They understand Trade very well, but are sloathful and averse to Labour, fond of State and Ease. They wear great Strings of Beads about their Necks, their Houses are full of Pictures and Images of Devotion, and they have little that is real. They are decently furnish’d with Purceline and _China_ Goods. The Churches are magnificently adorned with Plate. But the Lives and Manners of the Clergy are not Edifying. On Holidays and _Sundays_ there is no Thought of Matins, of Sermon, or of Vespers: People chat and laugh in the Churches as well as in the Processions, which are often at Night by the Light of Torches. All Strangers are forbid Trading there, yet some come by Stealth and deal Underhand, by Means of Presents made to such Persons as can favour them. If those Mulattoes call themselves white, it is only to honour themselves and by Way of Distinction from their Slaves, who are all Blacks, and having got much Mony by their Labour, ransome themselves and sometimes become considerable Merchants. [Sidenote: Mexico _City_.] The City of _Mexico_, Capital of the Country and the Residence of the Vice-roy, is about eighty Leagues distant from _Veracruz_, to the Westward, the Way to it very bad and ill furnish’d with Provisions. That Country would be better in some Parts, if the people had the skill and energy to till it. They sow but little of our Wheat, and are satisfied with _Indian_ Corn[128] and _Cassabi_ Root, whereof they make Cakes, as is practis’d in the Islands. Their Trees and Fruits are the same as in other hot Countries. About the Town of _Veracruz_, there are Bushes of a Sort of Thorn, without Leaves, among which grows an extraordinary Plant; for tho’ it has but a small Stem, it shoots out Leaves of a Cabbage Green, as thick as a Man’s Finger, which grow out, one at the End of another, in the Shape of a Racket, and the Plant itself is so call’d. From those Leaves there grows out a Sort of red Figs, very juicy, with Seeds like those of the Pomgranate; the Juice is of a Violet Colour, but unsavoury. There is a Sort of Flies that cleave to it and are so fond of the Taste of the Fruit, that they burst and drop down dead. They are carefully gather’d and dry’d, and are the Scarlet Dye, call’d Cochinilla, which is brought into _Europe_, and makes that beautiful Colour. The Birds and Beasts are much the same as in other Countries of _America_. There is a Sort of Bird, all red, which for that Reason is call’d the _Cardinal_; this they often tame and teach to sing like a _Canary_ Bird. This is what I have been told concerning the Town of _Veracruz_. [Sidenote: Havana.]