It is true, a great many of the batteries were disabled and guns dismounted, but every main street was strongly barricaded with breastworks and artillery. The wall which surrounds the city is about fifteen feet high, with half-moon batteries thereon, and a deep ditch about twenty feet wide, and five or six feet deep, filled with water.
In fact, there seems to be no end to the artillery. There must have been from one to two hundred in the city, besides the ammunition. The walls were at several places crushed pretty badly. The little Catholic Church near the gate suffered very much.
The Mexicans seemed to be very shy; they are afraid to even show themselves, particularly the women, who, whenever they see us Yankee soldiers coming, would instantly run into their casas and shut the door until we had passed, after which they would peep out and look where we were going. They, no doubt, say to themselves, "There go those barbarous and murderous Yankees."
We also saw several flocks of large black fowls, looking somewhat like our crows or buzzards. I noticed they mostly roost and rest upon the towers and crosses of churches, cupalos and house-tops. They fly about singly and in pairs; they descend upon the streets and pick up all the offal and refuse; in fact, they seem to be the only offal gatherers in the city. They mostly gather at the fish market, and steal fish from the sellers. There is a penalty for shooting or harming these zapilates, as they are called in the Spanish language.
After we had seen all we cared to see, we returned to our camp well pleased with our visit to the first city in Mexico.
Vera Cruz was built by Cortez and his men as soon as they landed. After it was built, Fernando Cortez and his officers held a council of war and resolved to destroy and burn all their ships, and either conquer or die in the country, which resulted in conquering and plundering the whole of Mexico, with the loss of a great many men on both sides.
