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378 investment in these, is, to say the least, contrary to the practice, which an experience of three centuries has induced the Mexican miners to adopt.

The two North American Companies established at Temascaltepec, are those of Baltimore, and New York.

Of the first, Mr. Keating is director; a gentleman who has studied at Freiberg, and was Professor of Mineralogy in the United States.

The Company possesses the Mines of San José, San Luis, and Santa Brigida, situated, one above the other, at small intervals, upon the slope of the mountain, with six Pertinencias extending laterally from the last. In August 1826, very little had been done at any of these mines; and Mr. Keating was living in a wretched hovel close to San José, where a waterwheel, thirty-four feet in diameter, was constructing by American millwrights, by which the drainage was to be effected. This wheel commenced working about a year after the date of my visit (July 1827); up to which time Mr. Keating had seen no reason to change the opinion that he had originally formed respecting the mines under his inspection, namely, that they would pay an interest of from fifteen to twenty per cent, upon the very small capital invested in them. This opinion was founded upon the returns of produce for several years before the Revolution; and as no expence whatever has been incurred in surface-works, with the exception of a leat, or watercourse, by which the wheel is to