be very agreeable if his Lordship comes here at the same time as yourself; he is a remarkably pleasant companion. My hearty thanks for your mother's good wishes towards me. "Your humble servant, "RD. TREVITHICK. "MR. JNO. GERARD, "_No. 42, St. Mary Axe, London_." Gerard and Trevithick believed in the great value of the Costa Rica mines, and in the feasibility of working them profitably could capital sufficient be obtained. After a year or two passed in fruitless attempts to form a mining company in England, Mr. Gerard visited Holland and France with no better success; and while on this mission died in poverty in Paris, though brought up in youth as the expectant inheritor of family estates in Scotland. One of his letters says:-- "Robert Stephenson has given us his experience that it was unwise to take many English miners or workers to such countries. 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 ultimately to disputes and irreconcilable disgusts between them and the natives." Mr. Michael Williams, Mr. Gibson, 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_l._ 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. CHAPTER XXV. GUN-CARRIAGE--IRON SHIPS--HYDRAULIC CRANE--ICE MAKING--DRAINAGE OF HOLLAND--CHAIN-PUMP--OPEN-TOP CYLINDER--HAYLE HARBOUR--PATENT RIGHTS--PETITION TO PARLIAMENT.