as over the officers of the Company, unbounded; while the publicity with which every thing connected with the pecuniary concerns of the establishment is carried on, renders it impossible that this influence should be ascribed to any but the real cause; that is, a conviction, on the part of the Mexicans, of the advantages which the whole country has derived from the able manner in which the works of the Association have been conducted. More time has indeed been required to bring the mines into a profitable state than was at first thought necessary; but I trust that the details, of which the preceding books are full, will have had the effect of convincing my readers that, in undertakings upon so large a scale, where the issue is liable to be affected, not only by unforeseen difficulties, but by so many other circumstances, for which, though foreseen, no remedy can be provided, time is not the only criterion by which a judgment ought to be formed, either of the probable result of an enterprise, or of the ability displayed in its prosecution. I see, at present, no reasonable motive for discouragement amongst the Tlalpujahua adventurers. Their outlay is moderate; their mines are known to have yielded rich ores; and do so still, wherever the lodes are accessible; and although the district was abandoned for nearly sixty years, (after the removal of La Borde,) it must be recollected, that during those very years the great Bonanzas of San Acasio, (at Zacatecas), and the Păvĕllōn, with the discoveries of Catorce, Guarisamey, and the Va-
