166 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



uses for which steam is employed. When 

 told that the cotton of which their clothes are 

 made, the hardware on the table, and most 

 of the luxuries in Europe, are produced by 

 its application, they look at you with asto- 

 nishment; and when assured that by the 

 same agency, we travel at the rate of nearly 

 200 miles a day, with certainty and safety, 

 without more inconvenience than remaining 

 in our own houses, they shake their heads, 

 and say, " When you have by means of hot 

 water drawn all the cold water from our 

 mines, we will believe you, but not till then : 

 what you tell us is not an article of faith, and 

 therefore you must excuse our doubts.'" I hope 

 and trust their doubts will, in a few months, 

 be dispelled, as Mr. Wilcox has nearly 

 surmounted the difficulties he had to en- 

 counter in bringing the large pieces of his 

 steam-engine from Vera Cruz to this place ; 

 much of it had arrived, and I saw the re- 



