Spain might now be placed in competition with the confederation of the American republics. Both labour under the inconvenience of an unequally distributed population; but that of the United States, though in a soil and climate less favoured by nature, augments with an infinitely greater rapidity. Neither does it comprehend, like the Mexican population, nearly two millions and a half of aborigines, degraded by the despotism of their ancient Aztec sovereigns, and by the vexations of the first conquerors. The kingdom of New Spain has, however, one decided advantage over the United States. The number of slaves there, either of African or of mixed race, is almost nothing; an advantage which the European colonists have only begun rightly to appreciate since the tragical events of the revolution of St. Domingo.

The kingdom of New Spain is, of all the European colonies under the torrid zone, that in which there are the fewest Negros. We may almost say that there are no slaves. We may go through the whole city of Mexico without seeing a black countenance. The service of no house is carried on by slaves. In this point of view especially, Mexico presents a singular contrast to the Havannah, Lima, and Caraccas. From exact information procured by those employed in the enumeration of 1793, it appears that in all New Spain there are not six thousand Negros, and not more than

NEGRO SLAVES-CENSUS OF 1794.

71

nine or ten thousand slaves, of whom the greatest number belong to the ports of Acapulco and Vera Cruz, or the warm regions of the coasts (tierras calientes).

The slaves, who fortunately are in very small numbers in Mexico, are there, as in all the other Spanish possessions, somewhat more under the protection of the laws than the Negros of the other European colonies. These laws are always interpreted in favour of liberty. The Government wishes to see the number of freemen increased. A slave, who by his industry has procured a little money, may compel his master to give him his liberty on paying the moderate sum of 607. or 80%. Liberty cannot be refused to a Negro on the pretext that he cost triple that sum, or that he possesses a peculiar talent for some lucrative employment. A slave who has been cruelly treated acquires, on that account, his freedom by the law, if the judge do justice to the cause of the oppressed; but it may be easily conceived that this beneficent law is frequently eluded.

Politico-economical investigations have been so rare in Spain, that it excites no surprise that the archives of the viceroyalty of Mexico contain no census of the population before 1794, when the Count of Villagegido, one of the wisest and most active of administrators, had resolution enough to undertake it. Those who know the difficulty of obtaining an exact census in the most cultivated

countries of Europe, will easily imagine what powerful obstacles opposed themselves to his researches. He was indeed unable to terminate his undertaking.

The following is however a statement of the population of New Spain, from the notices transmitted by the intendants and governors of provinces to the viceroy, previous to the 12th May, 1794:

The viceroys who succeeded to the Count de Revillagigedo have never renewed the enumeration;

INCREASE OF POPULATION.

73

and since that time the Government has paid very little attention to statistical researches. Several memoirs, drawn up by intendants on the actual state of the country confided to their care, contain exactly the same numbers as the table of 1793, as if the population could have remained the same for ten years. It is certain, however, that this population has made the most extraordinary progress. The augmentation of tithes and of the Indian capitation, and of all the duties on consumption, the progress of agriculture and civilization, the aspect of a country covered with newly constructed houses, announce a rapid increase in every part of the kingdom.

The only true sign of a real and permanent increase of population, is an increase in the means of subsistence. This increase, this augmentation of the produce of agriculture, is evident in Mexico; and appears even to indicate a much more rapid progress of population than has been supposed, in deducing the population of 1803 from the imperfect census of 1793. In a catholic country, the ecclesiastical tithes are, as it were, the thermometer by which we may judge of the state of agriculture; and these tithes have doubled in less than 24 years.

In speaking of the progress of the Mexican population, we must briefly advert to its supposed increase by the arrival of European colonists, and to its diminution by the yellow fever or black vomit. It is sufficient to observe that Europe does

L

not send more than 800 annually to Mexico. Political writers have always exaggerated what they call the depopulation of the old continent by the new. M. Page, for instance, asserts in his work on the Commerce of St. Domingo, that the emigrations from Europe supply annually more than 100,000 individuals to the United States. This estimate is twenty times higher than the truth; for in 1784 and 1792, when the United States received the greatest number of European colonists, their number did not exceed 5000. The progress of population in Mexico and North America is derived solely from an increase of internal prosperity. As for the vomito prieto, it is never felt but on the coast, nor does it carry off annually more than from two to three thousand persons.