The latter, called by the Mexicans, Citlal Tepetl, or the mountain of the
star, from the fire which used to burn on its lofty summit, rises nineteen
thousand five hundred and fifty-one feet above the level of the sea.
Covered with perpetual snows, and rising far above clouds and tempests, it
is the first mountain which the navigator discovers as he approaches these
shores.

But the south wind continues and we are obliged to turn our back to the
coast. There is much impatience on board. A---- was taken ill, and declared
she had got the yellow fever. The doctor was sent for, who, very sick
himself, and holding by the table to keep himself from falling, told her,
without looking at her very particularly, that there was nothing the
matter, only to keep yourself "_quite quiet and still_;" and the ship
rolling at the same moment, he pitched head-foremost out of the cabin,
showing practically how much easier precept is than example. As we shall no
doubt have a norther after this, which may last three days, our promised
land is still at some distance.

5th.--The weather is charming, but the south-west wind holds most
implacably, and the barometer has fallen five or six degrees, which, added
to other signs of the times known to navigators, causes all hands to
prepare for the dreaded enemy.

6th.--Job never was on board a ship. A norther, not a very severe one, but
what they call a _Norte chocolatero_, that is, its shock tore a sail in
two, as I tear this sheet of paper. The most ingenious person I see is "the
master of the sails." He sews most excessively quick and well. Towards
evening the wind calmed, but the ship, tossed upon a horribly swelled sea,
became a mortal purgatory. Still the wind is lulled, though Humboldt and
others say a Norte must last forty-eight hours, and we have only had it for