CHAPTER XIY. 



The City of Veracruz is said to be one of the most 

 unhealthy spots on this continent, and the vomito holds 

 high carnival six months of the year, claiming a large 

 number of victims annually. The yellow fever makes its 

 appearance in May, and is generally at its worst in Aug- 

 ust and September, when it creeps upwards towards Jal- 

 ^ apa and Orizaba, although it has never been known to 

 exist, to any grert extent, in either of these places. In 

 summer the streets of Veracruz are almost deserted 

 except by the buzzards and stray dogs, and at such times 

 the city is called, very appropriately, Una ciudad de los 

 muerios (a city of the dead). 



A large share of the business of the city is carried on 

 by French and German residents, who have become accli- 

 mated. Many of the merchants of the city keep up a 

 permanent residence at Jalapa to escape this dreaded 

 enemy. It is said that when a person has once con- 

 tracted the disease, and recovered from it, he is presumed 

 to be exempt from a second attack; this is a rule, how 

 ever, not without an exception. It is singular that the 

 climate of the Gulf side of the peninsula should be so fatal 

 to human life, while the Pacific side, situated in the same 

 latitude, is so very 'healthy. The French army had reason 

 to remember Veracruz, for the fever decimated their ranks 

 to the number of four thousand ruen. 



The city is said to be more or less oriental in aspect. 

 Everything is seen through a lurid atmosphere. Groups 

 of mottled church towers surmounted by glittering crosses; 

 square, flat-roofed houses; a long reach of hot sandy 

 plain on either side relieved by a few palm trees; and 



