+------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------+ | | CITY. | COUNTRY. | | COLOUR. +-------+---------+-------+-------+---------+--------+ | | Males.| Females.| Total.| Males.| Females.| Total. | +------------------+-------+---------+-------+-------+---------+--------+ |1, Spaniards and }| | | | | | | | Creoles }| 7,821 | 7,898 |15,719 | 5,008 | 4,724 | 9,732 | |2, Indians | 276 | 268 | 544 | 841 | 702 | 1,543 | |3, Mestizoes | 289 | 385 | 674 | .. | .. | .. | |4, Mulattoes | 1,366 | 1,787 | 3,153 | 571 | 449 | 1,020 | |5, Negroes | 1,933 | 2,182 | 4,115 | 351 | 279 | 630 | | +-------+---------+-------+-------+---------+--------+ | Total |11,685 | 12,520 |24,205 | 6,771 | 6,154 | 12,925 | | +-------+---------+-------+-------+---------+--------+ | | | SUMMARY. | | | |Population of the city 24,205 | |Population of the country 12,925 | |Ecclesiastical establishments 549 | | ------ | | Total 37,679 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
To these numbers, however, some, and not an inconsiderable, addition should be made for short returns, particularly from the country districts; for, let it be borne in mind, in examining all such official estimates of the population of the Spanish colonies, that, as any attempt on the part of the authorities to take a census was sure to be regarded as the forerunner of some new exaction for the service of the mother country, so it was as certain to be evaded, especially by the lower orders of the people, and, in proportion, to fall short of the reality. In this census it does not appear that the military were included, but in that year, or the preceding one, no less than 10,000 men were sent out from Spain under the command of the Viceroy Cevallos, in addition to the ordinary forces, to carry on the war with the Portuguese: a great part of them it may be assumed never returned, and should therefore be added to the numbers of the colonists. Making, then, a fair allowance for these deficiencies in the census for 1778, the population at that time probably did not fall short of 50,000 souls; and this calculation may be rather under than over the truth.
In 1789, ten years afterwards, Helms, the German traveller, on his way to Peru, was told by the Viceroy at Buenos Ayres that the city contained between 24,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, a calculation probably founded on the census of 1778, with his own vague notion of the probable increase upon it in the interim. No mention is made by him of the population of the country.