CHAPTER X. 

 THE ARMY AND NAVY OF MEXICO. 



THE MILITARY IN MEXICO BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION 



CONFIRMATION OF ARMY ITS POLITICAL USE. CHARACTER OF 



MEXICAN SOLDIERS RECRUITING TACTICS OFFICERS. DRA- 

 MATIC CHARACTER OF ARMY RECRIMINATIONS. CONDITION OF 



THE ARMY AT THE PEACE. ARMY ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER 



MILITARY COLONIES. CHARACTER OF THE TRIBES. FORTRESSES 



PEROTE ACAPULCO SAN JUAN DE ULUA. REORGANIZATION 



OF THE ARMY TABULAR VIEW OF MEN AND MATERIEL. NAVY 



EXTENT OF COAST ON BOTH SEAS. NAVAL ESTABLISHMENT VES- 

 SELS AND OFFICERS. EXPENSES OF WAR AND NAVY. 



We have already alluded, in the historical portion of this work to 

 some of the fostering sources of the Mexican army and to the evil 

 results its importance has produced in the country. The colonial 

 forces designed for the maintenance of order and due subjection in 

 New Spain, were chiefly sent from the old world until the wars in 

 Europe required the mother country to hoard its military resources. 

 These foreign stipendiaries for a long time sufficed to secure the 

 loyalty of the emigrants ; but as the country grew in importance and 

 numbers, and as the Indians revolted against their task-masters, it 

 became necessary from time to time to call out reinforcements from 

 the colonists ; and when foreign invasion was dreaded, these levies, 

 as we have seen, were largely augmented from all parts of the 

 viceroyalty. 



The idea of military service was, accordingly, not altogether un- 

 familiar to the Mexican mind when the first insurrectionary move- 

 ments occurred under the lead of Hidalgo ; but when the violent 

 outbreak threatened to degenerate into a war of castes, and to array 

 the Indians against all in whose veins circulated Castilian blood, it 

 became the duty of the settlers to cultivate that spirit and discipline 

 which would, at least, preserve them from utter destruction. The 

 succeeding war of independence converted the whole country for 

 eleven years into a camp, and when the strife terminated in success, 

 it was found that a people, whose natural temperament addicted 

 them to military spectacles, had become habituated and enured to a 

 military career. 



When the war was over and the power of Spain effectually 

 broken, the contest was transferred from a foreign enemy to domes- 



