And, for a second plea to the said information, the defendant says that he printed and published, in the said Newspaper called the China Mail, the words in the said ex-Officio Information charged, but did not mean thereby that the said Jose RODRIGUES COELHO DO AMARAL, who is, or was, the Deputado, or representative of the said Settlement, Province, or Colony of Macao, in the Portuguese Parliament, was, under colour of his said function or capacity, in fact representing the interests and wishes of "pig-dealers," kidnappers, or man-stealers, and that the said Jose RODRIGUES COELHO DO AMARAL, as such Minister, led corruptly and dishonestly, and from corrupt and improper motives, abused and dishonoured his power and dignity for illegal, unworthy and dishonourable ends, in favour of persons accused or suspected of kidnapping and man-stealing, and other grave and serious crimes and offences, and had corruptly, and in breach of his duties as such Minister, accepted or received bribes, or sums of money for the purpose and to the end that he might and did illegally prostitute and abuse his said power and dignity, function and capacity, for such said illegal, unworthy and dishonourable ends as alleged, and the defendant says that, before the time of the alleged grievance, His said Most Faithful Majesty the King of Portugal, or His Most Faithful Majesty's Predecessors, did, by leave and license of the Government of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China, occupy a certain portion of Chinese Territory called Macao, being the said Macao in the said ex-Officio Information, alluded to as the said Settlement, Province or Colony of His said Most Faithful Majesty, paying rent for the same to the Government of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China, wheron and wherein, by virtue of the said leave and license, and of the said payments of rent as aforesaid, divers, to wit Portuguese and other subjects of His said Most Faithful Majesty were permitted to and did reside and dwell and carry on and exercise peaceably and without molestation divers trades, business and professions.
That before the time of the alleged grievance, to wit in the Year of Our Lord One thousand Eight hundred and Forty-nine, the said Government of His said Most Faithful Majesty ceased and refused to pay rent to the Government of His said Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China, and in breach of the treaty then subsisting between His said Imperial Majesty and His said Most Faithful Majesty, by force and arms expelled the Chinese authorities from Macao aforesaid, and had since, in spite of protests and proclamations on the part of the Government of His said Imperial Majesty, kept them so expelled, and had continued to hold the territory of Macao aforesaid, down to the time of the said alleged grievance, without any treaty with the Government of His said Imperial Majesty, and in opposition to the rights of the said last mentioned Government.
That among the trades and business so carried on as aforesaid, by the said Portuguese and other subjects of His said Most Faithful Majesty resident at Macao, and by, with, and under the sanction of the said Government since the Year One thousand Eight hundred and Forty-eight, one of the most flourishing and prominent had been a certain trade, the Coolie Trade. That the said Coolie Trade consisted of and was, a traffic in Chinese Coolies and peasants and other persons, brought from various parts of the Empire of China, and from other places, by His said Most Faithful Majesty's Portuguese and other subjects, and by persons in their employ, for purposes of emigration to the Island of Cuba, and to other places beyond the seas.
That the said Chinese coolies and others, so collected as aforesaid, had been, and were extremely poor, ignorant, uneducated, and ill-fed people, and for the purpose of protecting them from the designs of evil-disposed and unscrupulous persons engaged in the said trade, or business, the Government of His said Most Faithful Majesty had, at divers times, issued, promulgated and provided, certain rules, regulations and restrictions, for the regulation and ordering of the said trade, such rules, regulations and restrictions having been in force at Macao aforesaid.
That the Government also of His Imperial Majesty, had also been in the habit of issuing and promulgating, at divers times, protests and proclamations with reference to the said trade, and the method of conducting and carrying it on within the limits of the Chinese Empire, and as regarded the subjects of the said Empire.
Page 3
138
That it had long been matter of notoriety, and was, in fact, true, that divers of the said Portuguese and other subjects of his said Majesty, assisted and aided by divers other ill-disposed persons in that behalf, had, in spite of the aforesaid rules, regulations and restrictions, and in direct opposition and contravention of and to their provisions, and in spite of the aforesaid proclamations and protests, and in direct contravention to their provisions, long been, and were, in the habit of conducting their said trade or business with great harshness, cruelty, illegality and oppression, towards the Chinese coolies and other persons so brought to Macao for emigration, that great numbers of the said coolies and other persons had been and were obtained by means of acts of fraud, kidnapping and piracy, and, when brought to Macao aforesaid, were treated with great cruelty and placed, and kept in imprisonment in places of confinement known as Barracoons, and in other places, and had been and were forcibly compelled or induced by fraudulent means to emigrate to the Island of Cuba, or to other places beyond the seas.
That it had long been matter of notoriety, and was in fact true, that the persons so engaged in the said trade were currently and commonly known as, and called by the name of "pig-dealers." That it had long been matter of notoriety and was in fact true, that the said various acts of cruelty, oppression, illegality, ill-treatment and fraud, as committed on and upon the persons of the said Chinese coolies and others as hereinbefore mentioned, could not have been and were not in fact so committed, except in the connivance and tacit sanction of such of the Officials appointed by His said Most Faithful Majesty at Macao who were specially charged with, and had the duty of enforcing and seeing enforced, the aforesaid rules, regulations and restrictions, and that the said Officials did so lend their connivance and tacit sanction as aforesaid, through corrupt and dishonest motives.
That it was matter of notoriety, and was in fact true, that shortly before the time of the alleged grievance, there had been certain exposures with reference to the said coolie trade, and to the illegal, piratical, and iniquitous seizure and detention, by certain of the said subjects of His said Most Faithful Majesty, and other persons connected with them, of two junks containing certain Annamite persons, subjects of a foreign power then at peace with His Most Faithful Majesty, and being the members and followers of an embassy then on its way to the Court of His said Imperial Majesty at Pekin, and a large sum of money, amounting to Three hundred thousand Dollars or thereabouts, which was then being carried and conveyed by way of tribute, and about to be paid to His said Imperial Majesty, and with reference to the kidnapping of the said Annamite prisoners by the persons aforesaid, and the sale of the same into slavery at Macao aforesaid, to certain other Portuguese and other subjects of His said Most Faithful Majesty, and to their illegal detention in the said Barracoons erected and established there as aforesaid, and to their torture and treatment in the said Barracoons, and to a large portion of the said Annamite persons having been subsequently, violently, fraudulently and against their will, shipped from Macao aforesaid to the said Island of Cuba, and to other places beyond the seas, and with reference to the corrupt, illegal and culpable connivance of the aforesaid Officials of the Government of Portugal then being at Macao aforesaid, who were charged with the duty of enforcing the aforesaid rules, regulations and restrictions.
That the said Jose RODRIGUES COELHO DO AMARAL had been and was, from the Year One thousand Eight hundred and Sixty-two to the Month of October in the Year One thousand Eight hundred and Sixty-six, the Governor of Macao aforesaid, appointed by His Most Faithful Majesty to exercise, and exercising the functions of that office therein, and that during that period, and while the said Jose RODRIGUES COELHO DO AMARAL was such Governor as aforesaid, the said piratical seizure of the said two junks, and the other outrages hereinbefore mentioned with reference to the said...