Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/476

436 MEXICO". Mr. Williamson expects, that in two years, (i e. in 1829,) he shall be enabled to bring the produce of the mines again to this standard ; nor do I see any reason to question the possi- bility of his doing so, now that the reductions mentioned in the preceding Section have placed the establishment on a footing, at once economical and effective. He deducts one- half of the produce for expenses, which leaves 1,857,402 dollars, to repay the Adventurers for their advances, which is to be done before any division of profits with the Mexican proprietors takes place, and might, consequently, be effected in four years from the present time ; (the outlay being three and a half millions, and the mines covering now their own expenses :) and he then takes half that siim again, (or 928,701 dollars,) as the interest to be paid, or rather the profits to be derived from the speculation during the duration of the con- tracts, if the mines do not prove totally unworthy of their former reputation. This calculation, like all others upon the same subject, is open to objections. Delays may occur, and the most reason- able hopes may be disappointed ; but it has for its basis the records of what has been, and it assumes nothing but the possibility of restoring things to what they were, before a great political convulsion compelled the owners of the most flourishing mines to abandon their works. To the activity and judgment displayed, at the time of my visit to Guanajuato, in the operations by which the result, to which Mr. Williamson looks, was to be produced, I can my- self bear witness ; and, in the opinion of the natives, such was the progress already made, that a Barr, or share, in the Valenciana, which, in 1825, was not valued at more than 3Q,000 dollars, was, in 1826, reckoned worth 100,000. I may add, that from August 1826, up to the time of my departure from Mexico, (May 1827,) the mines covered their own expenses ; and that, during the month of March alone,