Santa Anna has, at this moment, a great advantage; he is posted at San Luis with an army of twenty-five or thirty thousand men. Thus concentrated at one point, he will be enabled to strike, with his whole force, or the greater part of it, at Tampico, Saltillo, or Victoria, while our forces, are necessarily divided into comparatively small bodies. He can act with perfect secrecy, in a friendly country, and with a perfect knowledge of all our movements, while we are ignorant of his. If he should attack us with his whole force at any one point, he may roll back the tide of war, and drive us beyond the Rio Grande. Under present circumstances, instead of weakening our lines, prudence requires that we should strengthen them. Looking to the hazzards of war, and the _dangers_ following on conquests, the idea has suggested itself, of inviting the States of the lower Rio Grande to establish a separate confederacy, under our protection; and if Mexico persists in refusing to treat, then, to enter into a treaty of peace, alliance, and limits with this new confederacy, thus indemnifying ourselves for Mexican spoliations, by taking California and New Mexico, with the right of way to Mazatlan, and leaving Mexico to repent of her folly at leisure. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LETTER 9. _Present advantageous position of our army—The necessity for greater efforts—Our present force insufficient to march from Vera Cruz to Mexico._ FEBRUARY 13TH, 1847. SIR: The last intelligence from the seat of war has given much relief to those who were beginning to feel uneasy about the situation of our troops. Generals Taylor and Patterson have taken Victoria or New Santander, and the line is therefore established from Saltillo to Tampico. The line of the Sierra Madre has already been described; it is certainly of a very peculiar character; it now presents only three points of attack, and that of Saltillo, the only one practicable for wheel carriages, and consequently, for the advance of an army with its parks of artillery. It is from this quarter, alone, that General Taylor need fear the march of Santa Anna; but he will have to cross at least three hundred miles of arid plains; and it is said, that the water tanks have been destroyed by his order, which looks as if he intended to prevent the march of General Taylor on San Luis, rather than undertake the march to Saltillo. It appears, that he has a large force at Tula, about equi-distant from Saltillo and Victoria.