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MEXICO IN 1827.

passages, into which an abode of this kind is divided; yet both at Gibraltar, and in the West Indies, we seem to have preferred this system of wholesale architectural transplantation to the adoption of the corridors and verandas of our French and Spanish neighbours. In the country residences of the Planters, more taste is shown, and a better idea of comfort entertained; but in the town, there is nothing but the black population, and a glowing sky, to denote that one is separated from England by 37 degrees of latitude, and some thousand miles of sea.

Five days' sail carried us from Barbadoes to Carthagena, the hottest, dullest, dryest, and most dreary place that I have almost ever seen. Yet, it is said not to be unhealthy, and, though much frequented by Foreigners, there have hitherto been but few instances of the Vomito, so prevalent at Veracruz. The disorder which proved so fatal to the Scylla, in 1826, (she lost at Carthagena her captain, two-thirds of the officers, and almost all the crew,) is supposed to have originated on board, as it has been ascertained that there was no sickness in the town at the time. This exemption from disease is probably owing to the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, as compared with the Mexican coast. When we were at Carthagena, it was said not to have rained for two whole years, and the marshes in the vicinity of the town were nearly dry. Colonel Campbell took leave of us here to commence his voyage up the Magdalena. From his