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Rh of Whites, before whom it is supposed that the Indian population must have retired, at the time of the conquest. In Dŭrāngŏ, New Mexico, and the Provincias Internas, the pure Indian breed is almost unknown; in Sŏnōră it is again found, because the conquerors there overtook the last tribes of the original inhabitants, who had not yet placed the River Gīlá (lat. 33 N.) between themselves and the Spanish arms. The coasts are inhabited, both to the East and West, by Mulattoes and Zambos, or, at least, by a race in which a mixture of African blood prevails. It was in these unhealthy regions that the slaves formerly imported into Mexico were principally employed, the natives of the Table-land being unable to resist the extreme heat of the climate.

They have multiplied there in an extraordinary manner, by intermarriages with the Indian race, and now form a mixed breed, admirably adapted to the Tierra caliente, but not possessing, in appearance, the characteristics either of the New World, or of the Old.

The Mestizos (descendants of Natives and Indians) are found in every part of the country; indeed, from the very small number of Spanish women who at first visited the New World, the great mass of the population has some mixture of Indian blood. Few of the middling classes (the lawyers, the Curas, or parochial clergy, the artizans, the smaller landed, proprietors, and the soldiers,) could prove themselves