that all the large islands in the Tropics
enjoyed the same climate, yet from the greater mortality observed in
Jamaica, St. Domingo, and Cuba, as compared with Porto Rico, one is
inclined to believe that this latter island is much more congenial
than any of the former to the health of Europeans. The heat, the
rains, and the seasons are, with very trifling variations, the same
in all. But the number of mountains and running streams, which are
everywhere in view in Porto Rico, and the general cultivation of the
land, may powerfully contribute to purify the atmosphere and render it
salubrious to man. The only difference of temperature to be observed
throughout the island is due to altitude, a change which is common
to every country under the influence of the Tropics.

In the mountains the inhabitants enjoy the coolness of spring, while
the valleys would be uninhabitable were it not for the daily breeze
which blows generally from the northeast and east. For example, in
Ponce the noonday sun is felt in all its rigor, while at the village
of Adjuntas, 4 leagues distant in the interior of the mountains, the
traveler feels invigorated by the refreshing breezes of a temperate
clime. At one place the thermometers is as high as 90 deg., while in
another it is sometimes under 60 deg. Although the seasons are not so
distinctly marked in this climate as they are in Europe (the trees
being always green), yet there is a distinction to be made between
them. The division into wet and dry seasons (winter and summer)
does not give a proper idea of the seasons in this island; for on
the north coast it sometimes rains almost the whole year, while
sometimes for twelve or fourteen months not a drop of rain falls on
the south coast. However, in the mountains at the south there are
daily showers. Last year, for example, in the months of November,
December, and January the north winds blew with violence, accompanied
by heavy showers of rain, while this year (1832) in the same months,
it has scarcely blown a whole day from that point of the compass, nor
has it rained for a whole month. Therefore, the climate of the north
and south coasts of this island, although under the same tropical
influence, are essentially different.

As in all tropical countries, the year is divided into two seasons--the
dry and the rainy. In general, the rainy season commences in August
and ends the last of December, southerly and westerly winds prevailing
during this p