After a short visit to London, Boulton proceeded into Cornwall to look after the engines there, and watch the progress of the mining operations in which by this time he had become so largely interested. He found the adventurers in a state of general grumble at the badness of the times, the lowness of prices, the losses incurred in sinking for ore that could not be found, and the heaviness of the dues for engine-power payable to Boulton and Watt. At such times, the partners were usually beset with applications for abatement, to which they were under the necessity of submitting to prevent the mines being altogether closed. Thus the dues at Chacewater were reduced from 2500_l._ to 1000_l._ a year, and the adventurers were still pressing for further reductions.[259] What provoked Boulton most, however, was, not the loss of dues so much as the threats which were constantly held out to him that unless the demands of the adventurers were complied with, they would employ the Hornblowers. [259] No wonder the miners were so urgent for reductions in working expenses, as we find from a communication from Watt to Boulton, of facts to be laid before Parliament against the proposed tax on coal, that Chacewater had sunk 50,000_l._ in setting the mine to work; Wheal Virgin 28,000_l._ in ten months, and still unprosperous; Poldice a very large sum, and merely paying expenses; Wheal Chance 35,000_l._, and only moderately prosperous; Pool 14,000_l._, without much prospect of recovery; Roskere languishing, and not paying expenses; United Mines, which had been at death’s door, still in a tottering state; Wheal Union stopped, after losing about 8000_l._; Dalcoath 500_l._ spent on timber per month, and a new kibble-rope, of above a ton weight, worn out in a fortnight. [To draw a kibble of ore then, weighing about 3 cwt., took fully fifteen minutes, owing to the great depth of that mine, and two-thirds of the stuff drawn was stones.] To which Watt added, “if we had not furnished the miners with more effectual means of draining the water, almost all the deep mines would have been abandoned before now.” “It is a disagreeable thing,” he wrote, “to live amongst one’s enemies, and all the adventurers are so, except Phillips and the Foxes, who are fair men although they would rather have engines free. I have had many hints given me that the Trumpeters were reviving their mischief, and many causes for uneasiness, but I did not wish you to partake of them, and therefore have been silent; but they are now striking at the root of us, and therefore we must defend ourselves or fall.... I think if we could but keep up our spirits and be active we might vanquish all the host. But I must own that I have been low-spirited ever since I have been here--have been indolent, and feel as if the springs of life were let down.”