learn that General Taylor has declared that he is about to recommence hostilities upon the republic. The moment has arrived, the result is close at hand, of a terrible conflict, which is to decide the future lot of the nation. "The enthusiasm of our army is great; it is determined to fall or triumph, and we trust it will know how to avenge with honour the Mexican blood which flowed at Matamoras and at Monterey. "The whole world is contemplating this struggle; its eyes are fixed upon our republic, whose rights and prerogatives as an independent and sovereign nation have been as audaciously as perfidiously trampled upon by the United States of the north. If the republic rises with the emergency-if by the elastic impulse of all its citizens, it shall chastise its enemies, and if by force of arms it makes its international rights respected, from that day forth the fate of Mexico will be eternally fixed, since it assures its independence, its respectability abroad, and its liberty. "Mexicans! This is not a question of party-it concerns our political existence. Let us, then, assist by every means in our power, in the national defence; let us sacrifice ourselves, if it be necessary; but in succumbing, let our last words be 'Independence and Liberty."" In December, General Taylor received information that the Mexican general, Urrea, was in the neighbourhood of Victoria, with a large force of cavalry. He, therefore, left Monterey on the 15th of December, and proceeded in the direction most favourable for encountering the enemy. Santa Anna was now near Saltillo, and the general soon received further intelligence of a threatened attack upon that place. Fearing for the safety of General Patterson, who was stationed there, Taylor detached General Quitman with a field-battery to join him, while he himself retired towards Monterey. While marching thither, General Wool entered Saltillo with reinforcements, and on receiving intelligence thereof, as well as that the enemy were retiring towards Potosi, General Taylor again marched for Victoria, which he entered on the 30th. Here he received a letter from General Scott, the newly appointed commander of the Army of Occupation, requesting a large detachment of his troops, the object of which demand was to increase the force under Scott, so that it might be able to cooperate with the American gulf squadron, in an attack upon the fortress of San Juan de Ulloa and city of Vera Cruz. It was a source of grief to the American commander to be thus suddenly snatched from the prospect of victory, and compelled to retire from his present position, to a condition of comparative inactivity. The troops called for were the flower of his army, the veterans of all his Mexican victories; and he parted from them with profound sorrow. The following is his address to them at marching from him: "It is with deep sensibility that the commanding general finds himself separated from the troops he so long commanded. To those corps, regular and volunteer, who have shared with him the active services of the field, he feels the attachment due to such associations, while to those who are making their first campaign, he must express his regret that he cannot participate with them in its eventful scenes. To all, both officers and men, he extends his heartfelt wishes for their continued success and happiness, confident that their achievements on another theatre will redound to the credit of their country and its arms." After the departure of these troops, the general again established his head-quarters at Monterey, where he remained until February. He received in that month a considerable number of volunteers, which swelled his disposable force to five thousand four hundred men, with which force he marched from Monterey, determined to fight the enemy on their own ground. Notwithstanding the demonstration of Santa Anna toward Saltillo, his designs seem to have been either of a mixed or hidden character. For a while he seemed disposed to march for Vera Cruz; then he would advance towards General Taylor; and at one time seemed to be proceeding to the city of Mexico, in order to quell an insurrection which had lately broken out there. On the 27th of January, he issued an address to his" companions in arms," which, however, was believed by many to be merely a feint to cover his meditated advance to Vera Cruz. The following are extracts: 66 ! Soldiers the entire world observes us, and will expect our acts to be heroic as they are necessary. Privations of all kinds surround us, in consequence of the neglect shown towards us for more than a month, by those who should provide your pay and provisions. But when has misery debilitated your spirits, or weakened your enthusiasm? The Mexican soldier is well known by his frugality and patience under suffering, never wanting magazines in marches across deserts, and always counting upon the resources of the enemy to provide for his wants. To-day we shall undertake to march over a desert country, without succour or provisions. But be assured, that we shall be immediately provided from those of the enemy, and with them you will be sufficiently reimbursed. My friends, we go to open the campaign. What days of glory await us! What a flattering future for our country! How satisfactory, when we contemplate that we have saved its independence! How the world will admire us! How the nation will bless us! And when in the bosoms of our families we shall relate the risks and fatigues which we have endured, the combats with and triumphs over a daring and presumptuous enemy; and hereafter, when telling our children that we have saved our country a second time, the jubilee will be complete, and the sacrifices will then appear to us as nothing. Soldiers! Hurry forth in the defence of your country. The cause we sustain is a holy one; never have we struggled with more justice, Decause we fight for the honour and religion of our wives and children! What sacrifice, then, can be too great for objects so dear? Let our motto be-CONQUER OR DIE!' Let us swear before the great Eternal, that we will not wait an instant in purging our soil of the stranger, who has dared to profane it with his presence. No treaty, nothing which may not be heroic and proud." The subsequent movements of Santa Anna proved that the above was a transcript of his real intentions. He left San Luis on the 2d of February, at the head of a large army, which was distributed as follows: Artillerists with nineteen guns, heavy calibre,. Eight regiments, (six of the line, two light troops,). Under General Parrode, with three pieces heavy calibre,. Total, 650 6240 3200 The artillery were supplied with six hundred rounds of ammunition. Besides these troops, there were large detachments in the field, under Generals Juvera, Minon, and others. On the 7th, they reached Matehuala, a town between Saltillo and San Luis. They were in the utmost · distress in want of food, water, and clothing. One of the officers says:"No honourable resource remains, except to advance without supplies; to capture them from the immense storehouses of the enemy in Saltillo and Monterey, and to live upon the country. The way to glory and honour is to be preferred to turning our backs upon the enemy. We go to try our fortune, since any thing would be a less evil than to die of hunger and complete inaction, besides being called traitors by those who really are such. If we do march, (without more than twelve days' provision for the troops, and half a month's pay for the officers,) we will live upon the country and the plunder of the enemy, now that they will not furnish us with any supplies." It now became necessary for Santa Anna to make the most vigorous exertions in order to save his army from disbandment. Accordingly he negotiated with certain commercial houses of San Luis for drafts, and a loan to the amount of a hundred and eighty thousand dollars, drawing on Mexico and Vera Cruz, and pledging all his private estate as security. This sum enabled his commissary-general to distribute sufficient food and clothing to the troops to continue them on the march to Monterey. On the 20th of February, General Taylor reached Agua Nueva, a place eighteen miles below Saltillo. He retired, however, at the approach of |