in the way of modern development and civilization.
What are now the oil fields of Mexico were formerly the "bad lands" of the jungle and the plain. The black asphalt oozes softened the soil and enmeshed and swallowed up cattle, horses, and wild animals. They were in 1900, as they had been for nineteen hundred years, worse than valueless.
Edward L. Doheny, American engineer-prospector, miner, and pioneer developer in the oil fields of Los Angeles, California, was more than millionaire, and so also was his partner Canfield, when they entered Mexico in 1900 to prospect for petroleum. They were not freebooters, seeking conquest or the exploitation of people, laws, or government. They were looking to do in Mexico what they had done in California and with their own fortunes lift values of this old planet to the surface, under Mexican laws, treaties, and customs and with the aid of Mexican labor. Diaz and Mexico had invited outside talent and money; Boston money had built the railroad from Arizona to the port of Guaymas on the Gulf of California and from El Paso to the City of Mexico, with a branch to Tampico.
Into the jungle from Tampico to Tuxpan
