CHAPTER XVI.
THE GULF SQUADRON.
Expedition against Tuspan — Capture of the Town — The Carmelita — Recapture of Tabasco — Repeated Skirmishes with the Enemy—Affair at Timulte — Abandonment of the City — Difficulties in Yucatan.
After his return from Alvarado, Commodore Perry did not allow the vessels belonging to the Gulf Squadron to remain for a long time rolling lazily at anchor in the roadstead of Vera Cruz,—swinging slowly with the ebb and flow of the tide, or tossing uneasily when the breath of the fitful norther swept over the foaming waters. Immediate preparations were made for an expedition against Tuspan, and as soon as every thing could be got in readiness, he left Vera Cruz with the steamers Mississippi, Spitfire, Vixen, and Scourge; the frigate Raritan; sloops of war John Adams, Albany, Germantown, and Decatur; bomb-vessels Vesuvius, Ætna, and Hecla; and the schooners, or gunboats, Bonita, Petrel, and Reefer. Nearly 500 men belonging to the Ohio and Potomac, both of which remained off Vera Cruz, were distributed among the different vessels.
The steamers were obliged to wait, for some days, at the island of Lobos, for the arrival of the sailing vessels; and a brief delay afterwards took place, in consequence of the dispersion of the squadron by a norther. But all was ready for the landing, on the morning of
