Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/308

 304 OOOLY suicide. In 1854, the enormities of the cooly traders coming to the ears of the British gov- ernment, measures were taken to suppress the traffic at Hong Kong, and soon after British and German vessels were forbidden by their respective governments to engage in the trade. By the regulations at present in force at Hong Kong, which are carefully observed, every emi- grant is questioned by the authorities to ascer- tain if he goes voluntarily. If he chooses to remain, he is permitted to do so upon payment of any advances that may have been made to him and any expenses that may have been in- curred in his behalf. A heavy fine is imposed upon persons detaining a cooly against his will, and no one under 25 years of age is allowed to emigrate without the consent of his parents or guardians. The captain of every vessel carry- ing Chinese passengers is obliged before sailing to make a report of the size of his ship, the ac- commodations for passengers, the quantity and kind of provisions on board, and the route he intends to pursue ; and he is required to carry a surgeon and a supply of medicine. Ship masters or agents must guarantee to the cooly all his legal privileges in the country to which he is taken, and the owners or agents of the vessel are placed under bonds to deliver the coolies at the port for which they are shipped. A register is kept of the name and occupation of every emigrant. The measures taken by the principal European powers, however, did not suppress the cooly trade, but merely restrict- ed it to certain ports, and caused it to disguise itself under the name of the "contract sys- tem." These contracts bound the cooly to pay a certain sum per month, or to work a certain time, as a consideration for his passage money. But being unable to read the agreement, the coolies were imposed upon, and made to sign a contract for eight or ten years' labor, in cases where the passage money only amounted to $50. In fact the papers were usually signed in blank, and left to be filled out at the whim of the trader. It soon became evident that this system was a mere cover for the barbari- ties of the traffic before openly perpetrated, and in 1862 an act of congress was passed which confiscated any American vessel engaged in the transportation of Chinese coolies "to any foreign country, port, or place whatever, to be disposed of or sold, or transferred for any term of years, or for any time whatever, as servants or apprentices, or to be held to ser- vice or labor;" and citizens of the United States were forbidden, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, to engage in any manner in such transportation. Previous to 1866 some Chinese coolies were received in the British West Indies, but the convention of that year, in which the Chinese government stipulated that the coolies should be entitled to a back passage at the expiration of five years' service, practically put an end to the emigration to those colonies, since the planters would not accede to the terms. These coolies brought from Hong Kong were protected by the regu- lations at that port, and in the colony are governed by the same law as the Indian immi- grants. The number arriving to the close of 1866 in British Guiana was 12,631 ; Trinidad, 2,645; all the British West Indies, 16,222. The cooly emigration from Hong Kong from 1861 to 1866 was as follows: To British West Indies, 4,207; Bombay, 2,307; Dutch West Indies, 1,318; Tahiti, 1,035; Honolulu, 789; total, 9,656. The cooly traffic is now, and in its worst form has long been, almost wholly confined to Macao. The ships employed are French, Peruvian, San Salvadorian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and the great markets are Cuba and Peru. In these countries the system seems to- have been little if at all ameliorated. The first attempt to regulate the employment of the coolies in Cuba by law was made in the royal order of March 22, 1854, by which they were permitted to become domiciled in the island after the expiration of their term of ser- vice, and to obtain papers of citizenship, by complying with the laws for the time being in force on the subject. The greater number availed themselves of the privilege. A new ordinance, however, was issued July 7, 1860, by which it was made an essential condition and special clause to be inserted in every con- tract, that at the end of his term the cooly should make a new contract of the same char- acter, placing himself under a master or guar- dian ; otherwise he was obliged to leave the island within two months at his own expense. Detailed instructions for the application of this ordinance were made public Dec. 31, 1868 ; and on April 27, 1871, a royal decree was issued suspending immigration and authorizing the government to cause all Chinese whose terms of service had expired, and who had not renewed their contract, to leave the island at the public expense. This decree, which ap- pears to have been dictated by the participa- tion of the coolies in the insurrection, was not carried into effect. A meeting of planters was held at Havana Sept. 16, 1871, under the pres- idency of the political governor, to consider the subject of Chinese immigration, in connection with the order of April 27. The governor, in his report to the administrative council of the prov- ince, shows that the ordinance of 1860, the ob- ject of which appears to have been to retain in the island a body of acclimated agricultural la- borers, has not worked we'll, because the coolies after their term of service escaped to the moun- tains, or evaded the law by obtaining surrep- titiously the necessary police documents, or con- tracting with fictitious masters. On the other hand, if the ordinance were strictly enforced, he thinks the Chinese would rather emigrate to the United States than contract for a further term. He considers that the good of Chinese immigration overbalances the evil; that it alone can develop the agricultural resources of the island and repair the waste of the rebel- lion ; and that the coolies should be domiciled