returns, is very considerable. If to
this we add the leged exemptions from tribute, justly granted to
various individuals for a certain number of years, or during the
performance of special service, we shall easily be convinced of the
imperfection of results, derived from such insecure principles. * * *
I have carefully formed my estimates corresponding to the year 1810,
and by confronting them with such data as I possess relating to the
population of 1791, I have deduced the consoling assurance that,
under a parity of circumstances, the population of these Islands,
far from having diminished, has, in the interval, greatly increased.

[Ratio to tributes.] From the collective returns recently made
out by the district magistrates, it would appear that the total
number of tributes amounts to 386,654, which multiplied by six and
one-half produces the sum of 2,515,406, at which I estimate the
total population, including old men, women and children. I ought
here to observe, that I have chosen this medium of six and one-half
between the five persons estimated in Spain and eight in the Indies,
as constituting each family, or entire tribute; for although the
prodigious fecundity of the women in the latter hemisphere, and the
facility of maintaining their numerous offspring, both the effects
of the benignity of the climate and their sober way of living,
sufficiently warrant the conclusion, that a greater number of persons
enter into the composition of each family, I have, in this case, been
induced to pay deference to the observations of religious persons,
intrusted with the care of souls, who have assured me that, whether
it be owing to the great mortality prevailing among children, or
the influence of other local causes, in many districts each family,
or entire tribute, does not exceed four and one-half persons.

[Foreigners and wild tribes.] To the above amount it is necessary to
add 7,000 Sangleys (Chinese), who have been enumerated and subjected to
tribute, for, although in the returns preserved in the public offices,
they are not rated at more than 4,700, there are ample reasons for
concluding, that many who are wandering about, or hidden in the
provinces, have eluded the general census. The European Spaniards,
and Spanish creoles and mestizos, do not exceed 4,000 persons, of both
sexes and all ages, and the distinct castes or modifications known in
America under the name of mulattos, quadroons, etc., although found
in th