Note 365 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Zuazo raises it to 80,000! (Carta, MS.) Cortés to 60,000. (Rel. Seg., ubi supra.) The most modest computation is that of the “Anonymous Conqueror,” who says from 40,000 to 50,000. “Et il giorno del mercato, che si fa di cinque in cinque giorni, vi, sono da quaranta ò cinquanta mila persone” (Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309); a confirmation, by the by, of the supposition that the estimated population of the capital, found in the Italian version of this author, is a misprint. (See the preceding chapter, note 13.) He would hardly have crowded an amount equal to the whole of it into the market.{*}
{*} [And yet, even now, the number of “persone,” i.e., shoppers or transient visitors, in a Mexican or Peruvian plaza on a great fair day, not infrequently equals the number of “habitatori,” or permanent inhabitants of the city.—M.]