Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/33

Rh large portion of the area of which is taken up by mountains and by great plains of scant rainfall. This area has always been sparsely populated and, it seems, must continue to be so. The percentage of white blood among its people is higher than in other regions and they have contributed beyond what would be indicated by their numbers to the initiative for development that has been shown in Mexico.

The Gulf and Pacific coast states form another group. The former are on the average less thickly populated than the latter, though Lower California is an exception, great areas being still without population. Jalisco, Michoacan, and Oaxaca have been the most thickly populated and important states of the Pacific group.

Now as always, however, the greater part of the Mexican population is found in the states of the central plateau, where the civilization of the country also finds its best development.

If it is difficult to ascertain the population of Mexico, it is even more difficult to find out the proportion in which the various racial elements are represented. The report to the king in 1793, above referred to, gave the total number of Europeans as 7,904, white Creoles 677,458, castes 1,478,426, and Indians 2,319,741. This would have made the percentages.2; 15; 33; and 52, respectively. An approximate picture of the racial developments since that time may be secured from the estimates, official and unofficial, made at various periods as shown in the table opposite,