Working Men! To you I dedicate a work, in which I have tried to lay before my German Countrymen a faithful picture of your condition, of your sufferings and struggles, of your hopes and prospects. I have lived long enough amidst you to know something about your circumstances; I have devoted to their knowledge my most serious attention, I have studied the various official and non-official documents as far as I was able to get hold of them - I have not been satisfied with this, I wanted more than a mere abstract knowledge of my subject, I wanted to see you in your own homes, to observe you in your every-day life, to chat with you on your condition and grievances, to witness your struggles against the social and political power of your oppressors.[...]

The object of this Company is to realise the rights granted by the Government of Ecuador, to the holders of its Land Warrants, by obtaining possession of the lands allotted by that Government in discharge of its obligations, and developing their varied resources for the benefit of the Company. These lands offer a vast field for enterprise, as well in the cultivation of a rich and fertile soil, yielding in abundance Timber, Tobacco, Maize, Quinine, Cotton, Wheat, Cocoa, Coffee, Vanilla, Panama Straw, India-Rubber, and Cochineal, as in the exploration of the Gold, Silver, Quicksilver, Copper, and Emerald Mines, abounding in those parts. [...]