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MEXICO. 413 now employed in the same way by the British Companies. I am bound to state, that for this estimate I can give no autho- rity. It is a mere matter of conjecture ; but since I have seen the number of Amalgamation works, and other exten- sive and costly establishments, now in ruins in every part of Mexico, and compared them with those which have been re- built by the Companies, all that they have done seems to be as nothing in comparison with what must formerly have existed. I was particularly struck with this on entering Guanajuato, where more money has been expended by the two Companies established there, (the Anglo-Mexican, and the United Mexican,) than upon any other single spot in the Federation, yet the suburb of Marfil, which was formerly, according to Humboldt, " an imposing sight," from the acti- vity that prevailed in every part of it, is still a scene of deso- lation ; and when, after passing a long succession of ruined Haciendas, one at last enters the town, the popidation is found to be reduced to a little more than one-half of what it was in the year 1809, when it exceeded 90,000 souls. With- out dwelling unnecessarily upon this idea, I will only add that, in as far as my own means of observation have extend- ed, the remark holds good with regard to every Mining Dis- trict in the Federation. In Zacatecas, Catorce, Sombrerete, and Real del Monte, the works of the Companies are lost amongst the remains of former times ; and by what they have expended, some estimate may be formed of what must have been expended before them. This fact, (the difference between the capital now invested, and that which it was intended to replace,) is one cause of the disappointment of those, who imagine that, because a very large sum has been laid out upon the Mines of Mexico by British capitalists, the produce of those Mines ought, at once, to equal that of the best years before the Revolution. But a still simpler solution of this disappointment may be found in the total ignorance of every thing connected with