418 MEXICO. purchase, until it was concluded. Others were contracted for in Mexico, without proper inquiry or precaution ; and large sums were often paid down for mere pits, which, upon investigation, it was found impossible to work. In some cases, operations were actually commenced, and all the preliminary parts of a Mining establishment formed, Avithout sufficient data to afford a probability of repayment. In many of the Districts immediately about the Capital, (as Zimapan, El Doctor, Capula, Chico, Temascal tepee, &c.) this has been the case; and although these desultory experiments have been subsequently abandoned, still, they have been a drain upon the Companies, which is the more to be regretted, because it never could have been productive of any great result.* In general, the selection of Mines, amongst the first Ad- venturers, was determined by a reference to Humboldt. Any Mine not mentioned in his Essai Politique, was rejected as unworthy of attention ; while those which were favourably spoken of, were eagerly sought for. In this respect, the work in question has exercised an in- fluence highly prejudicial to British interests, not from any fault of the author's, but from the conclusions imprudently drawn from the facts which he has recorded. Humboldt never asserted, or meant to assert, that a Mine^ because it was highly productive in 1802, must be equally so in 1824. A general impression of the Mining capabilities
- I do not wish to enumerate the individual instances of these failures
that have come to my knowledge, but there is one A^ery generally known, that of Mr. Bullock's Mine at Temascaltepec, which was purchased of him by the Houses of Baring and Lubbock, and upon which I should think that 20,000/. must have been expended before their Agent, (Mr. Bul- lock,) could convince himself of the injudiciousness of his choice. What induced him, in the first instance, to fix upon this particular spot, I am unable to state, for I have never discovered any record, or even tradi- tion, respecting the former produce of the Mine. Certain it is, however, that it does not now contain the slightest vestige of a vein, nor has one ounce of ore, (rich or poor,) been raised from it.
