Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/336

308 gun-boats, four large launches, and two pilot-boats, used in the conveyance of the Government correspondence with California.

The expense of the whole, with that of the naval departments, stores, pay of officers and men, repairs, &c., is estimated at 1,309,045 dollars, and this it will probably never exceed, as Mexico, both from the thinness of the population upon her coasts, and from the natural difficulties of the access to the Interior, is neither able, nor called upon, to undertake the defence of her territory at a distance from her own shores.

Her squadron, (such as it is) is under the orders of Commodore Porter; who, ignorant probably of the very superior force assembled by the Spaniards at the Havana, under Admiral Laborde, threatened to blockade that port, and, by destroying the trade of the island of Cuba, to compel the Spanish Government to come to some understanding with its former Colonies.

The fallacy of these expectations was soon demonstrated, and Porter, unable to keep the sea a moment before Laborde's fleet, which consists of six really fine frigates, and two ships of the line, besides some smaller vessels, was forced to take refuge in Key West, from whence he did not for some time extricate himself.

The attempt upon the Havana was injudicious, as, with so feeble a force, it could hardly, under any circumstances, have led to any decisive result. As