435 



ber of thirty. I love to record facts, that do 

 honour to the character of a people, from whom 

 Mr. Bonpland and myself received so many 

 marks of kindness and affection. 



What is most interesting in the colonies next 

 to the state of the Blacks, is to know the num- 

 ber of white Creoles, whom I call Hispano-Ame- 

 ricans*, and that of the Whites born in Europe. 

 It is difficult to acquire notions sufficiently exact 

 on so delicate a point. The people in the New, 

 as well as the Old World, abhor numberings, 

 suspecting them to be made in order to augment 

 the weight of taxes. The men in office, on the 

 other hand, sent by the mother- country to the 

 colonies, dislike these statistical enumerations 

 as much as the people, and this from motives of 

 a jealous policy. These numberings, so irksome 

 to make, are not easily withheld from the curi- 

 osity of the planters. Although ministers at 

 Madrid, aware of the real interests of their 

 country, have endeavoured from time to time, 

 to obtain precise information respecting the in- 

 creasing prosperity of the colonies, the local 

 authorities have not in general seconded these 

 useful views. It required direct orders from 



* In imitation of the word Anglo-American, adopted in ali 

 the languages of Europe, In the Spanish colonies, the Whites 

 born in America are called Spaniards ; and the real Spaniards^ 

 those who are born in the mother-country, Europeans, Ga~ 

 ckupins, or Chapetons. 



2 f2 



