SECTION IV.
So little was known in the city of Mexico of the manner in which the affairs of the great English Mining Companies were conducted, and such contradictory reports prevailed with regard to the system pursued by them, that I determined to seek, by personal observation, that information which I found it impossible to draw from any other source. In this I was influenced not merely by the interest that I naturally felt in the issue of enterprises, in which British capital to so large an amount was invested; but by a wish not to render myself responsible, in the reports which I might be called upon to transmit to His Majesty's Government, upon the subject, for any errors but my own.
In the Capital, the opinions of most people seemed to be influenced by feelings of merely a personal
