Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/277

Rh The absence of all statistical details, renders it impossible to state with any degree of correctness, the proportion which the unmixed Indians bear to the coloured or white population. It differs considerably in the different provinces; and as no data exists, on which a calculation could be founded, conjecture would be idle. Probably the proportion will not differ widely from that of Mexico, where they form in some provinces two-fifths, and in others, three-fifths of the whole population. The greater proportion of these live in villages, built after the Spanish manner, with the church in the centre, before it the square, with the cabildo or town house, and thes streets crossing each other at right angles: these employ themselves in various ways; some grow maize and vegetables for the markets, others manufacture mats and baskets, or are employed mechanically, while others gain trifling sums as porters or carriers in the neighbouring towns.

A second portion live on haciendas or farms; some regularly employed in trapíches, or in agriculture, and others dwelling on the estate by permission of the owner, where they cultivate a little maize for their own subsistence, and pay a species of rent, in produce, for the use of the land, besides which they are bound to render occasional gratuitous services to the owner. A third division may be said to consist of those who