interior at reduced rates. The Government will pay for their passage; but, as the metes and bounds of the public lands are not accurately defined, it would seem as if no lands could be given away at present.
Señor M. Romero states, in The International Review for November, 1882, that land in the State of Chiapas is valued at twenty cents an acre, while that in Sonora is worth only five cents.
Land is not for sale, however, in large quantities, excepting a few stock-ranches in Northern Mexico. The proprietors are still sufficiently imbued with feudal notions to prompt them to hold on to their real estate. A few families still retain immense tracts. One hacendado is said to own an area of 10,000 square miles on the northern part of the Great Plateau.
The railroad companies have occasionally been obliged to pay very high for a site on which to build a station and freight-house in the farming districts.
We venture to predict that settlers will pour into Mexico rapidly after the American trunk-lines are completed.
It is obvious, however, that the introduction of intelligent Americans, with capital, will be a very different thing from the influx of poverty-stricken peasants or miners from Europe.
American immigration means permanent colonization, whereas that from other countries will hardly attain that distinction.
It is possible, however, that colonies of German or British miners may be established in Mexico. High wages and the salubrious climate will tend to attract them. During the year 1882 settlements of Europeans were founded in the States of Vera Cruz, Puebla, Morelos, and San Luis Potosi. The majority will certainly enter the Republic with the intention of engaging in either mining or manufacturing enterprises.
