the service of his employers was very great. He explored the country far and near; made assays of specimens of ore; wrote reams of letters and reports, many of which, besides being unexceptionable as business statements, have considerable literary merits; drew out a sketch for an efficient administration of mines; and in every way strove to earn and save money for the Association.

All these exertions met with no proper response in London. Instead of supplying him with the machinery for which he had written, the Directors sent out fresh cargoes of costly and ponderous apparatus, which could no more be conveyed over bridgeless rivers, and up mountain passes, than they could be wafted from the earth's surface to another planet; and to add to his chagrin, the projectors wrote to him, complaining that he had not already sent home a freight of silver. Some ignorant and self-sufficient persons reported to him the careless speeches and votes of the directors in the most offensive form. In answer to a statement in one of Robert Stephenson's reports, that the operations at Santa Ana might be accelerated if they had either steam, or water power wherewith to work certain machinery, one of the worthy officials reprimanded the engineer for not availing himself of such a noble river as the Magdalena. Of course he could only laugh at a proposition to turn the Magdalena up to the Andes. But when the Secretary undertook to criticise the investigations of M. Boussingault, the geologist and chemist employed by the Company, and presumed to sneer at the theoretical services' of the man of science, Robert Stephenson became indignant. These men,' he wrote,

'prate about the superiority of practical men over scientific men, being themselves neither the one nor the other.'

In his comments on M. Boussingault's proceedings, however, the London Secretary caused as much amusement as anger. In his report, the French savant had mentioned the advisability of using 'chiens' in the mines. On this information, the Secretary condemned in the strongest terms the cruelty of employing dogs as beasts of burden. In his next homeward despatch Robert Stephenson took an opportunity to inform the zealous protector of the canine race that the word chien in French, and Hund in German, was a mining term, signifying a kind of carriage with four wheels, which was not known in England by the name of dog, but by tram; and that in the north of England a somewhat similar sort of carriage was known as a rolley.

Encounters

Sails for New York-Be

calmed amongst the Islands - Terrible Gales in the open Sea Two Wrecks-Cannibalism — Shipwrecked off New York - Strange Conduct of a Mate-Is made a Master Mason-Pedestrian Excursion to Montreal Remarkable Conversation on the Banks of the St. Lawrence-Returns to New York-Arrives at Liverpool -Meeting with his Father-Goes up to London and sees the Directors of the Colombian Mining Association-Trip to Brussels - Return to Newcastle-Liverpool.

OBERT STEPHENSON was aware that his prolonged

ROBE

sojourn in America was highly prejudicial to his interests. Mr. Longridge, who during his absence had undertaken the active management of the affairs of Robert Stephenson and Co. of Newcastle,' wrote urgent entreaties for his return home. His heart told him how much his father needed him. He knew, too, that all his most influential friends- Mr. Richardson, Mr. Pease, and other capitalists to whom he looked for countenancewere of opinion that he might with propriety consult his own advantage, in deciding whether he should quit, or keep at his post. His word, however, was given; and he kept it.

At length the time came when he could honourably start homewards: and as he looked back on the previous

three years he was not altogether dissatisfied with their results. From December 30, 1824, to December 31, 1827, the entire expenditure of the Colombian Mining Association had been little short of £200,000. A large portion of this sum had been wasted by maladministration in London, but the great operations carried on with the remainder had been directed by him a mere boy between twenty-one and twenty-four years of age. And in everything for which he individually could be held accountable the expedition had been successful. Had he worked the mines, as the Spaniards worked them, with the cheap labour of slaves, they would have yielded him as much profit as preceding engineers had extracted from them. As it was, on bidding official farewell to the directors, he was in a position to tell them that their property, under economical management and with the agency of proper machinery, could be made to pay them a handsome, though not an enormous, dividend.

In the July of 1827, Robert Stephenson wrote his last South American letter to Mr. Longridge.

July 16, 1827.

MY DEAR SIR, -The period of my departure from this place has at last really and truly arrived, though not longer than a month or two ago I was despairing of being able to get away without incurring the displeasure of the Board of Directors, as they wrote to the principal agent at Bogota, expressing an earnest wish that I would remain in St. Ana, notwithstanding my agreement having terminated, until the arrival of a new superintendent, whom they say they found great difficulty in procuring. Just about the same time I received a letter from Mr. Richardson, in which he states that the factory was far from being in a good condition, and that unless I returned promptly to England it would not improbably be abandoned. He further stated that the Board had not met with a person to

succeed me; but notwithstanding this, he supposed I would leave at the expiration of my agreement. This induced me immediately to advise the agents in Bogota of my intention to leave with all convenient despatch, and of my hope that they would make such arrangements as might seem most expedient to them, respecting the filling up my situation. In answer to my letter, they determined upon coming down from Bogota to St. Ana, and attending the establishment themselves up to the arrival of another person from England. In pursuance of this resolution, Mr. Illingworth is now in this place, and it is my intention to leave on the 24th or 25th of the present month. By the 30th I shall have procured a boat at Honda for my passage to the coast. At present it is my intention to proceed direct to Carthagena, and I still have an itching to visit the Isthmus of Panama, so that I may know something about the possibility, or impossibility of forming a communication between the two seas; though the very short time that I can stay there will evidently prevent me getting more than a very general idea of such a scheme. From the information I have gathered from one or two gentlemen who have visited that coast, it would appear most judicious to proceed from Carthagena to Chagres by sea, and from the latter place to pass by the main road to Panama, on the Pacific-these being the situations between which a communication is most likely to be effected. It is extraordinary that the recent proposals which were made by British capitalists for undertaking this scheme to the Colombian Government did not excite more interest. When they were brought before Congress, they scarcely elicited a consideration; at least nothing was said, or done which the importance of the subject demanded. Some individuals of power connected with the Government were weak enough to imagine that a free communication between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans would be productive of serious inconvenience to Colombia. Upon what grounds such an opinion was founded I am not well informed; but there can be no doubt but that interested views of this kind will in time fall to the ground, especially when civilisation has made more advances, and a more intimate intercourse between the inhabitants of the east and west parts of this continent shall be rendered almost, if not absolutely, necessary. From what I have seen of this republic, I feel thoroughly convinced that