SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 31 



stranger to have a carriage in readiness to 

 transport him into the interior without loss of 

 time, for exposure to the sun in the heated 

 streets of Vera Cruz must always be attended 

 with danger to the new comer. Another 

 thing I should recommend is to avoid the 

 great inn, or posada, opposite the landing 

 place ; it may be as well regulated a house as 

 most of the Spanish inns ; but it is very ob- 

 jectionable from the continual crowd of people, 

 the noise and confusion of its billiard-rooms, 

 and the confined and otherwise bad accom- 

 modation of the sleeping apartments; but, 

 above all, the stranger is here constantly re- 

 minded of the number of foreigners who have 

 died in the house, and this so depresses the 

 mind as to unfit the body to resist the con- 

 tagion of disease. 



On my return to Vera Cruz from Mexico I 

 applied to the Franciscan convent, only a few 

 doors to the north of the inn, and they received 



