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populous Cities and Towns. So far as my Indian experience will apply, I have usually found Coolies from the Towns the worst and most troublesome, and I have invariably refused to receive at the depôt those collected in and about Calcutta, and have also prevented as much as I could the recruiting in the large Towns up-country.
43. I cannot but think that the employment of Native Brokers would be shorn of its disadvantages, when the Emigration Agent and Officers of the Government perform their duties with firmness and justice; permitting no Emigrants to embark without the strictest enquiries into the manner of their recruitment, and without seeing that they clearly understand the terms of their contract, and that they leave of their own free will; and these precautions would be rendered far more satisfactory if the Agent, as is the case with Mr. Sampson, understood and spoke the Chinese language, and had, from a long residence in the country, become well acquainted with the peculiarities of their customs and manners.
44. I am of opinion that if we are to look to the Agricultural Districts of China for a colonising Emigration, it must be accomplished through the direct encouragement and help of the Chinese Government and Officials, or with their sanction through Native Agency under a strict system of licensing and control.
45. I express this conclusion with the very greatest diffidence, knowing how opposed it is to the views of Mr. Sampson, whose long experience in the country and knowledge of the Chinese character, entitle his opinion to greater weight.
46. Very great difficulty was experienced in procuring the numbers of women that have already gone to the West Indies, and those would have been greatly diminished had not the Agent permitted, or rather encouraged, the men to resort to the custom of the country, by purchasing wives for themselves, to which purpose the $20 granted as a bonus to the women was applied.
"L
47. Mr. Sampson fully explained this system in his report to Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners of the 29th October 1866. He says, "As regards Canton, the method of procuring most of the women which have left that port heretofore has been explained in my report of 26th May 1865, as the adoption of the Chinese usage of purchase. Chinese women in destitute condition were brought from the Districts to the large Cities and sold to Chinese as concubines, household servants, laborers, &c., always of course with the woman's own consent. Emigrants to the British West Indies availed themselves of this usage and employed the $20 gratuity to procure for themselves wives from among these women. This is the basis, with some marked exceptions, of all female Emigrants from China to the British West Indies, Surinam, and the Sandwich Islands. The women thus engaged were mostly the wives of men who had disappeared in the long protracted clan fights in the interior. These men were generally said to have been killed, but I have strong grounds for suspecting that, though equally dead to their families, actual death was not the fate. Whether the usage above described has been abused by the Chinese or not I do not know, but during last season the Chinese authorities put a stop not only to the fractional part connected with Emigration, but to the entire proceeding as regards Chinese. Solely, and of course as the continuance of it, as a usage accordant with Chinese customs, was the only ground on which I could sanction it; there was no other course open to me but to submit, and thus it was that no women despatched by me in the "Pride of the Ganges" on her last voyage was other than the bona fide wife or mother she was described to be, and the 29 women who sailed in that ship formed one of the marked exceptions to which I have been referred."
MACAO.
48. From the Portuguese Settlement of Macao, which forms a part of the District of Hiang Shan at the Western entrance of the Canton river, about 3 hours by Steam from Hong-Kong, there is a very extensive emigration of Chinese, under contract, to both Cuba and Peru, (See Appendices Nos. 6 and 7.) It is conducted by private speculators, Spanish, Portuguese or South Americans, who realise very large sums of money by the trade. From 1856 to 1868, 121,761 males were sent to Cuba and Peru and 5,292 to other countries.
49. It is quite impossible to describe the very strong feelings that exist against the Macao Coolie traffic, as it is termed, in every part of China that I visited, both amongst the Europeans and the Chinese; and the numerous cases of kidnapping connected with this Emigration that have been related to me, are attributed to half-castes and Chinamen from Macao, who get handsomely paid for every soul that they capture and deliver at the baracoons kept by the contractors.
CE
50. The Chinese who are sent to Cuba and Peru by these people are usually classed under three heads, viz., "prisoners taken in the clan fights, which are of very constant occurrence in the Western Districts of Kuang-Tung, who are sold by the conquerors to Chinese or Portuguese, who are always ready upon the interior waters of China to receive them. Secondly.--Villagers and fishermen who are forcibly taken along the Coast by lorchas manned by Chinese and Portuguese half-castes from Macao, and who are constantly prowling about the rivers for this object, and also of individuals who are enticed into the licensed gambling houses by small loans at first, and who on losing, which is almost invariably the case in the long run, surrender their persons in payment according to the peculiar Chinese notions of liability in this respect, and are sold at the baracoons for sums varying from $40 to $50." Thirdly.--Those who from poverty and distress are impelled by necessity to depart in search of some relief in Emigration. I may mention in testimony of the great gains of this traffic that the Peruvian Consul at Macao, who conducted the business himself on his own account, offered in 1865 to procure male Emigrants for the Agent for Honolulu at $100 a head,
(9)
r
701
( 8 )
populous Cities and Towns. So far as my Indian experience will apply, I have usually found Coolies from the Towns the worst and most troublesome, and I have invariably refused to receive at the depôt those collected in and about Calcutta, and have also prevented as much as I could the recruiting in the large Towns up-country.
43. I cannot but think that the employment of Native Brokers would be shorn of its disadvantages, when the Emigration Agent and Officers of the Government perform their duties with firmness and justice; permitting no Emi. grants to embark without the strictest enquiries into the manner of their recruit- ment, and without seeing that they clearly understand the terms of their contract, and that they leave of their own free will; and these precautions would be rend- ered far more satisfactory if the Agent, as is the case with Mr. Sampson, understood and spoke the Chinese language, and had, from a long residence in the country, become well acquainted with the peculiarities of their customs and manners.
44. I am of opinion that if we are to look to the Agricultural Districts of China for a colonising Emigration, it must be accomplished through the direct encouragement and help of the Chinese Government and Officials, or with their sanction through Native Agency under a strict system of licensing and control.
45. I express this conclusion with the very greatest diffidence, knowing how opposed it is to the views of Mr. Sampson, whose long experience in the country and knowledge of the Chinese character, entitle his opinion to greater weight.
46. Very great difficulty was experienced in procuring the numbers of women that have already gone to the West Indies, and those would have been greatly diminished had not the Agent permitted, or rather encouraged, the men to resort to the custom of the country, by purchasing wives for them- selves, to which purpose the $20 granted as a bonus to the women was applied.
"L
47. Mr. Sampson fully explained this system in his report to Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners of the 29th October 1866. He
says, As "regards Canton, the method of procuring most of the women which have "left that port heretofore has been explained in my report of 26th May 1865, as the adoption of the Chinese usage of purchase. Chinese women in destitute "condition were brought from the Districts to the large Cities and sold to "Chinese as concubines, household servants, laborers, &c., always of course "with the woman's own consent. Emigrants to the British West Indies avail- "ed themselves of this usage and employed the $20 gratuity to procure for "themselves wives from among these women. This is the basis with some "marked exceptions of all female Emigrants from China to the British West "Indies, Surinam, and the Sandwich Islands. The women thus engaged were "mostly the wives of men who had disappeared in the long protracted clan
(9)
"fights in the interior. These men were generally said to have been killed, but "I have strong grounds for suspecting that though equally dead to their "families, actual death was not the fate. Whether the usage above described "has been abused by the Chinese or not I do not know, but during last season "the Chinese authorities put a stop not only to the fractional part connected "with Emigration, but to the entire proceeding as regards Chinese. Solely "and of course as the continuance of it, as a usage accordant with Chinese "customs, was the only ground on which I could sanction it; there was no "other course open to me but to submit, and thus it was that no women des- patched by me in the "Pride of the Ganges" on her last voyage was other than "the bona fide wife or mother she was described to be, and the 29 women who "sailed in that ship formed one of the marked exceptions to which I have "been referred.”
MACAO.
48. From the Portuguese Settlement of Macao, which forms a part of the District of Hiang Shan at the Western entrance of the Canton river, about 3 hours by Steam from Hong-Kong, there is a very extensive emigration of Chinese, under contract, to both Cuba and Peru, (See Appendices Nos. 6 and 7.) It is conducted by private speculators, Spanish, Portuguese or South Americans, who realise very large sums of money by the trade. From 1856 to 1868 121,761 males were sent to Cuba and Peru and 5,292 to other countries.
49. It is quite impossible to describe the very strong feelings that exist against the Macao Coolie traffic, as it is termed, in every part of China that I visited, both amongst the Europeans and the Chinese; and the numerous cases of kidnapping connected with this Emigration that have been related to me, are attributed to half castes and Chinamen from Macao, who get handsomely paid for every soul that they capture and deliver at the baracoons kept by the con-
tractors.
CE
50. The Chinese who are sent to Cuba and Peru by these people are usually classed under three heads, viz., "prisoners taken in the clan fights, which
are of
very constant occurrence in the Western Districts of Kuang-Tung, who "are sold by the conquerors to Chinese or Portuguese, who are always ready upon "the interior waters of China to receive them. Secondly.-Villagers and fisher- "men who are forcibly taken along the Coast by lorchas manned by Chinese and Portuguese half-castes from Macao, and who are constantly prowling about the "rivers for this object, and also of individuals who are enticed into the licensed gambling houses by small loans at first, and who on losing, which is "almost invariably the case in the long run, surrender their persons in payment according to the peculiar Chinese notions of liability in this respect "and are sold at the baracoons for sums varying from $40 to $50.” Thirdly,-- Those who from poverty and distress are impelled by necessity to depart in search of some relief in Emigration. I may mention in testimony of the great gains of this traffic that the Peruvian Consul at Macao, who conducted the business himself on his own account, offered in 1865 to procure male Emigrants for the Agent for Honolulu at $100 a head,
r
701
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