Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/235

Rh is described as mountainous, the air pure, and the climate healthy; the soil is, however, very poor, and unproductive. The principal articles produced, are, sugar-cane, maize, and indigo; the latter, very inferior, and the two former, though good in their kind, in quantities quite inadequate to the consumption.

A third mine, situated in Costa Rica, is said, also, to be in the hands of the English, but no particulars respecting the owners, or account of the progress they have made, has yet reached the capital. The expense attendant on the working of mines in Guatimala, must, necessarily be immense, while the profits, at the best, are probably very doubtful. Calculations, much too sanguine, have hitherto been made, on the advantages that would accrue from the introduction of English machinery, since, in forming them, the local situation has been too frequently left out of the question. The fixing of steam engines, in countries where every thing has to be transported many hundreds of miles, on mules, over high and rugged mountains, and in parts where fuel is often scarce, is no easy task, and, even if accomplished, the advantages of it must be very problematical.

In all probability, we shall find, within a very few years, the mines again worked by the natives, although under the direction of foreigners, since the risk and expense attendant on bringing out