E cas. The city of Caracas contained, according to the A clerical census of 1802, 31,234 souls, and in 1806 they exceeded 40,000. This population is classed into ical whites, slaves, freed people, and a very few Indians. oral The first form almost a fourth part of the amount, the slaves a third part, the Indians a twentieth part, and tion the freed men the remainder. In the white population there are six Castilian titles, three marquisses, and three counts. All the whites pretend to be noble, and nearly one-third of them are acknowledged to be so. The whites are all either planters, merchants, soldiers, priests, monks, financiers, or lawyers. A Spanish white person, especially a creole, however poor he may be, thinks it the greatest disgrace to labour as a mechanic. The Europeans in Caracas form at least two very distinct classes; the first comprises those who come from Spain with appointments; the second those actuated by industry and a spirit of enterprize, and who emigrate to acquire wealth. The greater part of these come from Catalonia and Biscay; their views are purely mercantile. Both Catalonians and Biscayans are distinguished among their fellow-citizens by the good faith they observe in their business, and by their punctuality in their payments. The former class, the European placemen, are most obnoxious to the creoles, and these are, in point of ability and education, almost always the superiors. The Spaniards from the Canary islands, who are impelled by want, rather than fired by ambition, to quit their native soil and to establish themselves at Caracas, import with them the united industry of the Catalonians and Biscayans. Their genius assimilates more to that of the latter than to that of the former; but, in fine, both are useful citizens, like all who strive by honest means to gain their livelihood, and who are not ashamed to prove by example that man is born to labour. The women of Caracas are agreeable, sensible, and engaging; few of them are fair, but they have jet black hair, with complexions as clear as alabaster; their eyes are large, well set, and lovely, whilst the carnation of their lips marks a health and vigour of constitution. There are very few, however, above the middle size, whilst there are a great many under; and their feet, too, are rarely handsome. As they pass a great part of their lives at their windows, it may be said that they are solicitous to display that in which nature has most favoured them. There are no female schools here; the women, therefore, learn nothing but what their parents teach them, which is confined, in many cases, to praying, reading badly, and writing worse; it is difficult for any but an inspired lover to read their scrawl. They have neither dancing, drawing, nor music masters; all they learn of these accomplishments is to play a few airs on the guitar and piano-forte; there are but a very few who understand the rudiments of music. But, in spite of this want of education, the ladies of Caracas know very well how to unite social manners with politeness, and the art of coquetry with feminine modesty. This is, however, a picture only of those women whose husbands or fathers possess large fortunes or lucrative places; for that part of the female sex who are doomed to procure their own livelihood, seldom know of any other means of existence than the public prostitution of their virtue: about two hundred of these poor creatures pass their days in rags and tatters in the ground-floors of houses, and stroll out only at night to procure the pittance for their Political and Moral State. next day's fare; their dress is a white petticoat and S. AMEcloak, with a pasteboard bonnet covered with lustring, RICA. to which they attach a bunch of artificial flowers and tinsel. The same dress often serves in one evening for two or three of these unhappy beings. The class of domestic slaves is considerable at Caracas, since a person believes himself rich only in proportion to the number of slaves he has in his house. In general, four times more servants are kept than are necessary, for this is thought an effectual method of concealing poverty. Thus a white woman goes to mass with two negro or mulatto women in her train, without having an equal value in any other species of property. Those who are reputedly rich are followed by four or five servants, whilst as many attend every white person of the same family going to another church. Some houses at Caracas contain twelve or fifteen servants, without counting the footmen in attendance on the men. Probably there is not a city throughout all the West Indies that has so great a proportion, with respect to other classes, of enfranchised persons and their de scendants, as Caracas; they carry on all the trades which the whites disdain. Every carpenter, joiner, mason, blacksmith, locksmith, tailor, shoemaker, and goldsmith, &c. is, or has been, an enfranchised slave. They do not excel in any of these trades, because, in learning them mechanically, they always err in the principle; moreover, indolence, which is so natural to them, extinguishes that emulation to which the arts owe all their progress. However, their masonry and their carpentry are sufficiently correct, but the joiner's art is yet in its infancy. They work very little; and what appears rather contradictory is, that they work much cheaper than the European artists; in general, burdened with families, they live heaped up together in poor houses, and in the midst of privations. In this state of poverty, to employ them, you must afford an immediate advance of money. The blacksmith never has coals nor fire. The carpenter is always without wood even for a table: even the wants of their families must be administered to by their employer. In fine, the predominant passion among this class of people is to consume their lives in the exercises of devotion, and they are fond of forming themselves into religious societies; indeed there are few churches that have not one or two of these fraternities, composed entirely of enfranchised slaves. Every one has its uniform, differing from the other only in colour. The education of the youth of Caracas, and of the Education whole archbishopric, is entirely in a college and an uni- at Caracas, versity united together. The foundation of the college preceded that of the university by more than sixty years. This institution originated in the piety and care of Bishop A. Gonzales de Acuna, who died in 1682. At first nothing was taught here but Latin, with the addition of scholastic philosophy and theology. It has now a reading and a writing school; three Latin schools, in one of which they profess rhetoric; two professors of philosophy, one of which is a lay or secular priest, and the other a Dominican; four professors of theology, two for school divinity, one for ethics, and another for positive divinity, the last of which ought always to be a Dominican; a professor of civil law; a professor of canon law; a professor of medicine. The university and college of Caracas have only a capital of 47,748 dollars and 64 reals, put out at interest, and producing State. S. AME- annually 2387 dollars, 33 reals: this sum pays the twelve Theology Canon and civil law Physic... In the school of sacred music 202 140 36 55 11 Stat tion of more than 40,000 souls, and, in short, with a S. A garrison of 1,000 men, experience famine in the midst RIC of abundance. If filth does not accumulate in the streets, it is owing to the frequency of the rains, and Politi not to the care of the police, for they are never washed and but in honour of some procession. Such streets as processions do not pass through are covered with an herb like the weed on ponds, the panicum dactylum of Linnæus. Mendicity, which is, in almost every other country, the province of the police, appears to be unnoticed by it in Caracas. The streets are crowded with poor of both sexes, who have no other subsistence than what they derive from alms, and who prefer these means of living to that of labour. It is feared that the indiscriminate charity exhibited here is productive of the 22 worst effects; that it affords to vice the means of remaining vicious. The police are, indeed, acquainted with these abuses, but cannot repress them without the imputation of impiety. To form a correct idea of the number of mendicants that wander in the streets, it is but necessary to know that the archbishop distributes generally alms every Saturday; that each mendicant. receives a half-escalin, or 1-16th of a dollar; and that at each of these pious distributions there is given a sum of from 75 or 76 dollars, which should make the number of beggars at least 1,200; and in this list are not included those who are ashamed to beg publicly, and to whom the worthy prelate, D. Francis d'Ibarra, a creole of Caracas, distributes certain revenues in secret. The cabildo, composed of twenty-two members, and seconded by the alcaldes de barrio, who are magistrates distributed throughout the wards of the city, would be more than sufficient to manage the affairs of the police; but the presence of the higher authorities, who wish to share the prerogatives of command, has made a division of all matters of police between the governor, the lieutenant-governor, and a member of the audience, who, under the title of judge of the province, exercises his functions in conjunction with the authorities just mentioned. 466 The Spaniards of Caracas, of all people in the world, stand least in need of a police to preserve public tranquillity. Their natural sobriety, and more especially their phlegmatic disposition, render quarrels and tumults very rare among them. Here there is never any noise in the streets; every body in them is silent, dull, and grave; 300 to 400 people coming out of a church make no more noise than a tortoise moving along the sand. But if the magistrate has nothing to fear from open crimes, he has so much the more to apprehend from assassinations, thefts, frauds, and treachery. The Spaniard is far from exempt from that vindictive spirit, which is the more dangerous as it seeks its revenge only in the dark; and from that rancour which veils itself with the mask of friendship to procure an opportunity of gratifying its vengance. A person who, from his station and condition, has no chance of revenging himself, save by his own hands, exhibits very little or no passion when he receives the offence; but from that instant he watches the opportunity, which he seldom suffers to escape him, of plunging a poignard in the heart of his enemy. The Spaniards from the province of Andalusia are particularly branded with this criminal habit. We are assured that these unfortunate events were unknown here before the year 1778, at which time the liberty of trading with the province of Venezuela, which was before exclusively granted to the company of Guipuscoa, was extended to all the ports of Spain, and drew a number of Spaniards to Caracas from every province, and particularly from that of Andalusia. It is true that almost all assassinations that happen at Caracas are perpetrated by the Europeans those that can be laid to the charge of the creoles are most rare. But all the thefts are committed by the whites, or pretended whites of the country, and the enfranchised persons. False measures, false weights, changing of commodities and provisions, are likewise frequent practices, because they are looked upon less as acts of dishonesty than as proofs of an address of which they are proud. However great may be the occupation of the police, it is certain many things call loudly upon their attention. It will hardly be believed that the city of Caracas, the capital of the province, and able to supply horned cattle to all the foreign possessions in America, is many days in the year itself in want of butcher's meat. The residence of a captaingeneral, the seat of an archbishop, of a royal audience, and of the principal tribunals of appeal, with a popula Caracas, the centre of all the political, judicial, fiscal, The p military, commercial, and religious concerns of its de- vince pendencies, is also naturally that of all the communi- ga cation in the interior. The roads are almost every. where just traced, and nothing more. The mud and overflowing of the rivers, over which there are neither bridges nor passage-boats, render them impracticable in the rainy season; and in no part of the year are they convenient. They count the distance by a day's journey, and not by leagues: but a fair computation of a day's journey is 10 leagues, of 2,000 geometrical paces each. The orders transmitted by the governor to the several towns of the interior arrive there by express, and communications of whatever nature are returned by the same means. There are no regular couriers setting out from the capital, excepting for Maracaibo, Puerto Cabello, Santa Fé, Cumana, and Guai ana. All the towns situate on the roads to these four chief places enjoy the advantages of a post. The courier for Maracaibo sets out from Caracas every Thursday evening at six o'clock; it carries the letters of Victoria, Tulmeco, Maracay, Valencia, St. Philip, Puerto Cabello, and Coro; it is ten days going from Caracas to Maracaibo, and arrives from Maracaibo at Caracas only every fifteenth day, but from Puerto Cabello every Tuesday. On the 6th and 22d of each State. AME- month, a courier sets out from Caracas for Santa Fé; RICA. it carries the letters of San Carlos, Guanare, Araujo, Tocayo, Barquisimeto, Barinas, Merida, Carthagena, olitical Santa Martha, and Peru; and arrives, or ought to arMoral rive, the 4th and 20th of each month; it is generally forty-two days in going from Caracas to Santa Fé. The courier of Cumana and Guaiana arrives at Caracas once a month; it proceeds or stops according to the state of the roads and rivers. Five days after its arrival at Caracas it sets out again. The letters for Guaiana go directly from Barcelona by a courier; and those for Cumana and Margaretta by another. This arrives at its place of destination in twelve days, and that of Guaiana in thirty days. The official letters from Spain arrive at Caracas every month. A king's packet sails on one of the first three days of each month from Corunna, touches at the Canaries to leave their letters, then sails for the Havannah, and leaves in its way to Puerto Rico the letters addressed as well for that island as for the government of Caracas. The latter are immediately forwarded by one of the little vessels kept for this service. During war, the mail from Spain, instead of touching at Puerto Rico, leaves the letters for Caracas and its dependencies at Cumana, and those for the kingdom of Santa Fé at Carthagena, and finally always proceeds to the Havanah, from whence its departure for Spain is regular and periodical. The answers from Caracas, even those that are official, are sent to Spain by the merchant vessels which sail from Guaira to Cadiz. Terra Firma, in which the government of Caracas is included, is situate between the 12th degree of N. lat. and the equinoctial. It comprehends Venezuela, containing... 500,000 inhabitants, Cumana Isle of Margaretta. 100,000 80,000 34,000 14,000 728,000. Of the population, two-tenths are whites, three slaves, four freedmen and their descendants, and the remainder Indians. There is scarcely any emigration irma. from Spain to Terra Firma. The government of Caracas, like that of other parts of Spanish America, is so constituted as to keep it dependent on the parent country. The governor, or captain-general represents the monarch, and commands the military force. There are delegated governors, who have each an assessor: the royal audience of Caracas consists of a president, who is the captain-general, a regent, three judges, two fiscals, one for criminal affairs, the other for the finances, with a reporter, and other necessary officers. It administers justice, regulates the finances, and has other great prerogatives. The naval force of Terra Firma is trifling, and could not resist a single frigate. Several sea-ports have fortresses. The city of Maracaibo has 25,000 inhabitants, is defended by three forts and four companies of the line, and a proportion of militia. The haven, or port of Coro, called La Vela de Coro, 16 leagues E. of Maracaibo, had, at the time of General Miranda's expedition, in 1806, two batteries with fifteen or eighteen pieces of cannon of various calibres, from 6 to 18-pounders. Puerto Cabello, 58 leagues to the E. of Coro, has a strong fort, with a large and numerous artillery. In time of war it is supplied VOL. XVII. RICA. Political State. with two companies of regular troops. In case of at- S. AMEtack, says Depons, 3,000 militia might be collected here in eight days. La Guaira, the haven of Caracas, 25 leagues to the E. of Puerto Cabello, is very strongly and Moral fortified. Cumana, 100 leagues E. of La Guaira, is of difficult access, has a fort, and might collect a force of 5,000 men. The island of Margaretta, four leagues N. of Cumana, has trifling batteries, one company of regular troops, one of artillery, and several of militia. Thus it appears the strong places are distant from each other 60 or 100 leagues; hence it is observed, a debarkation on the coast might easily be effected in various places, and the troops proceed into the country, whilst the ships, by attacking the forts, would distract the military operations. The military force, as stated by Depons, is a regiment of regular troops, of 918 men, distributed at Caracas, La Guaira, and Puerto Cabello : 400 troops of the line are at Maracaibo, at Cumana 150, at Guaiana 150, and at Barinas 77. The artillery at the respective places is served by separate companies, besides militia; the whole armed force of the captainship-general, regular troops and militia, is stated at 13,059. There is no religion but the Roman Catholic. To be suspected of heresy is dangerous; to be convicted, fatal. The tribunals of the inquisition are erected at Mexico, Lima, and Carthagena, and are very powerful. The population of Buenos Ayres, and its immediate Buenos suburbs, exclusive of the country in its vicinity, has Ayres. been ascertained to amount to upwards of 60,000 souls. The proportion of females to males is said to be as four to one; but if we take into consideration that many men are almost daily arriving from Europe, as well as from the South American provinces, and that under the old government neither the militia nor the marine was recruited from the mass of the population, we shall find reason to conclude that the proportion of the sexes is not so unequal. In the interior, the excess of males is very great; for as the lands are granted in large tracts only, and but poorly cultivated, there is no encouragement for the labouring classes to marry and settle upon them. The poor are compelled to remain single, from the very bare resources on which they depend for subsistence, and are accustomed to consider the married state as fraught with heavy burdens and inevitable misfortunes. In describing, however, the orders of society in Buenos Ayres, it is necessary to premise that we class them, not by degrees of birth, rank, or profession, but by the relative estimation in which they stand, in point of property, and of public usefulness. According to this scale, the first which comes under Population. consideration is the commercial class. Every person belonging to it, from the huckster at the corner of the street to the opulent trader in his warehouse, is dignified by the appellation of merchant, yet few individuals among them can lay just claim to that title, as they are wanting in that practical knowledge so essential in commercial dealings. They are averse to all speculation and enterprize; the common routine of their business is to send orders to Spain for the articles they need, and to sell by retail at an exorbitant profit; beyond this they have hardly a single idea, and it has been said that their great reason for opposing a free trade with foreign nations is a consciousness of their own mercantile inexperience. The more considerable 30 and Moral State. S. AME- houses are almost all branches of some European estaRICA. blishment; few of the creoles have any regular trade. Those among them, however, who engage in it are Political much more liberal in their transactions than the old Spaniards, and are observed to make less rapid fortunes; for a certain independence of character makes them spurn every system of economy, and disdain to assume that frequent church-going practice, which, it is thought, must be observed by those who would enrich themselves through the patronage of the opulent families. Among the inferior tradesmen, those who gain most are the pulperos, the warehousemen, and the shop-keepers. The pulperos retail wine, brandy, candles, sausages, salt, bread, spices, wood, grease, brimstone, &c. Their shops are generally loungingplaces for the idle and dissipated of the community. In Buenos Ayres there are about 700 of them, each more or less in the interest of some richer individual. The warehousemen sell earthen and glass ware, drugs, various articles of consumption, and some goods of home manufacture, wholesale and retail. The shopkeepers amount to nearly 600 in number; they sell woollen cloths, silk, cotton goods of all sorts, hats, and various other articles of wearing apparel. Many of them make considerable fortunes, those especially who trade to Lima, Peru, Chili, or Paraguay, by means of young men whom they send as agents or factors. There is another description of merchants, if such they may be called, who keep in the back-ground, and enrich themselves by monopolizing victuals, and by fore stalling the grain brought to market from the interior, much to the injury of the agricultural interest. The second class of inhabitants consists of the proprietors of estates and houses. They are, in general, creoles, for few Europeans employ their funds in building, or in the purchase of land, until they have realized a fortune to live upon, which commonly takes place when they are far advanced in life, so that their establishments pass immediately into the hands of their successors. The simple landholders derive so little revenue from their possessions, that they are generally in debt to their tradesmen; their gains are but too commonly engrossed by the monopolists, and, having no magistrate to represent them, they find themselves destitute of effectual resources against wrong and extortion. So defective and ill-regulated are the concerns of agriculture in this country, that the proprietor of an estate really worth 20,000 dollars can scarcely subsist upon it. Under the class of landed proprietors we may reckon the cultivators, here called quinteros, or chacareros, who grow wheat, maize, and other grain. These men are so depressed and impoverished that, notwithstanding the importance of their calling, and the public. usefulness of their labours, they are ranked among the people of least consequence in society. The third class is composed of handicraftsmen, such as masons, carpenters, tailors, and shoemakers, who, although they work hard, and receive great wages, seldom realize property. The journeymen are usually people of colour; the masters for the most part Genoese, and universally foreigners; for the Spaniards despise these trades, and cannot stoop to work along with negroes or mulattoes. Many of the lower orders derive subsistence from these and other employments of a similar nature; here are lime-burners, wood Politi and M State cutters, tanners, curriers, &c. The free porters con- S. AM stitute a numerous body of men; they ply about the RICA streets to load and unload carts, and carry burdens; but they are so idle and dissolute, that no man can depend on their services for a week together; when they have a little money, they drink and gamble; and when pennyless, betake themselves to pilfering. These habits have long rendered them a public nuisance, but no corrective measures have hitherto been taken, nor does there appear, on the part of the higher orders, any disposition to reform them. Persons employed in the public offices may be comprehended under the fourth class. The best situations under government are held by native Spaniards; those of less emolument by creoles. The former are regarded as mere sinecures, and the persons enjoying them are considered as in no way serviceable to the community, except by spending their large salaries within it, The fifth class is the militia, or soldier. Previous Militar to the invasion of the English, the officers were not much noted for military science, or for that ardour which leads to the acquisition of it; their chief ambition was to obtain commands in towns and villages, especially those on the Portuguese frontier, where they might enrich themselves by smuggling. The privates were ill-disciplined, badly dressed, and badly paid. The effective force which the crown of Spain maintained in these possessions was one regiment of the line, which was to consist of 1,200 men, but was reduced to less than half; one regiment of dragoons amounted to 600, two of cavalry called blandengues, 600 each, and one or two companies of artillery. With the exception of the blandengues, all the troops were originally sent from the Peninsula, but not having for the last twenty years been recruited from thence, their ranks were gradually filled by natives. By way of eminence they were called veterans, but they have been of late disbanded, and their officers have passed to the command of the new corps which were formed on the English invasion. The force of these corps may be estimated at 9,000 men. The sixth class is the clergy, in number about 1,000. The seculars are distinguished by their learning, honour, and probity; but the friars are, in general, grossly ignorant, and render but little real service to the public in a political point of view. The population of the province of Paraguay belong- Pag ing to the viceroyalty of La Plata is estimated, by Azara, at 92,347 souls, living in regular towns and settlements, besides 5,133 Indians, making in all 97,480 souls, and that of Buenos Ayres to 176,832 soals, and the total population of the viceroyalty of La Plata appears, on the authority of the same author, to have amounted, in 1803, to 972,000 souls. Monte Video, on the N. shore of the Plata, is a Me tolerably well-built town, standing on a gentle elevation, Vide at the extremity of a small peninsula, and is walled entirely round. Its population amounts to between 15,000 and 20,000 souls. The harbour, although shoal, and quite open to the pamperos, is the best in the Rio de la Plata; it has a very soft bottom of deep mud. When the wind continues for some time at N. E. ships drawing twelve feet water are frequently aground for several days, so that the harbour cannot be called a good one for vessels above 300 or 400 tons. There are but few capital buildings; the town in general consists of houses of one story, paved with Moral AME- brick, and provided with very poor conveniencies. In RICA. the square is a cathedral, very handsome, but awkwardly situated; opposite to it is an edifice divided into a Political town-house, or cabildo, and a prison. The streets, having no pavement, are always either clouded with dust, or loaded with mud, as the weather happens to be dry or wet. In seasons of drought, the want of conduits for water is a serious inconvenience, the well which principally supplies the town being two miles distant. State. Provisions here are cheap and in great abundance. Beef, in particular, is very plentiful, and, though rarely fat or fine, makes excellent soup. The best parts of the meat may, indeed, be called tolerable, but they are by no means tender. The pork is not eatable. Such is the profusion of flesh-meat, that the vicinity for two miles round, and even the purlieus of the town itself, present filthy spectacles of bones and raw flesh at every step, which feed immense flocks of sea-gulls, and, in summer, breed myriads of flies, to the great annoyance of the inhabitants, who are obliged at table to have a servant or two continually employed in fanning the dishes with feathers, to drive away those troublesome intruders. The The inhabitants of Monte Video, particularly the creolians, are humane and well-disposed, when not actuated by political or religious prejudices. Their habits of life are much the same with those of their bretheren in Old Spain, and seem to proceed from the same remarkable union of the two opposite, but not incompatible qualities, indolence and temperance. ladies are generally affable and polite, extremely fond of dress, and very neat and cleanly in their persons. They adopt the English costume at home, but go abroad usually in black, and always covered with a large veil or mantle. At mass they invariably appear in black silk, bordered with deep fringes. They delight in conversation, for which their vivacity eminently qualifies them, and are very courteous to strangers. They have a very singular and simple way of training mules and horses to draw light carts, coaches, &c. No harness is made use of; a saddle or pad is girted on, and a leather thong is fastened to the girth on one side, so that the animal moving forward with his body in a rather oblique direction, keeps his legs clear of the apparatus which is attached to him, and draws with a freedom and an agility that in a stranger excite great surprise. A similar contrivance is used in the catching of cattle. The peon fastens one end of his lazo (or noosed thong) to the girth of his horse, who soon learns to place himself in such an attitude, as to draw the ox which his rider has caught, and even should the latter dismount, he keeps the thong on the stretch. The horses in this country are very spirited, and perform almost incredible labour. They seldom work longer than a week at a time, being then turned out to pasture for months together. Their sole food is grass, and the treatment they meet with from their masters is most harsh and unfeeling. They are frequently gallopped until their generous fire is spent, and they drop through exhaustion and fatigue. The make of the bridle is alone sufficient to torture the animal, being of the heavy Spanish fashion. They are never shod. The girths of the saddle are of a curious construction; they are generally formed of shreds of green hide, or of the sinew of the neck; the middle part is RICA. twenty inches broad, terminated at each end by an S. AMEiron ring. One of these ends is made fast to the saddle by its ring; to the other side of the saddle is attached a third ring and a pliable strap, which, being Political passed through it and the girth-ring three or four and Morat times, affords the rider great purchase, and enables him to gird the saddie very tight, which is thus kept so firm in its place that a crupper is unnecessary, and indeed is never used. Trained horses are here from five to seven dollars each; horned cattle, in good condition, by the herd of 1,000, at two dollars a head; mares at three rials (1 s. 6d. sterling) each. Sheep are very scarce, and never eaten; they are kept by some families merely for the sake of their wool, which is made into flocks for bedding. State. It will not be uninteresting here to add a summary Total popu of the population, &c. of the governments of Spanish lation of America: Spanish America. S of which its capital Inhabitants. Mexico, has.. 137,000 New Spain. Guatimala Cuba. Inhabitants. 6,500,000 1,200,000 550,000 Puerto Rico.. 900,000 1,300,000 New Granada. 1,800,000 800,000 1,100,000 Making.. 14,286,000 gata. Caracas Lima Santiago.. Buenos Ayres. 60,000 To which may be added 50,000 to Cuba, as, according to the latest inquiries, that island possesses a population of 600,000 souls. Thus there will be a total known population of 14,336,000; and allowing for the inhabitants of Floridas, and the unnumbered Indians of the kingdom of La Plata, the actual number of persons existing under the government of Spain in the Americas will not fall short of fifteen millions, while Portuguese subjects in Brazil, amount only to 3,300,000, of whom one million and a half are negroes, one million Indians, and the rest whites. Of the above total of 14,336,000 souls, there are 3,000,000 whites born in the country, 200,000 Europeans, and the remaining 11,136,000 are Indians, negroes, and mixed races; or castes of which Indians bear by far the greater proportion; the negroes in Caracas amounting to 54,000, in Cuba, to 212,000, the other states having comparatively very few slaves. The spaces which this mass of people occupy in the different governments have been thus calculated: New Spain extends over a surface equal to |