Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/481

 MEXICO. 441 thit, at the end of December 1826, they had drawn from the very small proportion of mines at that time brought into work, a sum nearly equal to one-fourth of the capital em- pbyed. The outlay of the Company, including the transport of the directors and officers from Germany, amounted to 637,760 dollars ; while the produce was 147,153 dollars : a result suf- ficiently favourable to render any farther calculations as to the ultimate success of the Company unnecessary. That success, however, will not be so rapid as might be expected, unless the capital of the Association (originally 500,000 dol- lars) be increased, so as to enable its agents to bring the mines taken up by them at once into activity, instead of adopting the slow process of applying the profits of the one to the wants of the rest. With regard to former produce, the mine of Arevalo, at Chico, is stated to have paid the King''s tenth upon five mil- lions of dollars, from 1804 to 1824; or to have averaged 250,000 dollars per annum. The mines at Real de Arriba, in the district of Temascal- tepec, produced, weekly, twelve bars, or 13,000 dollars, (yearly, about 600,000 dollars). Sta Rita, (at Zimapan,) upon the years I791, 1792, and 1793, left a profit of 100,000 dollars : and the richness of the gold mines at San Jose del Oro, led, in former times, to the appointment of a Receiver- general for the King's fifth in that district alone. The pre- sent state of the mines there, however, does not appear to warrant any immediate expectations of success. On the whole, should the undertakings of the Company be prosecuted with vigour, the annual produce, at the lowest possible estimate, may be taken at 600,000 dollars in the year 1830 ; with a probability of its considerably exceeding that sum ; as Arevalo alone, in the opinion of all the miners whom I have consulted, (both natives and foreigners,) is capable,