306 POPULATION OF NEW-SPAIN* 



350,000, and that of deaths at 200,000. It would 

 thus appear that, if this rate of increase were not 

 checked from time to time by some extraordinary 

 cause, the population of New-Spain would double 

 every nineteen years. In the United States gene- 

 rally it has doubled, since 1784, every twenty or 

 twenty-three years ; and in some of them it doubles 

 in thirteen or fourteen. In France, on the other 

 hand, the number of inhabitants would double in 214 

 years, were no wars or contagious diseases to inter- 

 fere. Such is the difference between countries that 

 have long been densely peopled and those whose 

 civilization is of recent date. Humboldt, from vari- 

 ous considerations, assumes the population of Mex- 

 ico in 1803 at 5,800,000: and thinks it extremely 

 probable that in 1808 it exceeded 6,500,000. 



The causes which retard the increase of numbers 

 in Mexico are the small-pox, a disease called by 

 the Indians matlazahuatl, and famine. The first of 

 these, which was introduced in 1520, seems to exert 

 its power at periods of 17 or 18 years. In 1763, 

 and in 1779, it committed dreadful ravages, having 

 carried off during the latter, in the capital alone, 

 more than 9000 persons. In 1797 it was less de- 

 structive, chiefly in consequence of the zeal with 

 which inoculation was propagated ; between 50,000 

 and 60,000 individuals having undergone the opera- 

 tion. The vaccine method was introduced in vari- 

 ous parts of Mexico and South America at the com- 

 mencement of the present century. Humboldt 

 mentions a curious circumstance, tending to show 

 that the discovery of our celebrated countryman 

 Dr. Jenner had long been known to the country 

 people among the Andes of Peru. A negro slave, 

 who had been inoculated for the small-pox, showed 

 no symptom of the disease, and when the practi- 

 tioners were about to repeat the operation, told them 

 he was certain that he should never take it ; for, 

 when milking cows in the mountains, he had been 



