MATAMOROS  , a

town and port of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, on the S. bank of the Rio Grande, 28 m. from its mouth, opposite Brownsville, Texas . Pop . (1900), 8347 . Matamoros stands in an open plain, the commercial centre for a large district, but its import trade is prejudiced by the bar at the mouth of the Rio Grande, which permits the entrance of small vessels only . The exports include hides, wool and live stock . The importance of the town in the foreign trade of northern Mexico, however, has been largely diminished by the great railways . Formerly it was the centre of a large contra-band trade with Brownsville, Texas . Matamoros was founded early in the 19th century, and was named in honour of the Mexican patriot Mariano Matamoros (c . 1770-1814) . In the war between the United States and Mexico, Matamoros was easily taken by the Americans on the 18th of May 1846, following General Zachary Taylor's victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma . Matamoros was occupied by the Mexican imperialists under Mejia in 1864, and by the French in 1866 .