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600 that their operations will be conducted with good faith, and can meet with no interruption.

The success of the enterprise appears to me unquestionable; and regarding as I do the prosperity of the mines of Mexico, as intimately connected with that of our own trade and manufactures, I should think it a subject of just regret, if, after embarking so eagerly in speculations, of which nothing certain was known, capitalists should not be found to engage in one, the result of which can hardly be regarded as doubtful.

I am aware that many of the statements contained in this, and the preceding books, respecting the mineral riches of the North of New Spain, will be thought exaggerated. They are not so: they will be confirmed by every future report; and, in a few years, the public, familiarised with facts, which are only questioned because they are new, will wonder at its present incredulity, and regret the loss of advantages which may not always be within its reach.

I am willing to hope, however, that my present undertaking may have the effect of directing the attention of many of my countrymen to a field, the importance of which has been hitherto but little suspected. Many of the facts detailed in the preceding pages are known in Mexico only by persons immediately connected with the part of the country to which they relate, but by them they are unanimously confirmed.