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Show DISSERT. VII. \..:-...,..._~ ' H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. " fituatcd on the main hmd, and many others in the lake, and an in" finity of little velfels upon it." He [.(ys farther, that forne foldicrs, his companions, in won~kr beyond meafure at feeing fo great and beautiful a territory, were in doubt whether what they faw was tl1c effeCt of a dream, or inchantmcnt. Thofe and many oth~.;r candid confdlions of Diaz arc futiicicnt to anfwer Robertfon, who availed himfelf of certain words of that author, which he did not well comprehend, to make his readers believe that the population of Mexico was not fo· great as. it ccrtait'lly was . Concerning the population of the ancient capital there are various opinions ,; nor can the cafe be .otherwife where an attempt is made to judge of the populouft1efs of a great city by the eye : but all the writers. who h'lW it, or were infornied by cye-witne!fes., are agreed in faying tha~ it was very great. Herrera fc.lys it was twice as large as Milan. Cortes. affirms that it was as large as Seville and Cordova; Surius cit~ng certain records which were in the royal archives of Charles V. lays, that the population of Mexico amounted to an hundred and thirty tl~onfand houfcs. Torquemada, following Sahagun and other Indian hiftorians, reckons an hundred and twenty thoufand houfes; and adcds, that in each houfc were frolll four to tel). inhabitants .. The anonylnous conqueror fpeaks thus of it: " this city of Temif" titan may be ~bout two leagues and a half or near three· leagues, mote " or lcfs, in circumference; the greater part of thofe who have feen " it judge that there are upwards of fixty thoufand fires in it, and ra" ther more· than lefs .. " This calculation,. adopted by Gomara and. Heuera, appears to us to come neareft the truth, confidering the extent of the city,. and the manner. of dwelling of thofe people. But the whol~ of this is contradicted by M. de Paw. .He calls the· defcription excefllve and exaggerated, which. is given of this city o£ America; "which contained,. accordin.g to fome authors, feventy thou" £·:md houfes in the time of Montezuma II. fo that atthat time it muft " have had three hundred and fifty thoufand inhabitants; whet:eas it is, :: noto:i~us, that the ci~y of Mexico, confiderably increafed under the · d01mmon of the SpanJard s,. has not at prefcnt above fixty thou.i::'lnd ~' inhal.,itants, including twenty thoufand negroes and mulattoes." This as another pa!fage of the Recherches Philqjbphiques which will make· the II I S -T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. the Mexicans fmile. But wh(i) can a~oid fmiling when they fee a Pruffian philofopher, fa bent on diminin1ing the populoufilefs of that American city, and angry at thofc who rcprefent it greater than he willies it ? Who will not be furprifed to hear that the numbf'.r of the inhabit~nts of Mexico is notorious in Berlin, when it is not many years fince lt has been known to the ecclefiaftics, who every year make an enumeration ; we {hall therefore give M. de Paw fume certain in ... formation concerning that city of America, that he may in future avoid thofe errors in to which h<.: has fallen in fpeaking of its · populoufnefs. Mexico, he mull: know, is the tnofi: populous city of all thofe which the catholic King has in his vall: dominions. From the bills of mortality publi{hed daily in the cities of Madrid and Mexico, it appears that the number of the inhabitants of Madrid is a fourth · lefs than that of Mexico; for example, if Madrid has a hundred and fixty thoufc'lnd inhabitants, Mexico has without doubt two hundred thoufand. There has been a great difference of opinions refpeCting the number of fouls of the modern city of Mexico, as there was alfo refpeCting the ancient city, and all other cities of the firtt rank; but there being an enumeration made with great accuracy of late years, partly by the priefrs, and partly by the magiftrates, it has been found that the inhabitants of that capital exceeded two hundred thoufand, although they have not afcertaincd how much more. We may form fome idea of its populoufnefs from the quantity of pulque (q) and tobacco which is daily confumed there (r). Every day are brought into it upwards of fix thoufand arrobas of pulque, that is a hundred apd ninety thoufand Roman pounds ; in the year I 77 4-, there were two millions, two hundred and fourteen thoufand two hunJrcd and ninety-four and an half arrobm entered, that is more than feventy-three millions of Rorpan pounds; but in this comput~\tion we do nat comprehend what ~s introduced by finuggling, nor that which the Indians who are pri-- (g.) P "''iue is the ufual wine, or rath er beer, of rbe Mcxicnns, m:llle of the fermented juice of the Maguei. This !iii \lOr will not keep above one day, and therefore what is made is ·daily confumed. ·( !.J) Our account of the daily con fumption of j> llllj~tt nnJ tobacco in Mex: o is taken fmrn -the lc.tter of one of t he.c hid" a CO Ill ptanlB of that cuftom · hou ft', oft he .2 3d of February, ' 77 5 •• I J i i 2 vilcgcd, 427 DISSERT. VII. ., • w , |