POPULATION AND EDUCATION, 301 
I am, however, by no means satisfied that the estimates of both Poinsett 
and Burkhardt are not too high ; yet, assuming the statements of 1842 
and of 1793 to be nearly accurate, we find in 49 years an increase of 
only 1,774,111 in the entire population. Agam, if we assume the popu- 
lation to have been 6,000,000 in 1824, (the year, m fact, of the establish- 
ment of the Republic,) we find that in the course of 18 years of liberty 
and independence, the increase has not been greater than 1,044,140. 
In the United States of America, with only 650,000 more of square 
miles of territory now, and not so large a space at the achievement of our 
independence, the increase of our population during the first twenty years 
of freedom, cannot have been less than two millions and a half, while, in 
the course of the last thirty years, it has averaged an increase of rather 
more than 33 per cent, every ten. 
The several castes and classes of Mexicans may be rated in the follow- 
ing manner : 
Indians, 4,000,000 
Whites, • 1,000,000 
Negroes, . - - 6,000 
All other castes, such as Zambos, Mestizos, Mulattoes, &c., 2,009,509 
7,015,509 
It appears, therefore, that the Indian and Negroes amount to 4,006,000, 
and the whites, and all other castes, to 3,009,509. A very respectable 
and acred resident of Mexico, who is remarkable for the extent and accu- 
racy of his observations, estimates that of the former (or Negroes and In- 
dians,) but two per cent, can read and write, while of the latter, at a lib- 
eral estimate, but about 20 per cent. 
If we take this computation to be correct, as I believe from my own 
observation it is, — and using the estimate of the decree of 1842 for the 
basis of the population, we shall have : 
Of Indians and Negroes who can read, 80,120 
Of Whites and all others, - 607,628 
Total able to read and write out of a population of 7,000,000, 687,748 
This would appear to be a startling fact in a Republic the basis of whose 
safety is the capacity of the people for an intellectual self-government. 
Let us, however, carry this calculation a little further. If we suppose that 
out of the 1,000,000 of Whites, 500,000, or the half only, are males, 
and of that half million, but 20 per cent., oi but 100,000 can read and 
write ; we will no longer be surprised that a population of more than seven 
millions has been hitherto controlled by a handful of men, or that, with 
the small means of improvement afforded to the few who can read, the 
