several months. The Raritan had more than 200 cases. Nearly all on the Potomac suffered. The Falmouth had to go as far north as Boston to throw it off. Swampy shores and kelp rotting under the torrid sun produced myriads of poisonous as well as otherwise annoying insects. During a brief stay in the river off Tampico nearly all the officers and men contracted ague, and the yellow fever scourged a number of the vessels. More than two thirds of those on the Saratoga had the latter disease. In August, 1847, the Mississippi left her station with some 200 men suffering from it.[1]
Being strangers and enemies, the Americans labored under peculiar disadvantages. The people gladly assisted blockade runners in every possible way. Spanish captains in particular, having friends on shore and pilots thoroughly familiar with the coast, could not be prevented from reaching harbor at night or in thick weather by way of the shoals. Sometimes it looked, for one or another of these many reasons, as if our officers were careless or incompetent. Army observers, not well informed regarding the conditions, felt disposed now and then to pronounce the blockade a humbug, and naturally some foreigners did so. This opinion had neither truth nor probability in its favor. But naturally, in view of all the circumstances, it proved more satisfactory to occupy the ports, and open them to commerce on the basis of a reasonable contributory tariff.[2]
Besides cruising to watch for privateers and hovering off the chief harbors to maintain a blockade, our fleet was expected to share in the general offensive. . For one thing Bancroft ordered Conner to seize all the Mexican war vessels that he could reach. But here a singular difficulty arose: none of that sort existed. The navy of Mexico, aside from small craft in the Pacific, included nine vessels amounting to about 38200 tons. The most important were the steamers Guadalupe and Moctezuma, built in England, which made up nearly two thirds of this meagre total; but as these had never been paid for, they were easily transferred to a British firm, and in con-sequence of a calm succeeded in escaping to Havana. The rest of the vessels — a small brig, which changed its name too often to have one, and six even smaller craft — took refuge early in the Alvarado River. The commander sank three of
