Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 2.djvu/53

Rh rode him, and sometimes they carried him. Planted in the Mexican style just forward of the creature's tail, they felt that at last they were riding the quarter-deck, and commanding a snug vessel of their own. Above all they enjoyed "mooring ship." This congenial manoeuvre was achieved by taking aboard for "anchor" a heavy block of wood, previously attached to the donkey's neck with a long rope, then racing at full speed, heaving the "anchor," paying out the cable, and bringing up in a heap on the sand — the donkey on top, very likely.

Not less cheering and a little more military was the news, which arrived by the fifteenth of March, that "Old Wooden-leg's" army had been "licked up like salt" at Buena Vista. And still another comfort was to gaze from a safely remote hill at Vera Cruz, which looked — the soldiers agreed — so oriental, with airy palm trees visible over the white wall, hundreds of buzzards floating in wide circles far above, the dark bulwarks of Ulúa set in waves of purple and gold on the left, a forest of American spars and masts on the right, piercing the misty splendor of the yellow beach, the bright sails of fishing boats in the middle distance, and the vast, blue, cool Gulf beyond it all. How the panting soldiers gloated on the prospect of taking possession!

And on March 29 they did so. The day was enchantingly summerlike; a delightful southeast breeze came over the water; and the domes of Vera Cruz were gilded with splendid sunshine. In a green meadow, shaded with cocoanut palms, a little way south of the town, Worth's brigade was drawn up in a. dingy line, and a dingy line of volunteers, about seventy yards distant, faced it. At one end of the intervening space, near the city wall, stood sailors and marines. 'The American dragoons and a battery were opposite them, and a white flag waved at the centre. A little before noon the Mexican troops, in their best uniforms of blue, white and red, marched out of the gate, formed by company front with a band at the head of each regiment, advanced to the flag, and stacked arms. A few slammed or even broke their muskets; many kissed their hands to the city; and a standard bearer, who had removed his flag from the staff and secreted it in his bosom, wept for joy when permitted to keep it. But most of the men seemed in