44 



RELATIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION. 



read and write, while among the whites, and castes, but twenty 

 per cent, were estimated to enjoy those benefits. Thus we have: 

 87,229 Indians and Negroes able to read and write. 



653,069 Whites and mixed castes able to read and write ; 

 or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and nine- 

 ty-eight individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the 

 simplest rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a 

 half millions. These are startling statistics in regard to the citi- 

 zens of a nation whose government is theoretically and practically 

 based on the culture of the people or their capacity for self-rule ; 

 and, when considered in connexion with the historical details pre- 

 sented in the first volume of this work, they will show that the dis- 

 tracted condition of Mexico is a mingled cause and consequence of 

 her intellectual darkness. 1 



One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics 

 would be to compare the number of births in the regions called the 

 tierras calientes — or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or 

 cold region. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from 

 data derived from nine departments, he concluded that the excess 

 of births in the warm regions or tierras calientes was 1/^ per 100, 

 over the tierras frias. 



He gives the following actual statistics in evidence : 



1st. Result of the general census of the department of Zaca- 

 tecas since the year 1824, and progressive increase of population 

 therein before the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes : — 



Years. Total population. Increase of population biennially. 



1824 . . . 247,295 \ . . . 25,606 



1826 . . 272,901 . . i 636 



1828 . . . 274,537 - ' 



1830 . . 290,044 ' ' ' 



1832 . . . 314,121 • * - 24 ' 077 



1834 . . 331,781 j • • • 17,660 



2d. In 1836, after the separation of the portion of Aguas Calien- 

 tes, this department had . . . 264,505 inhabitants. 

 In June, 1838, it had . . . . 273,575 " 



Increase in one year and a half, . . 9,070 



1 It is just to Mexico to state that Cortina, in the article previously referred to, 

 estimates the number of persons able to read and write, to be much larger ; but his 

 calculations are doubtless made with the partiality of a native, and are based on a 

 limited observation of city life, the army and municipal prisons. 



