At about noon-the "Virginia" started out, followed by the "Tacony." Every precaution was taken to prevent any communication being had with the shore, an officer, Acting-Ensign Bell, being put on board with a boat's crew as a guard. The pilot, on leaving, was thoroughly searched, even to his boots, to make sure that no papers were concealed about his person. When twenty miles had been made, and Vera Cruz had sunk below the horizon, this officer returned on board the "Tacony," and the two vessels parted company, the man-of-war heading up to the northward, the merchantman steering away for Sisal.
Bad luck seemed to follow the latter and her illustrious passenger. They reached Sisal on the 11th of June, and Santa Ana's presence on board attracted the attention of the authorities of the port, and naturally caused some alarm. His constant passion to provoke disturbances, seize on command, and use it to his profit, were recollections too alarming not to arouse suspicion. These suspicions were fully verified by his despatching a letter by Colonel Hilario Mendez, one of his staff, to General Martin Cepeda Peraza, governor of the state of Yucatan. With this letter was a copy of a revolutionary address to the people of the state, which, on his way to Vera Cruz, he had sent on shore to be circulated there, and to which he now invited the governor to give publicity. Colonel Medina, the captain of the
