2 OFFICERS OF THE MEXICAN DRAINAGE COMMISSION, 205 WALNUT PLACE, PHILADELPHIA, PA. President.........E. M. DAVIS, Philadelphia, Pa. Secretaries........CARLOS DE OLAGUIBEL Y ARISTA, Mexico City DR. W. C. CROOKS. Counsellors.......HON. FRANCIS W. HUGHES, Pottsville, Pa. MIGUEL HIDALGO Y TERAN, Mexico City. Treasurer.........DR. W. C. CROOKS, Philadelphia, Pa. Engineer.........A. K. OWEN, Chester, Pa. Chester, Pa., January 17th, 1880. CHARLES M. Du Puy, Esq, President of the Mexican Drainage Commission. SIR: Your Engineer is pleased to submit that in accordance with the agreement made September 22d, 1879, he sailed from New York, October 4th, in the steamship "The City of Alexandria," via: Cuba and Yucatan, and reached Vera Cruz on the 16th, and the city of Mexico on the 17th of the same month. En route on the steamer, your Engineer had an opportunity to make an accurate profile of our proposed canal, to go over our estimates, to become familiar with Humboldt's description of the Mexican valley, and to arrange data on the subject of the proposed drainage. After reaching Mexico city, and before addressing his communication to President Diaz, your Engineer again examined the maps and data in the Department of Public Works, and talked with persons who had given the subject of drainage their particular attention; and neither at that time nor in subsequent search and study has he seen any reason to alter the plan first decided upon, but on the contrary has become acquainted with much data to confirm him in the details first settled. In support of these statements, your Engineer herewith presents manuscript and profiles by Wm. Hay, C. E. of Mexico city; a profile by Baron von Humboldt; a map by Lieutenants M. L. Smith, and E. L. F. Hardcastle, Topographical Engineers, attached to the staff of Maj.-Gen. Winfield Scott in 1848; and a map and report of J. N. Adorno, C. E., together with the more recent government map of Lake Texcoco; and Señor Manero's drawing showing the former extent of the lakes in the valley of Mexico. The new publications collected by your Engineer upon the subject are all in the Spanish language, and need not be submitted to the Commission at this time. Señor Don Carlos de Olaguibel y Arista and Señor Don Miguel Hidalgo y Teran, our colleagues in Mexico, approve of our plans, not only in regard to the open canal, but agree that the ways and means of payment suggested will become popular with the Mexican people, and that the whole forms the only mode which can be made available under existing circumstances. From first to last, your Engineer received from these gentlemen earnest co-operation, and they expressed themselves as more than satisfied with the progress made, with the radical change of thought effected in their capital, and with the earnestness of the steps taken by the administration to put our plans into practice. On the arrival of your engineer at the Mexican capital, Congress had been in session over a month (from September 15th), politics were running high, owing to the antagonism between factions agitating presidential candidates, and numerous persons were crowding the corridors in the palace and taking up the time of the President and his Cabinet in argument of pending legislation; and, in consequence, it was not till Oct. 28th that your Engineer and Mexican Secretary succeeded in obtaining an interview with President Diaz. We then presented translations of letters addressed to him-one from our Commission, one from our President, one from H. C. Baird, esq., one from Hon. William D. Kelley, one from our Mexican Secretary, and one from your Engineer; and subsequently, we presented one from our American Secretary, and one from our Treasurer. On this first interview we had a talk lasting an hour or more, looked over the profile and explained estimates, but mainly dwelt upon the ways and means of payment, and upon their great importance and upon their present and prospective uses to the Mexican people. Your Engineer need only add that President Diaz thanked him for organizing our Commission, assured him of his earnest desire to see the work inaugurated while he was the Executive of Mexico, told him that he had given additional study to the uses of Treasury money, said that he was convinced that it could be issued and carried to success with his people, and that he would submit the subject, as our Commission had proposed it, to his Cabinet, and, with their approval, to Congress. In conformity with these assurances, President Diaz referred the said papers to Señor Fernandez, the acting Secretary of Public Works, for his examination and opinion—it properly going first under that department. With Señor Fernandez, whom your Engineer had known socially and officially since March, we had frequent and long conferences, mainly in explanation of the ways and means of payment. Señor Fernandez's time, however, was so much taken up, owing to the fact that Congress was sitting, that it was three weeks before he reported the subject (favorably) to the Cabinet. It was our misfortune that Señor Fernandez was not a Cabinet member, and could not argue the subject before that body. He could but report and leave the papers for their examination. The said papers were then referred to Señor Garcia, the Secretary of the Treasury. Your Engineer and Mexican Secretary had been explaining the purport of our mission to Señor Garcia and to the other members of the Cabinet, and had come to understand that all would support the propositions except Señor Tagle, the Secretary of Public Instruction and Justice, who avoided seeing us, and which fact we considered as showing opposition to our plans. However, about November 15th, Gen. Gonzales, Secretary of War, and Mr. Tagle, retired from the Cabinet, and Gov. Pacheco, and eventually Señor Mariscal, took their places. Gen. Gonzales was one of our most earnest friends, and his retirement for a time greatly interfered with our arrangements; but as Gov. Pacheco was a personal friend of Señor Teran, we easily made his acquaintance and he became most active in our support; and Señor Mariscal, formerly Mexican Minister at Washington and a friend of several years' standing of your Engineer, and who was already familiar with the subject, became a firm friend to our plans immediately upon entering the Cabinet. Señor Pankhurst, Secretary of the Interior, and Señor Garcia, Secretary of the Treasury, co-operated in extending courtesies to your Engineer, were always "at home" to him, both at the palace and at their residences, and made special order that the manuscripts which your Engineer and Mexican Secretary submitted to the President and members of his Cabinet, be printed at the expense of the Government, which, it may be stated, is an unprecedented compliment. Your Engineer herewith presents a pamphlet (43 pages) written by our Mexican Secretary, and published by the Treasury Department, in explanation of our ways and |