Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/23

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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
xvii

than to disperse it throughout the different books by introducing notes, to' which it might have been difficult to refer, or altering the text, where the opinions expressed a year ago seemed likely not to be realized.

At page 193, Vol. ii. I have inserted a note, which, I hope, will fully satisfy a gentleman,[1] whose feelings I inadvertently wounded by the manner in which his name was alluded to in my first edition. I attributed to him a failure, for which he was not justly responsible, and I am happy to have it in my power in some measure to repair my error by acknowledging the mistake.

I have learnt with much regret, that I have been thought by some friends of Mr. Mackenzie, not to have done justice to the assistance which I derived from his Report on the Veracruz Trade, in my Section on the Commerce of New Spain.

I am the more sorry for this, because there are few persons to whom I have been so much indebted as to Mr. Mackenzie, whose acute and laborious researches embraced not only the period of his residence at Veracruz, but the general state of the trade of that port for twenty-five years before his arrival.

I never meant, therefore, to confine my acknowledgments to the years 1823, and 1824, although such appears to have been the interpretation given to my note.

It now only remains for me to add, that as I have

  1. Mr. Lucas, director of the Smelting Establishment at Guanajuato.