Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/678

662 Within a short time nearly two hundred of the active rancheros of the district joined his party, and with their aid was constructed an adobe fort on the eastern outskirts of the town, for the security of the stores with which a small force could not well burden itself on a flying trip.

The dismay created at Mexico by the news of his invasion, the precursor perhaps of others, was all the greater as it came upon the royalists at a time when they had succeeded in beating back the revolution with in very narrow limits. Warned by information already from the United States, Apodaca had taken prompt steps to guard the Vera Cruz coast as the most likely to be approached; and now reënforcements were hurried forward to Arredondo, of the Oriente provinces, Colonel Armiñan following with troops collected from the Tampico region, while a frigate and two armed tenders sailed in the middle of May from Vera Cruz, under Brigadier Berenger, to attack Mina's squadron. Aury had departed, leaving at the mouth of the river, manned by a small force, only three transport vessels, one of which had been beached and condemned. The lightest sailed away on beholding the Spanish squadron, and the other, being unable to follow, was abandoned. After a series of lively