To accomplish so difficult a task her cunning and unscrupulous politicians veered and turned, put out statements, and organized revolutions according to the exigencies of the moment. Her two chief cities, Mérida and Campeche, now joined hands and now seemed or were antagonistic. Local rivalries complicated the situation further; and on our side, owing to the distance between Washington and the Home Squadron, there could not be perfect cöoperation. The blockade was therefore imposed and lifted, imposed and lifted by turns. At length, in May, 1847, Perry took possession of Laguna and El Carmen Island, appointed a naval officer as governor, and authorized commerce under the contributory tariff; but at the same time our efforts to prevent all contraband trade, both there and by Tabasco River, continued.[30.23] In June Perry decided to attack San Juan Bautista again. On the thirteenth he reached the bar at Frontera in the _Mississippi_, and the next day he proceeded up the river, with a flotilla of one brig, one schooner, four small steamers, three bomb-vessels and a fleet of rowboats. After easily silencing the fire of two breastworks on the way, he found obstructions in the river opposite a third, and fearing the steamers might not be able to pass them without delay, landed quickly with ten guns and more than 1100 men, and under an almost insupportable heat routed a hostile party. The steamers, however, passed on, driving the enemy from the breastwork, and by the sixteenth San Juan Bautista once more became ours. The fortifications were destroyed, and the guns put aboard.[30.24] [OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST] Perry decided to hold the place, and on retiring left there nearly two hundred men besides four small vessels and their complements. But this proved another mistake. The Mexicans were driven from the vicinity, but when our force went back to the town, they immediately returned to blockade it; and on July 22, after the climate had laid low more than a third of the Americans, our garrison abandoned the place. From this time on, Perry found occupation enough in watching Tuxpán River, protecting against Mexican irregulars the ports where American customhouses existed, and patrolling the coast.[30.24] [Illustration: A PART OF TABASCO RIVER From Devil's Bend to S. Juan Bautista Showing the Landing and March of Com. Perry's Forces June 16, 1847]