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CHAPTER VIII. 



Vera Cruz — Great graveyard — A Mexican diligence — Robbing the diligence 

 — A gentlemanly sport — Paper dresses — Terra Templada — ' Get out 

 if you can' — Pulqu6 — In an Indian hut— Orizava — Puebia — The 

 plateau of Mexico — General Zerman — Baron Magnus. 



The entrance to Mexico is not inviting, but rather repulsive. 

 Though glad to feel again firm ground under your feet, your 

 sea-tired eyes are longing in vain for some refreshing green, 

 for the sandy, sun-baked coast is as bare of vegetation as the 

 palm of your hand. 



On approaching the regularly-built town of Vera Cruz, with 

 its whitewashed tombstone-like houses, you feel a shuddering 

 creep over your whole body, for you are entering an atmos- 

 phere reminding you of the catacombs, coming from the sur- 

 rounding swamps from which a tropical sun distils poison. No 

 wonder that the yellow fever called Yellow Jack by the sailors, 

 is master of the place about nme months in the year. It is 

 the most deadly place to Europeans, of whom thousands are 

 buried around it. 



On entering the town tnis uneafiy feeling is still increased 

 on seeing almost more vultures than people. These most dis- 

 gusting scavenger-birds, called there Zapilotes, are as impu- 

 dent as sparrows in European cities , tney are protected by the 

 law, because the carelessness and indifference of the inhabi- 

 tants to sanitary matters makes them a necessity. 



There was nothing either in the Diligencias Hotel or in the 

 town to retain us, and we left for Mexico next day at two 

 o'clock P.M. 



Though the railroad built by the French was by no means 

 good, it was a blessing, for it offered the means of passing 

 quickly through a most dreary country. 



