Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/235

CH. XIV.] in the month of June preceding. A former proposition had been made for establishing a company, in November 1824, by Mr. Hines, of the house of Messrs. Symmonds and Co. of London, with a capital of £250,000. Another company was forming, whilst I was in the capital, under Mr. Viré: his partners afterwards came to London; one of them Don Francisco Lavagnino and the other Don Prospero de Herrera, a cousin of Don José de Valle. The views of this company were chiefly directed towards working the mines in the province of Honduras; but the state of our public credit would not admit the plan to take effect:—from the respectability of the parties and that assistance which Valle would have afforded his relative, there is little doubt it would have turned out highly advantageous.

The particulars of Herrera's mines, which I consider as some of the best in that country, and the expense of working them, were deposited with me by