RETURN TO KX(iLAXl). 283 



11 1 ) in youth as the expectant inheritor of family estates 

 in Scotland. One of his letters says : 



" Kobert Stephenson has given us his experience that it was 

 unwise to take many English miners or workers to such coun- 

 tries. The chief reliance must after all be placed on the native 

 inhabitants, Under the direction and training of a small but 

 well-selected party of Englishmen. 



" Mining operations in that country are of such recent origin 

 that a mining population can scarcely be said to exist. English 

 workmen are not so manageable even in this country, and much 

 less so in Spanish America, where they are apt to be spoiled by 

 the simplicity and excessive indulgence even of the better 

 classes, and where the high salaries they receive place them 

 far above the country people of the same condition. All this 

 tends to presumption and intolerance on their part, and ulti- 

 mately to disputes and irreconcilable disgusts between them 

 and the natives." 



Mr. Michael Williams, Mr.' G-ibson, Mr. Macqueen, 

 and others, were anxious to take up the mining scheme. 

 The former proposed to send a person to examine the 

 mines. This was a safe course, but not convenient to 

 those who had made engagements to return without loss 

 of time with miners and material to Costa. Rica. 



Mr. M. Williams informed the writer's brother that at 

 a meeting of several gentlemen in London, a cheque for 

 8000/. was offered to Trevithick for his mining grant 

 of the copper mountain in South America. Words 

 waxed warm, and the proffered money was refused. 

 The next day Mr. Williams said to him, " Why did you 

 not pocket the cheque before you quarrelled with 

 them ? " Trevithick replied, " I would rather kick 

 them down stairs ! " 



In the end Trevithick got nothing for either his 

 South American mines or those in Costa Rica. 



