COMMERCE. 



89 



ven intendencies, which comprehend one thousand three hun- 

 dred and sixty towns, and the forty-nine departments, as 

 they are now named, to which the seventy-seven jurisdi6lions 

 that, prior to this estabhshment, formed its government, have 

 been reduced. 



The population does not correspond to so great an extent 

 of territory. According to the highest computation, the num- 

 ber of its inhabitants does not exceed a milhon ; in which 

 amount are included four hundred thousand Indians, the re- 

 mainder consisting either of whites, or of individuals of the 

 different casts. This estimate, when compared with the ex- 

 aggerated relations of the enemies of the Spaniards, who have 

 endeavoured to tarnish their laurels by the odious epithet of 

 the exterminators of the Americans, holds out to the view an 

 immense depopulation ; but is conformable to the degree of 

 industry and subsistence attained by the nations by whom 

 these territories were anciently occupied. 



In reality, it is not possible to believe, that, in the short 

 space of time which elapsed between the year 1513, the epoch 

 of the first expeditions to Peru, and the year 15 17, that of 

 the first regular importation of negroes*, intended to supply 

 the sensible deficiency of hands requisite for the cultivation of 

 the grounds, so much blood should have been spilled, and so 



* Fernando the Catholic conveyed, on his own private account, several negroes 

 io America in the year 1510 ; but the exclusive privilege was granted to an indivi- 

 dual named Chevris, in 15 16. The latter ceded this right, for the sum of twenty 

 three thousand ducats, to a company of Genoese merchants, by whom the first de- 

 barkation, consisting of five hundred Africans, and as many females, was made in 

 the island of St. Domingo, at the commencement of the year 1517. See the Dis- 

 course on the Origin of the Slave Trade. 



N many 



