Brazil Comprehends Tracts Of Country So Desert Toward The West That Over An Extent Only A Third Less Than That Of Spanish America Its Population Is In The Proportion Of One To Four.

The following table contains the results of an attempt which I made, conjointly with M. Mathieu, member of the Academy of Sciences, and of the Bureau des Longitudes, to estimate with precision the extent of the surface of the various states of America.

We made use of maps on which the limits had been corrected according to the statements published in my Recueil d'Observations Astronomiques. Our scales were, generally speaking, so large that spaces from four to five leagues square were not omitted. We observed this degree of precision that we might not add the uncertainty of the measure of triangles, trapeziums, and the sinuosities of the coasts, to the uncertainty of geographical statements.

TABLE OF GREAT POLITICAL DIVISIONS.

COLUMN 1 : NAME.

COLUMN 2 : SURFACE IN SQUARE LEAGUES OF 20 TO AN EQUINOCTIAL DEGREE.

COLUMN 3 : POPULATION (1823).

Surface Pop.

1. Possessions of the Spanish Americans : 371,380 : 16,785,000.

Mexico or New Spain : 75,830 : 6,800,000. Guatemala : 16,740 : 1,600,000. Cuba and Porto Rico : 4,430 : 800,000. Columbia - Venezuela : 33,700 : 785,000. Columbia - New Grenada and Quito : 58,250 : 2,000,000. Peru : 41,420 : 1,400,000. Chili : 14,240 : 1,100,000. Buenos Ayres : 126,770 : 2,300,000.

2. Possessions of the Portuguese Americans (Brazil) : 256,990 : 4,000,000.

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