This page has been validated.
SKETCH OF GUATEMALA.
453
a population of one million: it is argued that it must have increased since that period at the rate of five per cent., and that therefore it must be doubled, especially as the small-pox has ceased its ravages, and as in other respects, the country has never, during the whole of that period, suffered either from plague or femine. I am inclined to concur with the opinion that the country is populating very fast; for not only in the towns but in the small villages, I could not help being struck with the numbers of young children. The following statement will shew that in the metropolis, the births for one year exceeded the deaths in the ratio of two to one.
