Camton and Ang Kong!
5. Equally unfounded, is this sentiment that riots had taken place on board of ships from Swatow and even in the Straits, and that Coolies, who had signed Contracts had been compelled by force & arms. It is then impossible to do more than flatly contradict an erroneous statement, but I venture to say that few arrangements have ever been more completely and satisfactorily carried out than the apparently Compulsory embarkation here of the Coolies in question, or indeed of any Coolies whatever. The extraordinary precautions, which I took in this case of the "Frederic", owing to my absence of legal authority at that time to stop altogether Emigration to Peru, have been fully detailed to Her Majesty's Government; but above all usual precautions was that to which I resorted in appointing a Board of Chinese Merchants, men perfectly independent and, as a rule, opponents of Emigration, to institute special inquiries by direct personal Examination into the voluntary and perfectly unfettered consent of each emigrant previous to his embarkation. I doubt if there ever had been previously so stringent an examination into such a question in the case of any other ship.
Page 6
...
11. 1.707 may 1809 8029
6
7
6
my culpable
Governor to