CO885-(1-2) — Page 347

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O. 885

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

1PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

26

CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO

into Cuba, your Lordship desires that I will report whether, since 1849, there have been any considerable numbers of Asiatics introduced into this island as agricultural labourers, and if so, whether their employment has been attended with success, or the reverse.

I have the honour of reporting to your Lordship that there have been no Asiatics introduced into this island since the year 1849.

Those brought from Amoy before that time (in number 600) have more than realized the expectations of the authorities and of those proprietors by whom they have been em- ployed; they have turned out to be tractable, active, and intelligent.

I respectfully beg leave to refer your Lordship to my Despatch No. 39, of the 22d of November last year, in which I did myself the honour of reporting the success of the first trial made of Asiatic labourers, and that it was the anxious desire of many of the principal proprietors to obtain the sanction of the Spanish Government for the introduction of large numbers of Chinese, because of the experience which they had had of those imported about four years previously.

Since that date, viz., on the 9th of February last, upon the application of a great many of the most respectable proprietors, the Junta de Fomento, or Board of Trade, of the island, having reported favourably of the measure, the formal consent and approbation of the Captain-General was given to the importation of 8,000 Chinese.

The contract has been entered into by the firm of Villoldo, Wardrop, and Co. of this city and Glasgow, and is to the following effect:-

Article 1st. Messrs. Villoldo, Wardrop, and Co. bind themselves to introduce 8,000 Asiatic colonists from China, the proprietors, who have agreed to take them and who have subscribed, paying them 125 dollars for each delivered in a port of this island, under legal writing, copy of which shall be delivered to the Junta de Fomento.

Article 2d. Payment shall be made by said proprietors in the manner following:- 90 dollars, cash down, for each colonist on the day of delivery, and the remainder in equal payments in the successive three months.

Those proprietors who do not comply with these conditions shall be deprived of the Chinese corresponding to them.

Article 3d The proprietors shall also pay down the advances which may have been made to the colonists (according to the contract which each shall bring) at the moment of his embarkation for outfit, &c., but which advances shall not exceed 17 dollars for each.

Article 4th. The delivery of said colonists shall be effected within two years, reckoning from the date of signing the writings; the house bound may introduce them previous to the two years if they have the means of so doing. Delivery shall be made to the Junta de Fomento, excepting unavoidable causes.

Article 5th. Each colonist shall come under written engagement for eight years, and shall be bound to work during them for the salary of 4 dollars each, the men, and 3 dollars each, the women (per month). The written contracts which they bring shall be the same, as respects the men, as those brought by the Chinese who came in 1847, and of which a copy is attached to this article. As regards the women, they shall be like the others, adding the following note:-

Pregnancy, if it occurs, shall be considered as an infirmity, and the pay of the colonist shall only be suspended when the time of impossibility to work exceeds the last month of pregnancy, and a month after the delivery.”

Article 6th. The colonists comprehended in this contract shall be in the proportion of four fifths males and one fifth females, the proprietors who receive them being bound to take them in that proportion.

The men shall not be under 18 nor over 40 years; the women under 15 nor over 35 years of age. Families having children of 10 years and under are not admissible; and as regards those of 10 to 18, young men, and women or girls from 10 to 15 years, only half of the 120 dollars shall be made good to the contracting house, and they shall be engaged at half the price fixed for their elders, according to their sexes.

Article 7th. The Superintendent of the Royal Revenues concedes to the contractors the right of selling at auction the surplus stores brought by the ships which convey these Asiatics, paying the duties upon the price of the sale, as customary, calculating the stores as for 170 days, which may be taken upon the voyage at the rate of 2 lbs of rice for each individual, and 1 lb. additional in case of accident. Everything else not of this description shall be considered liable to duty as any other cargo.

Article 8th. The Superintendent also exempts the contractors from payment of the tonnage duty, provided the vessels bring only Asiatics and their effects, and afterwards do not enter outwards to load a cargo at this port. The surplus of stores is not to be considered as cargo, by the rule expressed in the foregoing article.

Article 9th. If the Emperor of China, or the authorities in that country, prohibit the emigration of females, or that of all the subjects, in such manner as that they cannot be shipped, with such proofs produced to the Royal Board of Trasle (Junta de Fomento) the house contracting shall be absolved, in the first case, as to the importation of females, and, in the second, of all obligations.

Article 10th. The Royal Board of Trade (Junta de Fomento) is compromised to take the Asiatic colonists who may not be contracted for by the owners of estates, or pro-

EMIGRATION OF CHINESE COOLIES.

27 prietors under the same conditions as they do, the Board will not pay more than 30,000 dollars annually.

I have also the honour of reporting to your Lordship that the following rules have been established for the receiving and placing (by the "Junta de Fomento de Agricultura y Comercio" in this island) the 8,000 Asiatic colonists contracted for with house of Villoldo, Wardrop, and Co., merchants of this city:-

Article 1st. Upon the arrival of a vessel bringing colonists belonging to this contract, they shall be delivered, having previously been examined by the Committee upon White Colonists in representation of the Royal Board of Trade (Junta de Fomento).

Article 2d. In order that said colonists be received, they must be of the ages stipulated in the 8th Article of the Conditions, and they must besides be sound and free from corporeal or mental defects.

Article 3. The colonists answering the requisites expressed in the foregoing Article shall be conveyed to the depôt of the Royal Board, where they will be classified in "lots" of ten Chinese each.

Article 4th. The number and turn of each proprietor shall be determined by lot. Article 5th. In anticipation of the arrival of the first expedition, the 8,000 colonists of this contract shall be divided into series of eight Chinese each 800 tickets, numbered from 1 to 800, shall be made and put into an urn, from whence they shall be drawn by the proprietors in the order which they occupy on the subscription list, and in the proportion of the number of lots which each has subscribed for.

An exact note being formed of the tickets as they are drawn, the "list of turn" shall be made up, which being published in the newspapers, gentlemen who may not have attended at these nets, will be made acquainted, their correspontling "turu" for each of the lots they may have asked for.

Article 6th. The respective patrons shall present themselves to claim the colonists previous to the expiry of fifteen days after their landing, it being understood that if they fail to do so, the Board will transfer their turn to the next, or the Board itself inay take the preference, paying the same as the owner of an estate.

Article 7th. In order to the delivery of any lots, the patron to whom they belong will have to present the receipt of the contractors and of the accountant of the corpo- ration, in proof of having paid to the contractors the amount to be paid down and the advances treated of in Articles 2d and 3d of the Contract of Obligation, and to the Corporation (Junta de Fomento) the expenses of their landing, examination, main- tenance, &c, which may have been incurred during the days they have remained in the depôt.

Upon the delivery of each colonist under the conditions established in the present Article, the written contract which was brought by each shall be transferred to the patron.

These arrangements were entered into by the late Captain General Don José de la Concha, and there is a clause which limits the number to be introduced to 3,000, until the pleasure of Her Majesty the Queen of Spain is known upon this subject. I have conversel with Captain General Cañedo upon the expediency of encouraging the introduction of free labourers. I have not found his Excellency to be very favourably disposed towards the introduction of Chinese. He said that the Yucatan Indian is, in his opinion, preferable; and when I mentioned that the causes which had operated the importation of these people had ceased, and that, at any rate, their numbers were not sufficient to supply the wants of labour here; his Excellency adverted to the possibility of bringing white colonists from the coast of Cantabria.

There are several other parties proposing to contract to bring Chinese labourers, and if many more than the 8,000 arranged for with the house of Villoldo, Wardrop, and Co. are allowed to be introduced here upon the same terms by individual enterprise, they will all be taken up upon their arrival, as they are very much wanted, and will be more so before the commencement of the next crop season.

I am, however, apprehensive that the policy of the celebrated Captain General Jacow will rule in the councils of Spain, and that the jealousy of the Government will oppose the introduction of free labourers to the discouragement of slave trade, which I am very much disposel to think will be the course recommended by the present Captain General The experience of Chinese labourers in this island, your Lordship will perceive by this report, is limited to that of the 600 brought here in the end of the year 18 17, and, so far as that goes, I can assure your Lordship that the opinion is most favourable.

Upon the coming of those Chinese, the circumstances under which they were contracted and embarked at Amoy were fully investigated by Her Majesty's authorities in China,

and copies of the whole investigation were transmitted to Her Majesty's functionaries at Viscount Palmer- this place, in order to watch the good faith of the authorities and contractors towards the ston to Her Majes- said colonists. Good faith was observed, and continues to le observed, towards these ty's Commission people upon their contracts. Many of them have risen above the sphere of working men, era, No. 1, July 23, and all of them, with a few exceptions, behave themselves, work exceedingly well, and 1847-Enclosure. are very much liked. The order of Captain General Alcor, of the 10th of April 1849, is

a monstrosity, wholly illegal, which was much cried out against at the time it occupied D 2