The approach of the end of almost three centuries of the colonial system in Chile does not speak well for Spain. Trade was still restricted. The post-office was a monopoly that had been farmed out to a private person. A mail vessel arrived at Montevideo from Spain once in two months, and from there the mails were transported across the Andes. There was a post once a month between Concepción and Santiago, and twice a week between Santiago and Valparaiso. Most people used private couriers or travellers for their despatches. The only manufactures were the making of brandy and wine, drying beef and tanning hides. No city, except Santiago, had more than six thousand people, and that city had perhaps thirty thousand. Horse racing, cock-fighting, bull-fighting and cards were the only amusements. The buildings were creditable, but the streets were dirty, unlighted, and unsanitary. People who went abroad at night had their servants carry lanterns before them. Vice and disorder was everywhere. Robbery, brawls and assassination were frequent. Begging was an intolerable curse. Titles of nobility were common, and had been purchased by many unworthy persons. Decorations of membership in orders of nobility had been scattered broadcast. There was not even a school for girls in Santiago. The majority of the people still lived in the country in homes that were without conveniences. They had little furniture, but all were provided with an oratorio in which each wandering missionary was expected to celebrate mass. The Indians were held in practical slavery, and the landlords administered justice over their tenants. A sentimental attachment, and also fear that a bad condition might be made worse, kept these poor humans from leaving. Diseases often became epidemic through the unsanitary conditions, so that thousands were at times swept away. Concepción lost a fourth of its population one year through the ravages of smallpox. It is probable that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the total population of Chile, exclusive of the Araucanian Indians, did not exceed a half million.