844 



branch will gain insensibly in the numerical re- 

 lation over the languages of Latin Europe ; but 

 the latter will spread at the same time, by the 

 effect of the increasing civilization of the na- 

 tions of Spanish and Portuguese race in the 

 Indian villages, where scarcely a twentieth 

 part of the population understand a few Castil- 

 lian and Portuguese words. I believe there 

 still exist more than seven millions and a half 

 of natives in America, who have preserved the 

 use of their own language, and are almost en - 

 tirely ignorant of the European idioms. Such 

 is also the opinion of the Archbishop of Mexico, 

 and of several ecclesiastics alike respectable, 

 who long inhabited Upper Peru, and whom I 

 was enabled to consult on this subject. The 

 small number of Indians (perhaps a million) wha 

 have entirely ^forgotten their native languages, 

 inhabit large towns, or very populous villages in 

 their vicinity. Among the individuals who 

 speak French in the New Continent, we find 

 more than 700,000 negroes of African race, a 

 circumstance which, notwithstanding the laud- 

 able efforts of the Haitian government for 

 popular instruction, does not contribute to 

 maintain the purity of the language. We 

 may admit in general, that in continental 

 and insulary America, there are, in 6,433,000 

 blacks, more than 25-100ths who speak En- 

 glish, more than 30-100ths wha speak Portu- 



