In answer to the proposition to negotiate which came through Trist, the American commissioner, Santa Anna contrived to intimate that, if he were paid ten thousand dollars down and one million on the conclusion of peace, negotiations should begin at once. After consulting with several of his officers, in a conference held late in July or early in August, Scott paid the ten thousand dollars.[129] Still no step was taken by the Mexicans toward negotiation until they were beaten in the engagements at Contreras, August 19th and 20th, and Churubusco, August 20, 1847. Then Scott himself proposed an armistice, which was accepted August 24th. Commissioners were appointed to meet Trist, and the effort to conclude a treaty began. Whether it could have been accomplished at that stage of the “conquering” on the basis of his instructions is uncertain; but Trist’s wavering attitude undoubtedly served to make the possibility much less. The Mexican commissioners still refused to come to terms, and submitted counter-propositions which were in conflict with those instructions, but which Trist referred to the authorities at Washington.[130] As soon as unofficial news of what Trist had done was received there, President Polk, without waiting to hear from him directly, ordered his recall.[131] In the mean time the armistice had been terminated and the advance of the United States troops renewed. The victories of Molino del Rey, September 8th, and Chapultepec, September 13th, opened the way to the city of Mexico, which was occupied on September 14th.[132] Santa Anna abdicated, and on November 22d the new government announced to Trist that it had appointed commissioners to negotiate. Trist had already received the letter recalling him; but, in spite of this fact, he listened to the suggestion of the Mexicans that they were not officially notified of his recall, and were anxious to negotiate on the terms of his original instructions. The negotiations terminated with the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, signed February 2, 1848. The boundary agreed upon was to follow the Rio Grande from its mouth to the line of New Mexico; that line westward and northward to the first branch of the Gila it should cross; that branch and the Gila to the Colorado; and the line between Upper and Lower California thence to the Pacific.[133] For the territory thus ceded by Mexico the United States was to satisfy the claims of its citizens on the Mexican government, and to pay in addition thereto fifteen million dollars. In spite of the fact that Trist’s authority had been withdrawn before the final negotiations, President Polk submitted the treaty to the Senate, and after some opposition and suspense it was ratified, March 10, 1848, by a vote of 38 to 14. XIII THE BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA (1847)