These calculations will serve to aid in the estimates of present population, for no accurate census has been prepared officially for many years.
In 1793, according to an enumeration then made, the whole population amounted to 30,953:—in 1833 it is estimated, in the statistics of Galvan's Calendar, at 52,300 individuals, who were divided by Mühlenpfordt and Dr. Wislizenius into 1/20 pure Spanish blood, 4/20 Creoles, 5/20 Mestizos, and 10/20 Pueblo Indians. These calculations, according to the above census of Pueblo Indians, would make the whole present population not more than thirteen or fourteen thousand, which is obviously incorrect unless the census of 1847 was most inaccurately made.
In a letter from the Hon. Hugh N. Smith, delegate from New Mexico, addressed to the National Intelligencer, Washington, and published on the 25th of June, 1850, he desires to correct the mistakes which have been made in regard to the number and character of the inhabitants of New Mexico. The number, he says, has been variously stated in the Congressional debates at from ten to seventy thousand; and generally one half, and sometimes all of them, are said to be Indians. "This is a great error," continues the delegate, "we have a population of at least ninety thousand, of whom from ten to twelve thousand only are Pueblo Indians, and we do not estimate in our population any other kind of Indians except Pueblos. They are a quiet, inoffensive, honest, and industrious people; they own the best farming lands in the Territory, and are engaged entirely in agricultural pursuits, and, as tax-paying Indians, would be entitled to the privileges of citizens, and of the elective franchise in Texas.
"The census taken in New Mexico the year before the entrance of General Kearney into that Territory, showed the population to be one hundred thousand and two or three hundred over. This may not have been taken with great accuracy, but the best informed persons, and those who have lived there longest agree with me that we have not less than ninety thousand. Dr. Wislizenius, who is generally correct in his accounts of travel, and who is relied upon as good authority, in his statistics of that country, is certainly mistaken in saying that ten-twentieths, or one-half of the population, are Pueblo Indians. I have travelled through the settled parts of that country two or three times a year for the last three years, and I know that not a fifth, or even one-sixth are Indians.
"There are in New Mexico from twelve to fifteen hundred resident American voters, emigrants from the different States, principally from the State of Missouri; the rest of the population is Mexican and Spanish."
Upon these estimates and calculations it would perhaps be fair, in arriving at a proximate enumeration of inhabitants, to give the following ratios:—
| Wild Indians, according to Governor Charles Bent, | 36,950 |
| Pueblo Indians, according to enumeration, | 6,524 |
| White Creoles, according to Dr. Gregg, | 1,000 |
| Mestizos, """ | 59,000 |
| Americans, according to Hon. Hugh N. Smith, | 1,500 |
| 104,974 | |
| Deduct from this for Wild Indians, | 36,950 |
| 68,024 | |
| Deduct from this for Pueblo Indians, | 6,524 |
| Proximate Total of Pure Whites and Mixed Races,[73] | 61,500 |
The more civilized inhabitants of New Mexico resemble their parent stock in character and manners, save that they are somewhat tinctured with the habits of the Indian race, whose blood is mingled more or less in the veins of all classes. The men are homely, the women pretty, and while the former are generally condemned for their indolence, insincerity and treacherousness, the latter are praised by all travellers for their frank, affectionate and gentle demeanor. Very little was ever done for education in this remote Territory, which was almost cut-off from the civilizing influences of the rest of the world. Its governors,—either sent by the central authorities of the Mexican Republic, or chosen by the people themselves,—were often overthrown by bloody revolutions; but, while in power, they used their offices as a prolific means of enriching themselves. Their intercourse with strangers from the north, and their facilities in fraudulently collecting or compromising duties upon the trade of the caravans, were constantly taken advantage of by the rapacious chiefs; nor could the national authorities attempt to control them, for the distance of Santa Fé from the capital always made the loyalty of New Mexico loose and insecure.[74] The governors, judiciary, and clergy of the Territory, naturally fostered this feeling among the people, and in many instances it was beneficial to the north of the Republic, especially in opposing the establishment of the tobacco monopoly and in resisting the introduction of the copper currency which elsewhere caused so much distress and ruin.
The principal town in New Mexico is Santa Fé, or, as it is often written by Spaniards and Mexicans, Santa Fé de San Francisco. It is one of the oldest Spanish settlements in the north, and lies at an elevation of 7047 feet above the sea, in 35° 41´ 6´´, north latitude, and 106° 2´ 30´´, longitude west from Greenwich, according to the observations of Lieutenant Colonel Emory of the United States Topographical Engineers, and of Doctors Gregg and Wislizenius. The town is situated in a wide plain surrounded by mountains, about fifteen miles east of the Rio Grande del Norte. Immediately west of the town a snow-capped mountain rises up to a lofty height, and a beautiful stream of small mill power size, ripples down its sides and joins the river about twenty miles to the south-westward.
Santa Fé is an irregular, scattered town, built of adobes or sun dried bricks, while most of its streets are common highways traversing settlements interspersed with extensive cornfields. The only attempt at any thing like architectural compactness and precision, says Dr. Gregg, consists in four tiers of buildings, whose fronts are shaded with a fringe of rude portales or corridors. They stand around the public square, and comprise the Palacio or Governor's house, the custom house, barracks, calabozo, casa consistorial, the military chapel, besides several private residences, as well as most of the shops of the American traders.