328 MEXICO. doing so in an authentic shape, the returns from the different ports having been very irregular during the last three years, which have barely allowed time for the adoption of the mea- sures necessary in order to afford some prospect of regularity in future. To the West, the want of returns has been still greater, some of the ports now most frequented, (as Mazatlan and Guaymas,) having had no Custom-house estabhshment at all before the end of 1825 ; while that of San Bias* was noted for the extreme laxity of its administration. It will, therefore, be necessary to confine my investigations to the following points, upon which I shall hazard some ge- neral observations : First, the amount of the trade of Mexico in 1827, estimated roughly by the produce of the Customs, and the number of ships employed. Secondly. The probability of an increase, or decrease, in this amount, in the course of the next five years. And, Thirdly. The system at present pursued with regard to Foreign trade, and the ameliorations of which it is susceptible. The first of these points admits of something like evidence being adduced in support of any opinion that I may be in- clined to form ; but the second leads, unavoidably, to much vague speculation, to which my readers will, of course, only attach importance in as far as they conceive the data, upon which it is founded, to be worthy of attention. The third, consists merely of a statement of facts, which it will not be necessary to enter into in great detail, as a new Tariff, which has long been in contemplation, will probably appear before my present work is concluded. With regard to the first point under consideration, viz.
- The uninhabitable state of this port during five or six months of the
year, (the rainy months,) may account in some measure for this laxity. At this season it is abandoned, the principal merchants betaking them- selves to Teplc.
