Des Arc citizen., 1866-05-05
HAVANA, April 15, 1866.

NAl .afar x HAVANA, April IS. 1866.
 To the Editor of the New York News:
 Str: I have just returned from Iexi- co, after sojourn of three months in that country. Having received from Virginia several letters of inquiry in regard to the prospects for emigrants to Mexico, and having learned that many persons in that as well as the other Southern States desire to emigrate, I will state, through your columns, the result of my own observation and the information received from others on whose judgment I could rely 1 must state, in the first place, that my personal observation of the country was conGnedto what 1 saw in passing and requesting over the stage route from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico; the greater part of my time having been spent in the latter city. The lands in the Cordoya district, and about Orizava, through which the stage route passes, are unquestioaably rich, and intel ligent gentlemen, who have seen other parts of the country, informed me that there were other districts in which the lands were very rich, and capable of being made very productive by the proper use of capital and labor But colonists willhave many difficulties to encounter in all of them. There has been no systematic eff fort to survey or ascertain the locality of the public lands, until that recently made under thesuperintendence of Gen. Magru- der, chief of the land office. All the lands at Cordova which have been sur veyed as public lands have been already parceled out and have supplied but a small number of colonists. Land titles in Mexico are in very unsettled condition, and but few men know the boundaries of their own lands. So uninformed is the Government itself in regard to the lands to which it has claims, that, in making a contract with Gen. Hardeman, of Texas for the survey of the public lands in Du- rango. the whole risk and expense of dis covering those lands have been thrownup on him, and he is to receive compensation only in the event of his being able to find and survey the lands, the Government not even undertaking to furnish him protec tion against guerillas and robbers, while he is engaged in fulfilling his contract The lands offered by private individuals in alternate sections to colonists, so lar aS am informed, are in remote districts where the Liberals or Dissdents, as they are called, have control, and the Govern ment can afford no protection. The very | highty colored accounts of the country ane it's resources which have been published and the expectations of large influx Q emiarants which have been excited, have caused proprietors having lands for sale tC increase enormously the prices asked iol them, and many persons who have recent ly arrived in the country have been una I ble to procure lands either from the Gov ernment or from private individuals Th' legitimate consequence of all this has been that many arc returning in a great state O dissatisfaction, while others, who relied ol the delusive promises of aid from tn 1 Government find themselves not onl. without the means of obtaining lands, bu of returning to their homes. 1t IS ex ceeaingly difficult for those who have sue ceeded in getting lands to procure iaoo to nut them in state of cultivation, as tn native population cannot be relied on 10
 that purpose. All idea of procuring as