348 MEXICO. a very steep hill ; whereby much delay, inconvenience, and loss, is unavoidably occasioned. The damage to fine goods ; the breakage of glass and crockery ; and the leakage in spirits and wine, in discharging, carrying inland, warehousing, un- stowing, carrying back again to the beach, and re-shipping, in the event of re-exportation, independent of the expense in- curred in mule hire and labour, amounts, upon each cargo, to a very large sum. Nor is this all : the magazines themselves are infested by a species of white ant, called el comajen^ which attacks every thing, and destroys, in an incredibly short time, whatever it does attack. All these disadvantages, combined with a difference in the mode of levying the Derecho de Internacion, which is exacted upon all goods at San Bias, (whether sent into the Interior, or not,) at the expiration of a term of ninety days, and an additional duty of two and a half per cent, (under the name of Averia) paid upon the exporta- tion of Specie, have nearly destroyed the trade of San Bias, which, at one time, had acquired considerable importance. Merchant vessels, latterly, have proceeded, almost uniformly, to Mazatlan and Guaymas, where, from there being no Govern- ment establishments, the warehousing of goods, and even the payment of duties at all, have not been very strictly enforced- It is to be hoped that the Executive will take warning by the fate of San Bias ; for, otherwise, the establishment of a Custom-house at the new ports will only serve as a signal to the importers of foreign goods to seek other channels of com- munication with the Interior ; and the Revenue will be de- frauded, at the same time that the security of fair commercial enterprise is destroyed. The evil can only be corrected by the reform of abuses, which compel even the most respectable houses to have recourse to smuggling, as the only means of saving their property from destruction. One of the most serious defects of the present regulations still remains to be mentioned, — the power given to the Vista, or Inspector, of admitting articles not expressly included in
