HISTORICAL SKETCH. 231 



Still, however, a variety of important 

 considerations arise, which can scarcely yet 

 be properly appreciated in Europe. Spanish 

 America, though it possesses numerically a 

 considerable population, is still, with refer- 

 ence to its extent, but thinly peopled. Its 

 numbers may be augmented by emigration 

 from Europe ; but the transmission of in- 

 dividuals, or families, from one country to 

 another at an immense distance, must ne- 

 cessarily be very limited ; and in the course 

 of a long series of years, the whole number 

 of emigrants would be found to bear but a 

 small proportion to the amount of the popu- 

 lation of the territory, in which they had 

 become domiciliated. 



There is, perhaps, no subject respecting 

 which the imagination so far outstrips the 

 reality as that of emigration. Fancy pour- 

 trays an immense number of individuals 



