worked by them, as given by Official Records: the result is comprised in one table, and it certainly does appear to be that the mines are able to pay off the whole outlay, in three or four years, provided the produce in 1829 be not very much below the standard of the average annual produce before 1810. This I see no reason to apprehend; for the mines have remained unchanged, and untouched, during the Revolution. In lieu of being exhausted by progressive workings, their riches were locked up, if I may use the expression, by the accumulation of water; and it is only now that the lower levels, from which nine-tenths of the silver raised in 1810 were extracted, are beginning to become accessible. What, then, is to prevent the produce from reaching its former standard, calculated as that standard has been, in this Book, not upon traditionary sayings, or vulgar report, (which is but too often synonymous with vulgar error,) but upon the evidence of those Records, that have survived the Revolution? More than this I do not wish at present to assume; for I think so highly of the ability and practical experience of the Mexicans in all mining matters, that I am very much inclined to believe that we have, at least, as much to learn from them, as they from us. I therefore reject, at once, all those ideas of European mining on the other side of the Atlantic, which have been attended, hitherto, with much ruinous effect: but having admitted this, it would be hard to deny that the accession of science,
