INTRODUCTION. 



When, after serving five years, from 1868 to 1871, as Secretary of 

 the Treasury in Mexico under President Juarez's administration, I was 

 obliged to resign, my health being so greatly broken down as to make it 

 impossible for me to continue discharging the duties of that responsi- 

 ble, and at the time, very difficult office, feeling that if I remained in 

 the City of Mexico, I could not regain my health as I would be subject 

 to continual mental excitement, I made up my mind to live in the 

 country and occupy my time in agricultural pursuits. Before deciding 

 what branch of agriculture I should follow, I made a tour of inspec- 

 tion to the most favored regions of Mexico and found that india-rub- 

 ber and coffee raising seemed to be the most promising and profitable 

 undertakings. 1 The place which I thought best adapted to both of 

 these products was the district of Soconusco, one of the counties of 



1 I take the following from an article entitled " Settlement of the Mexico-Guate- 

 mala Boundary Question," that I published in vol. xxix., No. 2, 1897, of the Bulletin- 

 of the American Geographical Society, of New York : 



" The office of Secretary of the Treasury of Mexico was, until recently, the most 

 difficult of administration, because, the Federal Treasury being in a state of chronic 

 bankruptcy, it was impossible to pay on demand all its obligations, and the Secretary- 

 had to distribute the daily receipts in the best way he could ; so that all creditors pre- 

 sented their claims to him, thus placing in his hands almost all the details of that 

 office, which, added to several other causes, too numerous to specify here, increased 

 considerably the Secretary's labors. Therefore, a hard-working and conscientious 

 man, holding that office, had to work eighteen hours every day, as long as he was able 

 to do so, and that at a place nearly 8000 feet above the level of the sea, where the 

 decreased atmospheric pressure seriously affects the nervous system, and does not per- 

 mit of prolonged and constant mental labor. 



" I remember that the Emperor Napoleon, believing, during the French interven- 

 tion, and while Maximilian was in Mexico, that there was no Mexican capable of 

 managing the finances of the country, sent to Mexico, for that purpose, two French 

 officials, who were doubtless expert financiers, and who, being naturally very anxious 

 to please Napoleon, expecting promotion at home if successful, worked very hard to 

 satisfy him, with the result that after a few months one of them, M. Bonnefons, re- 

 turned home very sick and soon afterward died, and his successor, M. Mantenant, 

 returned to France insane. I have had occasion to notice that even young and strong 

 men suffer severely after a few months of prolonged mental work, from what Mexican. 



