Louisville, I transported the castings below it in flat-bottomed boats, and from Louisville to New Orleans I took freight in a steam-boat. Having reached the latter place on the 4th of June, I chartered a small schooner and loaded her with the castings, and on the 22nd of June arrived at Tampico: we were, however, detained until the 17th of July outside the bar, there not being a sufficient depth of water for us to cross. On the 28th, all the pumps were discharged. I was to leave the following day, but the person that I depended on to dispatch the castings on the arrival of the carts from the Interior, was taken ill: the fever raged with violence, and the weather was so bad as to render travelling impossible. The carts, however, came down on the 26th of August, on the arrival of which I completed my business with all possible dispatch, and left for Altamira. The following scene is, perhaps, worthy of being described:—in a single room at Altamira, I observed on one side a dead body laid out, opposite which were two unhappy creatures on the point of expiring: in the centre of the room was a large heap of plantains, round which were seated several persons eating of them most voraciously, and one or two resting against the bier of the deceased, at the foot of which were two men, one playing the violin and the other the guitar; while, to complete the picture, three or four damsels were dancing near the door.
I stopped here until the 10th of September, and left for fear of fatal consequences. Before arriving at Catorce, I was seized with the most dangerous feverish symptoms, and on the 26th, the day after my arrival, I took to my bed, where I remained until the end of December; fatigue and exposure to the night air, and a sudden change of climate, having brought on an illness which very nearly proved fatal to me, and from the effects of which I have scarcely yet recovered. In 1826 the castings arrived, (in February and March.) On the 18th of the latter month I began to fix them in the shaft, and on the 1st of June, I again started the engine: we worked for a fortnight, and made a considerable progress in lowering the water, although we were stopped a short time by the want of fuel; but the engine continued in activity until the 24th of November, with few
