Our engineer took up his abode for a time at Mariquita, a fine old city, though then greatly decayed. During the period of the Spanish dominion, it was an important place, most of the gold and silver convoys passing through it on their way to Cartagena, there to be shipped in galleons for Europe. The mountainous country to the west was rich in silver, gold, and other metals, and it was Mr. Stephenson’s object to select the best site for commencing operations for the Company. With this object he “prospected” about in all directions, visiting long-abandoned mines, and analysing specimens obtained from many quarters. The mines eventually fixed upon as the scene of his operations were those of La Manta and Santa Anna, long before worked by the Spaniards, though, in consequence of the luxuriance and rapidity of the vegetation, all traces of the old workings had become completely overgrown and lost. Everything had to be begun anew. Roads had to be cut to the mines, machinery to be erected, and the ground opened up, in course of which some of the old adits were hit upon. The native peons or labourers were not accustomed to work, and at first they usually contrived to desert when they were not watched, so that very little progress could be made until the arrival of the expected band of miners from England. The authorities were by no means helpful, and the engineer was driven to an old expedient with the object of overcoming this difficulty. “We endeavour all we can,” he says, in one of his letters, “to make ourselves popular, and this we find most effectually accomplished by ‘regaling the venal beasts.’” {196} He also gave a ball at Mariquita, which passed off with _éclat_, the governor from Honda, with a host of friends, honouring it with their presence. It was, indeed, necessary to “make a party” in this way, as other schemers were already trying to undermine the Colombian company in influential directions. The engineer did not exaggerate when he said, “The uncertainty of transacting business in this country is perplexing beyond description.”