J8z

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

At the rate of five to a family , the total number is1.47 !,<?<;?■ We may rely with greater certainty on thiscomputation of the number of Indians, as it is taken (-omthe Matricnla , or regifter , according to which the tributepaid by them is collected. As four diocefes of nine arctotally omitted , and in that ofNueva Galicia the numbers areimperfectly recorded , we may conclude , that the number ofIndians in the Mexican empire exceeds two millions.

The account of the number of Spaniards , &c. feenis notto be equally complete. Of many places , Villa Segnor ob-ferves in general terms, that feveral Spaniards, negroes , andpeople of a mixed race, refide there , without fpecifying theirnumber. If , therefore, we make allowance for thefe, andfor all who refide in the four diocefes omitted, the numberof Spaniards , and of thofe of a mixed race , may probablyamount to a million and a half. In feme places , Villa Segnordiftinguifhes between Spaniards and the three inferior racesof negroes, mulattoes, and meitizos, and marks their numberfeparately. But he generally blends them together. But fromthe proportion obfervable in thofe places, where the numberof each is marked, as well as from the account of the ftateof population in New Spain by other authors, it is manifeftthat the number of negroes and perfons of a mixed race farexceeds that of Spaniards. Perhaps the latter ought not to bereckoned above y 00,000 to a million of the former.

Defective as this account may be, I have not been ableto procure fuch intelligence concerning the number of peoplein Peru , as might enable me to form any conjecture equallyfatisfying with refped to tiie degree of its population. 1 havebeen informed, that in the year 1761 , the protector of theIndians in the viceroyalty of Peru computed that 612,78°paid tribute to the king. As ail females , and perfons underage, are exempted from this tax in Pern , the total numberof Indians ought, by that account , to be 2,449,12c. MS.penes me.

I fhall mention another mode , by which one maycompute , or at leaft form a guefs , concerning the date ofpopulation in New Spain and Peru . According to an account