read and write, while among the whites, and castes, but twenty per cent, were estimated to enjoy those benefits. Thus we have:
| 87,229 | Indians and Negroes able to read and write. | |
| 653,069 | Whites and mixed castes able to read and write; |
or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and ninety-eight individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the simplest rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a half millions. These are startling statistics in regard to the citizens of a nation whose government is theoretically and practically based on the culture of the people or their capacity for self-rule; and, when considered in connexion with the historical details presented in the first volume of this work, they will show that the distracted condition of Mexico is a mingled cause and consequence of her intellectual darkness.[1]
One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics would be to compare the number of births in the regions called the tierras calientes—or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or cold region. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from data derived from nine departments, he concluded that the excess of births in the warm regions or tierras calientes was 1-510 per 100, over the tierras frias.
He gives the following actual statistics in evidence:
1st. Result of the general census of the department of Zacatecas since the year 1824, and progressive increase of population therein before the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes:—
| Years. | Total population. | Increase of population biennially. | |||
| 1824 | 247,295 | 25,606 | |||
| 1826 | 272,901 | 1,636 | |||
| 1828 | 274,537 | 15,507 | |||
| 1830 | 290,044 | 24,077 | |||
| 1832 | 314,121 | 24,077 | |||
| 1834 | 331,781 | 17,660 | |||
| 2d. In 1836, after the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes, this | ||
| department had | 264,505 | inhabitants. |
| In June, 1838, it had | 273,575 | |
| ———— | ||
| Increase in one year and a half, | 9,070 | |
- ↑ It is just to Mexico to state that Cortina, in the article previously referred to, estimates the number of persons able to read and write, to be much larger; but his calculations are doubtless made with the partiality of a native, and are based on a limited observation of city life, the army and municipal prisons.
