The Commodore now made preparations to return, and ordered the prizes to be got together. While this was going on, even though the white flag was conspicuously waving above the town, a party of eighty Mexicans attacked Lieutenant W. A. Parker and his party of eighteen men. Seeing this, Perry sent forward Lieutenant C. W. Morris, son of Commodore C. G. Morris, with orders and re-inforcement. The young officer passed the gauntlet of the heavy fire which now opened along the banks. A musket ball struck him in the neck inflicting a mortal wound, but he stood up in the boat and cheered his men most gallantly as they bent to their oars, until he fell back in the arms of midshipman Cheever who was with him. The loss of this accomplished young officer and the treachery of the Mexicans made forbearance no longer a virtue. Perry at once ordered the guns of the fleet to open on the city and sweep the streets as a punishment to treachery. He spared as far as possible the houses of the consuls and those of peaceful citizens. The _Vixen_, _Bonita_, _Nonita_ and _Forward_ kept up the cannonade for half an hour, by which some of the houses were demolished. Having no force to hold the place, no field artillery, and a limited supply of muskets and equipments, Perry, after reducing the town, and neighborhood to silence, ordered the flotilla and prizes to move down the river. Having the current with them, they reached Frontera at midnight. One of the prizes, the _Alvarado_, having grounded on a shoal at the Devil’s Turn, was blown up and left. Lieutenant Walsh and his command had kept all quiet at Frontera. The _McLane_, with her usual luck, having struck on the bar, could not get up to take part in front of the city. The Tabasco affair, notwithstanding that the city was not occupied, infused new spirit into the navy and was the stimulus to fresh exploits. The name of Perry again became the rallying cry. The moral influence on the whole squadron of the capture of Tabasco was good, and all were inspirited for fresh enterprises. Even if no other effect had been produced, the expedition broke the monotony of blockade duty and made life more endurable. Still the men thirsted for more glory, and yearned to satisfy the home press and people who were so eager for a “big butcher’s bill.” The squadron returned to Anton Lizardo, where, on the 1st, Lieutenant Morris died on board the _Cumberland_. With the honors of war he was buried on Salmadina Island, where already a cemetery had begun. The prize _Petrita_ distinguished herself by capturing an American vessel violating the blockade at Alvarado. One of the steamers captured at Tabasco was formerly a fast river boat plying between Richmond and Norfolk, well named the _Champion_. Under Lieutenant Lockwood, she became a most valuable dispatch boat and of great use to the squadron.