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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
intimated was superstitious .and suspicious as well as cowardly. Near Matamoras (4 miles) whilst the Federalists were encamped, a baker came to the camp with a wheel-barrow of bread for sale. Canalis sus- pected the ];)read was poisoned and made the Baker eat three large loaves of it, before he would allow him to vend it. The baker objected to the quantity; but he was forced to comply, and actually consumed bread enough, even if it were of the best possible quality, to kill a common man. Canalis, even after this, refused to let men purchase the bread, because the thought the poison was of a slow nature; and time would not allow him to make a fair test of it. After the Battle of Parbone we returned to l\Iier with our wounded, and our new allies- The Priest would not allow us to bury our men in the church yard because they were not Roman Catholics- 10 day at l\Iier. From l\Iier we took up the line of march for Comargo-thence to Ranoso-and to Matamoras nothing special occuring on the route- Encamped in 2 or 3 miles of Matamoras and entrenched; sent a banter to Ariste to come out and fight them- Ariste declined the invitation, and commenced fortifying the town we staid there one night & day; on the second night, Canalis became alarmed-said that he was about to be beset by a too superior force, and suddenly stampeded, taking the Monterey road. He retreated against the remonstrances of Zapata, Jourdan and all the men and officers of the army. TraYelled nearly 10 miles that night & camped-the next morning resumed the march and kept up forced marches until we got within 6 miles at a Ranch when we heard that the garrison command by Caniliso were coming out to meet us -We halted, and the Americans threw up a hasty breast- work-expecting a close engagement. The enemy, however, instead of coming to close quarters, opened a Canonade upon us at a long dis- tance, with a hill between us and them, so that whilst they were ac- tually bombarding us, they did not see us, nor we them. This sin- gular warfare continued nearly a whole day- The American Cavalry moved out, and spied the locality & number of the enemy. They then moved their artillery upon the eminence GYer which the enemy was firing, and having them in full view opened upon them with 4 peices which had been captured from Parbone. The shot was effective; and disconcerted the enemy; but it was now too late in the evening to fight; and the contest ceasing for the present, the enemy, that night moved off for ~Ionterey. Tffe Federalist pursued-reached monterey and took possession of the old unfinished Church in the suburbs of the City, which has been since converted into a fortification by the Mexicans, and from which they fought Genl. Taylor. in 1846. From this point we commenced bombarding the city, with one nine pounder, 2 sixes and one nine inch mortar.- No response was made from the town during that day, except one or two shots from one peice of artillery- The next morning the enemy opened fire upon us with a 7 inch morter, which had been mounted during the night on one of the houses. The first fire, killed one of our horses, and that was all the damage -done us by it 11otwithstanding they continued firing upon us until late in the afternoon. In the after noon, about 4 Oclk, their cavalry came out from the City; and they were soon followed by their infantry- The Americans were anxious to sally from entrench-
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