142 



POPULATION-. 



sight, that of the consumption of corn, the Hsts of deaths, 

 births, &c. an excess in the determined quantity may be made 

 apparent. 



The present demonstrative plan, which establishes the total 

 amount of the inhabitants of Lima at fifty-two thousand six 

 hundred and twenty-seven, has in its favour all the presump- 

 tions which can lead to a belief, that it is the most exa6l, and 

 the one approaching the nearest to the truth. We are aware 

 that several individuals, either accidentally, or through a 

 false conception of the aim of the enrolment, have baffled the 

 zeal of the commissaries, by the subtra6lion of a portion of the 

 population, more especially in the class of slaves ; but those 

 who have been thus concealed cannot exceed two thousand. 



When the provinces which now constitute the viceroyalty 

 of Buenos-Ayres were separated from that of Lima, many 

 gloomy politicians, and false reasoners, predi6led the speedy 

 annihilation of this city ; at the same time that ignorance ex- 

 patiated on the necessity of the commerce being again esta- 

 blished on the footing of the galleons. Pra6lical experience 

 has demonstrated the falsehood of these conceptions. The 

 free trade, a benefit which has not experienced a meet return 

 of grateful acknowledgment, has filled up the void which 

 the above political partition may have made in the interests 

 and population of the capital of Peru. In reality, since the 

 epoch when every advantage was first taken of this freedom of 

 intercourse, Lima has increased in size about one-fifth, as the 

 buildings which have been recently construdled sufficiently 

 testify. Don Manuel De Leon, perpetual regidor of police, 

 has built over a great extent of ground, which before lay 

 waste, extending from the Piti garden to the ancient ere6tions 



without 



