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58

PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE.

merely changes the nominal value of the annual produce of the earth. The territorial impost levied by the clergy, under the name of tenth, or tithe, measures the quantity of that produce, and indicates with precision the progress of agricultural industry, if we compare the periods, in the intervals of which the price of commodities has undergone no sensible variation.

The result of such a comparison made from the most exact data is, that the total augmentation has been, in the last ten years, 1,062,500., or two-fifths of the total produce. The same data also indicate the rapidity of the progress of agriculture, in the intendancies of Mexico, Guadalaxara, Puebla, and Valladolid, compared with the provinces of Oaxaca and New Biscay. The tithes have been nearly doubled in the archbishoprick of Mexico; for those which were levied during the ten years anterior to 1780, were to those levied ten years afterwards in the proportion of 10 to 17. In the intendancy of Durango or New Biscay, this augmentation has been only in the proportion of 10 to 11.

59

CHAPTER IV.

Population-numbers and character of native Indians— comparison between the population of Mexico and that of the United States-small number of Negro slavesincrease of population-census of 1794.

THE Mexican population is composed of the same elements as the other Spanish colonies. They reckon seven races: 1. The individuals born in Europe, vulgarly called Gachupines; 2. The Spanish Creoles, or Whites of European extraction born in America; 3. the Mestizos, descendants of Whites and Indians; 4. the Mulattos, descendants of Whites and Negros; 5. the Zambos, descendants of Negros and Indians; 6. the Indians, or copper-coloured indigenous race; and 7. the African Negros. Abstracting the subdivisions, there are four castes: the Whites comprehended under the general name of Spaniards, the Negros, the Indians, and the men of mixed extraction from Europeans, Africans, American Indians, and Malays; for from the frequent communication between Acapulco and the Philippine islands, many individuals of Asiatic origin, both Chinese and Malays, have settled in New Spain.

A very general prejudice exists in Europe, that an exceeding small number of the copper-coloured race, or descendants of the ancient Mexicans, re

60

NUMBER OF NATIVE INDIANS.

main at this day. The cruelty of the Europeans has entirely extirpated the old inhabitants of the West Indies; the continent of America, however, has witnessed no such horrible result. The number of Indians in New Spain exceeds two millions and a half, including those only who have no mixture of European or African blood. It is still more consolatory, that the indigenous population, far from declining, has been considerably on the increase for the last fifty years, as is proved by the registers of capitation or tribute.

The Indians appear to form two-fifths of In the four the whole population of Mexico. intendancies of Guanaxuato, Valladolid, Oaxaca, and La Puebla, this population amounts even to The census of 1793 gave the folthree-fifths. lowing result.

Names of intendancies. Total population. Number of Indians.

Guanaxuato

398,000

175,000

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119,000

Puebla

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416,000

363,000

To give an accurate idea of the indigenous inhabitants of New Spain, it is not enough to paint them in their present state of degradation and misery; we must go back to a remote period, when, governed by its own laws, the nation could display its native energy; and we must consult the hiero

glyphical paintings, buildings of hewn stone, and works of sculpture still in preservation, which though they attest the infancy of the arts, yet bear a striking analogy to several monuments of the most civilized people. The nature of this work does not permit us to enter into such details, however interesting they may be, both for the history and the psychological study of our species. We shall merely point out here a few of the most prominent features of the immense picture of American indigenous population.

The Indians of New Spain bear a general resemblance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brasil. They have the same swarthy and copper colour, flat and smooth hair, small beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upwards towards the temples, prominent cheek bones, thick lips, and an expression of gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe expression of eye. The American race, after the hyperborean race, is the least numerous; but it occupies the greatest space on the globe.

Intellectual cultivation is what contributes the most to diversify the features. In barbarous nations there is rather a physiognomy peculiar to the tribe or horde, than to any individual. When we compare our domestic animals with those which inhabit our forests, we make the same observation. But an European, when he decides on the strong resemblance among the copper-coloured races, is

62

CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN INDIAN.

subject to a particular illusion. He is struck with
a complexion so different from our own, and the
uniformity of this complexion conceals for a long
time from him the diversity of individual features.
The new colonist at first can hardly distinguish the
natives, because his eyes are less fixed on the gen-
tle, melancholy, or ferocious expression of the
countenance, than on the red coppery colour, and
black coarse hair, so straight and glossy that it
always appears wet.

As to the moral faculties of the Indians, it is
difficult to appreciate them with justice, if we only
consider this long oppressed caste in their present
state of degradation. The better sort of Indians,
among whom a certain degree of intellectual cul-
ture might be expected, perished in great numbers,
at the commencement of the Spanish conquest,
The Christian
the victims of European ferocity.
fanaticism was particularly directed against the
Aztec priests; and the Teopixqui, or ministers of
the divinity, and all those who inhabited the Te-
ocalli, or houses of God, who might be considered
as the depositories of the historical, mythological,
and astronomical knowledge of the country, were
exterminated; the priests observed the meridian
shades in the gnomons, and regulated the calendar.
The monks burned the hieroglyphical paintings, by
which every kind of knowledge was transmitted
from generation to generation. The people, de-
prived of these means of instruction, were plunged

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