128 
COJIl’AEATITE AE£A 
arc comprised the savage natives, we distinguish, according 
to the three preponderant races, sixteen millions and a 
half in the possessions of the Spanish Americans, ten 
millions in those of the Anglo-Americans, and nearly four 
millions in those of the Portuguese Americans. The 
population of these three great divisions is, at the present 
time, ill the proportion of 4, 2J, 1; wliile the extent of 
surface over which the population is spread, is, as the 
numbers 1’5, 0'7, 1. The area of the United States is 
nearly one-fourth greater than that of Eussia west of tlic 
Uralmoimtains; and Spanish America is in the same propor- 
tion more extensive than the whole of Europe. The Uniteil 
States* contain five-eighths of the proportion of the Spanish 
possessions, and yet their area is not one-half so large. Brazil 
comprehends tracts of country so desert toward the west, 
that oyer an extent only a third less than that of Spanish 
America, its population is in the proportion of one to four. 
The following table contains the results of an attempt 
which I made, conjointly with 31. Blathieu, member of the 
Academy of Sciences, and of the Bureau des Longitudes, to 
estimate with precision the extent of the surface of the 
various st.ates of America. We made use of maps, on 
which the limits had been corrected, according to the state- 
ments publislied in m}' “ Kecueil d’ Observations Astrouo- 
miques.” Our scales were, generally speaking, so larger 
that spaces from four to five leagues square were not 
omitted. We observed this degree of precision that wo 
might not add the uncertainty of the measure of triangles, 
trapeziums, and the sinuosities of the coasts, to the un- 
certainty of geographical statements, 
* Notwithstanding the political changes which have taken place in the 
South American colonies, I shall throughout this work designate the 
country inhabited by tlie Spanish Americans by the denomination of 
Spanish America. I call the country of the Anglo-Americans the United 
States, without adding “of North America,” although other United State* 
exist in South America. It is embarrassing to speak of nations who play 
a great part on the scene of the world, without having collective names. 
The term “ American ” can no longer be applied solely to the citizens of 
the United States of North America; and it were to be wished that Ih* 
nomenclature of the independent nations of the New Continent should b* 
hxed ia a manner at once convenient, harmonious, and precise. 
