CHAPTER III. 



Population. 



POPULATION CENSUS. TABLES OF POPULATION. RELATIVE 



DIVISION OF RACES. RELATIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 



RELATIVE POPULATION IN HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS. 



It is to be regretted that no very accurate census of Mexico has 

 ever been made, and that since the year 1831, no effort has been 

 persistently pursued by the government to enumerate its citizens 

 and collect such statistical data as may always be easily gathered 

 by persons engaged in this important task. The irregularity of the 

 central or executive power ; the instability of all governments 

 since the establishment of independence ; the intestine quarrels, not 

 only in the capital but in the departments or states, have all contri- 

 buted to, and even partially compelled, this neglect of a great na- 

 tional duty. 



In the absence, therefore, of official statistics and reports, we 

 are obliged to rely upon approximate results, founded on the partial 

 enumerations of preceding years and the calculations of experi- 

 enced statesmen and writers. In the following table we shall ex- 

 hibit all the most trustworthy statements existing either in Mexi- 

 can works or in the writings of reliable authors : — 



Variances between the different Calculations and Cen- 

 suses of the Population of Mexico. 



Tears. No. of Inhabitants. 



1793 — Census of the Viceroy Revilla-Gigedo, including 

 Vera Cruz and Guadalajara, according to an 

 estimate in 1803, 5,270,029 



1803 — Geographico-political tables of New Spain, 5,764,731 



1810 — Semanario economico of Mexico, . . 5,810,005 



1820 — Navarro's Memorial on the population of the 



kingdom of New Spain, .... 6,122,354 

 Calculation of the first Congress, . . 6,204,000 



1831 — Actual census of the Mexican Republic, publish- 

 ed by Valdes, 6,382,264 



F 



