Home › V › Vera Cruz (Principal port of Mexico)

Vera Cruz (Principal port of Mexico)

the principal port of Mexico; on the E. coast, in a low, unhealthy plain, backed by drifting sandhills; 263 miles E. of the Ci City of Mexico. There is no harbor, but only an open roadstead between the city and the island castle of San Juan de Ulua, which, with two shore batteries , defends the port. The streets are wide and straight, with numerous squares, and low, picturesque houses of various colors. The chief buildings are the cathedral, custom house, and casino; a number of the churches have been perverted into tobacco factories. The moist, hot climate of Vera Cruz is notoriously unhealthy, and the annual death rate ranges from 1 in 11 to 1 in 20 of the population, mostly from lung diseases, and from yellow and other fevers. The fierce "northers," if they often drive vessels ashore from the exposed anchorage, at least are of use in sweeping away the fevers for a time. Most of the commerce is in the hands of foreigners; nearly 600 vessels enter and clear annually. The full title of the city is Villa Nueva de la Vera Cruz, or New City of the True Cross. The old town was founded by Cortez in 1520 on the spot where he had landed the year before; the new one dates from 1580. The royal forces held out in the castle till November, 1825. The castle capitulated to the French in 1838, and to General Scott in 1847; and during the French occupation the town was the base of supplies from 1862 to 1867. In 1914 the city was captured and held for several months by American forces. See MEX- ICO. Pop. about 50,000.