DIVISION OF POPULATION—WHITES—INDIANS—AFRICANS—LEPEROS—RANCHEROS—CHARACTERISTICS—INDIFFERENCE—PROCRASTINATION.—FEMALES—BETTER CLASSES—THEIR SOCIAL HABITS—ENTERTAINMENTS.—LEPEROS—THEIR HABITS—EVANGELISTAS—THIEVING.—THE RANCHERO—HIS CHARACTER AND HABITS.—THE INDIAN RACE—AGRICULTURISTS—TRADITIONARY HABITS ADHERED TO—IMPROVIDENCE—SUPERSTITION—DRUNKENNESS—INDIAN WOMEN—SERVILE CONDITION—LOCAL ADHESIVENESS—PEONAGE—WHIPPING.—PLANTER-LIFE—ITS SOLITUDE AND RESULTS.—MUHLENPFORDT'S CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.—INDIAN TRIBES AND RACES IN MEXICO.—TABLE OF CASTES IN MEXICO.
AN adequate and proper classification of the Mexican population, for descriptive purposes, may be made under the general heads of: Whites, Indians, Africans, and the mixed breeds, who are socially sub-divided into—1st, the educated and respectable Mexicans dwelling in towns, villages or on estates; 2d, the Leperos; and 3d, the Rancheros.
The whites are still classed in Mexico as creoles , or, natives of the country; and gachupines and chapetones , who are Spaniards born in the Peninsula. The Spanish population yet remaining in the country, its immediate descendants, and the emigrants from Spain, form a numerous and important body. Her Catholic Majesty's Consul General in Mexico derives a lucrative revenue from supplying this large class of his