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the 16th of May, 1822, we started from Altamira with fourteen four-wheel carriages, loaded with machinery, parts of a thirty-six inch steam-engine, for the mine of La Concepcion, in the Real de Catorce. Colonel Martinez, as the representative of Messrs. Gordon and Murphy, conducted the party.

We made but little progress the first day, notwithstanding the excellence of the road. At Chocolate, a small Rancho about a league from Altamira, we had the misfortune to break two wheels, and otherwise damage one of the carriages. This accident detained us three days. Having no carpenter or wheelwright with us, our situation was rather an awkward one; we had tools, however, and although I had never used them before in my life, I set to work, and by dint of great exertion, under a burning vertical sun, (the thermometer, from ten o'clock to two, standing as high as 120º), I succeeded in repairing our damages so as to enable us to proceed on the 20th.

The breaking down of the carriages is partly to be ascribed to the bullocks, which were all wild; but principally to the drivers, who were a most uncivilized set of beings. They had resorted to the Coast for the purpose of obtaining a livelihood, and very frequently had recourse to robbery, and murder, in order to effect it.

Colonel Martinez betrayed on every occasion the greatest timidity, and allowed the men to do just as they pleased. When they chose to stop, finding themselves incommoded by the sun, they did so without leave; and for the purpose of securing to