k after my return my friends from Holland arrived, and we proceeded
to New Mexico, where we found the great Maxwell estate, valued at ten
million dollars, and containing one and a half million acres of land,
consisting of coal fields, gold mines, timber and grazing lands, in a
deplorable condition caused by extravagance and mismanagement. We found
that there was nearly a million dollars of current debts, while the
income was not sufficient to buy postage stamps to carry on the
necessary business correspondence.

An agreement was finally effected whereby the former president and
American manager relinquished his interest and resigned his position;
the Holland directors determined to raise the necessary funds in Europe,
and I agreed to undertake the liquidation of the affairs of the company.

Shortly after I repaired to Washington to report my inspection tour in
India, and tender my resignation, which was accepted, an unusual
courtesy being shown me by extending my leave of absence to January the
next year. The following two years were devoted principally to business
journeys to New Mexico, England and Holland. I visited the latter
countries four times during that period. With the powerful aid of Baron
Rebeque, who had spent several months with me in this country in the
summer and fall of 1883, a syndicate, backed by several million dollars,
was at last formed in Holland, and the whole estate was turned over to
it. Having accomplished this, I voluntarily withdrew from the concern,
and returned to my own farm and home in Minnesota.

The Maxwell estate is situated within the Rocky mountain region, on an
elevation of from six thousand to twelve thousand feet above the sea.
The climate is delightful and the scenery beautiful, but the country is
not fit for cultivation, except such parts as can be irrigated. Hence
most of it is devoted to stock raising, and herds of countless cattle
were roaming over the prairies, the Maxwell Company alone owning at the
time I left its service nearly twenty thousand head.

In the fall of 1886 I was for the second time elected secretary of state
by the citizens of Minnesota, re-elected in 1888, and thus made for the
third time the head of the state department.

In the fall of 1887 the citizens of Minneapolis were honored by a visit
from a large number of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish military officers,
non-commissioned officers and soldiers. They arrived by an express train
from Chicago, an