The air grew thick and hot and Ned, already worn, felt an almost overpowering languor.

The vegetation became that of the tropics.

Then, passing through marshes and sand dunes, they reached Vera Cruz, the chief port of Mexico, a small, unhealthy city, forming a semicircle about a mile in length about the bay.
Ned saw little of Vera Cruz, as they reached it at nightfall, but the approach through alternations of stagnant marsh and shifting sand affected him most unpleasantly.

Offensive odors assailed him and he remembered that this was a stronghold of cholera and yellow fever.

He ate rough food with the Tlascalans again, and then Cos sent for him.
"You have reached your home," said the General.