Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/479

MEXICO. 439 of the mines worked by that Association, " because, (to use his own words,) " the produce of a mine could never be said to bear any exact proportion to the capital invested in it; sometimes exceeding all reasonable expectations, and at others, falling short of the most moderate estimate, particu- larly when confined to any given time." Mr. Alaman stated, however, that " as the large capital of the Company enabled it to work a number of districts at one and the same time, the probability of great profits in- creased in proportion to the number of mines capable of pro- ducing them and he adds, " that, if the past can be taken as a criterion for the future, mani/ of the mines worked by the United Mexican Association, (as El Pavellon, at Som- brerete, San Bernabe, or San Acasio, at Zacatecas, and Ray as, at Guanajuato,) were capable of covering, in a very few years, the whole outlay of the Adventurers (although that outlay amounted, at the close of 1827, to 800,000/. ;) " without reckoning many other mines, in the possession of the Company, celebrated for their former riches, or the new mines of Secho and Loreto, which had already repaid the ad- vances made upon them, and were producing profits." In another part of his report, Mr. Alaman stated, that in most of the districts the preparatory works were nearly con- cluded ; and that, with the exception of the two great mines of Rayas and San Acasio, in the course of the present year, (1828,) all the mines of the Company would be in full pro- duce. For the two exceptions, he fixed, as the maximum of time required, the autumn of 1828, so that in 1829 the Ad- venturers may hope to reap the full fruits of their present advances. If any faith can be placed in Mining calculations, these fruits must be very considerable; for the United Mexican Company possesses, perhaps, a larger portion than any other, of the mines most celebrated for their former riches, and that on terms sufficiently equitable. I, therefore, rate their pros-