inst any odds. The merchants,
however, were as yet shy of trusting their valuable property within
reach of Mexican rapacity, and consequently, the troops were beginning
to find themselves somewhat embarrassed. The commanders quarrelled, and
Vegas himself, being heartily disgusted, forthwith fell back, with
troops and artillery, towards Culiacan, leaving a fourth part of his
force, under charge of Romero--a miscreant, who had the reputation of
assassinating his own colonel, at the storming of Chapultepec, for a
beltfull of doubloons. Being thus left without the means of doing us any
injury, they pursued the same annoying process as their brethren before
them, by robbing their own countrymen, under the odious alcobala.

During all this time we never for a moment ceased keeping up a rigid
discipline, and exercising the utmost vigilance; the severest punishment
was impartially meted to all offenders; and our knowledge of the
topography of the country, for some miles round, being quite equal to
the Mexicans', they had good reason to keep beyond our limits. At rare
intervals, indiscreet persons would try to run the gauntlet into town,
and one dark night, three troopers, not seeing our guard, attempted to
steal in by the beach: one was astounded, on not halting at the hail, at
receiving a bullet through the shoulder, and they then turned bridles,
leaving us a brass-bound hat and lance, as keepsakes. Indeed, once we
came nigh peppering our own patrol; fortunately, but one ball only flew
over Captain Luigi's head. It may have been a peculiarity of some of our
sailor sentinels, that, at night, they immersed themselves breast deep
in little pits, resting their muskets upon mounds of sand in front, at a
dead aim upon whoever advanced along the roads. I do not know if this
kind of tactics be tolerated by Regulation; but Jack, in his ignorance
of minute detail, had to place reliance on his eyes.

Once, after hearing the report of a musket, I inquired of the sentry the
cause. "Sir," said he, "the chap wouldn't stop, so I hailed him in the
very best Spanish, and then fired; there he lies kickin', up the road,
sir!" It turned out to be an innocent stray jackass, a bad linguist, who
could only converse in his mother tongue. However, these little
incidents convinced our neighbors that security did not throw us off our
guard.

We still worked hard at the Garita--deepening the ditch--filling up
embrasures, and raising the walls. It was fa