Los Gringos. H. A. Wise

guns, we unconsciously raised the most infernal din imaginable. Drums rattled incessantly, dirty soldiers formed in companies; the Governor and suite attended by a guard of cavalry galloped up and down the beach. Consuls run up their national flags, women and children ran up the hills; all evidently in great consternation at the anticipation of a hostile invasion. On comprehending the true state of the case, we amused ourselves out of musket shot, by making feints to land, and by this method we kept three or four hundred filthy villains in a violent state of fatigue and perspiration, running and scampering from point to point to oppose us. No sooner did they get comfortably posted, and weapons in readiness on the cliffs, than in we would dash for the beach. At last the whole garrison turned out, and getting a field piece under way, manned by three jackasses, rather than give them the laugh against us, we thought advisable to edge out of range, and thus when they had cleverly pulled the piece into a commanding position, they could only greet us with a volley of execrations instead of grape shot. However, we completed our work by taking the requisite bearings and planting a buoy, which was cut adrift the same night for a large reward, and carried about the town in great triumph and procession, and generally believed to be a Yankee bomb. Indeed, these Mazatlanese were extremely wroth and patriotic during the blockade, and it was only a week preceding our advent, that they had illuminated the town in honor of Santa Anna's victory at Buena Vista. The fact was, the Mexican general's dispatch was not altogether so clear as the circumstances of the case demanded, and it admitted of a variety of constructions.

      Still, after escaping the bolts of Mars, we came near being sacrificed to the cestus of Venus, for, on pulling towards a rocky ledge, we discovered two sunny-faced maidens, one attired in a red camisetta, and the other waiving a manta, in a most enticing and beguiling manner. Intercourse with fashionable society impelled me, from politeness, to regard them through a glass, and a capital spy-glass it proved to be, for I was able to discern thirty or forty of their admirers temporarily ensconced behind the rocks, and each, too, adorned with a musket. We halted, made a low obeisance, and retreated rapidly on board, leaving them the opportunity of forwarding a despatch by express, to head-quarters, narrating how los Yankis eran repulsados en varios puntos—how the Yankees were put to flight.

      On the following morning was captured the first prize—a miserable little schooner from San Blas, laden with plank and plaintains, rejoicing in the classic appellation of Diana, and having given the boats a smart pull, she was christened the chased Diana. The Patron was Italian, who wept like a pump—talked of his utter ruin, and starving bambinos to such an extent, that after taking and paying liberally for his fruit and lumber, he was permitted to depart; he afterwards proved to be an arrant rogue, and turned an honest penny while the war lasted, by smuggling powder to the Mexicans. He was too wily to be caught the second time.

      At night there were always signal fires burning on the hill tops around the town, as a warning to vessels approaching the coast; but with all their vigilance and caution, our boats after being out all night, generally returned with some indifferent prizes—at best it was but pin-hook business, for we cared not to make war upon the poor, causing us constant annoyance, and after all the trouble the little prizes were released with lightened cargoes, and heavier pockets of the owners, for which no doubt, the scamps would have been pleased to be captured daily.

      In a few days our consort received orders to blockade Guaymas, a port of some commercial importance, nearly at the head of the gulf of California, and she accordingly sailed, leaving a small prize tender, a schooner of about forty tons, to be "turned over," in a professional sense, to the flag-ship—there being no more enterprising person than myself who cared to assume so imposing a command, I was at once installed in the skipper ship and was immediately paddled on board.