202 Obituary Notice of 



could no more brook than those who have trodden before him 

 the same crooked path, destined, like himself, to perform 

 great works with little means, but that the Government was 

 incapable of appreciating the rich store-houses it resolved 

 to lay waste, and he consequently withdrew from the field of 

 research in Africa. 



To Mexico Mr Ruxton now bent his course, where he was 

 not only a silent observer of the sanguinary assault and cap- 

 ture of Monterey by General Taylor, but of the proceedings 

 of the corps called Texan Rangers, a body of men formed 

 out of the wildest and most dissolute class in the State of 

 Texas. Civilised society has scarcely offered a parallel to 

 the excesses committed by the Texan Rangers, except per- 

 haps in those freebooting incursions notorious as the Santa 

 Fe expeditions. Mr Ruxton left this scene of horror for 

 Saltillo, now the headquarters of the American army, and 

 upon which Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was advancing with 

 a large force. The trial of strength between the two armies, 

 being, in round numbers, 4000 Americans against 18,000 

 Mexicans, was called the Battle of Buena Vista. Of this 

 conflict Mr Ruxton thus expresses himself, " As at Monterey, 

 at Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma, Taylor proved himself 

 to be a brave soldier but no general ; and although it is cer- 

 tain that the gallant little American army did all men could 

 do in the way of fighting, yet their victory must be attributed 

 more to the downright cowardice and incapacity of Santa 

 Anna and his officers, than to the superior skill of their own 

 general, or even their own undeniable and obstinate courage 

 and endurance. Of the Mexican troops, it is almost unneces- 

 sary to speak. The Mexican soldier does not possess, in 

 any degree, a single spark of what we understand by the 

 word courage ; but, like all uncivilised men, has that indiffer- 

 ence to the fear of death, which would enable him to face perils 

 of any kind, if led by an officer in whom he places the slightest 

 confidence. The extraordinary successes of the Americans, 

 during the present war, have resulted entirely from their su- 

 periority in courage, and in this alone ; for there has scarcely 

 been one action fought from the Palo Alto to the capture of 

 the city of Mexico, in which the American generals have not 



