Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/590

570 be disregarded in favor of the more imperative demands from the active army. Yet even the latter had frequently to suffer from the same cause, which thus tended to discourage enlistment. Artillerists and medical men were especially difficult to obtain.

A most important feature connected with the reorganization of the military department was the introduction of improved armament from France and Belgium, of which the report for 1851 announced the receipt of over 20,000 muskets alone. Foreign workmen and patent machinery were also brought for local gun factories, with a view to replace the artillery destroyed or carried off during the invasion. The fortresses and military stations, on the other hand, received little attention, mainly owing to the lack of funds, and partly because the late war had tended to diminish their importance, and so they remained for the most part half ruined and dismantled. Among the ideas adopted from abroad was the gymnastic evolution practised in the French army. The navy was in a more deplorable condition even than the fortifications; for in 1849 the republic possessed only one small vessel, a transformed trader; but a portion of the intended