countries in which they severally resided, during a term of thirty years; an account of which was to be forwarded to Government, together with an estimate of the probable future produce.
In the execution of these orders, I was obliged to embrace the question of Mining, (in as far as Mexico is concerned,) in the greatest possible extent; for it was necessary to procure, and embody, all the most authentic data now extant, with regard to the former produce of the Mines, and the proportion borne by that produce to the exports of precious metals from all the different ports of New Spain, before I could feel myself warranted in hazarding an opinion, at all, upon a subject so vast, and so important in all its bearings.
The future produce of the country, again, depended, in a great measure, upon the issue of the present attempt to work the Mines by the aid of Foreign Capital; while the probability of bringing each of the several undertakings, in which this capital is invested, to a more or less favourable conclusion, could only be ascertained by putting myself into communication with the Directors of the different Companies, and by visiting, in person, such of the principal Districts as were not so very far removed from the Capital, as to render it impossible to reach them, without a sacrifice of time, of which my other occupations would not admit.
In the course of these enquiries I have collected a considerable mass of information; and although,
