The following account of the income in 1812, may be advantageously subjoined, as showing what has been, for the present at least, lost, and altered, by the separation from Spain.
INCOME OF PANAMA FOR THE YEAR 1812. | |||
Sealed Paper | 2,240 | Ecclesiastical Duties in other Cantons | 420 |
Ecclesiastical Duties | 5,332 | ||
From Alcaldes | 79 | Pope's Dispensation Bulls | 27,000 |
Custom House | 145,000 | Ditto, distributed | 5,000 |
Quinto, or Duty on Gold and Pearls | 778 | Other Bulls for Sins | 7,000 |
Ditto | 1,500 | ||
Tribute by the Indians | 300 | Duty on Tobacco | 2,000 |
From other Treasuries | 19,858 | Ditto on Cards | 2,600 |
From Hospital | 535 | Turnpikes | 1,300 |
For Invalids (Monte Pio) | 2,623 | Voluntary Contributions | 110,000 |
Seizures | 860 | Received to assist in carrying on the War | 31,000 |
Reintegros | 175,160 | ||
Borrowed | 42,500 | Customs on goods in Cruces | 4,000 |
Duties on Aquadiente | 21,200 | Military Monte Pio, or Fund | 4,500 |
Powder | 2 | Ministerial ditto | 1,400 |
Deposits | 101,000 | Received for Clothing of Militia | 5,000 |
New Duty on Aquadiente de Lima (from Peru) | 2,800 | ||
Monte Pio for Surgeons | 251 | ||
Fines | 1,200 | Extraordinary Contributions | 9,000 |
Received from Spain for Fortifications | 10,000 | 746,241 | |
Ecclesiastical Duties in other Cantons | 2,782 |
Manners, Education, Occupation, &c.—The upper classes in the Isthmus are of the common stock, but by no means so far advanced in civilization as their neighbours. The white people, and particularly the women, are noted for a tinge of European complexion, which can hardly be reconciled with their geographical position. They are the most superstitious, and the least freed from the shackles of their religion, of all the Columbians; and thus, although their commuication with the English is considerable, and they admire and profess to imitate our domestic habits, we are not in general favourites with them.
The women are retired and even unsocial, scarcely ever leaving their houses but to mass, or to follow in a religious procession. They are also altogether uninformed, and rear their children in the worst manner, allowing them to associate indiscriminately with the lowest negroes of their own age. Hence, though there is a college at Panamà, the head of which is a most excellent, well-informed clergyman, and considerable pains are here taken to instruct the youth in mathematics, natural philosophy, and other, the higher, sciences,—yet the formation of their character, and the instilment of honourable principle, and right feeling in them, are neglected; and billiards, cockpits, gambling, and smoking in low company: are their exclusive amusements. It is not probable,