Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/398

372 apprised, and they were probably prevented from doing so chiefly by the plans of Santa Anna, who supposed that Taylor would fall an easy prey to the large Mexican forces in the field at Buena Vista, especially as the American army had been weakened by the abstraction of its regulars for the operations at Vera Cruz. Victorious at Buena Vista, he could have hastened, by forced marches, to attack the invaders on the eastern coast, and under the dismay of his anticipated victory in the north, he unquestionably imagined that they too would have fallen at once into his grasp. Besides these military miscalculations, Mexico was so embarrassed in its pecuniary affairs, and disorganized in its Central Civil Government, that the proper directing power in the capital,—warned as it was,—had neither men nor means at hand to dispose along the coast of the Gulf, or to station at points in its neighborhood whence they might quickly be thrown into positions which were menaced.

It was at this juncture that Santa Anna's voice was again heard in the council and the field. At the conclusion of the last chapter we left him hastening to the new scene of action; and when he announced the capitulation of the vaunted castle and sea port of the Republic, he declared in his proclamation, that although "chance might decree the fall of the capital of the Aztec empire under the power of the proud American host, yet the Nation shall not perish." "I swear," continues he, "that if my wishes are seconded by a sincere and unanimous effort, Mexico shall triumph! A thousand times fortunate for the nation will the fall of Vera Cruz prove, if the disaster shall awaken in Mexican bosoms, the dignified enthusiasm, and generous ardor of true patriotism!" This was the tone of appeal and encouragement in which he rallied the credulous and vain masses, the disheartened country, the dispersed troops of the north, and reanimated the broken fragments of the army which still continued in the field.

Meanwhile, General Scott placed Vera Cruz under the command of General Worth; opened the port to the long abandoned commerce which had languished during the blockade; established a moderate tariff, and together with the forces of the navy took possession of the ports of Alvarado and Tlacotlalpam on the south, and directed the future capture of Tuspan on the north of Vera Cruz. All his arrangements being completed, and these captures made and projected, he marched a large portion of his twelve thousand victorious troops towards the capital.

When the road to the interior leaves Vera Cruz, it runs for a mile or two along the low, sandy, sea-beaten shore, and then strikes off,