to take me safely to St. Thomas, a promise which she faithfully fulfilled. There I was to be transferred into the great ship Don, for Southampton.

We sailed away from Vera Cruz at five o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday, the 1st of September, and as we gradually increased our distance from that bare, cubic-built city, with its spires and domes and old broken fort standing out upon the long, dry, flat, uninteresting shore, I could not but call to mind again how much Mexico depends upon this place, and how impossible it will be that any duly reasonable progress can be looked for in the country, particularly in the capital, without some very important steps are taken to secure a change in many of the conditions that attach to its port.

As regards improvements in a hygienic point of view, I have already referred to them, but will not quit the shore without doing so again.

Here is the very entrance to Mexico, the great hall-door of the country; and yet everybody (so to speak) is afraid to enter it, though internal wealth is loudly calling out for intercourse.

By the best and latest figures I can obtain, Vera Cruz imports in the proportion of thirteen or fourteen out of twenty-seven of all the other ports, whether on this eastern side or the Pacific or western side; while, as regards exports, they stand in the proportion of eighteen out of thirty-three. In the face of this, the place is, in some months, a mere pest-house, and

the circumstance occurred while I was in the capital, that the newly arrived American consul died in so short a space after landing that he had not time even to complete the necessary forms for assuming office.

No one supposes that the dismal locality will ever be chosen as a favourite resort for the goddess Hygeia; no one supposes she will choose this city as her own, as Venus chose Cyprus, her birthplace; but every one who knows Vera Cruz ought to know that it might be vastly improved. Its condition was becoming the subject of almost daily comment in the journals during my stay; the state of the cemetery, in particular, being the object of much animadversion. The mode of burying the dead is said to be very careless. The Iris Veracruzano has directed special attention. to this fact, detailing the deficiencies of which it complains, and calling on the corporation to bestir themselves. To this question of the cemetery might be added that of drainage, and of marshy ground all round. Journals in the capital have called for a special commission to be appointed by the Government, to report minutely upon these questions. In short, some movement should be insisted on, which would awaken Vera Cruz out of the lethargic state in which it seems to lie, of taking its present condition as being one "of course," and either not worthy, or not capable, of improvement.

As regards the port, which is no port, increasing commerce will surely grow strong enough to provide

itself with convenience, as also to protect itself against the driving "northers;" though the fogs they bring may be irremediable. But when these winds really blow long and hard, the sea, I was told, seems threatening the very existence of the city.

There is yet another question that touches Vera Cruz, and a very important one it is-the collection of her customs. In all young countries this is more

or less a serious question, and it seems to be so here. The following statement was given to me by so high an authority, and is in itself so striking, that I cannot but record it. If exact, it cannot but be of a family of kindred facts. Smuggling, then, was stated to me as being so extensive, that in the instance of French silks they can be bought cheaper in Mexico city than in New York, though the Mexican duty is double that of the American, and though the freight to Vera Cruz is higher than that to New York; not counting the freight on 263 miles by railway, after the goods are landed. Not only, it is said, are Customhouse positions given to individuals merely because they are poor, but sometimes to political agitators, merely to keep them quiet.

As I thought on all these things, Vera Cruz sank down into the evening wave, and as there was a mist upon the mountains, which wrapped the very peaks of Orizaba, Mexico was seen no more. So I turned my face from the west to the east, and thought upon my voyage back to Europe.

CHAPTER XIII.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

AND what shall I say of my voyage back to Europe? That it was prosperous as far as St. Thomas, I have already said; and it was prosperous to Plymouth, where I landed.

The first new impression I received was at Habana, into whose fine harbour we rode on the morning of Monday, September 5th. I had visited this city, with its 250,000 inhabitants, as will be remembered, on my outward voyage, before I had seen Mexico and had any corresponding city with which to compare it. Now, however, the case was otherwise, and I could not but be struck with the vast difference existing between a large city with a port, and a large city far up the country and totally removed from immediate intercourse with other nations. There are those who advocate inland capitals under an idea that they are safer. They are very often safe because they are shut up.

Mexico is, I should suppose,

one of the strongest examples of a city labouring

under the disadvantages of its remote position. Even this fact did not prevent Cortés from finding his way there, while, had it been possible, by the nature of the country, to construct the chief city and residence of the centre of government within reasonable distance of the shore, his invasion might have been frustrated. However, I do not intend to write a volume upon the relative advantages of the several positions. Habana is, I know, brimful of life and movement, arising mainly from its position, and there is a great deal more of pretension and of importance in the general aspect of the city, arising from this advantage.

I landed with the captain, and went to the company's offices, where we saw Mr. Ruthven, the agent; and we ran out by train in the afternoon to a very pleasant dinner with him and Mr. Derwent Smith. Desperate attempts were made by us to get an afternoon drive in the country, but the rain considered it would be better employed in cooling the air by coming down, than by stopping up above to allow us to go out. So we consented that this should be so, and returned on a fine night to the city, and to our boat.

The usual half-dozen of those conscientious Customhouse officers, whom I have before referred to, were on board, enjoying their food and lodging, with their accustomed condescension; occasionally glancing at us as unimportant curiosities, and honouring our chairs by occupying them, there being nothing to Occupy themselves.