POPULATION OP VENEZUELA. 127 



have founded colonies, and which communicates at chap. xn. 

 several points with the Atlantic Ocean. Possessing 

 much facility of intercourse with the inhabitants of 

 other parts of America, and with those of Europe, the 

 natives have acquired a great degree of knowledge and 

 opulence. 



The Indians constitute a large proportion of the Indian i^csi- 

 agricultural residents in those places only where the*^''"''*- 

 conquerors found regular and long established govern- 

 ments, as in New Spain and Peru. In the province of 

 CaraccaSjfor example, the native population is inconsidei'- 

 able, having been in 1800 not more than one-ninth of 

 the whole, while in Mexico it formed nearly one-half. 

 The black slaves do not exceed one-fifteenth of thegjaves. 

 general mass, whereas in Cuba they were in 1811 as one 

 to three, and in other West India islands still more 

 numerous. In the Seven United Provinces of Venezuela, 

 there were 60,000 slaves ; while Cul^a, which has but 

 one-eighth of the extent, had 212,000. The blacks of 

 these countries are so unequally distributed, that in the 

 district of Caraccas alone there were nearly 40,000, of 

 which one-fifth were mulattoes. Humboldt estimates 

 the Creoles, or Hispano-Americans, at 210,000 in a 

 population of 900,000, and the Europeans, not including 

 troops, at 12,000 or 15,000. 



Caraccas was then the seat of an audiencia, or high ,^ , ^. 



J t> Population. 



court of justice, and one of the eight archbishoprics into 

 which Spanish America was divided. Its population in 

 1800 was about 40,000. In 1766 great devastation was 

 made by the small-pox, from 6000 to 8000 individuals 

 having perished ; but since that period inoculation has 

 become general. In 1812 the inhabitants amounted to 

 60,000, of which 12,000 were destroyed by the earth- 

 quakes ; while the political events which succeeded that 

 catastrophe reduced their number to less than twenty 

 thousand. 



The town is situated at the entrance of the valley ofvaiieyof 

 Chacao, which is ten miles in length, eight and a half Cl'acio 

 miles in breadth, and about 2650 feet above the level of 



