Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/182

174 the few roads that would seem likely to benefit the builders, yet the American company engaged in the task failed, and it has reverted to the Mexican government.

It is the region above described that is passed by on the way from Progreso to Vera Cruz; a land richer in recollections of the past than possibilities for the future, but which will doubtless share in the returning tide of prosperity that is now deluging Mexico.

Another morning finds us before another port, La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz,—the Rich City of the True Cross,—gateway to the Mexican capital, through which, in times past, have poured those tides of wealth that have filled the coffers of Spain. It is a lovely picture this city presents from the sea,—the line of walls lying above and in front of stretches of sand dunes, capped here and there with verdure, but mostly bare and gray. These walls are tinted, red, yellow, blue, green, but are never allowed to glare out in ghastly white. And then its domes and turrets: twenty-two can be counted from the steamer's deck, some of shining porcelain, that glisten like polished marble in the sunshine. The suburbs to the south seem even more attractive than the city, with low, red-roofed houses, groups of palms, and ruined forts. Down the coast stretch the wind-blown sandhills,—the medanos,—yellow, flecked with green, with coral reefs tossing the foam above the blue water, and the Island of Sacrifices—Isla de los Sacrificios—lying low to the eastward.

Under the walls of the castle fortress, San Juan de Ulua, the steamer drops anchor, half a mile from the mole, where seems concentrated the life of the city. This castle is built upon a small barren island, upon which Juan de Grijalva landed, in June, 1518. It being the day of the feast of St. John, the island was called San Juan de Ulua, The Spaniards found idols here, and vestiges of human sacrifices, offered, the Indians told them, by the natives of Culchua, or Ulua (Mexico). The construction of the fortress is believed to have been begun in 1662, though spoken of in 1625, but not finished till 1796, when a light-tower (still standing) was added. Several inscriptions.