A printed view of Point Isabel from Brasos Santiago showing several steamships and sailing vessels in the harbor (with supplies for the army). A large American encampent may be seen on the coast. Point Isabel is described as "a bluff some fifteen or twenty feet high, reaching out into the bay, and gally back inland; consequently it commands the country about for a great distance, particularly as you look towards Matamoros." Thorpe states that Point Isabel was originally a small Mexican village and held by Mexican troops (commanded by General Garcia and 250 men) with military stores before General Taylor and his troops made it into a military base. Thorpe also describes Brazos Santiago as important to the commerce and business community of Matamoros but the area was frequented by storms which could lead to ship wrecks from vessels blown ashore. [This print is from the book "Our Army on the Rio Grande," by Thomas Bangs Thorpe, opposite p. 14; see Ben Huseman, "Point Isabel, From Brasos Santiago: No. 2," in Eyewitness to War?: Prints and Daguerreotypes of the Mexican War, 1846-1848. Sandweiss, Stewart, and Huseman. (Fort Worth, Texas: Amon Carter Museum, 1989), pages 103-104.]
