Tampico was seen to be a place of military importance, and troops were necessary to hold it, yet there was not then, an American soldier in this part of Mexico. All were in the north with General Taylor. So important did Conner feel this to be that, within a half hour after entering the town, he dispatched Perry to Matamoros for troops. The ever ready Commodore in his ever ready steamer, _Mississippi_, left at once for the north. At the mouth of the Brazos on the Texan coast, Perry informed General Patterson of the fall of Tampico, and notified him that a re-inforcement would be needed from the troops at Point Isabel. He then proceeded, of his own accord and most judiciously, as Conner wrote, to New Orleans, anchoring the _Mississippi_ off the southwest pass of the river from which the steamer took her name, and in which, sixteen years later, she was to end her life. Perry resolved to go up to New Orleans to stir up the authorities to greater energy and dispatch. He succeeded in obtaining fifty soldiers, some provisions, and from the governor of Louisiana, a fully equipped field train of six six-pounders and two howitzers, with two hundred rounds of shot and shell to each gun. This battery belonged to the State. He also received a large supply of entrenching tools and wheel-barrows. All these were secured in one day, and, arriving back at Tampico after a week’s absence, November 21, he delighted and surprised the naval officers by what was considered, for the times, a great feat of transportation. Other steamers and military, arrived November 30, so that Tampico soon had a garrison of eight hundred men. Conner remained until December 13, organizing a government for the city, while Perry returned at once to Anton Lizardo. Though life on shipboard was made more tolerable by these little excitements, it was dull enough. Fresh food supplies were low. The coming event of scurvy was beginning to cast shadows before in symptoms that betokened a near visitation. Perry, with his rooted anti-scorbutic principles, selected as the next point of attack a place that could supply the necessary luxuries of fresh beef and vegetables. Such a place was Laguna del Carmen, near Yucatan, at the extreme southeast of Mexico. It was in a healthy and well watered country rich in forests of logwood. Receiving permission of Commodore Conner, he made his preparations. The ever trusty _Mississippi_, towing the _Vixen_ and two schooners the _Bonita_ and _Petrel_, moved out from the anchorage, like a hen with a brood of chickens, December 17, arriving off the bar on the 20th. Perry dashed in at once, and the place was easily taken.