I seemed not to believe him; and, indeed, I did not believe him at first, till he returned to me with a question. Pray, seignior capitain, says he, how many Spaniards do you think there may be in this vast country of Chili? I told him I could make no guess of the numbers; but, without doubt, there were many thousands, intimating that I might suppose, near a hundred thousand. At which he laughed heartily, and assured me, that there were not above two thousand five hundred in the whole kingdom, besides women and children, and some few soldiers, which they looked upon as nothing to inhabitants, because they were not settled anywhere. I was indeed surprised, and began to name several large places, which, I thought, had singly more Spaniards in them than what he talked of. He presently ran over some of them, and, naming Baldivia first, as the most southward, he asked me how many I thought were there? And I told him about three hundred families. He smiled, and assured me there were not above three or four-and-fifty families in the whole place, and about twenty-five soldiers, although it was a fortification, and a frontier. At Villa Rica, or the Rich Town, where he lived, he said there might be about sixty families, and a lieutenant, with twenty soldiers. In a word, we passed over the many places between and came to the capital, St. Jago, where after I had supposed there were five thousand Spaniards, he protested to me there were not above eight hundred, including the viceroy's court, and including the families at Valparaiso, which is the seaport, and excluding only the soldiers, which as he said, being the capital of the whole kingdom, might be about two hundred, and excluding the religious, who he added, laughing, signified nothing to the planting a country, for they neither cultivated the land nor increased the people. Our doctor, who was our interpreter, smiled at this, but merrily said, that was very true, or ought to be so, intimating, that though the priests do not cultivate the land, yet they might chance to increase the people a little; but that was by the way. As to the number of inhabitants at St. Jago, the doctor agreed with him, and said, he believed he had said more than there were, rather than less. As to the kingdom or empire of Peru, in which there are many considerable cities and places of note, such as Lima, Quito, Cusco, la Plata, and others, there are besides a great number of towns on the seacoasts, such as Porto Arica, St. Miguel, Prayta, Guyaquil, Truxillo, and many others.