But did not Cortez take the city of Mexico with only nine hundred men? Not exactly; Cortez had, as his allies, two hundred thousand Indian warriors, twenty thousand of whom were Tlascalans, the bravest of that region. The taking the city occupied seventy days, after a terrific slaughter. He divided his army into four divisions, of fifty thousand each, entering the city at different points, and leveling the houses in the way, until the different armies met in the great square. Even if the Mexican armies should avoid pitched battles, they can fortify strong natural positions, and being well provided with artillery, and having good engineers, it would be strange if they did not avail themselves of these advantages. We must expect hard fighting in the mountain passes which abound and also in taking towns entirely constructed of brick or stone, and incombustible. General Whitlock attempted to take the city of Buenos Ayres, which had little to no defence, except the barricades across the streets and the flat roofs of the houses; his army was twelve thousand strong, and was repulsed with great loss. The Texan mode of burrowing through the houses had not then been invented. I do not say, that General Taylor would not be able to reach Mexico, but it would be very hard fighting. Let us now consider what it is to be overcome on the Vera Cruz line of march. _States._ _Chief Cities._ Mexico, 1,500,000 Mexico, 200,000 [!]Michuacan, 450,000 Valladolid, 25,000 [!]Wahaca, 600,000 Wahaca, 40,000 Puebla, 900,000 Puebla, 60,000 Vera Cruz, 200,000 Vera Cruz, 15,000 Chiapa, 100,000 Chiapa, 3,000 Tobasco, 75,000 Tobasco, 5,000 ────── 4,347,000 ! I have endeavored to accommodate the spelling to the pronunciation.