Defective as this account may be, I have not been able to procure fuch intelligence concerning the number of people in Peru, as might enable me to form any conjecture equally fatisfying with respect to the degree of its population. I have been informed, that in the year 1761, the protector of the Indians in the viceroyalty of Peru computed that 612,780 paid tribute to the king. As all females, and perfons under age, are exempted from this tax in Peru, the total number of Indians ought, by that account, to be 2,449, 120. MS. penes me.

I fhall mention another mode, by which one may compute, or at leaft form a guess, concerning the ftate of population in New Spain and Peru. According to an account which I have reason to confider as accurate, the number of copies of the bull of Cruzada, exported to Peru on each new publication, is 1,171,953; to New Spain 2,649,326. I am informed, that but few Indians purchafe bulls, and that they are fold chiefly to the Spanish inhabitants, and those of mixed race, fo that the number of Spaniards, and people of a mixed race, will amount by this mode of computation to at least three millions.

The number of inhabitants in many of the towns in Spanish America, may give us fome idea of the extent of population, and correct the inaccurate, but popular notion entertained in Great Britain, concerning the weak and defolate ftate of their colonies. The city of

Mexico contains at leaft 150,000 people. Puebla de los Angeles contains above 60,000 Spaniards, and people of a mixed race, Villa Segnor, p. 247. Guadalaxara contains above 30,000, exclufive of Indians. Id. ii. 206.

Lima contains 54,000. D. Cofme Bueno Defcr. de Peru. 1764. Carthagena contains 25,000. Potofi contains 25,000. Bueno, 1767. Popayan contains above 20,000. Ulloa, i. 287. Towns of a fecond clafs are ftill more numerous. The cities in the moft thriving fettlements of other European nations in America cannot be compared with these.

St.

Such are the detached accounts of the number of people in feveral towns, which I found fcattered in authors whom I thought worthy of credit. But I have obtained an enumeration of the inhabitants of the towns in the province of Quito, on the accuracy of which I can rely; and I communicate it to the Publick, both to gratify curiofity, and to rectify the mistaken notion which I have mentioned. Francifco de Quito contains between 50 and 00,000 people of all the different races. Befides the city; there are in the Corregimiento 29 curas or parishes established in the principal villages, each of which has fmaller hamlets depending upon it. The inhabitants of thefe are moftly Indians and Meftizos. St. Juan de Pafto has between 6 and 8000 inhabitants, befides 27 dependent villages. St. Miguel de

The The

Ibara 7000 citizens, and ten villages. The diftrict of Havalla between 18 and 20,000 people. The district of Tacunna between 10 and 12,000. The district of Ambato between 8 and 10,000, befides 16 depending villages. The city of Riobamba between 16 and 20,000 inhabitants, and 9 depending villages. diftrict of Chimbo between 6 and 8000. city of Guyaquil from 16 to 20,000 inhabitants, and 14 depending villages. The diftrict of Atuafi between 5 and 6000, and 4 depending villages. The city of Cuenza between 25 and 30,000 inhabitants, and 9 populous depending villages. The town of Laxa from 8 to 10,000 inhabitants, and 14 depending villages. This degree of population, though flender, if we confider the vaft extent of the country, is far beyond what is commonly fuppofed. I have omitted to mention, in its proper place, that Quito is the only province in Spanish America that can be denominated a manufacturing country; hats, cotton ftuffs, and coarfe woollen cloths, are made there in fuch quantities, as to be fufficient not only for the confumption of the province, but to furnifh a confiderable article for exportation into other parts of Spanish America. I know not whether the uncommon induftry of this province fhould be confidered as the cause or the effect of its populoufnefs. But among the oftentatious inhabitants of the New World, the paffion for every thing that

comes from Europe is fo violent, that I am informed the manufactures of Quito are fo much undervalued, as to be on the decline.

NOTE XLVI. p. 274.

Thefe are established at the following places. St. Domingo in the if and of Hispaniola, Mexico in New Spain, Lima in Peru, Panama in Tierra Firmè, Santiago in Guatimala, Guadalaxara in New Galicia, Santa Fé in the New Kingdom of Granada. La Plata in the country Los Charcas, St. Francifco de Quito, St. Jago de Chili, Buenos-Ayres. To each of these are fubjected feveral large provinces, and fome fo far removed from the cities where the courts are fixed, that they can derive little benefit from their jurifdi&tion. The Spanish writers commonly reckon up twelve courts of Audience, but they include that of Manila in the Philippine Iflands.

NOTE XLVII. p. 282.

On account of the distance of Peru and Chili from Spain, and the difficulty of carrying commodities of fuch bulk as wine and oil across the ifthmus of Panama, the Spaniards in thofe provinces have been permitted to plant vines and olives. But they are ftrictly prohibited from exporting wine or oil to Panama, Guati

mala, or any province in fuch a fituation as to receive it from Spain. Recop. lib. i. tit. xvii. 1. 15-18.

NOTE XLVIII. p. 284.

This computation was made by Benzoni, A. D. 1550, fifty-eight years after the difeovery of America. Hift. Novi Orbis, lib. iii. C. 21. But as Benzoni wrote with the spirit of a malcontent, difpofed to detract from the Spaniards in every particular, it is probable that his calculation is too low.

NOTE XLIX. p. 285.

My information, with refpect to the divifion and tranfmiffion of property in the Spanish colonies, is imperfect. The Spanish authors do not explain this fully, and have not perhaps attended fufficiently to the effects of their own inftitutions and laws. Solorzano de jure Ind. vol. ii. lib. ii. 1.16. explains in fome meafure the introduction of the tenure of Mayorafgo, and mentions fome of its effects. Villa Segnor, takes notice of a fingular confequence of it. He obferves, that in fome of the best fituations in the city of Mexico, a good deal of the ground is unoccupied, or covered only with the ruins of the houses once erected upon it, and adds, that as this ground is held