Pages 1 and 2 missing ... Page 3: McMaster has his excuses. He is afraid McMaster will fell grieved and disappointed when he hears the tales of those returning to New York, but the sickly reason that has put a stop to emigration will give them time to look about them and plan a course of action for the future. Longuemare will abide by McMaster's decisions. Some of the lands he has procured are good and some are not so good. B.G. Caulfield will come to New York, and McMaster can get his impressions. Longuemare is showing him around Cordova and the lands. Caulfield is going to organize the "American and Mexican Emigrant Company," of which Longuemare will be the agent and representative. They have drawn up an arrangement by which Longuemare agrees to purchase lands for the company. Caulfield has not been successful in his demands on the government for a charter. Robles asked Longuemare regarding the matter, and finally rejected the charter, but said he would give Caulfield a paper containing only the essence of the law. McMaster must not mention this to Caulfield, or tell him that Longuemare was in any way connected. Let Caulfield go back to work the Company, and help him if there is profit in doing so. In San Francisco a company with large capital is forming to raise cotton on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Longuemare advises emigrants to send no commissioners like Caulfield who try to get grants, but men who will pick out the land they want, and will make arrangements for the families they represent. Foreigners are displeased because there is no society in Mexico, so Longuemare advises them to settle close together. Even in the cities it is dull, but they could be beautiful, especially Mexico City. The American families living in Mexico are dissatisfied and unfriendly. One reason for this feeling is that the cities are overcrowded and no houses can be had, so that they must live in hotels which are anything but comfortable. Longuemare would leave a family at Cordova or Crizaha, for the trip from Vera Cruz to Mexico City is very trying and cannot be made for less than $50. The Diligence company has a monopoly on all the hotels, and its prices are exorbitant. Boarding houses are much preferable to hotels, and the board there is superior to that in America. There is a fine opening for American hotel keepers, for all the large cities in Mexico are sadly in need of good hotels, and anyone with capital would find the hotel business a paying investment. But there is no lack of openings for capital, and Longuemare refers McMaster to the paper "El Orizateno" for _____ 2, _____ , for a story on it. Among foreigners in Mexico there is some fever for coffee lands; they are interested in the culture of coffee, and come to Longuemare for suitable lands. He hopes to make arrangements with the government to get control of matters in that direction, unless McMaster orders him to devote himself to something else. Companies could be formed in New York to promote coffee-cultivation, and Longuemare plans to have some acres planted in coffee to supply plants to those who are buying coffee lands. Plants sell for $3 or $4 a thousand, and buying them gains a year for the grower. J.N. Tesey ? wants Longuemare's name connected with his Real Estate Agency, but he has as yet refused, seeing no probability of its success. Longuemare now supplies the Agency's lands, and his future depends on what position he will hold toward the government. He hopes McMaster understands that he will make money if the opportunity presents itself. He means to carry out to the letter the terms of their agreement to encourage emigration, and has acted as he thought best even though it was in a roundabout way. But if any outside business presents itself while he is attending to main questions, shall he take care of it? He begs for an answer to this question, and asserts that he will stay in Mexico until the last act of the play. Just now everything looks bright, so far as the emigration and speculation scheme is concerned, on the part of the government. McMaster should inform him of any companies formed in New York, and assure them that he Longuemare will manage them, and can promise to obtain from the government what few others can. But in all this he abides by McMaster advice. As soon as his plan has been decided upon and he is placed in the position he desires he will notify McMaster. If the government adopts his views he can also supply McMaster with government advertising. The political situation is quiet. The troops are leaving every day to finish up the guerilla bands, there is no longer any need for them in this section. It is not true that there has been a break between the Emperor Maximilian and the clergy. The Emperor has said that in 18 months his picture and that of Pius IX will be side by side in every house, and Longuemare believes it will be so. Longuemare, however, does not approve of the French who are trying to force the Emperor to a policy benefitting them alone. He is surrounded too much by the French, and the Mexicans are left out of every thing, so that they pronounce him incapable and in power only by the grace of Napoleon III. The dismissal of the Chief of Cabinet, Eloin, would be hailed, for he is especially odious and holds his position, it is said, through the influence of the Empress Charlotte and Leopold of Belgium. The French are now fighting the government on the naturalization question. They do not wish to lose their nationality, and deny the policy of making a Mexican citizen of one who possesses a portion of Mexican soil. The French paper has come out against the Constitution, and there is a general desire for American immigration to counteract the French influence. Holy Week was celebrated in Mexico as Longuemare has never seen it celebrated. He gives an account of the celebration, and decides that the stories told about the corruptness of the clergy must surely be false, for it seems impossible that a people with a bad clergy could be so devout and pious. Emigrants going to Mexico need no passport, and it is a useless expense to get one. When they arrive, they should not stop in the dreary country between Vera Cruz and Potiers, but at Cordova or Orizana instead. Longuemare met a Me. Stewart, a friend of McMaster's, and is sending his greeting with Mr. Keeling, who is a practical man whose opinion is worth knowing. Longuemare will take care of some matters soon. ` P.S. The man who was supposed to have carried this letter was delayed, and Longuemare will send it by Caulfield. He reports an interesting ceremony that took place on Holy Thursday the washing of the feet of 24 poor by the Emperor and Empress. That day Longuemare met the Emperor and Empress on the street, walking without escort, and obtained a good look at them for the first time. :: I-1-m A.L. Incomplete, unsigned 10pp.