"Unfortunately, the consequence of these statements was to direct the attention of the world exclusively to spots which, from the enormous quantity of mineral wealth that they have already yielded, may fairly be supposed to have seen their best days.

"I do not mean to say that the great mines taken up by our Companies are exhausted; on the contrary, I believe that they will still amply repay the adventurers for the stake invested in them; but I have, certainly, little doubt that, in many instances, the same capital might have been laid out elsewhere with a much more immediate prospect of advantage."

The Mines are so important a part of the national resources of the country, that, according to Mr. Ward, all its riches, public and private, depend upon them; and these are the sole springs of its agriculture and trade. To these, all the wealthy families are indebted for their fortunes; and from those fortunes have proceeded all public improvements.

Melancholy, indeed, would be the fate of Mexico, if the source from which all her riches have hitherto been derived, were, as some suppose, exhausted and dried up! She could not only find no substitute for her mines in her Foreign Trade, of which they furnish the great staple, Silver, but her resources at home would decrease in exactly the same proportion as her means of supplying her wants from abroad. Her Agriculture would be confined to such a supply of the necessaries of life as each individual would have it in his power to raise ;-districts, formerly amongst the richest in the known world, would be thrown for ever out of cultivation ; –the great mining towns would become what they were during the worst years of the Revolution-the picture of desolation; and the country would be so far thrown back in the career of civilization, that the great majority of its inhabitants would be compelled to revert to a Nomade life, and to seek a precarious subsistence amidst their flocks and herds, like the Gaucho of the Pampas, of whose Indian habits Captain Head has given us so spirited and so faithful a picture. I desire no better proof of this than the contrast which exists, at the present day, in every part of New Spain between the degraded situation of the husbandman, or small landed proprietor, in any district without an outlet, and that of a proprietor (however small) in the vicinity of the mines. The one is without wants, and almost without an idea of civilized life; clothed in a leather dress, or in the coarsest kind of woollen manufactures;-living in primitive simplicity perhaps, but in primitive ignorance, and brutality too;--sunk in sloth, and incapable of exertion, unless stimulated by some momentary excitement; while the other acquires wants daily with the means of gratifying them, and grows industrious in proportion as the advantages which he derives from the fruits of his labour increase; his mind opens to the advantages of European arts; he seeks for his offspring, at least, that education which had been denied to himself, and becomes, gradually, with a taste for the delights of civilization, a more important member himself of the civilized world! Who can see this, as I have seen it, without feeling, as I have felt, the importance, not only to Mexico, but to Europe, of a branch of industry capable of producing such beneficial effects? And alone capable of producing them; for Mexico, without her mines, (I cannot too often repeat it,) notwithstanding the fertility of her soil, and the vast amount of her former agricultural produce, can never rise to importance in the scale of nations. The markets of the Table-land must be home-markets, and these the mines alone can supply. On the Coasts, indeed, the productions of the Tropics, which we term Colonial Produce, might serve as an object of barter; but these, supposing their cultivation to be carried to the greatest possible extent, could never cover the demand upon European industry, which the wants of a population of eight millions will, under more favourable circumstances, occasion, as their value must decrease in proportion to the superabundance of the supply, until they reach the point at which their price, when raised, would cease to repay the cost of raising them. Thus the trade of Mexico would be confined to her Vanilla and Cochineal (of which she has a natural monopoly); while the number of those who consume European manufactures in the Interior, (which does not yet include one-half of the population,) would be reduced probably to one-tenth. Fortunately, there is no reason whatever to apprehend the approach of that scarcity of mineral productions with which many seem to think that New Spain is menaced. Hitherto, at least, every step that has been taken in exploring the country has led to fresh indications of wealth, which, in the North, appears to be really inexhaustible. To the European manufacturer, it is a matter of indifference whether the silver, which is transmitted to him in return for the

produce of his labour, proceeds from Guanajuato, or Durango, from the centre of the Table-land, or the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre. The capability of the country to produce it in sufficient quantities to ensure a constant market, and an equally constant return, is the only point which it can be of importance for him to ascertain; and of this, from the moment that a sufficient capital is invested in mining operations, I have no scruple in stating that there can be no doubt.”

It is to be regretted, upon the other hand, that events have occurred to moderate, toward the conclusion of the work, the tone of confidence in which, thus far, Mr. Ward had spoken of the Mexican future. In the Fourth Book, he had said

"As the mines improve, these remittances will increase: we have, at present, but little more than the proceeds of that capital, by which the regeneration of the mines is to be effected, in conjunction with a produce, not exceeding one-third of the average standard before the Revolution. When the mines begin to pay, the case will be very different; for, in addition to the half, which I suppose to be absorbed by the expenses, one moiety of the remaining half will go to the Mexican proprietor, and consequently remain in the country, until it is exchanged there for the produce of European industry.

"Upon the amount of that produce consumed, the most important branch of the Revenue depends; and it is to the increase or diminution of the Revenue again, that the creditors of Mexico must look for regularity in the payment of the interest due upon the loans contracted in this country."

It was evident, even here, that Mr. Ward felt the force of certain secret misgivings; but, in subsequent pages, he " speaks" very fully, and very strongly. The evil, and the danger, in short, consists in the violence of domestic parties, the Escoceses and the Yorkinos, of the respective principles · of whose politics, and the origin of whose names, Mr. Ward gives us a very distinct account.

V. The "Personal Narrative" of our author forms, as may be expected, the "light reading" of his book, and abounds in passages of pleasing and useful interest. In the narrative of the author's first visit to Mexico, in 1825, we meet, in juxta-position, the contrasted descriptions of human poverty and natural riches.

"We found at Santa Fe the first specimen of the sort of accommodations that we were to expect on our journey through the Tierra Caliente of Mexico. The village was composed of five or six Indian huts, rather more spacious than some which we afterwards met with, but built of bamboos, and thatched with palm-leaves, with a portico of similar materials before the door. The canes of which the sides are composed, are placed at so respectable a distance from each other as to admit both light and air: this renders windows unnecessary. A door there is, which leads at once into the principal apartment, in which father and mother, brothers and sisters, pigs and poultry, all lodge together in amicable confusion. In some instances, a subdivision is attempted, by suspending a mat or two in such a manner as to partition off a corner of the room; but this is usually thought superfluous. The kitchen occupies a separate hut. The beds are sometimes raised on a little framework of cane, but much oftener consist of a square mat placed upon the ground; while a few gourds for containing water, some large glasses for orangeade, a stone for grinding maize, and a little coarse earthenware, compose the whole stock of domestic utensils. We found, however, provisions in abundance; fowls, rice, tortillas, (thin maize cakes,) and pine-apples, with a copious supply of orangeade, furnished an excellent supper, after which we commenced our preparations for the night. We had all taken the precaution of providing ourselves with brass camp-beds, which, in America, are one of the necessaries of life: they pack into so small a compass that two of them make a light load for a mule; while, when put together, which requires but little time or trouble, they ensure to the traveller the means of resting after the fatigues of the day with every possible convenience and comfort. Above all, the musquito-net should not be forgotten; for without it there are few parts of the New World in which those troublesome insects do not make such an example of a nouveau débarqué, as not only to deprive him of rest, but to throw him into a fever for some days. We put up our beds in the open air, under the shed which projected from the front of the inn, while Dr. Mair and Mr. Thompson, whose baggage was not come up, slung two cots, which they had brought from on board, to the rafters above us.

Our horses were picketed close round the shed, with an ample provision of Zacate, (dried maize stalks ;) the servants slept on the outside, wrapped up in cloaks, with our saddles for pillows; and beyond them again the men and horses of the escort were stationed, with a large watch-fire, and two or three sentinels, to prevent robberies during the night. Upon the whole, I have seldom witnessed a more curious scene, and we could none of us help remarking, as we contemplated it, that if this were a fair specimen of the introduction to American Diplomacy, there would be few candidates for the Missions to the New States amongst his Majesty's older diplomatic servants in Europe."

To the foregoing is presently subjoined,

"Nothing can be more monotonous than the general character of the country from Veracruz to the Puente; the sand-hills do not indeed extend above three miles into the interior, but for some leagues there seems to be a struggle between vegetation and sterility. Patches of a rich and luxuriant green are intersected by long intervals of rocks and sand, nor is it until you reach Paso de Ovejas, that any thing like regular cultivation is discovered. There we passed the ruins of a large Sugar Hacienda, which had been abandoned during the Revolution, and saw evident traces of a rich and productive soil. But on leaving the river to which this fertility is due, we again found ourselves in a sandy desert, where little but the Mimosa was to be seen, except in spots where some apparently insignificant stream called into existence, at once, the luxuriant vegetation of the Tropics. In these we were quite bewildered by the variety of plants, all new to the European eye, and generally thrown together in such fanciful confusion, that the most experienced botanist would have had some difficulty in classing them; for, as each tree supports two or three creepers, the fruits and flowers of which bear no sort of proportion in point of size to the slender branches of the mother plant, it is not easy to distinguish them, at first sight, from the produce of the tree to which they cling. The air is quite perfumed at times with this profusion of flowers, many of which are most delicately coloured, (particularly the varieties of the Convolvulus kind;) while the plumage of the birds, of which, in some places, the woods are full, is hardly less brilliant than the flowers themselves. Flocks of Parrots and Macaws are seen in every direction, with Cardinals, Censontlis, or mocking-birds, and a thousand others, the names of which, in any language, I cannot pretend to give; Deer, too, occasionally bounded across the road; but of the Jaguars, (Mexican Tiger,) and other wild animals, we saw none, although their skins are to be met with in great abundance. Throughout the Tierra Caliente, not one hundredth part of the soil has been brought into cultivation; yet in the Indian cottages, many of which I entered, I always found a plentiful supply of Indian Corn, Rice, Bananas, Oranges, and Pine-apples, which, though certainly not equal to those of the Havanna in flavour, seemed to us, when heated with travelling, a most delicious fruit. Of the Banana I am not an admirer; its taste reminded me of sweet pomatum, and I gave it up after a very short trial. All these fruits are produced, with little or no labour, on a spot of ground in the vicinity of the cottage, which, though apparently too small to support a single individual, is usually sufficient, with the addition of a few Frijoles, (beans,) and a little Chile from the Interior, to provide for the subsistence of the whole family. For this, indeed, not much is required. They seldom partake of animal food: their fowls supply them abundantly with eggs, and enable them, when sent to the market of the nearest town, to purchase a little clothing: this, however, the beauty of the climate, and a sufficiently primitive notion of what decency requires, enable them, in a great measure, to dispense with. If a horse be added to the establishment, which is indispensable where there is any mixture of white blood, the forest furnishes abundant pasturage, and it causes no additional expense. A saddle, and a Machete, a long cut and thrust sword, which is almost always worn, are indeed costly articles; but these are transmitted, as heir-looms in the family, from one generation to another; and the young man who obtains possession of such treasures, during his father's life-time, by any exertions of his own, may be said to have established his independence at once.'

99

The reader will here be beforehand with us in our concluding remark, that the whole of these volumes display, in the most advantageous point of view, the talents, the industry, and the temper of their author.

The volumes are adorned and illustrated by numerous lithographic prints, executed from the drawings of Mrs. Ward. They do credit to the lady's

pencil; and, where the subjects are architectural, they bear testimony that the Moorish taste, so strongly cherished in Spain, has been transplanted, in the most decisive manner, into the Spanish colony of Mexico. It is a curious addition to Arabian history, that the arts of the Arabs, after being spread by themselves to the western limits of Europe, should have been carried by their Spanish subjects and scholars into America. The countries of the Pacific Ocean, which interposes itself between America and India, are thus, if even there, the only interval, in the circuit of the globe, in which the works and the influence of Arabian genius are not to be discovered!

A SWISS TOUR.-No. v.

LEAVING Meyringen after noon, we proceeded through the valley to the small village of Brienz, on the shore of the lake. It is in a charming situation, and provided with a very good inn. Soon afterward we hired a boat to cross the lake, in order to view the falls of the Giesbach. After rowing about a league, we landed, and walked up a winding path to a chalet that stands just below the falls. It is inhabited by a family, consisting of husband, wife, and five or six children; and each individual is blessed in a certain way with a musical taste, and voice to give vent to it. This family circle is represented to the life in a coloured plate, sold amidst a host of other choice Swiss subjects: the old man seated at a piano, and each member, with mouth wide open, joining in the song. The piano is actually in the chalet, and any stranger may command a melodious display, just beside the cataract. The waterfalls of the Giesbach have a character as well as beauty altogether peculiar ; six of them are seen at one glance, descending in succession from the lofty and wooded heights of the mountain above. They have the appearance at first of artificial cascades in a superb garden, so elegant and tasteful is their appearance; but their grandeur, and the great body of water, quickly convince us that the hand of Nature alone is there. The middle and highest fall is seen from a small gallery carried directly behind it, and the cataract rushes close beside, and almost on, the spectator; but this contrivance diminishes instead of augmenting the effect, since it is perceived thereby that the torrent, which looked so resistless in front, is composed of a slender volume of water, through which the light pierces. The falls above, on the higher declivity, are very fine; and inferior in grandeur as the Giesbach undoubtedly is, altogether, to the more impetuous Reichenbach, imagination cannot conceive so lovely a situation as it enjoys; shrouded amidst the richest wood, the beautiful lake into which it plunges spreads directly underneath.

Quitting this attractive spot, we returned to the village of Brienz, and to our tranquil apartment that looked far over the shores. During supper, a company of female singers, said to be the best in the country, came into the adjoining apartment, and commenced a kind of shrieking lament, not in the plaintive voice of sorrow, for it rang shrilly and wildly through the whole house. They were six in number, and each took her part in the air with infinite rapidity and in excellent time. We adjourned to the garden in front of the hotel, and it being a fine moonlight night, the singing sounded much softer than from within. They gave a variety of songs, during more than an hour, and would have continued till midnight, if permitted. The lake had a lovely appear

ance in the clear light, and the rush of the distant cataract on the other shore was distinctly heard. Next morning we took boat in order to cross the lake: the Belle Bateliere has given up her trade of rowing since her marriage, and with less captivating rowers we went on our course. The shore opposite the village is particularly bold and well wooded all the way down toward Interlaken: about half way, the snowy mountains are seen in the distance; a small isle, too, adds to the scene; yet, however attractive in many parts, this lake must yield in charm and variety to that of Thoun, from which it is separated by so small a territory.

Passing down the river Aar to a small wooden bridge, we landed and went to Interlaken : this village is greatly resorted to by travellers of all nations, as much for a residence of a few months or weeks, as for a transient survey. Here are two well-organised boarding-houses for their reception. The situation of the place is central, and excellently adapted for excursions to some of the finest spots. A residence here is also excessively cheap; indeed, the charge per day at the houses of reception is often so low as three francs, or half a crown, including board and lodging! The table d'hôte frequently displays a motley assemblage of guests; and as the neighbourhood is really beautiful-the Aar pouring its blue stream through luxuriant banks, and a high wooded eminence or knoll, with a kind of frail building on its summit that looks out on extensive prospects, the spot is absolutely like a fashionable watering-place-has tea-parties, fishing excursions, pic-nics; is perfectly romantic, and cannot fail to fascinate travellers upon their first journey from their own loved isle, and by whom the wonders of the land are yet unexplored. Great and rich is the variety of characters assembled ; most of them animated with an eager appetite for Nature, a devouring passion for glaciers, avalanches, and inaccessible mountains. What is Clifton, with its poor hot-wells, and its mean, miserable river filthily creeping along? or even Matlock, with its pigmy mountains and shallow glens? Here the mighty Jungfrau is directly opposite the windows of the dining and bed-rooms: the Staubbach might be heard to roar, if it could possibly be detached from the rock to which it clings so closely; and lakes, gloomy valleys, and horrid precipices, may not be counted, for number! Dazzled by the variety and splendour of these objects, or rather lulled by the good accommodations and comforts of the boarding-house of Interlaken, how many a determined tourist, or family party, who left "the city," or, maybe, the politer end of town, with energy and glorious hope, have lingered here ingloriously on the banks of the Aar, and returned, satisfied that the land had its good things, leaving its perils all untried.

Not thus, however, thought or acted a desperate traveller with whom two friends that were for a short time our companions, fell in contact on the heights of the Simplon. A Yorkshire gentleman, alone (at least accompanied only by his guide), and on foot, was overtaken by them, who were also pedestrians, about mid-day. He had a pair of top-boots, a great-coat with four capes, a staff of tolerable thickness, and a broad-brimmed hat. The day was excessively hot, it being in the month of July; yet so rapid was his pace, that they had some difficulty at first to keep up with him. Overjoyed, however, at meeting with two fellow-countrymen, he after a while slackened his progress,