Vera Cruz is the chief Mexican port. In 1916 the value of its shipping was over $80,000,000. About 1/2 of its exports, including tobacco, hides, dye woods, drugs, and vanilla, are sent to the United States. The harbor of the city is a poor one. Two islands form a kind of protection for ships, but when heavy storms blow from the north, the shipping flees from the harbor to escape wreck on the rocks. A much better harbor is 15 miles south, where the Mexican Southern Railway has its terminus. But in spite of its poor shipping facilities, Vera Cruz has continued to be more and more the one important shipping point of the republic. Modern docks have been built so that large ocean liners can load and unload on the wharves. Freight cars run out on the piers so that vessels are unloaded directly into the cars. In most ways Vera Cruz is a modern city. It

has street cars, telephone and telegraph systems, fine parks, fairly good drainage, and a good water-supply system. It has been visited by many scourages of yellow fever; but the health conditions have been much improved by keeping the city clean. About the city are marshes in which trees are being set, making the place more healthful. Even to-day, however, many vultures (turkey buzzards) hover over the city to eat the garbage. The city has a population of over 45,000. In the harbor is the island of San Juan de Uloa, on which the Spanish first landed in 1518. The city was founded by Cortes. Like the rest of Mexico, the city and the province remained in the possession of the Spaniards for 300 years. General Scott, with the aid of Commodore Perry, captured the city in the Mexican War in 1847.