Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/672

652 called the last bulwark of wickedness, would be a feeble one. Finally, after overcoming many obstacles, the dictator and his army appeared before Acapulco on the 20th of April, with about 7,000 men, and called upon the commandant, Comonfort, to surrender the fortress, to which a flat refusal was returned, even though the request was accompanied, it is said, with pecuniary considerations. After a fruitless effort to take the fort, Santa Anna beat a retreat. This was a difficult operation, the liberals having reënforced the Peregrino hill, on the line of his march. His rear was constantly harassed by Moreno, into whose hands fell the sick and wounded. The battle of Peregrino was a notable one, and though Santa Anna escaped utter destruction, his loss of men and supplies was quite large. The remnants of his force had to make their way through burnt fields, annoyed from all sides, till completely battered and exhausted they reached Chilpancingo early in May. After placing detachments in various towns, Santa Anna returned to Mexico. When the news reached the capital that he had been neither slain nor taken prisoner, his partisans were greatly rejoiced, and gave him an ovation on his arrival. Their rejoicing was greatly increased by the ratification in Washington of the Gadsden treaty.

A treaty for the cession of territory to the United States, known in Mexico as the sale of the Mesilla valley, and including the territory of Arizona, and for the grant to the American government of certain transit privileges, was concluded on the 30th of December, 1853, the negotiators being, on the part of