278 



MEXICO. 



Between three and four o'clock, the sea-breeze ge- 

 nerally dies away ; it rarely lasts till five. The 

 oppression during the interval of calm which suc- 

 ceeds between this period and the coming of the 

 land-wind baffles all description. The flat-roofed 

 houses, from having been all day exposed to the 

 sun, resemble ovens ; and as it is many hours be- 

 fore they part with their heat, the inhabitants are 

 sadly baked before the land-wind comes to their 

 relief 



During the morning, the thorough draft of air, 

 even when the sun is blazing fiercely in the sky, 

 keeps the rooms tolerably cool ; but when the 

 breeze is gone, they become quite suffocating. 

 The evil is heightened most seriously by clouds 

 of mosquitoes ; and, what are still more torment- 

 ing, of sand-flies ; an animal so diminutive, as 

 scarcely to be distinguished, till the eye is direct- 

 ed to the spot they settle upon, by the pain of 

 their formidable puncture. San Bias as mention- 

 ed before is built on the top of a rock, standing in 

 a level swampy plain. During ordinary tides in 

 the dry season, this plain is kept merely in a half 

 dried, steaming state ; but at spring tides a con- 

 siderable portion of it is overflowed. The effect 



