Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Saturday 1 May 1847, page 4


AMERICA.

(From the Colonial Gazette, Dec. 21.)

The Royal Mail steam-ship Acadia, Captain Harrison, arrived in the Mersey shortly after nine o'clock on Wednesday morning.

Tampico had been quietly invested by the American squadron, under Commodore Connor, on the 14th ult. The fleet left Anton Lizard on the 12th ult. on the 14th Commodore Perry crossed the bar with the Spitfire, Vixen, Petrel, Boneta, and Reefer, with reinforcements from the Cumberland, Mississippi, Princeton, and St. Mary's. No opposition was offered, and the town surrendered unconditionally. The Mexican force, as we were informed by the West India mail, had retired to San Luis de Potosi. Commodore Connor garrisoned the town with a force of 150 sailors and marines. A small flotilla was placed at the entrance of the harbour, to guard any approach from the sea, and the steam frigate Mississippi was despatched to Brazos and Belize, in order to obtain a force competent to ensure the retention of the capture. The force was supplied with great promptitude, and on the 21st ult. the Mississippi set out for Tampico with a detachment of 50 men, and guns and munitions of war, tendered for the use of the supreme government by the Governor of Louisiana. Further troops would follow. Despatches requiring these reinforcements had been received at Washington from the Commodore of the Gulf squadron.

The intelligence with regard to the war, with this exception, is unimportant, from the army of occupation at Monterey we have no further advices. The main body of the army of the centre would ultimately unite at Monterey with General Taylor. From New Mexico we have no intelligence of the slightest interest. From Chihuahua we learn that all the foreign residents in the city had been driven out by the mob on the fall of Santa Fe becoming known. General Scott, the Commander in Chief of the United States forces, had left New York for the seat of war. His mission is surmised to be to take in charge the conduct of the land operations. An immediate attack upon San Juan de Ulloa was anticipated. All the vessels of war not previously in service were being despatched to the Gulf, and the force of the navy, in point of men, was being increased to the full extent authorised by Congress. The opening of the session of the national Legislature, on the 7th instant, was looked to with anxiety. The elections had been most unfavourable to the Administration in North Carolina,

From the interior of Mexico important, though indistinct, advices had been received; the announcement being made in the New York journals of the 30th ult., by telegraph from Washington, that important despatches had been received from the squadron in the Gulf, that the Mexican Administration was dissolved, and that Almonte was going to England. The authenticity of this communication is doubtful. The New York journals of a previous date publish extended advices from

Mexico, received under date Vera Cruz, Nov. 8. The Mexicans treated the Tobacco affair as a wanton predatory expedition, and taunt the Americans with their failure before Alvarado.

The Mexican loss of life is acknowledged to be 80 citizens. The Captain-General of Vera Cruz received on the 5th a despatch from the Secretary of the United States to the Mexican Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The purport was unknown. The papers complain of the excesses of the American troops at Monterey. A number of officers had been sent for trial by Santa Anna on a charge of cowardice in the defence of that city. Santa Anna's force at San Luis was reported at 18,000 men. The General of the department of San Luis had decreed the expulsion from their limits of all Anglo-Americans.

The elections for the constituent Congress had taken place. Herrera was one of the

elected.

Accounts from California, via Mazatlan, reported that the occupation of the territory by the Americans was not peaceful; that insur-rections had occurred at several points, and that the French consul at the sea-port of Monterey had been arrested for having protested against the American usurpations. An attempt of the boats of the United States sloop-of-war Cyane to seize a Mexican brig at Guaymas had been repelled. The Cyane, it is said, lost twenty men in the affair. These statements we receive with considerable hesitation.

The ranks, of the new volunteer regiments were rapidly filling up. The volunteers were being enlisted, not for twelve months simply,

but for the war.

The second failure of Commodore Connor

against Alvarado has been partially compensated by the capture of Tabasco by Commodore Perry. The squadron consisted of the Mississippi, Commodore Perry ; the Vixen, Commodore Sands; Bonita, Lieut.-Commander Benham ; Reefer, Lieut. Sterrett ; Nonita, Lieut. Hazard ; the revenue steamer M'Lnne, Captain Howard ; the revenue cutter Forward, Captain Nones (all small craft), two hundred

seamen and marines from the Rapidan and the

Cumberland, under the command of Captain Forrest, Lieuts. Cost, Winslow, Walsh, Hunt, Captain Edson, and Lieut. Adams, of marines. They left Anton Lizards October 16, and arrived at Frontera the 23rd, and captured two steamers and several small schooners on the 24th and 25th they ascended the river seventytwo miles to Tobasco, towed by the Petrel and the Vixen. They passed the Devil's Turn at 2 p.m., landed and spiked four 25-pounders. They arrived off Tobasco at 6 p.m., and anchored in line ahead, distant 150 yards from the shore. The city was summoned to surrender. The Governor refused, when three shots were fired from the Vixen over the buildings. On the 26th the squadron was fired on, and the ships returned the fire, sparing the hospitals and the consular houses, as indicated by their flags. In three quarters of an hour the city was almost destroyed, and, of course, the loss of life was considerable, although the commodore seemed to have shown every disposition to avoid the shedding of blood. The prizes were two steamers, four schooners, and two brigs. There were burnt one sloop, a schooner, a brig, and a row-boat. A Mexican sloop was given up to the captain, in consequence of his good conduct while his vessel was attacked after capture.

The Americans had a lieutenant and a seaman killed, two seamen drowned, and two wounded.

A frightful steam-boat disaster had taken place on the coast near Boston, the steamer Atlantic having struck at midnight, on the 26th, on a reef near Flinder's Island. The boiler, in the first instance, burst. Soon after the steamer left Boston the storm then arose

which compelled the steam-ship Great Western to anchor off Staten Island, and at four o'clock on the following morning the Atlantic struck and broke in two. Numbers were crushed in the cabins amidst the falling timbers, 45 were drowned and killed, and about 30 escaped. The sole relic of the ill-fated vessel on the following day was one upright beam, upon which hung a bell tolled by the sea. An English family named Walton were among the lost.