77 



In the census of 1875 the following results appear : 



European race and descen- 



dants of the Spaniards ...... 1,899,031 or 20 per cent. 



Mixed race .................. 4,082,918 " 43 " " 



Native Indian race ........... 3,5 13,208 " 37 " " 



Total 9,495,157 "100 



The increase of population in the 65 years which elapsed between 

 the two censuses mentioned, deducting from the census of 1810 the 

 inhabitants of Texas, New Mexico, and Upper California, who had 

 passed to the United States, numbering 58,338, was 



Population of 1810 6,064,016 



Census of 1875 9,495, J 57 



Increase of the population in the 65 years 3,431,141 



From the preceding data it appears that the European race nearly 

 doubled its population in the space of 65 years, and at the rate of i.i 

 per cent, of increase per year ; that the mixed race trebled it at the 

 rate of 3.25 ; and that the native race diminished it at the rate of 0.058 

 per cent, per annum. 



Families in Mexico are generally very large, often having ten or 

 fifteen children. I remember how much surprise it caused in Wash- 

 ington, my stating in the presence of Senor Don Jacobo Blanco, the 

 Mexican Commissioner in the late International Boundary Com- 

 mission, who was recently here for a year finishing his office work and 

 maps and preparing his report, that he was the twenty-fourth child in 

 his family, his father having been twice married. 



Decrease of the Indian Population. It further appears that the In- 

 dian population has been decreasing since the beginning of the present 

 century, notwithstanding the fact that the Indian race on the whole is 

 very prolific. 



The causes of the decrease of the Indian population in Mexico are 

 various ; bad nourishment, insufficient shelter from the inclemency of 

 the weather, wretched attendance in sickness, and many others, some 

 of which I shall mention here, having contributed toward the degener- 

 ation and decline of the race. 



The small-pox, owing to the carelessness or indolence of the par- 

 ents in regard to vaccination, or their repugnance to it, causes deplor- 

 able ravages in this race, more especially among the individuals that 

 live at any considerable distance from the cities. 



Indian women, even when far advanced in pregnancy, do not ab- 



