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226 request; and most companies have a legal adviser of their own. It frequently happens,—and this is an unusually happy termination to a dispute in Mexico—that the mere presence of one of those gentleman at a business transaction, is sufficient to put an end to an occasion of difficulty.

I must here exclaim against the base system of remuneration for service, which is followed towards the poor Indians who are willing to labour—not at the northern mines alone—but also at the farming establishments and haciendas throughout the country. There are several reasons combining to prevent the Indians from being active and energetic workmen. Some of them appear to consider it a degradation to labour in any way for their bread; others prefer a life of precarious plunder: and the rest are so abominably lazy, that any exertion, whether good or bad, seems to be beyond their power. Every proper inducement, therefore, should be held out for their encouragement and improvement; but, instead of this, they have abundant reason to complain of their employers: and the unhappy creatures being poor and hungry, are all the more easily imposed upon.