The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-08 00:00:00

bTairtal

LOND9N, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1847.

The system of military vengeance which has been
from time immemorial the favourite course followel
by the Mexicans in the event of an invasion, is, as we
long ago anticipated, being carried into effect upon
the American forces with the most murderous pre-
cision. Those forces are being cut to pieces by
guerillas, among the central mountains of the repub-
lic, while the garrisons, left behind for the protection
of the strongholds captured on the shores of the At-
lantic, are being decimated by the ravages of epidemic
diseases. Yellow fever and ambuscades are the
means perpetually afforded to the inhabitants of
Mexico for wreaking vengeance upon their unprin-
cipled assailants, and for overwhelming the superior
discipline and more formidable artillery of the
American soldiery. Even supposing that the
capital were actually in the possession of that
most redoubtable warrior WINFIELD SCOTT,
the safety of the country would be very
far from being jeopardised. The miserable
remnant of the United States' army—debilitated bT
indifferent provisions, jaded with toilsome marches,
dispirited by the uncertainty of its position, clothed
in rags and harassed by incessant alarms—would
still remain liable to destruction. They might be as
readily surrounded at Churubusco or Tacubaya as
they have recently been in the neighbourhood of
Ceralvo, the different detachments of the forces under
the supreme direction of the Commander-in-Chief
may be rendered the victims of a well-arranged am-
buscade as certainly as was the scouting party of
Texans dispatched, under the command of Captain
Bacton, to scour the country in the vicinity of
Monterey. According Would to in formation received from
Matamoras, it
seem that that unfortunate
officer, together with
the
body
of men committed to
Mexican guerilloas, surroundedand,
by some three hundred
with the exception of three
soldiers, wh escaped almost miraculous) by
crawling into the chapparaT 'ct
were literally hewn
w
down and trampled under foot, when last seen,
ass
_.a,
Captain —th dangeronsl
unhorsedß—wasAYLOß fighting ough
valiantly with hwinundeadi; and
while, of all his followers, but three remained theirn
saddles. But three—and himself wounded
ts
and
un-
horsed in the midst of three hundred infuriated gue-
rillas ! One glimpse of the numberless horrors
en
sequent upon the atrocious incursions of the United
States into the heart of. unoffending Mexico ! One
glimpse—but it is a glimpse suggestive of a hundred
others as horrible—a glimpse as startling and ferocious
AS any limned by the brush of WOUVERMANS.
While this little scouting party were being doomed
to destruction on the outskirts of Ceralvo, General
TAYLOR remained snugly ensconced behind the
battlements of Monterey. From that city it
would now actually appear that rough and tough
old ZACHARY is determined on no account whatever
liudgei *4 to the distance of a single furlong.
Theik-ssirots6( Monterey are more agreeable in his
estimation thaidoe possible scantiness, in the way of
the commissariat'Supplies, which would in all likeli-
hood result from a precipitous advance towards San
Luis Potosi. Within the battlements of Monterey,
therefore, that division of the invading army is per-
manently established, or, at least, until such time as a
Movement shall be rendered necessary by the course ,