Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/76

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56
FRENCH OCCUPATION.

tions of it had been arriving from time to time, and on the 21st of September the new commander landed in Vera Cruz, where, owing to the bad condition of the roads, he had to tarry till the 12th of October, seeing the havoc caused in his army by the black-vomit.[1]

Some days before the coming of the third expedition Mexico and the liberal party sustained a heavy loss in the death of Ignacio Zaragoza, the hero "of the Cinco de Mayo, which took place at Puebla on the 8th of September, caused by typhoid fever. The nation had centred its hopes in him; and he has since been recognized as a true type of republicanism and patriotism, united to a sterling character.[2] The government paid his remains the highest honors, and they were conveyed to their last resting-place attended by a large concourse of all classes.[3]

Forey reached Orizaba on the 24th of October, and on the 10th of the following month Lorencez, who had been permitted at his own request to leave the country, started on his return to France. Forey's first proclamation, dated at Vera Cruz September 20th,[4] but made public a few days later, was a repetition in different words of the sentiments expressed in former documents of the French plenipotentiaries.

munications being interrupted, he could not get to Lorencez' quarters, but advised the latter, by a letter in cipher, taken by an Indian, of the near arrival of reënforcemnts with Forey, and of the emperor's order for a march straight on to Mexico. On his return to France he described matters in Mexico as being in a bad way, and the condition of the French force as deplorable. Niox, Exped. du Méx., 196-7. The French expedition was reënforced in Feb. 1863 with 400 or 500 negroes from the Soudan, furnished by the khedive of Egypt, and secretly embarked on the 8th and 9th of January. They were intended for special service on the coast.

  1. The fever season had passed, but the massing of a large force in the city revived the malady, filling the hospitals with sick French.
  2. Marquez de Leon says that he loved his country, was greatly moved by the sufferings of the soldiers, and detested immorality in every form. Mem. Post., MS., 216.
  3. The national congress in after years erected a monument to his memory, the corner-stone of which was laid by Juarez, Sept. 17, 1869. Baz, Vida de Juarez, 242; Rivera, Gob. de Mex., ii. 633; Diario Debates, 10th Cong., ii. 751; Diario Ofic., Sept. 29, 1869; La Vozde Méj., Oct. 7, 1862; Zamacois, Hist. Méj., xvi. 274-5.
  4. Niox, Exped. da Mex., 218-19.