and they with an army twice our size at least, sit quietly down, and make not the least resistance, not the least effort to drive the invaders olf. There is no parallel to it." Ciipt. Henry', the writer of this letter, seems not to have been aware that he was in the United States, and that the people of the soil were his fellow-citizens.
Another officer writes, 21st April, " Our flag waves over the waters of the Rio Grande, and we have a battery of eighteenpoun.ders that can spot anything in Metamoras." To understand this last operation, it must be recollected, that the city was on one bank, and the American fort on the other. Captain Henry, of the U. S. Army, in his "Campaign Sketches of the War in Mexico," says, that on the evening of the day the army reached the river opposite to Metamoras, " I walked down to the bank, and found it lined with citizens (on the other side), attracted, no doubt, by the arrival of so many strangers. Strolling along, and seeing some genteel-looking young ladies upon the bank, I took off my hat, and saluted them with ' Buena Senoritas.' The river at this point was so narrow, that I could have throicn a stone across it."—p. C8.
12* 13S REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN WAR.
Mexicans, although they saw their country invaded, and a battery planted within good range for demohshing the principal city in that part of their Republic, had not fired a musket, yet General Taylor chooses to style them " the enemy,"" and asserts that they retain a hostile attitude.
Tive days after our arms had thus threatened and in- sulted Metamoras, General Ampudia reached the city with reinforcements, and immediately addressed a letter to the American General, complaining that his advance to the Rio Grande had " not only insulted but exasperated the Mexican nation," and requiring him within twenty- four hours to remove his camp, and retire beyond the Nueces ; adding, " If you insist on remaining upon the soil of the department of Taraauhpas,