Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/156

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city, it did not do any damage in the immediate neighbourhood.

This temperate climate is as salubrious as it is agreeable. No epidemic at any period of the year, sweeps off its inhabitants; and with the exception of those “common ills which flesh is heir to,” it is free from every pestilential scourge. The few cases of fever which at times make their appearance, are brought by individuals who have contracted them on the coast. Diarrhœa sometimes attacks Europeans on their first arrival, but this seldom acts so powerfully as to produce dangerous consequences. It is generally attributed to some peculiar properties in the water.

Judging by the physical and moral character of the different nations of the world, it would seem that variable climates, subject to a fervent but ephemeral heat, and succeeded in other parts of the year, by a rigorous yet transient cold, are best suited to draw forth the energies of the mind of man, and to give force and vigour to his body. This hypothesis receives additional confirmation from the character, not only of the aboriginal inhabitants, but also of the descendants of the European settlers. The unvarying equability of temperature enjoyed in this favoured land, seems to induce a debility alike injurious both to the body and mind. The weakness of