Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/235

Rh appears to have been smaller than at the time of the sack of Vera Cruz by buccaneers in 1683, consisting of only 120 artillerymen, 150 troops drawn from the naval battalion of the city, the latter being relieved every month, and 30 sailors. A band of convicts was also stationed there and employed on the works. At this time there were quartered in the city a naval battalion of 600 men, an infantry regiment 1,000 strong, 300 dragoons, and 30 artillerymen. A militia regiment with ten companies, two of them being composed of mulattoes and two of negroes, added 1,000 additional troops to the defensive force, and the firing of a cannon would at any time summon 700 or 800 lancers from the adjacent towns and haciendas. In 1741 a plan was drawn up by the engineer, Felix Próspero, for constructing a wall around the city, and the work was completed five years later. The wall was built of hewn stone brought from Campeche; it was six feet high, and was surmounted by a strong double stockade of the same height. It contained seven gates, one of them being for the accommodation of shipping and fishermen, and one for the special use of the viceroys. On the inner side was a banquette for infantry; on a tongue of land at the extreme north was afterward constructed the bastion of La Concepcion mounted with sixteen heavy guns, and commanding the north channel with the adjacent coast; on the extreme south was the bastion of Santiago, mounting twenty-six guns, and containing the arsenal and naval stores. Between these two bastions, and facing the land side, smaller ones protecting the main avenues of approach were erected at intervals.