Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/557

Rh germs it dislodges, and sends off to be dissipated in thin air, cannot be calculated. During the "Norther" all the small boats and lighters are drawn out and hauled up beyond the reach of the surf. Larger boats and steamers are made as snug as possible, and the crews rejoice in a short period of enforced leisure.

By this series of gales the steamer was detained three days beyond her usual time of leaving, and I, after having made such frantic efforts to reach her, after having ridden so fast and far to catch her, found myself stranded (as it were) in Vera Cruz till the storms were over. Then we departed from this glorious country, from this land of surprises, of deep, impenetrable forests, shrouding from human view cities born thousands of years before our history began, and at the port of Progreso, at the extreme tip of Yucatan, we finally said good by to Mexico.

Seven months previously I had landed on this very shore, a stranger, not knowing a single soul. I had gone into the interior, and had since travelled many a mile through the forests and over the plains and mountains of New Spain. Now I was returning to the "States," laden with the spoils of many a foray in historic fields, and rich in the recollection of many friends,—pursued, perchance, by the curses of a few enemies. It seemed like parting from scenes of home, when we steered away from Yucatan, and the low sand-hills, with their fringes of palms, amongst which nestled red-roofed houses, sank down behind the sea.

Two days later, we were dodging the carriages in the streets of Havana, and listening to the band, at evening, as it filled the cool air with music in the Parque de Ysabel. Havana, too, was stricken with yellow-fever, but we heard more of it before we reached the port than after we had entered it. Indeed, the port officials, rotten with pestilence and jaundiced with past fevers, wished to place us in quarantine, instead of warning us against infection on land. But we sauntered on shore, and took aboard cargoes of sugar and tobacco, and really gave the fever little thought. Nor had we any occasion to, though we were saddened, and reminded that the climate of Mexico was not