Rambles by Land and Water; or, Notes of Travel in Cuba and Mexico

by Benjamin Moore Norman

The Castle is circular, strongly built, and heavily mounted. Its principal strength, however, is in its position, inaccessible except by water, and its guns pointing every way, leave no side open to the attack of an enemy. It has never been reduced but once, and then its natural ally, the city, was against it. The sea was in the hands of its enemies, and all communication with the outer world was cut off. It held out bravely while its provisions lasted, and then yielded to famine, and not to arms. This was in 1829, during the last dying struggles of Spain to hold on to her revolted provinces in Central America.

Our pilot brought us to anchor in the harbor, or roadstead, under the walls of this celebrated old castle, and within a few rods of the landing. An unexpected visit from a "Norther," gave me an opportunity which would not otherwise have presented itself, of paying my respects to the town.

"Vera Cruz Triunfante," the Heroic City, as it is styled in all public documents, in consequence of the prowess of its citizens in taking the Castle San Juan de Ulloa, which, as above stated, surrendered from starvation, lies in a low, sandy shore; and, like all American Spanish towns, has few attractions for the stranger, either in its general appearance, or in the style of its architecture. The town is laid out with great regularity. The streets are broad and straight, at right angles with each other, and are well paved, which, unfortunately, is more than can be said of many of the paved cities in the United States. The side-walks are covered with cement, and are altogether superior to those of Havana. The houses are generally well constructed to suit the climate. Many of them are large, some three stories high, built in the old Spanish or Moorish style, and generally enclosing a square courtyard, with covered galleries. They have flat roofs, and parti-colored awnings, displaying beneath the latter a profusion of flowers.

The best view of Tera Cruz is from the water. There are, within and outside the walls, seventeen church establishments, the domes or cupolas of which may be seen in approaching it from that direction, with quite an imposing effect. The port is easy of access, but very insecure, being open to the north, and consequently subject to the terrible "northers," which, in more senses than one, during the winter season, prove a scourge to this coast. It is well defended by a strong fort, situated on a rock of the island of St. Juan de Ulloa, about half a mile distant. The name of this island, and the castle upon it, are associated with some of the most terrible scenes of blood and cruelty, that have given to the many revolutionary struggles of that ill-fated country, an unenviable pre-eminence of horror.

The form of the city is semi-circular, fronting the sea. It is situated on an arid plain, surrounded by sand hills, and is very badly supplied with water,—the chief reliance being upon rain collected in cisterns, which are often so poorly constructed as to answer but very little purpose. The chief resource of the lower classes, is the water of a ditch, so impure as frequently to occasion disease. An attempt was made, more than a century ago, to remedy this evil, by the construction of a stone aqueduct from the river Xamapa; but, unfortunately, after a very large sum had been expended on the work, it was discovered that the engineer who projected it, had committed a fatal mistake, in not ascertaining the true level, and the work was abandoned in despair.

The outside of the city looks solitary and miserable enough. The ruins of deserted dwelling houses, dilapidated public edifices, neglected agriculture, and streets, once populous and busy, now still and overgrown with weeds, give an air of melancholy to the scene, which it is absolutely distressing to look upon, and which the drillings of the soldiery, and "all the pomp and circumstance" of warlike parade, were insufficient to dispel.

The population of this place is now about six thousand. In 1842, two thousand died of black vomit, the greater portion of whom were the poor, half-enslaved Indians, brought from their healthy mountain homes, to serve as soldiers on the deadly coast. This dreadful scourge made its appearance on the continent of America, in 1699, where it was introduced by an English ship from the coast of Africa, loaded with slaves; inflicting upon the country, at the same instant, two of the greatest curses which the arch-enemy of our race could have devised. The infectious disease we cannot lay to the charge of England. It was one of those accidents which can only be referred to the mysterious visitations of that all-wise, but inscrutable providence, which rules over all the affairs of our little world. But for the other, and not less hideous evil, the introduction of slavery, that Government is directly responsible; and, however high and noble the principles of benevolence, by which the present race of Englishmen are actuated in their endeavors to procure universal emancipation, it ill becomes them to reproach us, or our fathers, for the existence of a curse among us, which their own government forced upon us, and their own fathers supplied and sustained, with a zeal and perseverance worthy of a better cause. Ages of penance and contrition, will not wipe out this dark stain from the British escutcheon.

Vera Cruz is more subject to the yellow fever, than perhaps any other place on the coast. This is chiefly owing to the filthy ditch before spoken of, from which the lower classes are compelled to obtain a part of their supply of water, and to the pools of stagnant water, which abound among the sand hills in the vicinity. If these could be drained off, and the city supplied with wholesome water, there can be no doubt it would fare as well in the matter of health, as any other place on the coast, instead of being regarded, as it is now, by the Spanish physicians, as the source and fountain-head of yellow fever for the whole country. There is scarcely any season of the year exempt from its ravages, but it prevails most in the rainy season, particularly in September and October.

The history of Vera Cruz, as a place of importance to the Spaniards, commences with the very first steps of the conquest. The name of San Juan do Ulloa, was given to the island where the Castle now stands, by Grijalva, on his pioneer visit to the place, in 1518, where he was so roughly handled by the "natives." Cortes, after touching at Cozumel, made a landing at this place, in 1519. He afterwards laid the foundation of a colony in the vicinity, at the mouth of the river Antigua. It was from this point that he set out on his adventurous march to the capital of the Aztec empire—an adventure seemingly the most rash and ill advised, but in its results, the most triumphant, in the annals of history.

The present site of Vera Cruz, which was founded by Count de Monterey, near the close of the sixteenth century, and is sometimes, by way of distinction, called Vera Cruz Nueva, is not the same as that of the ancient city, planted by Cortes. That was situated fifteen miles to the north from the city of our day, and was called "La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz"—The rich town of the true cross. The harbor of the old town is far better than that of the new, which, in fact, is no harbor at all, but an open roadsted, exposed to every blast from the north. No good reason has been assigned for the removal. One historian has suggested that it was owing to the unhealthiness of the old town. If so, it is no mean illustration of the sagacity of the unfortunate fish, that, in attempting to escape his inevitable fate, "jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire."