The large guns and war relics were put on board the flotilla, but the other military stores were destroyed. Captain A. Bigelow was left in command of the city with four hundred and twenty men. Perry’s orders against pillage were very stringent. He meant to show that the war was not against peaceful non-belligerents, but against the Mexican official class. Perry highly commended Captain Edson and his body of marines for their share of the work at Tabasco. His approbation of these men, who for nine months had served under his immediate eye, was warm and sincere. They afterwards did good service before the gates and in the city of Mexico. Perry wrote of the marines, “I repeat what I have often said, that this distinguished and veteran corps is one of the most effective and valuable arms of the service.” The capture of Tabasco, whose commercial importance was second to that of Vera Cruz, was the last of the notable naval operations of the war. So far as the navy was concerned, the campaign was over, unless the sailors should turn soldiers altogether, for every one of the Gulf ports was in American hands. Since the fall of Vera Cruz, the navy had captured six cities with their fortresses and ninety-three cannon. This work was all done on shore, off the proper element of a naval force. In addition to these operations, the Commodore demanded and received from Yucatan her neutrality, carried into effect at the ports the regulation of the United States Treasury Department for raising revenue from the Mexicans, and found leisure to erect a spacious and comfortable hospital on the island of Salmadina equipped with all the comforts obtainable. This preparation for the disease certain to come among unacclimated men was most opportune. About this time Perry sent home to the United States in the _Raritan_, in care of Captain Forest, the guns captured at various places. Three of the six at Tabasco were assigned to the Annapolis Naval Academy to be used for drill purposes. This was also in compliment to the first graduates of the institution, several of whom were serving in the Mexican campaign, as well as its first principal Captain Franklin Buchanan. CHAPTER XXV. FIGHTING THE YELLOW FEVER. PEACE. AFTER his exploits at Tuspan, Tabasco and Yucatan, Perry, having captured every port and landing place along the whole eastern coast of Mexico, and established a strict blockade, thereby maintaining intact the base of supplies for the army in the interior, turned his attention to new foes. Bands of guerrillas, the fragments of the armies which Scott had destroyed, were not the only things to be feared. Mosquitoes and winged vermin of many species, malarial, yellow and other fevers—two great hosts—were to be fought night and day without cessation.