h the surface of the lake of Geneva. One may obtain an admirable
view of the city and its neighborhood from the cupola of the lofty
lighthouse, which is of the first class, and rises grandly to ninety
feet above the sea. The fortress is now only partially manned, being
used mostly as a place of confinement for political prisoners. As this
island was the first landing-place of the Spaniards, so it was their
last foothold in Mexico. There is a familiar anecdote, which is always
retailed by the guides to the strangers whom they initiate into the
mysteries of the fortress upon which Cortez is said to have expended
uselessly many millions of dollars. Charles V., being asked for more
funds wherewith to add to the defenses of San Juan d'Ulloa, called for a
spyglass, and, seeking a window, pointed it to the west, seeming to gaze
through the glass long and earnestly. When he was asked what he was
looking for, he replied: "San Juan d'Ulloa. I have spent so much money
upon the structure that it seems to me I ought to see it standing on the
western horizon."

The low-lying town--nearly eight thousand feet below the city of
Mexico--is, perhaps, one of the most unhealthy spots on this continent,
where the yellow fever, or _vomito_ as it is called, prevails for six or
seven months of the year, claiming myriads of victims annually, while a
malarial scourge, known as the stranger's fever, lingers about the place
more or less fatally all the year round, according to the number of
persons who are liable to be attacked. The yellow fever, which makes its
appearance in May, is generally at its worst in August and September, at
which periods it is apt to creep upwards towards the higher lands as far
as Jalapa and Orizaba, though it has never been known to exist to any
great extent in either of these places. The dangerous miasma which
prevails seems to be quite harmless to the natives of the locality, or
at least they are rarely attacked by it. When a person has once
contracted yellow fever and recovered from it, as a rule he is presumed
to be exempt from a second attack, but this is not a rule without an
exception. In summer the streets of Vera Cruz are deserted except by the
buzzards and the stray dogs. These quarrel with each other for scraps of
food. The latter by no means always get the best of it. Even the
Mexicans at such times call the place _Una ciudad de los muertos_ (a
city of the dead).

A large share of the business of Vera Cruz