Behind the town there is a long lagoon, and for several miles back
the land is quite level, and interspersed with lakes and ponds with
much marshy ground. Perfectly level, surrounded by swamps, and
without any system of drainage, either natural or artificial,
excepting such as the sandy soil affords, Greytown might be thought
a very unhealthy site for a town. Notwithstanding, however, its
apparent disadvantages, and that for nine months of the year it is
subject to heavy tropical rains, it is comparatively healthy, and
freer from fever than many places that appear at first sight better
situated. Much is due to the porous sandy soil, but more I believe
to what appears at first sight an element of danger, the perfect
flatness of the ground. Where there are hills there must be
hollows, and in these the air stagnates; whilst here, where the
land is quite level, the trade winds that blow pretty constantly
find their way to every part, and carry off the emanations from the
soil. As a similar instance I may mention the city of Pernambuco,
on the eastern coast of Brazil, containing 80,000 inhabitants. It
is perfectly level like Greytown, surrounded and intersected with
channels of water, above the level of which it only stands a few
feet. The crowded parts of the town are noted for their evil smells
and filth, but, though entirely without drainage, it is celebrated
for its healthiness; whilst a little lower down the coast, the town
of Maceio, situated about sixty feet above the sea, surrounded by
undulating ranges and with a good natural drainage, is much more
unhealthy, fevers being very prevalent. As at Greytown so at
Pernambuco, the trade winds blow with much regularity, and there
are neither hills nor hollows to interfere with the movements of
the air, so that miasmatic exhalations cannot accumulate.