In the year 1838, Señor Jose Gomez de la Cortina,—ex-Conde de la Cortina, one of the most enlightened citizens of Mexico, published a carefully prepared essay upon the population of Mexico, in the 1st No. of the Bulletin of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics of the Mexican Republic; and his opinion was that the number of inhabitants greatly exceeded any of the above amounts. By observing the increase of population in different periods of five years, he considered it satisfactorily proved by the Tablas Geographico-politicas , of 1803, that the augmentation, in favorable years, was at the rate 1 4 / 5 per cent . By applying this ratio to the census of the Tablas , which gave in 1803, 5,764,731 inhabitants, we shall have an increase of about 105,000 yearly; and if we calculate at this rate of augmentation for the 46 intervening
Table of Contents
CHAPTER III. Population.
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