CO885-(1-2) — Page 315

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

RTC.O. 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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EMIGRATION FROM CHINA TO THE WEST INDIES.

11th. The expenses. and advances of which the foregoing article treats shall be deducted from the produce of the labour of

in the two first years of his contract, with the exception of his passage money, which will be deducted in the three last years in equal parts, so that in the five years of his contract

shall have repaid the Company all the advances and expenses mentioned in Articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 11.

19th. If

should not devote himself to agriculture, or should refuse to work in the manner customary and reasonable for a labourer, and by his bad conduct neglect the cultivation of the ground, his daily rations will be immediately suspended, and he will be compelled to repay all the expenses and advances incurred on his account, and Mr. Marcaida will be at liberty to dismiss him, and oblige him to leave the islands, to prevent any ill consequences from his bad example.

18th. Mr. Marcaida is security to

that the soil of those islands is fertile, that the water is good for drinking, that the climate is healthy, and that the natives of the said islands shall not in any way molest him.

14th. Mr. Marcaida is security to

that for 15 years he

likes to

shall not have to pay any tax whatever, and that after 15 years are past the Government tax will be two reals per month; and if take with him from China his wife and children, they will likewise be exempt from taxation on the same terms as

15th. Mr. Marcaida, with the view of encouraging the exertions of obliges himself to renew the contract after the expiry of five years, for as long as or his heirs may wish, but with the stipulation, that in such shall always be represented or substituted by an able- bodied labourer of more than 16 years of age, approved of by the Company, and with the further condition, that

or his representative,

a case

shall never sell the ground, nor transfer his obligations or rights under the con- tract, without the approbation of the Company; and also with the stipulation that if he leave off for one year the cultivation of any of the ground he previously worked, the Company are at liberty to take said ground from him, and give it to whom they please, without

being entitled to any remu-

neration for the same.

16th. If during the first five years

should become sick, and his health be not restored in two or three months, and he should wish to leave for Manilla or Amoy, Mr. Marcaida will pay his passage to either place, and will not recover from him any of the advances due." In such a case, however, to Mr. Marcaida will belong the right to all the ground which may have worked.

Lastly, the intended meaning of this contract is, that while works with assiduity, and behaves himself well, fulfilling the conditions of this contract, and while

can substitute in his place a man of more

than 16 years of age, approved of by the Company, he and his heirs shall possess the right to continue cultivating the grounds they may have opened, it being an - express condition that the obligations entered into in this contract are under-

stood to be valid between

and whoever may, in place of Mr. Marcaida, represent the Company, or may have acquired its rights.

In witness whereof we, namely, Mr. James Tait, as representative of Mr. Juan B Marcaida, director of the Company, and

Chinese, for himself, have hereunto affixed our signature, at the Spanish Vice-Consulate, Amoy, this

day of

in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty

SIR,

No. 4.

Guiana.

JAMES T. WHITE Esq. to HENRY BARKLY Esq., Governor of British

Hong Kong, August 21, 1851. WHEN I had last the honour to address your Excellency, under date 21st July, it was my intention to have left this by the steamer on the 5th instant. I have been detained, however, in consequence of the collision between the two

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EMIGRATION FROM CHINA TO THE WEST INDIES. steamers Pacha" and Erin," by which the former was sunk, and the latter has sustained considerable injury. I shall leave this by the steamer of the 21th, and after remaining a few days at Singapore and Penang, shall proceed on to

Calcutta.

2. I have visited Canton and Macao a second time, in order to see some gentlemen from whom I expected to get further information as to the probability of inducing women and families to emigrate; and I have seen also several Chinese of respectable station in life, and of good intelligence, who are willing to undertake the collection of emigrants for the West Indies.

severe.

3. The favourable opinions expressed in my former communication to your Excellency, have been confirmed by subsequent information and experience. In the villages and country districts which I have visited in the neighbourhood of Macao, and on the mainland opposite to Hong Kong, I have found the Chinese always occupied and industrious; and engaged either in ploughing the land, or turning it up with the hoe, or in labouring at the pumps to raise water for irrigation; these pumps are, in principle, similar to the chain-pumps, in use on board of ship. They are worked by a drum, which is made to revolve by the feet; so that the process resembles the treadmill, and the labour is constant and The cultivation resembles a garden, and every spot of ground is turned to profit by irrigation and manure. The rice crop was ripe; and I saw a considerable number of women reaping the grain. The women thus employed were all bout women. My guide informed me that they always assisted in reaping the crop, but took no other part in agricultural labour. He said, that although he had never seen women engaged in cutting canes, he thought they would have no objection to that work, if paid for their labour; and that the only reason why they did not engage in it in this district, was that the cane land belonged to richer people, who, requiring hired_labour, preferred that of men, which could always be obtained. The rice-fields, on the contrary, were the property of the families whom I saw engaged, or of the villages to which they belonged.

4. The Chinese women are small in comparison with the men. These are in size and strength equal to the African, perhaps not so tall; but the women are of slighter build, and incapable of the great endurance of fatigue which characterize the African women.

As far as my observation

there are more goes, large-footed women in this province than in Amoy. The immense amount of river and canal navigation in the neighbourhood of Canton, and in the adjoining districts, will account for this difference; but the prejudice in favour of small- footed women, as a mark of distinction, seems to exist to the fullest extent.

5. I have reason to believe that the information which I received at Amov,

as to the extreme prevalence of female infanticide, was not altogether correct. Two respectable and well informed Chinese with whom I had conversation on the subject of emigration, admit that the practice of infanticide exists, but not to the extent I was led to suppose, and that it prevails with regard to male as well as to female infants. They tell me that the body of an infant is supposed to be without soul until it begins to speak, and that the destruction of life precious to this, if the parents have no means of supporting their offspring, is not considered as a criminal offence. They say also, that infants who die before they can speak are not buried in the ground, but are thrown into water, ami that the bodies which I had seen floating in the ponds at Amoy were probably the bodies of children who had died from natural causes. From the extreme affection which the Chinese show for their children, I am inclined to think that this statement may be correct, but at the same time I must add, that the practice of female infanticide in Amoy was spoken of as a matter of certainty, and of frequent if not daily occurrence.

6. The people in this district appear to me extremely desirous of emigrating, and that any number of them may be obtained. In no one instance did they make any inquiry as to the climate or character of the country to which I pro- posed they should emigrate, or show by any casual remark the slightest wish or intention of returning to China. They were anxious only to know if the country belonged to the English, if they should have rice, with fish and pork, for their

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