CO885(1-2) — Page 287

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference. -

C.O.

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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II.

In the first place, with regard to the mortality on the passage. In both ships it was confined to the first fortnight after embarkation. The cholera, or something like it, broke out almost immediately in both; owing, it is supposed, to the sudden change from the meagre diet which the Coolies had been used to, to the ample allowance secured by their indentures. As they got out to sea the sickness dis- appeared; there were no more deaths, and hardly any serious illness during the last right or ten weeks of the voyage. Their health and spirits generally are Mr. Winfield's Let- reported to have been exceedingly good, and they landed in much better condition

than they set out.

Mr. Richmond's

Letter, p. 106,

ter, p. 182.

Mr. Winfield' Statement, p. 102.

Jer, p. 102.

It would appear, therefore, that if the surgeon had been authorized to regulate their allowance of food during the voyage, the sickness might have been prevented.

But this was not all. In one of the ships (the Whitby) seven deaths out of It eight occurred among a set of persons who ought not to have been embarked. was entirely owing to a fault on the part of the agents (Messrs. Gillanders, Arbuthnot, and Co.), or of the persons whom they employed, and I think precautions might

It was this:-After some- easily be taken against the recurrence of such an error. of the Coolies, who were to be taken up at Calcutta, had been received on board, they resolved to send the ship to Dimond Harbour, leaving the surgeon (Mr. Win- fiell) to collect the remainder (as I understand the story), and then proceed with them to join her there. This was done against Mr. Winfield's express remon- strances; and the consequence was, that (as he had apprehended) when he joined the ship at Dimond Harbour, he found her lying in a very unhealthy situation, bowel complaints very prevalent and spreading fast, and 25 Coolies received on board, some of whom he had not seen at all, and others whom he had seen and reported as unfit to be taken.. "Some were old and infirm," he says, " others ap- peared to have been diseased for years: none of them were capable of performing a day's work."

He could not have had them re-landed without a delay of "at least ten days," which, in that situation and with disease spreading so fust, would have been a worse thing than to take them as they were.

Of the eight who died on the voyage, seven were of this number. Twelve were Mr. Colville's Let afterwards located on Mr. Colville's property of Bellevue; of whom ten died and the other two were among the sick transferred to the Colonial Hospital. The remaining seven were landed in Berbice; and I observe two of the names on the sick list of Plantation Hiberniu. But, as the names of those who died on that property are not mentioned, I cannot tell whether the five others were among

P. 119.

P. 97.

P...

them or not.

All this was wrong; but it would be prevented from happening again if the officer charged by the Indian Government with the duty of inspecting and ex- plaining the contract, were to require the medical man's certificate of inspection and approval before he granted the permit to embark.

III.

In the second place, with regard to the sickness and mortality among these people since their arrival in British Guiana, though it might maturally have been appre- hended that the climate of such a country would not suit the constitutions of a race coming from the hills, the actual mortality does not seem to have been owing to the climate, but rather to the want of prope precautions against a kind of disease, which has not usually been found dangerous, and was therefore not foreseen. On looking down the column in which the causes of the several deaths are entered, I see very few cases of fever; the greater number having been caused by dysentery, ulcers, liver complaints, &c. whilst the cases remaining in the hospital are almost all kures. I cannot speak with much confidence on this subject, but I apprehend that diseases of these kinds" depend not so much on climate as on diet and condition ;

. In the West Indies, I am told, they are produced amongst strangers on their first arrival (unless they are looked after and instructed in the means of prevention), by a peculiar insect which is almost imperceptible and inserts itself under the skin, where it engenders a sort of sack or eist which ought to be inmediately removed, and can be removed with great ease by any one who is used to the manner of doing it,

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and that if proper care could be taken to make the transition from the meagre diet to which they have been used to a plentiful one, gradual and not abrupt, and in the mean time to encounter at once, by the proper remedies, any casual complaint which the impaired state of their constitution may render dangerous, such as a chigoe bite, a bruise, or a fit of indigestion,—their bodily condition would be much improved by the change. I am the more inclined to this opinion, because I observe tri the general health of the Coolies is reported to be good; by which I understand, that those who are not afflicted with some specific disease are enjoying good health, and not sickly from the elimate.

That the tendency to sickness, whatever it be, is neither universal, nor inca- pable on being subfued by proper care and treatment, is proved by the fact that en one estate there has been no sickness at all. And that on another, where the medical man had been most negligent or least skilful, and where disease was most virulent, almost all the patients have been (or are likely to be) cured by being transferred to the care of the colonial surgeon.

See Mr. Walshy Report on the con

dition of the Belle The Coolies, p. 7.

It would seem, indeed, that considerable difficulty may be experienced in effecting the requisite arrangements; for the Coolies are said to be filthy in their labits: averse from taking medicines not mule by themselves; and generally nor Light unwilling to submit to the proper remedies. These are difficulties which it will Despatch. p. 75 require not merely medical skill (which I suppose is not overabundant in British Mosley ́-

Despatch, p Guiana) to remove; but also judicious management, a thing still scarcer. Still

Mr. Richmond'- with the fatal example of Bellevue before them, coupled with the successful treat- fter, p. 16, ment experienced in the colonial hospital, it may be hoped that under proper Governor Light, superintendence a good deal may be done in future both in the way of prevention P. $7. and of cure.

The Court of Policy appear to be well awake to the importance of the object, and some competent medical man might probably be appointed to make periodical visits to all the hospitals and see that the cases are properly attended to. With respect to the Coolies now in British Guiana, it does not occur to me that anything more can be done,—and, for the reasons which I have stated, I should hope that more will not be required,—to secure them against a recurrence of this terrible sickness and mortality.

IV.

With regard to what is past, I do not think that any fault can be justly imputed to the Government, or to any of its officers, or to the proprietors in England, by whom the Coolies were transported. Everything appears to have been done which could be done by instructions from a distance, to secure them against ill-treatment and neglect; and the whole transaction wears to me a character precisely the reverse of that which has been popularly ascribed to it. Setting aside the reception of the 26 Coolies at Dimond Harbour which I have mentioned, and which certainly indicated a merely trading view of the matter, I see no evidence of indifference to the comforts and health of the Coolies during the voyage; and the directions sent from England to the attorneys and overseers in British Guiana, are all in favour of the most liberal and considerate treatment. That they have not been in all cases fortunate in their selection of agents to carry them out in the proper spirit, is proved by the conduct of the manger and the doctor of Bellevue éstate, and, in a less degree, of some others. But this is the evil of the time and place. The mensures taken by Government for the protection of persons of this description appear to have been defective in this only,--that whilst they have provided sufficiently for the redress of grievances, they have trusted too much for the detection of them to the complaints of the persons injured. The Coolies have made no complaints themselves; and though Mr. Scoble and Mr. Stuart went to British Guiana solely, I believe, for the purpose of discovering grounds of complaint in their behalf, they appear to have missed some of the most important; and, in the case of those which they did discover, they made the com- plaint, not to Governor Light, but to the Editor of the British Emancipator:"

* See "British Emancipator," 9th January, article quoted, p. 75. It is anonymous, but appears to have proceeded either from Mr. Berkeley, the schoolmaster of Bellevue, or from some one to whom he had communicated the information. He admitted, at the investigation which took place in con- sequence of the appearance of this article, that the Coolies had complamed to him of their treatment in the hospital, but declined stating to whom he had given any information respecting them j. 77, 75.

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