Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 2.djvu/230

212 importation of liquor by the Rio Grande; and as the army was then moving on, Matamoros became comparatively quiet.

Later commanders undertook with considerable success to keep it so; but even in January, 1847, robbery and violence were not unknown there, and the non-commissioned officers as well as the soldiers were forbidden to leave their quarters with arms unless on duty. Discharged volunteers on their way down the river did great harm, and Taylor wrote in June, 1847, "There is scarcely a form of crime that has not been reported to me as committed by them.". Above Matamoros determined efforts were made with partial success to keep liquor from the troops, and the conditions were better. Here and there Americans would "muster in" some fruit or fowls. "Soldiers who have to fight their enemy in the enemy's country will never go hungry as long as there are any chickens about," wrote one of them; and in fact, said an officer, it was a patriotic duty for Uncle Sam's men to keep their souls and their bodies together. But the rule in such cases was to compensate the owners, and probably no serious resentment lingered.

During the battles of Monterey there was enough shooting to satisfy any reasonable person, and the quiet beauty of the scene should soon have banished thoughts of carnage. The tranquil mountains that stood about the town on three sides, receding as the clouds enveloped them in shadow or approaching as the splendor of the sun brightened every point, the statuesque aguacates clothed in foliage like dark green velvet, the fan-like palmettoes, the feathery date palms, the delicious oranges and pomegranates, the murmuring streams, and the lilies that brightened many a pool invited to repose; vet no sooner was battle over than murder began.

The chief criminals were the Texans, who felt that barbarities committed by the Mexican on their soil during the revolution warranted the cruelest retaliation. At Matamoros they had been the fiercest of the volunteers, and now — stationed for a while at the town — they found a still better opportunity. Other volunteers aided them. To say nothing of robberies