Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/309

 COOLY 305 on the expiration of their term of service, and should have the right to acquire property under certain restrictions. He advises that, when the state of the island permits, the ex- isting restrictions upon immigration should cease. These views appear to be much more enlarged and liberal than those generally en- tertained by the planters. In the latter part of 1872 the violation of the contracts with coo- lies in Cuba, in preventing them from leaving the island at the expiration of their term of service and compelling them to enter into new indentures, was made by the United States the subject of diplomatic representation to Spain. Peru in 1856 issued a decree .prohibiting the traffic "in the violent and cruel manner hith- erto prevalent," and regulating the transporta- tion and employment of coolies ; but it has been systematically violated, even if not repealed. A recent proof at once of the ill treatment and mismanagement of the coolies, and of the des- perate character of those imported, may be found in the riot that occurred in 1870 on the extensive cotton estates of Galpon and Pati- vilca, about 180 m. N. of Lima, which spread until it embraced 2,000 coolies, and cost the lives of 40 whites and 300 Chinese. In 1869 and 1871 petitions from the coolies in Peru, complaining of the imposition practised to in- duce them to emigrate, and of the cruelties suf- fered by them in that country, and asking for the appointment of a Chinese resident at Lima to protect their interests, were forwarded to Prince Kung through the United States minis- ters at Lima and Peking. The Chinese gov- ernment in response issued a decree that no merchants of non-treaty powers should be al- lowed to open an office for hiring laborers, and prohibiting all natives from engaging them- selves to such, or going to Macao for that pur- pose. An order was also issued suspending all emigration to Peru, and the representatives of foreign nations were requested not to permit their flag to be used in the transportation ; the governor of Macao being at the same time di- rected to put a stop to the emigration from that port. When the news of these measures reached Peru, public attention was attracted, and fears were expressed that the importation, of coolies would be entirely cut off. It was finally resolved to send an embassy to China, which sailed in the early part of 1873, for the purpose of negotiating general treaties of am- ity, commerce, and navigation, but with the special object of regulating and establishing the principles on which the immigration of Chinese shall hereafter be conducted, the Pe- ruvian government being willing to extend to them all the guarantees given in the treaties with other Christian nations. The cooly im- portation in Peru has recently been monopo- lized by a company formed to carry on the trade ; but in 1870 an association of planters, with a capital of $1,000,000, was organized for the purpose of importing their own laborers,' with a view to a reduction of the cost. There has long been a large company at Havana en- gaged exclusively in the importation of coo- lies, and in 1871 an association of rich plant- ers, with a capital of $1,000,000, was formed in that city to import them for. use on their own plantations. The present shipments from Macao consist of prisoners taken in the clan fights, of villagers or fishermen kidnapped by the lorchas, and of those who have sold them- selves to pay their gambling debts. There are established cooly brokers in the city, who have a depot or private jail in which the coolies are kept until a cargo is obtained, when they are sold to the highest bidder, bringing from $10 to $27 apiece. They are all forced to sign a contract to serve eight years, for $4 a month and two suits of clothes a year ; in Cuba these contracts usually bring about $400 each. In Peru coolies are sold for $350 to $450 apiece, and cost $60 to $80 each delivered at Callao. In Cuba they are mostly employed on sugar plantations; in Peru they are taken to the plantations in the interior, and are also em- ployed on the Chincha and other guano isl- ands. In both countries the mortality is great. In 1870 and 1871 several cases of barbarity on cooly ships occurred, which were made the subject of representation to the governor of Macao by the United States consul at Hong Kong. The only restriction upon the traffic at the former port appears to have been the prohibition of the transportation of coolies in vessels belonging to nations not having treaties with China nor employing cooly labor. A re- turn passage was in 1873 secured to the cooly in the contract of service, and toward the end of that year the traffic was prohibited by procla- mation. In May, 1871, Chief Justice Smale, of the supreme court of Hong Kong, in the case of a cooly charged with piracy for having par- ticipated in the mutiny on the French ship Nou- velle Penelope, Oct. 4, 1870, in which part of the crew were murdered, declared the cooly traffic, as carried on from Macao, to be the slave trade, and therefore itself piracy, and the rising of coolies to obtain their liberty to be jus- tifiable. The table given on the following page, compiled from the recent work of Mr. Russell H. Conwell ("Why the Chinese emigrate," &c., Boston, 1871), gives the most complete and accurate statistics attainable of the cooly traffic, from 1847 to 1870. Very few if any of the large number transported have re- turned to China. In 1869 there were 34,420 coolies in Cuba, and it is estimated that there are about 50,000 in Peru. According to the report of the political governor mentioned above, the number of Chinese arriving in Cuba from June 3, 1847, when the first cargo was received, to Oct. 10, 1871, was 109,029, costing $37,081,280, or $1,545,053 a year. Since the breaking out of the insurrection the importa- tion has fallen off, only 2,715 coolies having arrived at Havana during 1870-' 71, while in 1866 15,517 were shipped to that port from Macao. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1871,