Note 51 — Chapter V

Several authors, copying one another as usual without enquiry, have estimated the population at 90,000, Aurelian having fixed it at 90,236 in 1866; but when in 1877 our Vice-Consul Bonham enquired of the Mayor of Jassy, he was told that, although no satisfactory data exist, 70,000 was nearer the mark. In like manner the population of Galatz has been set down until lately at 80,000, although an English gentleman residing there maintained that it should be about 50,000. That gentleman told us that according to a recent census there turned out to be only 40,000, but he questioned that result also, inasmuch as the people do not know the object of such a proceeding and fear to make returns, and moreover the census was taken at a time when many labourers and others had left the city for a season.