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376 account of his Visit to Mexico, which is already before the public. The only circumstances which he has not given to the world, are the data by which he was first induced to direct his attention to this unfortunate speculation. Some there must have been, for Mr. Bullock was a real enthusiast about his mine; but upon this subject I have never been able to obtain any authentic information.

Had the mine been really valuable, there would have been nothing injudicious in the manner in which the gentlemen, to whom Mr. Bullock transferred his rights as proprietor, proposed to work it; but in August 1826, the state of their affairs was very unpromising. Mr. Bullock had been appointed Director of the works of the Company, with a salary of 700l. The expence of his journey to Mexico, with his family, fourteen Irish miners, a smelter, a gardener, and every thing necessary for a large establishment, had been defrayed in the most liberal manner, and he had been allowed to build a house in a very beautiful situation, with a Hacienda de beneficio, and a garden à l'Angloise, attached to it; but in the mine itself there were not only no vestiges of a vein, but no appearance of its ever having been of any sort of importance.

In order to ascertain its situation, a new shaft was sunk at about ninety yards from the old one, upon much lower ground, at which a very ingenious waterwheel was erected by an American engineer, in order