THE MACAO COOLIE TRADE.
The Echo do Povo of the 18th instant contains the following Report to the Gov- ernor of Macao on the subject of Coolie Emigration, copied from the Boletim do Governo, the Official organ of the Gov- ernment of Macao:-- SIR:
1.-Your Excellency having been pleased to appoint me Superintendent of Chinese Emigration ad interim, I have held it my principal duty to respond to the confidence Y. E. has honoured rae with, exerting all my efforts towards the efficient discharge of the commission entrusted to me, and it is now incumbent upon me to lay before Y. E. the system of supervision I have followed, in addition to which I beg per- mission to present to Y. E.'s consideration the views which experience and reflection have suggested to my mind.
2.--Chinese Emigration at Macao has of Inte years assumed proportions of such magnitude as to become an object worthy of the solicitude of Y. E., which has been manifested in the various provisions decrced by Y. E., all of which tend to prove that the object chiefly occupying the attention of the Government at the head of which Y. E. is so worthily placed is not, as at times has been asserted, the material inte- rests that may accrue to the country from Emigration, but the great principles of justice and humanity, which are involved in this difficult problem; and at the same time the necessity of protecting so many thou- sands of Chinese who come anuvally to Macao to seek the protection of the Portu- guese Government in embarking for foreign countries,
3.-Penetrated with those good inten- tions on the part of Y. E. and desirous of being of service to my country, I have de- voted myself, notwithstanding my own oc- cupations, towards fulfilling, to the extent of my poor abilities, the duties Y. E. has seen fit to impose upon me, in the discharge of which I have been inspired with no other sentiment than that of contributing my mite towards the solution of this thorny question.
4.-The first truth that becomes obvious from a study of this subject, and which makes itself most evident to any one who places himself in daily contact with Chinese emigrants, is the great usefulness that results or may result from emigration to the immense population superabounding in the vast Empire of China.
6.The state almost of nudity and of emaciation exhibited by the emigrants when they arrive at Macao gives a very sad and painful idea of the poverty in which they live in their native homes, whence, at last, they are inpelled by necessity to dspart in search o some relief in emigration. 6.-le view of the appearance of these men, and after hearing their repeated com- plaints of the want of the necessaries of life which they endure in their villages, it is unnecessary to recur to other observa- tions and proofs in order to convincene's- self that the great activity in Chinese Emigration witnessed at Macao is not, assuredly, to be explained by attributing it to an artificial cause, such for instance, as ambition excited by illegitimate means, deception, or the like.
7.It is suficient to examine near at band and to question the emigrants them- selves in order to feel sure that the true motive which impels so many thousands of Chinose to amhark from Macao. for Para.
Havana, and other countries, is the great poverty and the frightful misery arising from the growing inequality between the population of China and the means of sub- sistence that the country affords. It would seem, therefore, that I may be excused from enlarging upon this point.
8-If emigration is a benefit, and an immense benefit, for China, it must also be admitted that it is sufficiently abused, whilst those who abuse it the most are the Chinese themselves, who, acting indubit- ably in a base interest, have recourse at tinios to illegitimate means for the purpose of victimizing their own countrymen.
9-Misery, as is a well-known fact, is credulons and prone to illusions, and easily allows itself to be misled by whatever of- fers it a prospect of amelioration. This predisposing circumstance, and still more, the natural timidity of the Chinese, on the one side, and on the other the strange love of falsehood that characterizes them, has opened a vast and fertile field to the illicit machinations of greed and cupidity, prínci pally on the part of the persons called Chi- hese brokers (correctores Chinas), employed in the recruitment of emigrants.
10.--Convinced of these truths, I have regulated in conformity with my impres- sions on the subject the superintendence with which Y. E. has charged me.
11.-1 have laid especial stress on mak- ing the emigrants understand the true state of their situation, and ou leading them to declare freely their resolution, whatever it might be, assuring them of the entire protection of the Government, and encour aging them to make up their minds inde- pendently of any external influence, and to speak the truth without reserve. With this object in view, I have had recourse to long aud diffuse explanations, and to repeated questionings and interrogations, such as might indeed seem exaggerated were not the Chinese people in question, whose in- sincere disposition is the greatest obstacle I have encountered against the extirpation of abuses.
12. The emigrants, as is provided by the regulations, are subject to two exami nations in the presence of the Superinten dent. The first takes place when the emi- grants present themselves to be registered at the Superintendent's office, and the se- cond three days later, at the time of sign- ing the Contract.
13. Before registering, I have always caused the contract to be read and explain- ed in the particular dialect of each group of emigrants, accompanying this explanation with some further information respecting the length of voyage, the nature of work to which they are principally destined, and other circumstances connected with the con- tract and with the country to which they propose amigrating, solely with the object of enabling the emigrants to make up their minds thereafter with as full knowledge as is possible of the matter.
14.-Y. E. will readily perceive, that in order to make these various explanations understood by the omigrants, the intelligent co-operation is required of interpreters, speaking fluently in the different dialects of the Chinese who present themselves at the superintendency for the purpose of emigra- ting.
15.--The emigrants are almost altogether Pun-ti, Hak-ka, and Hok-lo Chinese, these being the three races inhabiting the Pro- vince of Kwangtung, with natives of the Province of Fokien.
16.The two linguists of the Procurador's department who do duty alternately at the
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