reach the Acapulco road at the town of San Augustine, about thirty miles from where we now are. Thus we should avoid El Peñon and Mexicalcingo, and approach the city from an unexpected quarter, either the south or the west"

"Maybe General Scott has thought of that, sir."

Lieutenant Grant smiled again.

"No doubt he has. I rather surmise that he thought of it at Puebla. I know he was busy gathering information. But by all reports from our spies and from the natives the route around south of Lake Chalco is very bad, with lava rocks and sharp ridges and bogs. It is so bad that the Mexicans themselves rarely use it, and General Santa Anna has paid little attention to it."

"The same way he didn't pay much attention to that first hill at Cerro Gordo," said Jerry.

"Cerro Gordo ought to have taught him, but