POrULATION. 149 



If we exclude the unsubjugated savages, 

 the entire population of New Mexico, includ- 

 ing the Pueblo Indians, cannot be set down, 

 according to the best estimates I have been 

 able to obtain,, at more than 70,000 souls. 

 These may be divided as follows: white 

 Creoles, say 1,000 ; Mestizos, or mixed Cre- 

 oles, 59,000; and Pueblos, 10,000. Of natu- 

 ralized citizens, the number is inconsiderable 



scarcely twenty ; and if we except tran- 

 sient traders, there are not over double as 

 many aUen residents. There are no negroes 

 in New Mexico, and consequently neither 

 mulattoes nor zambos. In 1803, Baron Hum- 

 boldt set down the population of this province 

 at 40,200, so that according to this the increase 

 for forty years has barely exceeded one per 

 cent, per annum. 



Agriculture, like ahnost everything else 

 in New Mexico, is in a very primitive and un- 

 improved state. A great portion of the pea- 

 santry cultivate with the hoe alone — their 

 plows (when they have any) being 

 Used for mellow grounds, as they are too 

 rudely constructed to be fit for any other ser- 

 ■^ce. Those I have seen in use are mostly 

 fashioned in this manner : — a section of the 

 tnmk of a tree, eight or ten inches in diame- 

 ter, is cut about two feet long, with a small 

 hranch left projecting upwards, of convenient 

 length for a handle. With this a beam is con- 

 nected to which oxen are yoked. The block, 

 ^vith its fore end sloped downwards to a point, 

 runs flat, and opens a furrow similar to that of 



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