Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1846-06-17

of Vera Cruz TO the city of Mexico pass
es through country ihexpressably pictu-
rescue and beautiful, yet the ignorant, idle,
and degraded population, the total absence
of cultivation and improvement, and ge-
neral appearance OF wildness and desola-
ton, produced with ME feelings partaking
Of gloom and melancholy. Neither in go.
ing or returning, did see one human be-
ing, man, woman, or child, engaged at
work of any sort. The great mass of The
population doze out their lives with no
higher thoughts orpurposes than the beasts
which perish around Them.
To similar result is what our author
tells US Of the mode OF agriculture. The
pillow in universal use is wooden wedge
without particle of iron.
The Army of Mexico has never done
any thing else than TO make revolutions.
There is no single good which it has &C.
compIished. What use has Mexico for a
standing army? No foreign power will
ever invade her. There is no motive, not
even that Of plumber, to do so; for they
are so impoverished that they have no
thing but the wealth of their churches,
and surely no civilized enemy would take
that. They have fears that we will assail
them. | believe that those fears are
groundless, but if they are not, what re-
sIslance could Mexico offer? A feeble
woman and a strong man armed would in
adequately express the inequality Of such
contest. Her impotency and helpless
ness are her best protection.
The army, and more particularly their
cavalry, may do very well TO fight each
other, but in any conflict with our own
or European troops, it would not be bat
tie but a massacre. Frederick the Great
who was the author in a great degtee of
the modern system of tactics, had three
maXms as 10 cavalry. First, that caval-
ry corps should never be charged, but al
ways make the charge. Second, that in
a charge Of cavalry, they were not going
fast enough unless when halted the froth
from the mouth of the horse struck the RI
der in the face; and third, which was ra
Their the summing up of the first two, that
the spur was more important than the
sword. In other words, that the impulse
aud momentum of the horse was # more
consequence than the arms and blows of
the rider. What then must be the muir.
derous inequality between corps of Anne
rcan cavalry and an equal number Of
MeXicaLs2 The American corps, from
the superior size Of their horses, would
cover twice as much ground, and the OBJ
sruction offered by the Mexicans on their
small and scrawny ponies, would scarcely
cause their horses 20 stumble in riding over
them; to say nothing of the inequality of
the men themselves, five to one at least in
individual combat, and more than twice
that in battle. The infantry would be
found even more impOtent The men are
generally Of diminuiye stature. wholly
unaccustomed to labor or exercise Of any
sort; and as a conclusive proof of their
inferiUrity to our own Indians, will men
ton the fact that frequent excursions are
made into the interior by marauding bands
of Comanches, who levy black mail to an
extraordinary extent upon the northern
provinces of Mexico, II is not unusual
for bands of hundred Comanches thus
to penetrate several hundred miles into
the country, and carry off as many horses,
cattle, and captiyes as they choose; there
are not less than five thousand Mexicans
at this moment slaves of the Comanches
and OF all our western tribes the Co
are the most cowardly-the De-
lawares frequently whip them five 10 one.
The soldiers Of the Mexican army are
generally collected by Sending out recruit
ing attachments into the mountains, where
they hunt the Indians in their dens and
caverns, and bring them in chains to the
city; there is scarcely day that droyes
of these miserable and moro than half ma |
ked wretches are not seen thus chained TO |
getber, and marching through the streets
to the barracks, where they ere secured
and then dressed in a uniform made Of IL |
men cloth or serge, and are occasionally |
drilling consists in teaching
them to march in column thro' the streets |
Their military bands are good, and the
men learn to march indiffcrenty we'll
but only udiiferendyweil. They put their
feet down as il feeling for the place, and
do not step with that jaunly, ereci, grace
ful air which is so beautiful in well drilled
troops. As to the wheeling OF well train
ed troops, like the opening and shutting OF
a gate, or the prompt and exact execution
of other evolulions, they know nothing
about them. There is not one in ten Of
these soldiers who have ever seen gun,
nor one in hundred who has ever fired
one before he was brought int the bar
racks. II is in this way that the ranks OF
the army are generally filed up--in parii-
cular emergencies the prisons are thrown
open, which always contain more prison.
ers than the army numbers, and these le-
Ions become soldiers, and some of them OF