INTRODUCTION.

THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY COMPANY invites attention to a Grant or Concession for seventy years, including large grants of land, made by the Government of Mexico, on the 6th of October, 1867, to a Company to be formed by Don Emilio La-Sere, to open interoceanic communication across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, by railroad, carriage-road, and telegraph line. It is free from all taxation or imposts of any kind by the Government, except the payment of eight per cent. of the net profits of the enterprise, whenever dividends shall be declared for the stockholders, and twelve cents for each through passenger. This grant was modified and confirmed by the Congress of that Republic on the 29th of December, 1868; approved by the President, January 2d, 1869; and published in the Official Gazette of that Government on the 4th of January, 1869.

Pursuant to said grant, Don Emilio La-Sere formed the "Tehuantepec Railway Company," composed wholly of citizens of the United States. This Company, in November, 1868, procured from the General Assembly of the

State of Vermont* an act establishing its incorporation, with a capital of eighteen millions of dollars ($18,000,000), divided into shares of $100 each; and received from said La-Sere an assignment of the grant or concession. On the 2d day of March, 1869, to comply with the 16th article of the grant, the Company gave to the Republic of Mexico its bond in $100,000, which was accepted and approved as satisfactory by Sr. Don Juan N. Navarro, Consul-General of Mexico in the United States, on April 14, 1869, under instructions from his Government.

On the 20th of April the Consul-General notified the Company that the President of Mexico had, on the 28th of March, appointed the directors to which it is entitled under the 30th article of the grant.

Col. Julius W. Adams, Consulting Engineer of the Company, eminent in his profession, prepared in August, 1868, and the Company adopted, a general project for the construction of the proposed works, also a map of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, showing the proposed lines of railway, carriage-road and telegraph, which were submitted to the Mexican Government, January 5th, 1869, and were approved.

The form of the mortgage, and of the bonds which the Company is authorized to issue in aid of the construction, repair, and maintenance of the works, were prepared by learned counsel, and were adopted by the Company,

*The 16th article of the Grant, provides that the Company shall be organized according to the laws of one of the States of the American Union. The Legislature of Vermont was the only one in session at that time.