Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/292

248 plains in the vicinity. The quality of the water is bad; the atmosphere poisoned by noxious exhalations from numerous ponds and marshes; and the air full of insects, the most annoying and conspicuous of which is the tancudo, a species of mosquito. From October to April, during which time the north winds prevail, the situation is comparatively healthy. The city is small, its population scarcely exceeding seven thousand in 1844; but it is laid out neatly and regularly. The streets are wide, straight, and Well paved. The houses are built of the Muscara stone, taken from the sea-beach; they are mostly two stories high, and very neat in their appearance. The churches and public buildings are large and fine structures. On the east the walls of the town are laved by the waters of the Gulf, and on the opposite side there is a dry sandy plain, bounded, beyond cannon range, by innumerable hills of loose sand, from twenty to two hundred and fifty feet in height, which are separated by almost impassable forests of Chaparral.

The city is surrounded by a wall of stone and mortar, which is not very thick, but has strong towers or forts at irregular intervals. The two most important towers are the Santiago and the Conception, which flank that portion of the Wall looking towards the Gulf, and are twelve hundred and seventy Castilian varas, or yards, distant from each other. But the chief feature of the defences of Vera Cruz is the famous Castle of San Juan de Ulua, the reduction of which was the