4 MEXICO. 
of the most useful population of Vera Cruz — the former being the city 
authorities' laborers, the latter the city authorities' scavengers. It is a 
high crime to kill a zopilote. He is under the protection of the laws, and 
walks the streets with as much nonchalance and as " devil-may-care " 
a look as other " gentlemen in black," who pick the sins from our souls 
as these creatures pick impurities from the streets. 
The Mole, or quay, is of good masonry and furnished with stairs and 
cranes for the landing of goods, though from the great violence of the 
ocean during the Northers, and the great neglect of proper repairs, it is 
likely to be entirely ruined. In heavy weather the sea makes a clear 
breach over it ; yet this, and the Castle of San Juan on a land-spit near 
a mile off, are the only protections for the shipping of all nations and the 
commerce of moi'e than half the Republic ! 
Passing from the Mole you enter the city by an unfinished gateway, 
near which Santa Anna lost his leg during the attack of the French in 
1838. Beyond this portal is a large square, which will be surrounded 
with custom-house buildings — though there is now scarce a symptom of 
them except in the granite stones, most of which have been imported from 
the United States. From this spot, a short walk to the left leads you to 
the arcade of a street, and you soon find yourself in the public square of 
the city, which, though small in its dimensions, is neat and substantial. 
On the east, north, and west, 'it is bounded by noble ranges of edifices, 
built over light arches — ^the one to the eastward, with its back to the sea, 
being the former Governor's residence, and still appropriated to the civil 
and military purposes of the State. On the south of the square is the 
parish church, with its walls blackened with sea-damps and zopilotes. 
The streets of Vera Cruz, crossing each other at right angles, are well 
paved with smooth pebbles, and the side-walks are covered with a cement 
resembling irescia. The houses, in general, are exceedingly well con- 
structed to suit the climate, and though not of very imposing architecture, 
yet with their flat roofs, parti-colored awnings and display of women and 
flowers from their balconied windows, make the city both cool and pic- 
turesque. Upon the whole, I must confess that I have seen worse look- 
ing cities than Vera Cruz, even in the " picture-land " of Italy ; and when, 
from the roofs of the dwellings, I look at the open sea in front, the exceed- 
ingly clean streets, and the desolate coast of sand and stunted shrubbery, 
which extends north and south as far as the eye can reach, I am at a loss 
to know why it is so cursed with disease. St. Augustine, St. Mary's, and 
a hundred places along our southern sea-coast, have infinitely more the 
appearance of nests for malai'ia. 
It is said, that in the early period of the history of this country. Vera 
Cruz was not so sickly as of late years, and that, although there were 
occasional attacks of violent fever, it was not until 1699 that the Black 
Vomit made its appearance. In that year an English vessel arrived in 
the port with a cargo of slaves, and with them came this fatal disease. 
The Spanish chronicles of the town, of that date, give the most fright- 
