[
167]
communication from
Saltillo.
‘He agrees with
General Taylor on our construction of the terms of the armistice, repeats his opinion that there can be no peace as long as our army occupies the territory of
Mexico, but again says that the
Congress will meet on the first of this month, and will act as best suits the high interests of the country.’
General Worth writes that he had sent a confidential agent to
San Luis, a Mexican, who had returned, having had a private interview with
Santa Anna, in which
Santa Anna told him he would do all in his power to bring about a peace.
This may or may not be his intention.
Many think it is, and that the
Congress will make peace, if it can do so with anything like honor, but I regret to say I am skeptical.
The
Mexicans are so little guided by their true interests, are so vain and arrogant, learn so little from the past, and are so sanguine of the future, that I fear such happy times as peace would bring are yet far off. Still, there is a hope, and so anxious am I for the result, that as long as there is a hope, I will indulge in the delusion that a few weeks may prove vain.
I fear that before we have peace, we must be a little more courteous and civil to
Great Britain, through whose mediation I look for it; and we must be less exacting in our demands upon
Mexico, which will hardly be brought, by anything we have yet done, to despoil herself of nearly one-third of her vast domain.
Since writing my last letter I have been made happy by the receipt of your letters from the 1st to the 7th of November, by which time my long letter giving an account of the battle had reached you. I feel very much complimented by your kind notice of my narrative; you would make some allowances, if you only knew how I was situated when I wrote it. It was at
General Worth's table, where there must have been some eight or ten officers talking, and others constantly coming in and going out, and I was so often interrupted, I had to sit up till two o'clock to finish it. The sketch was most miserable, but I knew it was better than nothing, to illustrate the various positions; and without something, you could hardly get a clear idea of the affair.
At the time, too, I had not had an opportunity of conversing fully with officers engaged on
General Taylor's side of the town, and I may have been led into errors, which the official reports will correct.
The correspondent of the ‘Spirit of the Times,’ G. de L., is
 |
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Sketch of the seat of the War in Mexico showing the line proposed to be occupied by the American forces under General Taylor (Fac-Simile of the original.
See page 168） |
