420 MEXICO. in the rest : another, was the Httle attention paid to the terms of the Contracts, which are not always as favourable as they might have been made. Some of the most expensive Mines, (as Valenciana, and Rayas,) are held for a shorter term of years than would have been desirable ; and in others, many onerous conditions have been introduced, which nothing but the extreme eagerness of the first Adventurers to take up the greatest possible number of Mines, could have given rise to. Fortunately, these disadvantages are pretty equally dis- tributed ; so that, in most Companies, the good and the bad C(mtracts serve to counterbalance each other : I do not, how- ever, know any one, whose engagements are unexceptionable, or by any means as good as they might now be made. Such are the disadvantages vmder which the British Com- panies, now established in Mexico, labour, and such the causes that have, hitherto, impeded their progress. Both have proceeded, in a great measure, from the want of a proper knowledge of the country, in the first instance, which has, undoubtedly, entailed upon them an expenditure, which, by a more judicious system on commencing their operations, might have been much diminished. Against these drawbacks we must set. First, The known goodness of a great proportion of the Mines now in the pos- session of the Companies ; and the equally well known fact, that, when these Mines stopped working, there was no falling off' or diminution in their produce ; so that as soon as the present Adventurers reach the lower levels, they have almost a certainty of being repaid for a part, at least, of their ad- vances.*
- I cannot urge this point too strongly, for although the mass of silver
already raised from some mines, undoubtedly diminishes the probability of their continuing equally productive for a long term of years, yet,, where the richness of the vein continued unimpaired in 1810, it affords almost a certainty of the repayment of the capital invested, in the first instance, leaving the profits only to be afi"ected by the ulterior returns.
