Weber. A.F. 



San Luis October 9, 1866 



Sir and Very Honorable Colleague, 



I want to make a defmite effort to begin corresponding with you again as I have returned to more 

 peaceful regions, than the north of Mexico where I had been for 1 year. After your amiable response to 

 my previous letters, response that I received in Monterrey towards the end of October 1865, 1 have 

 written you 2 times: the first from Saltillo, in November and the second from China (close to 

 Matamoros) in April 1866. 1 have made definite efforts to begin corresponding with you again as I have 

 returned to more peaceful regions, than the north of Mexico where I had been for 1 year. After your 

 amiable response to my previous letters, response that I received in Monterrey towards the end of 

 October 1865, 1 have written you 2 times: the first from Saltillo in November and the second from 

 China (close to Matamoros) in April 1866.This last letter was accompanied by the envoy of documents 

 (descriptions of ther large Cierges, that I had found until then) and a bündle of seeds from a rather large 

 number of species. Those 2 letters remaind with no response and consequently 1 did not know if you 

 received them. The first were sent through the Mexican Mail Service and should have arrived via 

 Mexico City and Veracruz. This country is infested by bands of guerrilas and brigands that frequently 

 attack our couriers; it would not surprise me at all if they had not reached you. The second letters were 

 sent with a convoy of troops from China to Matamoros. I had addressed it to a business in Matamoros: 

 Brach, Schonfeld and Co. They then sent it to the U.S. I know that they thankfully arrived in 

 Matamoros, because I have received answers to other letters included in the same package. I therefore 

 thought that you received it and must believe that it was your response that got lost. You can imagine 

 how disagreable the insecurity of the couriers is and how much it cools my most ardent efforts. 

 Thankfully today I returned to an area of the country that is peaceful and where the stage coaches travel 

 with some degree of security. I also hurry to answer you to prove my lively desire to renew our 

 relationship, interrupted by the difficulties in Communications during my sojourn in the north. Today I 

 will be able to, little by little, place in order the notes that I have accumulated from Veracruz to the Rio 

 Grande. I will send you succesively all my work. Desirous to record all my observations of the Cactus 

 family, I began a few months ago the difficult study of the gender Opuntia, that I did not have the 

 courage to attack until then. 



In spite of the extreme difficulties that I encountered to untangle this chaos, and because of this 

 difficulty, I will be very happy to submit to you all my observations on this subject. At the present time I 

 could send you a certain number of more or less elaborate documents about, among others the 

 Echinocactus, the Anhalonium, the Aulacothele and the Cylindropuntia. But what fills me with 

 uncertainty is the fact that I don't know if my letters are arriving to you. I will do my best to send you 

 regulär dispatches. I don't think I will stay very long in San Luis Potosi as 1 believe that my the end of 

 the year I will be in Mexico City. The evacuatioin of the French army has begun and will continue 

 without interruptions. I plan to leave with the last of the troops; all this will take at least 1 year. 

 If you have written in the course of this year and if you have kept a copy of your letters, I would 

 appreciate it if you would send then to me again. I will do the same if you have not received mine. Next 

 spring I will also be able to send you a new batch of seeds or even some plants, if this is possible. For 

 example I collected as per you instructions, some fragments fo Opuntia stenopitale, that I planted while 

 waiting for the time that I could send them. I have also kept a rather large number of seeds from the 

 same species of Opuntia , that is commonly seen in the surroundings of Matehuala, where they grow 

 very easily; further north the ovaries are more frequently sterile. The fruits normally well developed are 



