In 1903 payments were resumed, and between that year and 1907 the amounts awarded to the three favoured nations after the 1903 blockade were paid off, while the sums due to other nations were reduced before 1910 from B 21,000,000 to B 13,000,000. In 1905 also the old English 3 per cent. debt and the 1896 loan were united under the name of the Three Per Cent. Diplomatic Debt. Between 1906 and 1910 over B 33,000,000 of debt were paid off, the total at the beginning of that year being B 207,995,052.72 or £8,111,807. At the close of the year this had been further reduced to B 197,807,477.83, or £7,714,490. Nearly £400,000 was thus paid off in the first year of General Gomez’s presidency. The natural resources of the country have received little attention hitherto, in comparison with the abundance and extent of the opportunities for investment of capital. The desultory attempts at development have in many cases met with extraordinary success, the best known instance being that of the Callao goldmine, while the return obtained for capital has been very high both for Venezuelans and foreigners; the failure of at first successful enterprises or the failure of others from the commencement has in nearly every case been due to lack of foresight, careless management, inadequate or inflated capital. The republic has been best known to miners as a producer of the rarer metals and minerals, but the more satisfactory, if less showy, resources are not wanting, though some, such as the fine building and ornamental stones, have been absolutely neglected. In many parts of the Caribbean Hills the Segovia Highlands, the Andes, as well as the Maracaibo and Coro lowlands, deposits of coal are known to exist, and have been worked in a perfunctory manner in various regions. There are _minas de carbon de piedra_ west of Maracaibo, where the coal appears to be of very good quality; and similar seams have been extracted near Coro by shallow workings. The most extensive coalmines are those of Naricual, some fifteen miles eastward of Barcelona. The ores of the other great staple mineral, iron, are vaguely referred to in descriptions of various imperfectly known parts of the country, but the only deposit which has hitherto attracted the interest of capitalists is that of Imataca on the foothills of the range of the same name in the Delta-Amacuro territory, on the banks of the Caño Corosimo. The veins are said to be numerous and extensive, and 700 tons were shipped to Baltimore in 1901, when the ore was examined and described as magnetic with 60 to 70 per cent. of iron. The main deposit is known as Imataca, but neighbouring _minas_ bear the names of Tequendama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, La Magdalena, El Encantado, Costa Rica, and Yucatan; a concession for the whole of the known ferriferous area was granted on August 14th of last year (1911) to the Canadian-Venezuelan Ore Company, Limited, of Halifax, N.S.