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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la miithode. 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE COOLIE 11 i ml' I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY FRIEND SHELDON AMOS. N( THE COOLIE W^ tatQljts antr Mronas NOT£S OF A JOURNEY TO BRITISH GUIANA, WITH A REVIFW OF THE SYSTEM AND OF THE RECENT COMMISSION OF INQUIRY BY THE AUTHOR OF "GINX'S BABY" STRAHAN & CO., PUBLISHERS 56 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON i8;i • 17 832 5 ^3 I PREFACE. 'T^HE origin of the following pages is sufficiently -*- explained in the Introduction. The subject treated in them is one, without exaggeration, of measureless and daily intensifying gravity. Whether an artificial system for the transfer from the swarming hives of Eastern Asia to the needy plains of the tropical West can be framed, organised, and con- ducted with results equally efficacious to the capi- talist and beneficent to the immigrants, is the ques- tion which, from one of its most conspicuous examples, is here discussed. How far may an anomalous system be safely used to remedy anomalous conditions of human labour-power and assist in wealth-develop- ment ? It will be seen that the author has somewhat carefully adhered to the particular example of the Coolie system which came under his own observa- tion, and it is as a review of the example thus seen that he offers this contribution to the subject. The statesman and the philanthropist are equally • f « VIU PREFACE. interested in a movement destined no doubt to ex- pand with the growing energies of the world ; hold- ing out promise of relief to vast aggregations of society, and charged with hopes for the world's improvement. Like every other human system, this has 'ts faults and failures. Wrong and sorrow are unhappily inalienable from human effort. All that the wisest men can do is to help to reduce the possibilities of these things to the minimum^ or to excise altogether systems hopelessly vicious. Such a system was the Slave-Trade. Some think that Coolie immigration is quite as intolerable. The author thinks, not ; and it will be for the reader of these pages to decide upon his opinion. He has tried to do justice on all hands. In Dcmerara he received from many planters the utmost kindness and consideration. He would pay them an ill compliment, as he would degrade himself, were he to suffer those kindnesses to close his lips to any evils which he believed to exist in the government, in class relations, or in the individual management of estates. He has therefore spoken always with frankness — never with ill-will. Those who read the whole book will discover that the Coolie immigration system is a complicated and even difficult subject, though if they will study it carefully their interest will be found to reward their pains, and, perhaps, to arouse some of the noble sentiments that spring with blessirxgs to the searcher I PREFACE. ix in every fresh field of humaiiC sympathy. The work is divided into two parts ; the first consisting of a simple narrative, with episodes relevant and irre- levant, of the author's journey and observations — sufficient, however, to give to the general reader an idea of the Coolie's situation and of the issues of the Coolie question. In the second part the author has discussed in detail the system in India and British Guiana, and analysed and reviewed the Report of the recent Commission as briefly as was consistent with a fair exposition of the subject. In the Appendix there will be found several extracts well worth a perusal. It should be mentioned that the sheets of a considerable portion of the book had been printed before the Blue-book of the Report presented to Parliament, and which has been revised by the two Commissioners in England, was issued. The quota- tions therefore in the early pages are taken from the copy printed in the colony. Temple, July, 187 1. CONTENTS — « — CHAP, PAGE I. INTRODUCTORY I II. THE TERMINI — AND BETWEEN jc HI. GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA .28 IV. THE ESTATES— WINDSOR FOREST 39 V. SCHOON ORD je VI. GOVERNMENT, GOVERNORS, AND GOVERNING CLASSES . . 70 VII. ESTATES' MANAGEMENT, STAFF, AND EXPENSES ... 88 VIII. COOLIE STRIKES AND POINTS OF LAW loo IX. THE CHINESE SETTLEMENT II6 X. A CATTLE FARM I29 XI. THE COMMISSION AND SOME OF ITS CONCOMITANTS . . I35 XII. COOLIE PETITIONS 1^9 XIII. THE PENAL SETTLEMENT Ij^ PART II. XIV. THE COLONIAL EMPLOYER . . . , t .. . l62 XV. IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION IN INDIA AND BRITISH GUIANA 1 75 XVI. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE AND ITS CHIEF . . , .201 XVII. INDENTURES, REGISTERS, RK-nVDENTURES, AND IMPRISON- MENTS 224 xu CONTENTS. XVIir. WOMEN AND MARRIAGES XIX. IMMIGRATION LAWS AFFECTING THE COOLIE XX. THE coolie's REMEDIES AGAINST HIS EMPLOYER XXI. WAGES . . . . XXII. AIDS AND REMEDIES ON THE COOLIES' BEHALF . XXIII. MEDICAL INSPECTOR, DOCTORS, AND HOSPITALS . XXIV. MORAL AND MATERIAL WELFARE, AND CONCLUSION APPENDIX ' . PAGE 242 276 291 335 362 377 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. COLOUR white and colour brown, Brahmin and Pariah, domineering Anglo-Saxon and supple Asian, master and servant, lord and serf, Government and labourers. Planters and Coolies, these are the parties, the controversy about whose relations and interests, mutual or antagonistic, is the subject of this book, as it was the object of my journey to British Guiana. Often has the world seen a similar controversy, the scene shifting with the shifting fortunes of races. Of no small gravity are the issues to the parties concerned. To the planters, who are staking fortunes upon fresh annual swarmings from the great Indian or Chinese hives — nay, to you also, all sugar-con- suming bipeds — the question whether one hundred thousand hogsheads, more or less, shall be yearly extracted from the rich mud-banks that lie between the Essequibo, Demerara, and Corentyn rivers is some- what personal and serious ; is it not ? It needs, there- fore, only to be said that if Coolie proved impracti- cable in the controversy, the whole of that vast industry a THE COOLIE. would be endangered, with everything depending on it of capital and energy and commercial progress. On the other hand, deeply interesting is this ques- tion to the Coolie himself and to the philanthropist. A hundred thousand hogsheads of sugar per annum in tiic world, more or less, is a tittle compared with the question — ^Whether the toilers who produce it are wronged and unhappy ? Some ^fty thousand immi- grants, carried by long voyages from their own land and family and race associations, are — of their own free will let it be remembered — bound for a certain number of years to fetch and carry, to work and delve, for any master assigned to them by a Demerara Executive ; bound under a w"onderfully complicated system, with legal balances and checks, devised, some say, to protect them, others say to wrap them in inextricable bonds. How these people endure the change of life, how they are treated, their well-being or misery, and that of their children, have been the subjects of an elaborate inquiry ordered by her Majesty's Government. This inquiry, I venture to say, demands the fairest, keenest, strictest, most instant attention of that Great. Mogul the British public. ' Some time since, one, assuming to himself the office of Coolies' advocate, represented to the Colonial Secretary their state to be little other than that from which not many years ago the tillers of the same soil were redeemed by our generous fathers. Seduced from India or China by false promises (so he seems to have averred) — not duly notified of the legislation INTRODUCTORY. ing on 3SS. s ques- pist. A num in vith the it are i immi- w^n land eir own certain id delve, emerara iplicated ed, some them in dure the ell-being 3een the by her nture to st, most 1 British the office Colonial that from same soil Seduced he seems egislation which would affect their relations when they reached the field of labour — assigned without due caution on the part of the Executive to the power of uncon- scientious masters — wronged by the law and against law — daily injured, and unable to obtain redress, because of combinations between unjust magistrates, hireling doctors, and manceuvring planters — dying unrecked and unreckoned (I have tried faithfully thus to sum up this man's charges) — such a fifty thousand British subjects, anywhere existing, would heat the sympathies of English hearts to boiling-point, and woe worth the Governor and Council, Court of Policy or impolicy. Combined Court or Electors' College, judges, magistrates, doctors, planters, managers, over- seers, and ** drivers," who should be accomplices in such a state of things ! Most certainly this mud-bank question is a heavy matter. One hundred thousand hogsheads of sugar versus fifty thousand human souls ; your money or their life. It will be seen that I was selected by two great philanthropic societies to represent the Coolies in this inquiry. I accepted and held their retainer as a counsel, not as a partisan. I not only am not but never was a member of either of the associations. No one can accuse me of prejudice either way when I went to Dcmerara. On the contrary, I determined to form an unbiassed judgment, and I claim for my opinions the weight due to impartiality. Besides my own experiences and the evidence adduced at the inquiry, I now have the Report of the Commissioners to fall back upon as at once a source r-p- THE COOLIE. of information and confirmation. It is not possible to exaggerate the value of this Report as a masterly and, long as it is, a concise review of the whole Coolie system. It must have no small influence upon the future policy of the Colonial Office, upon the machinery adopted in India and in various Coolie-worked colonies of the empire, upon the fortunes of peoples whose future is one of the gravest problems of humanity. I cannot wonder that there are philan- thropists in England who watch, with a jealousy made alert by former evils, the transportation over immense distances of ignorant and simple people to places where they are subjected to the uncontrolled power of a local plutocracy — a planting community whose interest it naturally is to obtain for the cost of their importation the maximum of profit. It is a noble zeal which prompts the distant stranger to look after the man whose brotherhood is the only claim to his regard. On the other hand, it is needful not to be generous only to the Coolie, but to be just to his masters ; and it is in the earnest desire to have this recognised, to strike an even balance between con- flicting opinions, that I write this book. If I may find it difficult — as who would not r — clearly to separate myself from the powerful influences of a labour carried on for some busy months in one behalf, on the other hand, I may appeal confidently to those planter friends, whose kind and manly hospitality made my work endurable, to acquit me at all times of intentional injustice. Demerara, of which Georgetown is the capital, is a INTRODUCTORY. division or county of British Guiana, a colony lying between Surinam or Dutch Guiana, and Venezuela, on the north-west shoulder of South America. British Guiana is divided into three counties, named respect- ively after the great rivers which bound or trans- pierce them — Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo. Next let me state the dimensions of the colony. From the Corentyn river, separating it from Surinam, to the Barima river, which glides between it and Venezuela, extends a coast-line of two hundred and eighty miles, from which line, in towards the Brazils, the country stretches three and sometimes four hundred miles or more in breadth. It lies between latitude 8° N. and 3° 30' S. Seven days before I set out for Demerara, I had as much idea of visiting the moon ; but when the Abori- gines Protection Society and the Anti-Slavery Society offered me, as a barrister, a retainer in an investigation concerning for right or wrong near half a hundred thousand souls, I could not hesitate about my duty or be tardy in my movements. So many Coolies and Chinese, imported by and for the purposes of British enterprise, were living and working for masters in that out-of-the-way colony. They had immigrated under a system approved by the Colonial Office. The Indian Government and that of British Guiana were also parties to it, as regarded the Coolies, and the Chinese Government as regarded its own citizens. It should be clearly understood that, as I have above hinted, the Coolie question is of far larger dimensions than is implied by the last statement. THE COOLIE. Other parts of the West Indies, such as Trinidad and Jamaica, have their Coolies, and are eagerly looking for more ; and in Mauritius alone over two hundred thousand of these expatriated people demand British protection and care. In the United States of America and in Australasia the movement already commenced for the importation of Eastern labour foreshadows a time when this will be among the greatest of social- political subjects, when the statesman and the econo- mist will alike need to exercise all their astuteness in solving its perpetually-increasing problems. These immigrants, almost every one of them, landed in Demerara, actually or practically under a bond of indenture. Hereafter we shall see that the Indian's indenture is executed in Demerara — the Chinaman's in his own country. By that indenture entered into with the Guiana Executive, they had agreed generally to serve for five years any master assigned to them by that Executive. • Here, for instance, let me give a paragraph or two of the indenture of my friend and quondam host, Lum a Yung. " Made the i6th day of December, in the year of the Christian era, being the 3rd day of the 12th month of the 9th year of the reign of Hiefung according to the Chinese Imperial Calendar." By this document, in bad English and good Chinese side by side, the said Lum a Yung bound himself to "John Gardiner Austin, Special Agent of the British Govern- ment for the regulating and encouragement of Emigration from China to the British West Indies" " I . That the said party of the first part shall and INTRODUCTORY. will, so soon as he shall be required, embark on the ship Dora now lying at anchor in the harbour of Hong Kong, and bound for the colony of British Guiana, and remain on board the said ship hencefor- ward until she proceeds to sea, and shall then proceed as a passenger on board the said ship to British Guiana, for the purpose of carrying out the stipula- tions hereinafter contained on the part of the said party of the first part. " 2. That the said party of the first part shall and will from time to time and at all times during the term of five years, to be computed, &c., — well, faith- fully, and diligently, and according to the best of his skill and ability, work and serve as an agricultural labourer, in the said colony according to the provi- sions hereinafter contained. " 3. That the said party of the first part shall and will work as such labourer as aforesaid for the space of seven hours and a half of each day during the afore- said term of five years, on such estate as may be pointed out by the Governor of British Guiana, with a reservation of not less than five days to be set apart during each year as holidays at the China New Year by the said Governor, and of every Sabbath day." In return for this the " Agent of the British Govern- ment " contracted, so long as the immigrant per- formed his part of the agreement, to cause to be paid to him weekly " the same rate of wages for the same proportionate quantity of work as may from time to time be paid to unindentured labourers working on the same plantation," and to cause to be provided for THE COOLIE. 'n him house, garden-ground, and medical 'attendance free of expense. Here, then, in a few authentic words have we •sketched out for us a first outline of the whole scheme of Coolie Immigration — the immigrant's contract and that of his employer — a transport system under direct supervision, through an agent, of the British Govern- ment. This contract is, however, to be performed in British Guiana, is affected in many ways by its laws, and is to be enforced in its courts. The laws, there- fore, and the character of the persons who administer them, are of first importance to the Coolie. Seven hours and a half a day, six days a week, for two hun- dred and sixty consecutive weeks, is Lum a Yung's or Ramsahi's contract with an unknown master. Is he idle ? Is he sick ? Is he ageing and weak ? Is he malingering? Or: Is he cheated? Js he maltreated ? Is he efficiently doctored — fed with good food when sick — carefully tended in hospital ? Some one on the spot, of absolute shrewd independence, is constantly needed to answer these questions, when occasion requires, authoritatively, yea or nay, in the interest of master or servant. Every one will see in a moment what a vast number of issues may arise out of this singular apprenticeship. I cannot more readily and succinctly bring before my readers the nature of the issues involved in the late inquiry than by referring them to two woodcuts, copied from caricatures executed^ and brought to me in Georgetown by a clever Chinese immigrant, who had been a schoolmaster in his own country. The INTRO D UC TORY. originals— obviously Chinese in style and execu- tion, and I am assured original in their invention — are coloured, and several times larger than the spirited reproduction by the engraver. Not only have they the quaint artistic ingenuity of the Chinese, but they will give an idea of the shrewdness and cunning ability which are common to all these Asiatic immi- grants in stating and systematizing their grievances. The picture on p. lo is a tolerably fair representa- tion of a manager's house on its brick pillars. To the left, at the bottom of the picture, is a free Coolie driving his cattle. To the right a rural constable is seizing an unhappy pigtail to convey him to the lock- up, being absent, as we see, from the band just above him, with his arms unbound. This indicates that he is trying to avoid the restraints of his indenture, and for this he is liable -to punishment. Above him, on the right of the picture, is a group of Chinese, and on the left of the steps a group of Indians, represented with their arms bound, an emblem of indentureship. They always speak of themselves as "bound" when under iTidenture. At the foot of the steps, on either side, is a Chinaman and a Coolie, from whose breasts two drivers are drawing blood with a knife, the life fluid being caught by boys in the swizzle-glasses of the colony. A boy is carrying the glasses up the steps to the attorney and the manager, who sit on the left of the verandah, and who are obviously fattening at the expense of the bound people below them. A fat wife and children look out of the windows. Behind, through a break in the wall, are represented the ''4k 10 Tff£ COOLIE. INTRODUCTORY. II =i3 ^^ m IS THE COOLIE. happy and healthy owners in England ; to the right, under the tree, through a gap in the fence, are aged Chinese, weeping over their unfortunate relatives. In the right-hand corner of the verandah is the pay- table, with the overseers discussing and arranging stoppages of wages. The smoking chimney of the kitchen and the horse eating his provender seem to be intended to contrast with' the scene in front. Tbis, then, gives a picturesquely sentimental and satirical aspect of the grievances likely to arise under the Coolie system. The picture on p. ii represents a more specific issue — that upon the point of treatment in hospital. Here we have a hospital, a large, airy building. On the left, through the windows, two men are shown in the stocks. Whether these were used or not upon any estates was an important question in the inquiry. Nexi, to the right, are bedsteads, on which lie the patients. I he nearest, a Chinaman, is just expir- ing, spite of the chicken soup — vide the chicken in the basin — which has been supplied to him in cxtre^nis. The question of the actual supply of nourishing food in the hospitals when ordered by the doctors was another point raised by the Commission. Again, in the middle we see two stout immigrants whom the doctor, sitting in the chair, is tenderly treating, while the manager kicks down the steps a meagre wretch, too weak to be worth curing. Another issue — are all the immigrants equally and. properly treated in hospital? Look at the stout black nurse standing beside the " diet-list," whereon is officially inscribed, INTRODUCTORY. 13 in Chinese, Indian, and English, the scale of diet, by which any patient who can read may ascertain whether the doctor's instructions are carried out as regards him or his fellows. Beyond, in the room to the right, is the black man's favourite, feeding on the dainties and porter ordered for the patients. A clear question raised here — Whether the subordinates do not cheat both their masters and the Coolies r Be- low we see the doctor's horse, well fed; to the left, the manager's pigs, well fed ; and about and under the house, crowing and fighting cocks, well fed ; while thin wretches hoe the ground, and a desperate China man hangs himself from the verandah. All this is powerfully satirical. And, lastly, we have the black cook issuing the rations, and stirring the chicken broth — the chicken all the while running about safely outside the pot ! These illustrations, then, are curious as embodying in caricature much of the case advanced in the inquiry on behalf of the Coolies, the proof or disproof of which is so vitally serious to the planters. It is, perhaps, in favour of the latter, before any evidence is produced either way, that an immigrant could treat the question with such humour — grim though it be. A letter, dated Christmas-day, 1869, was ad- dressed to Earl Granville, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, by Mr. George W. Des Vceux, the Administrator at St. Lucia, who had for five years been a stipendiary magistrate in British Guiana. This letter will be found in the Appendix.* Lord ♦ See Appendix A. J4 THE COOLIE. Granville, after communicating it to the India Office, in March following ordered an inquiry. Sir George Young, Bart., a junior barrister, but a man of dis- tinction for his varied abilities, was appointed a Commissioner, and had gone out to join Mr. Charles Mitchell, of Trinidad, nominated by a direction of the Colonial Office sent to Mr. Gordon, Governor of that island.* I expected to find the Commission at work on my arrival in Georgetown. * In the paper in Good Words (January, 187 1) I used language which may have conveyed the impression that Governor Gordon had some part in his nomination. I do not know that it is of much consequence, but I am authoritatively informed that Mr. Mitchell's appointment was solely that of the Colonial Office, and that Governor Gordon had nothing to do with it. CHAPTER II. THE TERMINI — AND BETWEEN. " ^^7011 must be at Southampton, sir, to leave by the -*- tender, at half-past eleven to-morrow," said the clerk in Moorgate Street. Early, therefore, was the rising, and thrilling the family excitement, in order that I might catch the eight-o'clock train. I was going alone beyond seas for indefinite months, into strange regions, with black reputations in health matters, and on business of deep importance. Enough to make the time anxious. And here I am at my door, the cab loaded, the servants — as, God bless 'em ! they are wont to do when one goes away from home — tear- fully watching to bid me godspeed, when nurse comes down with two bright, curly-haired babes, and I take them in my arms, and over the pink cheeks and dimpling, smiling faces my eyes grow hazy as I give a long embrace. How well I remember the day ! — the dull, grey London morning, through which my cab so slowly wended ; the only gadabouts — sweep, newsboy, green- grocer's cart, and men and women hurrying to their i'STT i6 TIIi: COOLIE. work ; and here, in Rochester Row, a morning crowd, ah ! how unfresh looking ! clustered round some object on the pavement, with two policemen prepar- ing a stretcher to carry it. What ? and whither ? This was a Friday morning in June. On the pre- vious Fridcy, sitting in my chambers, thinking least of such an enterprise, there entered two friends. One said — " Will you go to Demerara ? " "What's the! matter ? A commission ? " " A commission — but not merely legal : one ordered by Lord Granville to inquire into the Coolie system of British Guiana. A Mr. Des Voeux, who was formerly a stipendiary magistrate there, and is now Adminis- trator at St. Lucia, has written home a despatch, bringing some grave charges against the planters. Two societies, the Aborigines Protection and Anti- Slavery, wish to have the Coolies properly represented by counsel on the Inquiry. Will you go ? You must be ready by Thursday." Hence, reader, on the succeeding Friday morning I was, as I have described, starting for Southampton, with a home guard of honour to see me safely out of the country. Southampton is a sorry place to leave or to arrive at. Go not down by the latest train, else this is the treatment to which, as a passenger by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's vessels, you will be subjected. Your baggage, after -afFering much at the hands of the railway porters, is seized upon by a selection of rough persons, possessing go-carts of doubtful capacity. If you imagine that a ' THE TERMINI— AND BETWEEN. 17 small solatium to the one who happens to appro- priate your parcels will insure their delivery on board the steamer, you are egregiously hopeful. He trots you along a dirty street, and suddenly turns in at a gateway. There he and you are brought up by ten or fifteen other go-carts, with as many groups of passengers. Presently, an individual emerges hastily from a wooden hut, and after examining one vehicle, rushes in again, followed by a number of passengers and porters. "Porter, what's the matter?" — "Dock dues, sir." — "How much?" — "That depends, si", on the size and number of the parcels. There's the man who settles it." In about fifteen minutes the man who settles it reaches my indifferent paraphernalia. " Five shillings, sir ! "— " Five shillings ! What for ? " " Dock dues, sir." He looks hard at your pockets to see if you have any chargeable parcel concealed about you. Having been bled at the entrance of th'ese docks, you proceed, at the peril of your limbs and baggage, and to the discomfort of your corns, to thread your way through goods and railway trucks, for a quarter of a mile or so, until at last you reach a shed. INIore officials. " Have your baggage measured here, sir." " Take a ticket, sir. My boat's at your service." — " I don't want it ; I'm going in the tender." — " They won't let you take your things in the tender, sir ; only the little ones." Sure enough I was forced to engage this fellow for three-and-six to take my baggage on board, and pay the porter four shillings besides. C trr i8 THE COOLIE. I don't know whether the Royal Mail Steamship Company will care for my opinion in these matters, but I think the few shillings per passenger which it would cost to satisfy the greed of the Dock Company would be well spent in securing the arrival on board their steamers of passengers in a contented frame of mind. 'Tis bad enough at all times to be leaving your own blessed country, without the additional harassment of being fleeced of your money and your temper at the last moment. The Company must permit me to have this growl at them. Saving the propensity of their sailors to rack and ruin your luggage, you are given no other pretence for com- plaint till you reach your destination. However, here we are on board the tender. Signs of the West Indies already surround us, in groups of pale Creole children, attended by black nurses, one or two decidedly brown babies, and several pompous- looking, half-breed gentlemen, trying to look as white as possible. And here are three Scotch deer-hounds in leash, a couple of bull-terriers, and a Skye, ciceroned by a sturdy, short-necked, bull-headed man, his quaint face decorated with a moustache. More of this gen- tleman anon ; but he was of course soon dubbed the " dog-stealer " by a military wag. We are to have a large representation of the army on board — British and otherwise : the general commanding the forces in the West Indies and family, going to assume his command at Barbadoes ; the military secretary and aide-de-camp ; a couple of naval cap- tains — two young officers going to Yokohama, via THE TERMINI— AND BETWEEN. «9 Panama and San Francisco ; here also is a Deme- rara merchant and planter with his natural and charming impedimenta. Lucky Englishman he who fell in with such good company! The Peruvian army is represented by a colonel of engineers — the Venezuelan, by a general and his aide-de-camp. Nothing could be more amusing or significant than the contrast between the South American and the English general. One a quiet, grave, noble-looking gentleman, with valour and honour written in every lineament ; the other a tall, dapper-looking stripling, not unhandsome, dressed as a man would dress for the Paris boulevards, and certainly more like a dancing- master than a martinet. Of him, by the way, a good story eked out on the voyage. He was presented to the Emperor Napoleon, who asked him "how the war between Paraguay and Venezuela was going on ?" — a geographical blunder which even Venezuelan politeness could not refrain from correct- ing. This general had been summoned home to his distracted country by one of its chronic revolutions, and it was a current joke on board that, until he reached home, he could not tell the name of his nation or its form of government. But I am fore- stalling the voyage. The Seine proved to be a noble vessel — paddle-wheel and steady. This was said to be her last voyage to the West Indies — though she has made several "last voyages" since — economic considerations and the demand for speed compelling the substitution for this sedate ship of one of those drunken, restless, quivering, squirming screws, in- **p »«ki 10 THE COOLIE, vented for swiftness and the distraction of weak stomachs. The rage for rapid transit, which is divest- ing travel of everything but bore and anguish, was about to consign this fine boat — so quiet, so dignified in her motions, so tender of the tenderest feelings — to the conveyance of stores or emigrants — happy emigrants ! What she was to me — who on the ocean live the life of a dog — my pen can never express. I have sailed in many ships, but never in one so reason- able in the infliction of the necessary torments of the deep — torments not to be allayed, not to be calmed, not to be conquered by endurance, or diminished by faith, or reduced by brandy-and-water : sorrows ever new, remorseless, never from you while you toss upon the egregious waters. I have heard people talk of the Atlantic being like a mill-pond. Save me from such a mill-pond! Smooth passages ! They called this one a sniooth passage ; but it was the cruellest hyperbole of compliment to Neptune. Nausea getting up, nausea lying down, nausea on deck, nausea in the cabin, nausea for breakfast, dinner, tea — nauseas multiplied, aggravated, unceasing. Yet she was strangely clean and void of sea smells ; and of her captain and first ofiicer (soon to be a captain himself, let me hope) I can only say, if I must go to sea, send me with them. Captain Moir and Mr. Dix should be treasured by the Company — they are infallible favourites with the passengers. What think you of a first officer who is a superior navigator, a scientific man, a gentleman of literary and classical tastes, who discusses with you the law THE TERMINI— AND BETWEEN. 21 f weak divest- sh, was ignified lings — -happy e ocean ress. I reason- s of the calmed, shed by ws ever )ss upon ing like Smooth )assage ; iment to g down, usea for rravated, )idof sea (soon to say, if I lin Moir mpany — sengers. superior f literary I the law of meteors, or Lyell's geological speculations, or Darwin's theory, or quotes and analyzes Horace, or reviews with sensible and informed acumen the passing history of his day, or plays a clever game of chess ? You do not often encounter such talent even among the superior officers of our marine. We steamed out to sea. After a day or two of the sea the lucky weather brought us all on deck — the abject foreigners, the poor French lady who had sat moaning in the cuddy, the stout Dutch dame who, for forty-eight hours, rested her double chin upon her ample bosom in a state of adipose imbecility, ven- tured up to breathe the softening air. The pretty Hamburg girl, belle of the voyage, whose pink cheek faded for a short time, came forth revived in colour and spirits, and all turned from sour subjective con- templations to seek some objective means of amuse- ment. A copy of "Lothair" went the rounds, spite of Blackwood's criticism. The young men took to play- ing "Bull" — a game which consists of attempts to pitch leaden quoits into squares, in defiance of sea- motion — or whiled away the afternoons with whist. At night the piano and violin entertained us with lively airs, to which there was an occasional dance. Did you ever try to dance upon a deck which was continually coming up and slapping your feet ? Or we gossiped with each other about every one else and every one else's business. It was useless for any one to try to be mysterious; His name, occupa- tion, destination, characteristics, were ferreted out. mj mt 22 THi: COOLIE, and discussed with amusing candour of remark. Stories were largely contributed — many of them "yarns" on the face of them — some of the best by President P . No better travelling companion or more thorough and genial fellow to be found in a round-the-world journey: a man of many travels and experiences. This very voyage he is going back to his government under circumstances that are singularly rare. Conducting it, some time back, in a thorough, honest, John Bull way, he excited the hatred of some of his dusky subjects. Accordingly they slipped some arsenic into a bottle of medicine that stood on his dressing-table* Only a powerful con- stitution saved his life after three doses of this infernal mixture. He had returned home with his family to recover, and was now sent back again by the Colonial Minister for the oddest reason that evei: occurred even to such an official. At least, so the joke went. It had been found impossible to detect the perpetrator of the crime which had so nearly touched the president's life ; but the cool gentlemen at the Colonial Office, sitting there three or four thousand miles from "Obe" and danger, said it would never do to let the natives imagine they could poison a governor ! So my agreeable friend was returning to face his enemies and assert the principle that a president cannot be poisoned. What if they had poisoned him ? A propos of the president's government, he told us that his council or island parliament legislated in accordance with the personal interests of the majority. If the merchants succeeded in getting the prepon- THE TERMINI— AND BETWEEN. 23 derance, they abolished taxation on imports, and laid the burthen on the estates of the planters, who, when their turn came, simply reversed the process. On one occasion there was a proposal to tax donkeys, of which large numbers had been imported into the island for the porterage of produce, a labour usually performed by blacks. One of the legislators — him- self a large importer of donkeys — enraged at this proposal, made a speech in the council, indignantly concluding : " I can only say, if donkeys are to be taxed, it's time I left the island." Wonderful, too, were the tales of our friend " the dog-stealer" — no harm meant by the appellation. It is Incus a nofiy for an honest fellow was our Lima friend. He is telling us of his last voyage : — " Last time I came out^ — eh ? there were three bishops and about twenty ecclesiastics — eh ? going to the council. There was great fun — eh ? The Arch- bishop of L was one — eh ? He was a comfort- able little man — eh ? He liked well his glass — eh r One Sunday morning there was a service, and he was to preach — eh ? I happened to go down to the saloon, and the archbishop and one of the priests — his secretary, eh ? — were sitting taking something out of a bottle — eh ? I spoke to him, and he said — * This is a most delicious drink ; I have never tasted it before.' I said, ' What is it ? ' 'Whiskey!' 'Oh,' I said, ' whiskey, I know it very well.' They were drinking it neat — eh ? I called for another bottle and mixed some for them. — eh ? and we finished the bottle. You should have seen the archbishop — eh ? He could H THE COOLIE. scarcely stand up for the service, and when the time came to give the sermon he had to take hold of the bench and go along so — eh ? He could only say a few sentences — eh ? He went to his cabin, and we never saw him again during the voyage — eh ? The captain was a jolly fellow — big, fat, full of fun ; and every morning he used to say to the ecclesiastics (he talked Spanish well), * Ah ! his grace the archbishop, how is he to-day ? Is his grace still marcado — eh ? ' You know mareado is Spanish for sea-sick ; but then it also means sometimes what you call tight— q\\ V Spite of the fine weather, our progress was slow, so that we did not pass Sombrero until a fortnight from the day on which we left Southampton, steaming by the way close to Terceira, and just sighting Pico. It seemed to my eyes, after the sea-sick days which had dragged so heavily, as if these Eden-like Western islands were the better land wherein we ought to stay and train some solace for our purgatory of the deep. So green, so softened in the haze, basking so sweetly in the sun amid the fair waves, with vineyards and orange groves, and the little white cottages dotting the hillsides, I think if I wished some Rasselas retreat I should seek it in one of these glorious isles of the sea. St. Thomas is a pretty place, as you steam in between the fair lips of its harbour, and see it rising round the basin formed by the green hills, its red roofs and white walls brightening in the sun. But a few whiffs of its air oppress you. It is a fever furnace by construction. The thick waters of the harbour seem to change but seldom, and a ^ rricane there THE TERMINI— AND BETWEEN. 25 ought to be a blessing as a sanitary revolution. I did not land, but watched the busy scene about the ship, and tried to forget the fever heat that came throbbing off the shore. Round the steamer swarmed the Negro boatmen in crafts of fancy names — "Cham- pagne Charlie," " ^ly Eyes' Darling," and the like. They were kept away from the gangways with diffi- culty ; but I observed that a little carbolic acid thrown by the boatswain upon a sturdy black mon- ster produced a striking effect, not only on him, but on the enthusiasm of his rivals. Large lighters laden with coal were soon alongside the Seine. Young Negro women, scantily clothed, garments tucked up above the knee, carried the coal into the steamer on their heads in baskets, chattering nd singing the while. I have seen few E' 'ish navvies work so hard or so persistently; but Uiey were paid by the basket. No Negro man I afterwards saw in the West Indies came up to these girls in energy and vigour. Here we were transferred into a smaller steamer, the Mersey. Going on board this vessel, I observed a jolly-looking gentleman in a light coat and a straw hat, whose build was after the lines of Daniel Lam- bert. This proved to be the captain. Another indi- vidual was racked gymnastically on a seat and its back at full length. He was the captain's reverse as to size, and turned out to be the purser. Captain Herbert treated me with great kindness on my way home, and I owe him my gratitude. The purser needs no comment.* •wapi 26 THE COOLIE. For three days we steamed past the wondrous islands, furrowed, ribbed, and riven, lifting up their shaggy heads into the clear sky, while below they nourished here and there in pretty laps an exquisitely bright green vegetation. The glory of Dominica and of Martinique is inde scribable — their luxuriant, savage beauty, their lofty peaks, long jagged defiles, crowded with rich vegeta- tion, and the occasional stretch of vales, smooth with sugar-canes when seen from the water, but no doubt rough enough to the toilers in their marshy furrows. At St. Lucia, where we arrived after midnight, we transhipped into the Arno — not a pleasant operation, though a change for the better. With us to its captain was transhipped the news of his child's death at home. Not seen for two years — not to be seen again. Part of the great tragedy of English world-wide enterprise ; in this case touching a true, manly heart. A clean ship, pleasant officers, and fair weather conjoined to support our spirits, rather drooping after nearly three weeks of the sea. At Barbadoes we left most of our passengers, among them my friends the General and Mrs. M., their lively little daughter, and those ever-pleasant, fun-dispensing ofllicers ox the staff. After we had. seen them off in the large garrison boat, the remnant of us turned morose, and looked rather scurvily at each other for some hours. At last, on Thursday afternoon, July the 7th, the offi-cers went forward with their glasses to look for the lightship. Hurrah! There she is, ten miles off ; THE TERMINI— AND BETWEEN, 27 idrous ) their V they lisitely 3 inde r lofty regcta- :h with I doubt irrows. rht, we iration, :aptain ; home. . Part irprise ; L clean ined to y three engers, [rs. M., easant, ve had smnant •viiy at we shall be in by five o'clock. For fifty miles out we have been cleaving a dirty green liquid, tinged by the mud of the Essequibo, Demerara, perhaps even the Orinoco. Now we are in simple dun ditch-water, and the active negro on the paddle-box, singing out the fathoms as he casts the lead, informs us that our floating resources are dwindling. Here's the light- ship rolling in the swell, and here's the bar whereon we stick fast, but, after several runs at the obstacle, at length cut through into Demerara water. The shore at this short distance looks no more than a long line of low bank with a light palisade of cocoa and cabbage palms marked against the sky. In front we presently see a stretch of sea-wall and some white houses : that is the garrison. Round the corner of the wall and past the lighthouse we glide into a river — the broad, brown river — and at our left reach away the flats, the stellings, the stores and sheds, the low white jalousied houses, over which, everywhere, graceful cabbage-palms spread their green wings. This is Georgetown, Demerara. Thermometer 85^ Fahr., time five P.M. th, the ook for les off; CHAPTER III. GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA. IN ! A LARGE place, and a busy one. Here is a wide, muddy river, well hampered with shipping, from the beautifully-modelled schooners and sloops of Orinoco to the large iron Coolie vessels of the Forth or the Tyne — alive, too, with small craft. The air was oppressive even in the late afternoon. The tide was out, and had left exposed along the shore, and beneath the stellings or jetties, a fetid, ombreish mud, very suggestive of yellow fever to a fresh and doubting stranger. My friend M. — planter, merchant, shipper, legislator, and good fellow all in one — rescued me from the troublesome inquisitiveness of the custom- house officers, and in a short time I was walking up a broad street to the hotel — Beckwith's, said to be the best in the West Indies — three Negroes carrying my traps on their heads. I had landed on a mud-bank as flat as a billiard-table. The wide streets are bisected and intersected by canals and open drains, which strike me unpleasantly. I should have thought worse of it had I known, what I afterwards dis- covered, that these drains can only be emptied at GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA, 29 low water. Yet my first reflection is, that if any one retains health with such surroundings, it is no small evidence of natural stamina. On either side of the streets are two-storied wooden houses, erected on brick pillars, and generally furnished with jalousied verandahs. Round them, often in rich profusion, are splendid shrubs — the flamboyant, the oleander, the frangipanni — and towering over these the cocoa or cabbage palm, the tamarind, and other tropical trees. So that looking down some of the best streets, the effect, with the smooth, broad canals, fringed with a yard or two of grass, is very pretty — albeit very Dutch. The large amount of land appropriated to streets, gardens, and drainage requires for the popu- lation of some thirty thousand people a very exten- sive area, and the town stretches back from and along the river on a square of three or four miles. As the streets are laid out at right angles, the dis- tances are, like those of Washington, "magnificent." It was therefore no small comfort to me to discover, the day after my arrival, that Anthony TroUope's hint about cabs had been taken, and that very decent vehicles could be hired at any time of day for one shilling sterling a quarter of an hour. Horses in the tropics are constructed to go at a uniform rate of speed ; hence this arrangement is not so unfair as time contracts in London are apt to be. Here we are at the hotel. Mine host is as stout and jolly an Englishman as the wolds of Yorkshire ever saw — a cattle farmer too— and mine hostess a kindly English lady, who forthwith recognises in me a big 30 THE COOLIE. tropical baby, and treats me accordingly with infinite maternal benevolence. Beckwith's first floor is simply a wide verandah with a couple of large rooms inside it, the principal being devoted to the gentlemen for all purposes but sleeping. I am shown along a passage to a chamber as comfortable as the house contains — " Where Sir George Young slept, sir ! " — papered over the boards, the upper part of the par- tition consisting of open lattice-work. I can hear almost everything that is going on through the house. The heavy heels of the gentleman above me chronicle his motions ; I can tell to a nicety when he throws off his boots, hangs up his coat, doffs his clothes and casts them on a chair, winds up his watch, and jumps into bed ; nay, in the morning he produces an earthquake when he rubs the Macassar into his hair. I can hear the gentleman who has been to a dinner-party roll along the passage, and pitch head foremost through his door. ' I can hear him swearing at his shins for knocking against the chairs ; and, should he be taken with the nausea oi intoxication, I am forced to accord him an unwilling sympathy. But is not everything as audible in every Demerara dwelling ? With all this, Beckwith's is as comfortable an hotel as heat and Negro servants will admit of in those latitudes. In half an hour I am seated at dinner at the table d'hote. Looking round curiously — it is rather crowded, being mail-day — I find I am among gentle- men. They are mostly of the Planter kin. They all know who I am, and on what unpleasant business GEORGE TO WN, DEMERARA . 31 infinite \ simply s inside men for ilong a i house sir!"— he par- in hear igh the )ove me y when loffs his up his •ning he [acassar v^ho has ige, and an hear inst the lusea ol nwilling in every ;h's is as a.nts will ' at the s rather r gentle- They all business I have come among them ; but they neither stare nor seem to make remark. My neighbour talks genially about the climate, though much engaged in con- suming what, out of the tropics, would be an honest couple of dinners to a hearty* man. A stranger comes up to me, and offers to introduce me to the club — an old Rugbean, a Cambridge graduate, a travelled man, a gentleman — and afterwards in every way to me a friend was R. T. H., who thus genially tendered kindness to a stranger. A waiter approaches me with a tray and glasses, and says that Mr. C. desires the favour of wine with me. In fact, I am put at my ease immediately. As for impertinent com- missions, and busy philanthropists, and troublesome inquiries, and cross-examinations, leave those to the future — sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Meantime, here is a waif cast upon Demerara hospi- tality, and Demerara hospitality is large-hearted, honest, and genial. Therefore, when I go over to the club, pressing offers of " swizzles " come from all quarters, and I am told that honorary members are, by a rule of the club, forbidden to pay for their " drinks." I cannot say that I avoided swizzles in British Guiana; but I took them cautiously. A swizzle consists of a little water and sugar, a good deal of gin or brandy, and a dessert-spoonful of Angostura bitters, into which is thrown some scraped ice, and the whole is rapidly whirled round by a small stick with branchlets of an inch long. When it looks like a cool muddy froth it is taken down without stopping. I should be inclined to back 3« THE COOLIE. M against fever the man who ne^'er took a swizzle — though some of the oldest inhabitants have taken them persistently for years. They are seductive and dangerous, with just enough of tonic element to make them plausibly medicinal, just enough of sti- mulating property to attract one wearied with the in- cessant heat ; but without much vigorous self-control I am convinced that the first is, as a rule, a step to the second, and an appetite for stimulants in such a climate as that is a deadly snare. The club at Georgetown is, to the gentlemen, its most important institution. It is a huge wooden building, not without architectural pretensions, con- sisting of two floors — the club-room below, and a concert-room above. In the club-room are three billiard-tables ; outside it, on the windward side, a large verandah, with tables for cards. Here, early in the morning, a few old stagers come before break- fast to take their swizzles ; and in the afternoon almost every gentleman in the colony, who has nothing to do and is conveniently near, lounges from four to six. There is no charge for the billiard- tables, no high play, and the exercise is just arduous enough for a thermometer at 80°. I said this was an important institution for gentlemen ; the ladies, un- fortunately, have nothing to • correspond. The huge room up-stairs is rarely used for balls or concerts. The Demerara folk complain loudly of their salaried leaders of society. It is even alleged that, although these receive an allowance for special entertainment, it is but meagrely applied ; nay, it has lately been GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA. %% 1 stated with some heat by the " planters' organ," that those who ought to be the heads of every amusement, as well as of graver matters, are more interested in securing a competency for old age than in maintain- ing the dignity of colonial office. I heard this com- plaint in other parts of the West Indies, and I fear the representatives of her Majesty in some of these colonies have more reputation for thrift in their own affairs than for ability of administration. I have said that you find yourself, in Georgetown, amongst gen^/e- mcn — men, some of them well born, some of them well educated — full of ideas of sugar and commerce, yet once of good English or Scotch school and university ; shrewd capitalists, but also sagacious observers of public affairs. I was at times almost ashamed to find how much they knew of English contemporary history. This strikes you everywhere in the colonies. It is partly owing to the many good summaries of intelligence which the home or colonial press supplies, and which often descend to minute details without involving the perusal of indifferent reflections or reports ; but it is chiefly due to the lively zest for information which delay and dis- tance breed in English-loving hearts. I am almost beginning to think that England is far dearer to exiled affections than to the cold contents of home. Near the club is Georgetown Cathedral ; that is, the Anglican cathedral. The Roman Catholics also have their cathedral and their bishop. The English cathe- dral is built in what I should call the Creole-Gothic style: a brick structure of the original design of a D 34 THE COOLIE. West Indian barn, with spasmodic innovations of Gothic in such parts as the doors, windows, and chancel. In front of the latter was an extraordinary Gothic iron skeleton of elaborate workmanship, which constitutes the pulpit. This skeleton was a substitute for a more substantial oaken structure which stood for some years, and one day turned out to have been so catacombed by ants as to promise no further support to the clergy. There are galleries on both sides, and an organ loft and choir at the end. The choir looks picturesque, with its row of surpliced ebonies, wooUy- pated and tin-voiced, but hearty withal in their singing and chanting. One thing was peculiarly homelike — the marble memorial tablets, with their hyperbolic eulogies and bad verses. Besides the white aristo- cracy, great numbers of coloured people attend, the women amazingly gay in their light muslins, brilliant shawls, and fashionable bonnets, while their hair is cruelly straightened and rolled into as near a resemblance to chignons as wool is capable of assuming. The Presbyterians are powerful in the colony. Be- sides the number of Scotchmen imported, on account of the superior physique of that race, to be managers and overseers, there is a Dutch element, which naturally attaches itself to Presbyterianism. The State in British Guiana pays all denominations alike. The colony is divided into parishes, and at the time of the division each parish was called upon to designate its own form of religion. Hence some parish churches are Anglican, and others Presbyterian. The principal 1! t GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA. 35 )ns of 3, and iinary which stitute Dod for 3en so port to ind an looks vooUy- inging elike — erbolic aristo- nd, the rilliant ir hair near ible of Presbyterian church of Georgetown is a commodious wooden building, rivalling the cathedral in its style of architecture and appearance. It has a tolerably good choir, and an organ, played by a " Mus. Doc." of the United States, who is also a musical author, and has composed an extraordinary opera, entitled Martella^ from which I once heard him sing a "recitative and song of a bandit," of such peculiar and heart-rending ferocity, as to convince me that his very sweet playing in the church was his happiest occupation. There it was refreshing to sit in the Administrator-General's pew, with one's head cool- ing against a vast ornamental tombstone behind, and listen to the organ sounding finely in the panelled auditorium, while the earnest voices of the people rolled out that quaint old psalm — " Praise God, from earth below, Ye dragons and ye deeps : Fire, hail, clouds, wind and snow. Whom in command he keeps. Praise ye His name. Hills gieat and small. Trees low and tall. Beasts wild and tame," &c. &c. I was rather dashed to find that the Commission was not sitting. On the contrary, their operations were indefinitely postponed, and the two gentlemen had taken advantage of a lucky expedition to the interior to go and view the wonderful Kaiteur Falls, discovered by Mr. Brown. The truth was, that the planters were dissatisfied with the Commissioners. 3t> THE COOLIE. They knew nothing of Sir George Young, and alleged they knew too much about Mr. Charles Mitchell. In fact, they thought the latter far too young and inexperienced. Moreover, they had doubts about his capacity for spelling ! They said so plainly and appropriately enough in a deputation to the Governor, begging him to communicate with Lord Granville, and ask for another Commissioner; their organ, the Colonist^ said so rudely, and with concomitant abuse of little credit to anybody actually or impliedly a party to it. So I was destined to wait six weeks for the new Commissioner. When, the morning after my arrival, I slowly paced the hot streets under shadow of my umbrella, I marked with wonder the varieties of race, dress, aspect, of the people who thronged the wide business thoroughfare. With Saxon, Teuton, and Celt, in their white adaptations of European costume, there were blackest Africans, or tinted Creoles, or brown and copper Bengalees — the men's little loin-cloths, or babbaSy leaving unswathed their polished limbs ; the women, in slight, brilliant costumes, which set off their lithe figures and supple motions ; yellow China- men in blue blouse and pigtail, with half-cunning, half-idiotic faces ; once the short, staunch, brown figures of the aboriginal Indians (the " Bucks," as they are called), come from the interior to barter, the men, for the nonce, assuming some elementary garb of decency, but the women, with the modesty of inno- cence, absolutely reduced to no larger garment than the primitive fig-leaf. Was it not a surprise to see GEORGE TO WJV, DEMERA RA . 37 such variety within a mile of street ? But I was look- ing specially for my Coolies, and here they were. Not a few of them, well-made, handsome fellows, stepped along with light and vigorous swing, some- times proudly sporting a shirt, or a white calico robe, or even a coat and trousers. Of the women, many bore the evidences of wealth. A tight-fitting velvet jacket, blue or maroon colour, with a short skirt, and round the bosom, and over the head, in graceful fold, a coloured scarf or muslin veil — and generally some silver or golden ornaments ; bangles on the bare legs, bracelets on the brown, well-turned arms, neck- lets of coins, the English florin being a favourite, earrings massive and numerous. I saw as many as half-a-dozen in as many holes in each ear, and nose- rings of gold, perhaps enriched with a gem. Astride upon the hip, in Hindu fashion, some carried a black- eyed piece of infant nudity, also heavily laden with silver baubles. I could not refrain from asking my- self: " Are these chains ? Can these be the wretched objects of avaricious tyranny, or have I landed in the wrong place r " Yet that question did not always press upon me. For not every one of them appeared to have been equally good-fortuned. Nay, many carried little but their dirty babbas — thin, obvious sons of earth-toil, and mayhap of sorrow ; a few old and weakening, a few Lazaruses, with lameness, impotence, or ugly sores for dogs to lick. Of the other immigrants, the Chinese were usually broad and even powerful-looking men, not often so indif- ferent to clothing as the Coolies. Indeed, of the >! J» THE COOLIE, Chinese in Georgetown streets a large proportion were small shopkeepers from the country, busily driv- ing bargains from store to store. It takes a Scotch- man to match John Chinaman at shrewd barter, — I don't know whether this was the reason for the number of the Caledonian ilk who served behind the shop counters. Such, then, were my c. jnts as I saw them the first day in the streets of thecapital. CHAPTER IV. THE ESTATES — WINDSOR FOREST. FIVE days after my landing I set out in the morn- ing with my friend, R. T. H., to visit Windsor Forest and Haarlem, two estates belonging to the Colonial Company. This company owns a large number of estates in the colony, besides others in Trinidad and elsewhere. Little freshness has early morning in Demerara: the fiery globe sends its horizontal beams along the landscape, striking madly on your face and ** knocking you silly," as my inge- ious friend the ADC. had expressed it on board ti ■ Arno. Windsor Forest was over the river, and some three or four miles down the coast. On reaching the stel- ling we found that the asthmatic steamer which was to have ferried over ourselves and our " trap " had been obliged to knock off for a few hours, and her sub- stitute — a still more invalid creature — was not yet ready, so we whiled away the time by ascending the lighthouse, an operation which was like climbing up a mammoth red-hot corkscrew in a chimney flue. I never did it again. But here we are at the top, looking far away over the flat country, and this m 40. TH£ COOLIE. fLJii WINDSOR FOREST. +» affords me an opportunity of describing the general face of the field on which the Coolie works. If the reader will look at the map, he will see that from the far north-west on the Arabian (more properly Aroe- bisce) coast to the extreme south-east, on the river C'^rentyn, the shores and river-banks are fringed with estates laid out in lines narrow and long. From end to end you would be hard bestead to find a hillock, and on the east and west coast, which I could see SEA V;V/,.^r;->^^;>'{^''|BUSH(BETWE«N hlQH jROiAO ok FRONT DM^ CANEFICLD o )li wssmwswum. CANE FIELD from the lighthouse, the ocean was walled out by dams. These, called the front damSy constitute tho high-roads to the estates. They lie between the cul- tivation and the sea, and the burthen of maintaining them in good order, as public highways, lies upon the adjacent estates. The carking sea is constantly eating his way into these huge works, so that thou- sands of pounds have been spent by the Colonial Company alone in resisting his encroachments. As 44 THE COOLIE. Ill hi !i ■}\\\\ there is no stone within fifty miles, the roads are topped with clay roughly burned into brick. On either side of the dam are broad deep trenches or canals. Into these, on the land side, strike, at right angles, the middle dams of the estates with their two long drainage and navigation trenches. The rough diagram on the previous page will give some notion of the relative positions. The plantations vary in breadth, but I was told there were some as narrow as two hundred rods. Their lines run " back " a prodigious length — ^four, five, or even six miles to the Savannah ; no pleasant meadow, but a great watery swamp, covered with rank yet magnificent vegetation, wilds where man rarely if ever roams, and whence in the rainy season sweeps down a deluge of brown bush-water. Against this incursion the cautious manager erects his back dam. The intermediate space of the quadrangle between this and the front dam is crossed at regular intervals by side trenches, cutting the estate into rectangular fields for the canes. These fields again are subdivided by smaller trenches and drains, till the wonderful system brings you at last to a bed — a space nine feet wide by thirty-six feet long ; and here, with the drainage and drilling to make it comfortably dry, grows the juicy cause of all this labour and of the Coolie question in Demerara. It is said that on one estate alone there are sixty miles of trench-work. No nation but the Dutch would ever have attempted so gigantic a water-system on such a mud-bank as the one stretched out below me. This water-system pre- WINDSOR FOREST. 43 vails through the whole colony, and there are many abandoned estates on which you may mark the re- mains of the Dutchman's marvellous energy to this day. One could not help thinking, as one looked at these traces of the old slave times, how many tears and drops of blood had flown down those still trenches, carrying to the ocean the strength and hopes of thousands of our fellow-men. Now, how- ever, they are chiefly maintained by free labour, the blacks far surpassing the Coolies in the qualifications for this heavy and dexterous clay-cutting. If we cannot help wondering at the Dutch, neither can we withhold the meed of admiration from our British fellow-countrymen, whose capital and energy are freely spent in works so costly and gigantic. When I looked at the little English community of British Guiana, and compared its numbers with what it was doing, I had no hesitation in according to them the palm among all the vigorous money-makers I have ever seen in any quarter of the world. But let us look out from the lantern a moment or two longer. East, west, and southward up the river- banks we see the tall chimneys of the sugar-buildings, throwing up into the clear day their jets of smoke. There is Bel-air, Turkeyen, La Penitence, Ruinveldt, Rome, and Houston, its fine palm avenue spring- ing up into the air, and beyond the river, Vrieden- hoop, and Versailles, and Malgretout. The names of estates, it will be seen, are international. Some are romantic. Bathsheba's Lust, Vryheid's Lust, Beterverwagting, Maria's Pleasure, De Kinderen, all '% ?j<»- ';'■:" Hiiiiii 44 THE COOLIE. seem tokens of some quaintness in the namers. But you should hear a Chinese try to pronounce some of these names. . Descending the corkscrew, we are in half an hour across the river and driving along the dam. After passing one or two abandoned estates we come to a village, with all the wretched characteristics of Negro habitats in this colony. Small wooden rattle- trap sheds in a dirty yard or rank half-cultivated garden, undrained — a perfect morass in the rainy weather ; the men and women sunning themselves on any dry spot, the naked youngsters rolling in their native mud ; and, most curious mark of all, a white- frilled or embroidered petticoat and a muslin dress bleaching on some scraggy aloe for next Sunday's chapel. Here and there along the road is a Portu- guese shop, more neat and clean than the homes of its patrons. Opposite we see some estates' houses for the Coolies. They look in this instance bad enough. There is a magistrate living within sight of them, and his hospitable flag waves an invitation to breakfast, but we cannot stay. The houses are all old sheds of wood, and huts of wattled palm. I was repeatedly assured that the Coolies preferred these rude tabernacles of their own construction, with their clay floors, to the best houses you could build them. In one case I was shown one built by a Chinese during Sunday, into which he had moved his family from a new wooden cottagej and from which the manager did not like to evict him. The mud about them, however, the fetid lines of drains, so called because rl WINDSOR FOREST. 45 the water never runs out of them, are not necessary- concomitants of an immigrant's home. Yet here were many lissom, brown younglings, born and bred in these dubious places, running about naked in the sun, or undergoing at their mother's hands the pro- cess of cerebral investigation or of anointing with oil. One little bright-eyed imp, with a solitary garment on — a silver dollar suspended by a string round the waist — runs out and cries to us "How dee, Massa r" Happy little Eveling, who even in these quarters is as yet in her garden of Eden ! We are passing cane-fields, and at length turn sharp off the road — no fences or gates here — up an indifferent avenue of tamarinds ; seeing on the left the range of immigrants' dwellings still called the Negro yard; on the right the overseers' house and the hospital; pulling up at length opposite a garden bloom- ing with splendid shrubs and flowers, among which stands the broad-galleried house of the manager. Except the garden, everything on the estate is rough and ready. The bank and trench in front of the Coolie cottages are muddy and unclean — such a state of things as you may see in Ireland or the Highlands of ^Scotland, where drainage is casual — i.e.^ conducted by the housewife's arm straight out of the door or window. I was not asked to visit these houses, but shall be able to describe those of other estates. Before breakfast we had time to view the buildings^ the work in which I must describe in detail. They consist of huge sheds protecting the machinery from the weather. On many estates they are new and F: . iW^ 46 THE COOLIE. M well built, on others antiquated and rickety; but hurricanes never test British Guianian architecture. So long as the rain keeps out, what matter? We cross the megass yard, at the rainy season a stretch of fine black mud. This stuff is a mixture of soil with the fetid lees from the rum-still. A whiff from it before breakfast tests your stomach sadly. I saw some Creole Africans digging in it for the foundation of a new still-room, and fairly ran away, wondering how they could live in the effluvium for ten minutes. To dispose of the lees is a problem not yet solved in Demerara. Whether they are useful as mr- ure is a disputed question ; and the cost of collecting, storing, and distributing over back lands would be very great. In one case, on the estates of the Messrs. Ewing, I saw elaborate preparations made for distributing and utilizing them. I understood that the experiment would cost nearly ^2,000 sterling. Between fear of expense and laziness, the planters have generally suffered the dregs to overspread the large yards of their buildings, impregnating the damp soil with dangerous filth, and dispensing sometimes for miles a nauseous stench. I was told of an instance of the death of several Coolies, unused to the country, through their having been inadvertently quartered in a house too near such a yard. When I men- tion that one of the finest houses in the colony — that at Houston—has a lees yard to windward of it, no one can in this regard suspect of malicious cruelty to Coolies persons who are so cruel to them- selves. WINDSOR FOREST. 47 ■& Long ranare^ c^ open sheds at the side of the yard are filled with what look like dried shavings, which bare-legg^^d Coolie women and boys are carrying swiftly in baskets to a row of fires, where ir^n thrust them in with long iron feeders. This is inegass. Entering the grinding-room, we see at once what megass is, for here is a huge machine at work. From the shed to the adjacent canal, on an incline, stretches a covered way. A punt-load of canes fresh from the fields is discharging. The canes vary in length from two to five feet, and are one to two inches in diameter. Coolies in the punt lay the canes on a broad traveller, up which they pass slowly, other Coolies meanwhile picking out the defective stalks and trash. At the top they are gripped by two iron rollers, which draw them into their ponderous jaws, and with Titanic force squeeze out the juice, leaving a flattened fibre — megass — to pass out beyond. Coolies req^ive it in large boxes, and wheel it away to the megass /o£-ie or shed. From the sides of the machine runs out the slatey- coloured liquid into a well, whence it is pumped up to clarifiers, which are heated with steam-pipes. Indian and Chinese men, with boy assistants, all reeking with the damp swelter, manage the clarifiers, and when they have prepared the juice, allow it to run down wooden troughs to the copper-wall — a range of brick furnaces, thirty feet or more in length, in which are sunk huge iron hemispheres called "coppers." We ascend the stage and watch the juice boiling violently, while the naked Chinese deftly ■.JjJ liliil 48 THE COOLIE, m I sweep away the scum with large flat blades of wood. Hot work, my masters ! All this boiling is produced by the burning megass, which we saw the women carrying just now. Up into the pitch of the shed rises the shining dome of the vacuum-pan, whither the syrup is pumped from the copper-wall, and where it is boiled again. Re-descending to the floor, we find the result in a tank of thick brown matter. Take up an inch on your finger, you see among the molasses the sugar crystals. Sleek and swarthy Chinamen fill their wooden troughs here, and empty them into the centri- fugals — a row of hollow drums, which, revolving rapidly, drive the crystals to the side ot the drum and the molasses through its sieve-like lining, until the pure white sugar is left there clinging to the side like a snow-drift. Other workmen empty the drums and convey the contents to the sifting-room, where — shall I tell it ? — I saw a couple of naked fellows walk- ing about in the piled-up sweetness as they worked the sifter. Our sugar is now ready for its huge hogs- heads. I need not follow the molasses to its cisterns, or the dregs to the rum-still. The very sweepings of the floors are made available. A bottle of the stuff from which fine rum is made, if hung up along- side the article, would preach a temperance sermon to many a stomach. Lastly, we visit the steam- engine and boilers, all of best Scotch or English make, the fires fed from numerous hogsheads of coal lying about the yard. The Negroes, and occasionally the Chinese, make good engineers. WINDSOR FOREST. 49 Altogether from sixty to eighty people may be at work in the buildings. It is hard sustained hibour. How many hours r Mr. Russell, the planter of planters, "said in his evidence, twelve, fourteen, six- teen hours. Many Coolies afterwards complained to me of long hours in the buildings — twenty or even twenty-four, they said, at a stretch. The statement must be taken subject to the fact that most of the work done in the buildings is done by task, and not paid for by time. But, as we shall see by-and-by, the Commissioners have some serious things to report about this excessive labour. The gist of the Coolies' complaint was that they had no extra pay for it. Mr. Russell, on the other hand, stated that on his estates they had. It may be found that a good deal depends on the pressure for " grinding." If the estate has enough labourers, the gangs can be relieved ; if not, the same people may at times be forced to go on. Canes get sour if not soon ground after cutting, so that there is a temptation to push to the utmost. But let us look at home. A London printer told me that some of his men worked forty-eight and sixty hours at a stretch. I cannot help thinking that a little trades-unionism brought to bear in a legitimate way on the permission of such suicides as that would be a healthy thing. To me it is no paliiation to say that the labourer is paid for his extra work. You cannot pay a man for exhausted tides of life, and shorter years, and a premature old age. Surely, whether it is sugar or instruction, mankind must stand by and wait for it while the purveyors take f 1 ms] {^ P . ^ L I 5^ THE COOLIE. their needed rest. Nay, we the public are taking terrible lessons about this sort of thing in the results of the long hours on our railways. This hospital I will not describe, as I visited larger ones thereafter. I saw a few wretched invalids, male and female, squatting in Indian fashion on their haunches in the verandah, and others fever-stricken on the beds. It was airy and in good order. Breakfast ! Anthony Trollope was not too enthu- siastic about Demerara breakfasts — they are right noble meals. My host was a powerful Scotchman, and peculiarly interested in the Commission. There were Coolies nursing nice grudges against him. Of this I was ignorant as I sat at the board groaning with its hospitality. It required some nerve after a meal like that to go out into the mid-day sunshine and get on a stubborn mule to perform the feat tech- nically called "going back," that is, up the middle walk to the back dam through the cultivation. Mule and I established proper relations fortunately ; for the air was that of an oven, the glare that of a furnace. I was wet through in a moment in the exercise of mounting, and had not my hack permitted me to carry an umbrella over my head, would not, I verily believe, have survived the trial. Along the dam, three mules in file. Here first are Coolies leading the mules which drag the deeply- laden punts down the canals to the factory. Their babbas are toil-stained, and their brown skins, dotted with mud, look dry in the terrible heat. Some wear old turbans or caps, some face the sun with no WINDSOR FOREST. SI covering but their thick black hair. They salute us gravely as we pass. The middle walk is muddy, full of holes, with constant breaks for the rickety wooden bridges this shape ^ v over the cross trenches, and encumbered by the rapidly-growing weeds. My mule and umbrella agree ; but I am an undistributed middle. Down the trench comes a Coolie wading to his breast, dragging a load of floating brushwood for his home fire. The sun flames upon the water and glints over his slippery limbs. Next an Indian woman, choosing the same damp causeway, who, with pretty modesty, dips up to the neck in the brown water, and watches us soberly with her great black eyes. We have been passing fields of young cane, and the light gangs, consisting of women and weakly men, are weeding among them. I have explained that a bed is a space about nine feet by thirty-six. Through this again lengthwise run shelving drains, dividing it into spaces. The canes are planted along these in what are called cane-holes. On one side is a clean bank, on the other a trash-bank. You may take the field, therefore, to be reduced to three-feet spaces. Mr. Russell, in his evidence, showed how this simplified calculation for wages or expenses. "The fields are always laid out in three-feet spaces, and to those who understand decimals, it is a nice way of calculating work. There are one hundred such beds to an acre, so if you pay one cent for each bed, it amounts to one dollar an acre ; eight cents per bed, to eight dollars an acre." The young canes may Hi I i' i! i 52 THE COOLIE. be two or three feet high. The weeders hoe out the weeds from the nine-feet space, and lay them on a three-feet space adjoining. Weeds in British Guiana are incredible plagues — vicious, pertinacious, domi- neering, tolerant of no other vegetation beside them, growing out and up and over everything with rankness and rapidity. The work is done gene- rally by the task. A man or woman agrees with the overseer to do one or more " openings" for a sum certaiii. An opening is the number of nine by thirty- six feet spaces across the field — that is, twelve of those beds taken in a straight line. At this work, a new immigrant working steadily might make, on a good estate, one shilling sterling in about six hours ; or supposing hir" to work from six A.M. till twelve noon every day but Sunday — and few will do more than five days' work — his earnings would be six shillings a week. But a large proportion cannot even make that. When we come to consider the Immigration Law we shall find that the minimum of work required from him is five tasks of one shilling in value, or five shillings' worth per week. A couple of miles back we come across the cane- cutters. They are the strongest Coolies on the estate, or more .frequently African Creoles. They also take their work by the openincr At each end of the open- ing runs the can?»^ air'' <" r must pile his canes on the bank r* ,j ^ >. Stripped to a rag, he takes his >s, a .1 r weapon in one piece, and cutting oii he cano near the ground, trims away the long leaves and h , ad. This head f ^rms the plant WIxYDSOil FOREST. Si or seedling to supply again the fields from which it is cut, or new land brought into cultiv^ation. The leaf-trimmings, called frds/i, are gathered up by the weeding gang, and laid on the bank alongside the cane-holes. There it dries and rots, and is then buried in the middle of the trash-bank as manure. When he has cut one hundred canes, the cutter, gathering them into a bundle weighing perhaps a hundred pounds, carries them on his head to the canal. If he is cutting in the middle beds, he has to cross and recross five beds, and the intermediate drains to the water and back again. No wonder he streams with the sweat of toil. At such work as this a strong man may make, it was said, two or three guilders or more a day. A guilder is is. ^d. Some of the Coolies were magnificent men. Their tall figures, deep broad chests, and moulded limbs, showed that they, at all events, could show good fight to want. Several had been Sepoys in India. A few of ^uch men I saw elsewhere engaged in another opera- tion, trench-digging. The subsoil is like the London blue clay. Digging out a trench seven feet deep and twelve or fifteen wide, you see a dozen mud-spattered fellows, with convex shovels like long scoops, having handles six feet in length. Standing firmly on his feet, every muscle in tension, the labourer drives the scoop into the clay by the action of his arms and shoulders, lightly throwing it twenty feet or so out of the trench. Good hands are fond of this work, and earn a dollar a day at it. We went all the way to the back dam, tiring of the l4 54 THE COOLIE. endless rows of canes, albeit a splendid cultivation, round to Haarlem estate, down its middle walk, and, after seven miles of it, my face and I rain on fire, I was glad to get under the cover of the trap, and drive rapidly against the air. ' I II ( ' .^11 V ;| 'I ! CHAPTER V. S C 11 O O N O R D. ON the 19th of July I accompanied ^Mr. Black, of the firm of Samuel Barber and Co., to visit Schoon Ord, on the west bank of the Deme- rara river. This is one of the finest properties in the colony. Crossing once n\ore to the Pouderoyen stel- ling,we diverged to the left instead of the right, driving past Other plantations, and through two or ihree free- hold villages occupied by blacks and Portuguese. The contrast presented on opposite sides of the road was remarkable, and is worthy the attention of those who make the Negro's cause specially their own. The Portuguese, mostly from Madeira and other islands, are as acclimatised £is any of white blood can be— so much so that they can work in the sun, and their little children sustain its fiery rays bareheaded. But the Creole Africans are perfectly acclimatised. This is the bean ideal of a climate for them. In it they thrive, are muscular and well-conditioned. If there was in them any corresponding energy, they could of them- selves double the production of British Guiana, and enhance their own position. There must be at least 1.* . J r, i S6 TI/£ COOLIE. l| !1 >' II m i seventy thousand of them distributed through the colony, many living on small freeholds purchased after the apprenticeship. On these they squat, listless about anything but a full stomach and an occasional gala dress, working, when necessity impels them to it, three days or even less a week, suspicious always about the price of their labour. "Wherefore should they work ? The plantain and the yam supply their wants : with the mango and various other fruits they help out their table, and the trenches everywhere yield abundance of fish. You may find such people in the environs of Georgetown ; but I am ' referring more particularly to the straggling villages in the country. There was such a village on our right, con- sisting of dirty, tumble-down structures, surrounded by rank vegetation, around and amid which we could see men, or women, or children, stretched in what seemed to be a perpetual siesta. On our left better and brighter houses, with cultivation about them, and the evidences of trade or thrifty activity, marked the homes of the Portuguese.* Here is Schoon Ord. Turning out of the road, we pass a neat house pointed out as the doctor's — for this great estate boasts its resident phys'cian. The manager's house stands behind a handsome garden, wherein the bread-fruit, lime, orange, papau, banana, cocoa-nut and ciibbage palms rise above splendid shrubs and flowers. We were welcomed by the manager, Mr. Arnold, a man hale and well on in * In Appendix B there will be found, extracted from the Commissioners' Report, an interesting account of the various luuour-cUiiises of 43rilish Guiun .. HI ,; SCHOON ORD. 57 life — thirty years in the colony, and only two months away ! The capitalist who owns this estate had, with great pluck and persistency, and spite of doubt- ful nodding of colonial wiseacres, expended on its development an immense sum, sunk in buildings and vacuum-pans, in centrifugals, in multitubular and Cornish boilers, in tramways, and in Coolie houses ; but sunk to some purpose, for I was told that last year the estate netted an earl's income. And Schoon Ord has only 1,200 acres in cultivation. I did not wish to "go back" again ; I had had enough of that at Windsor Forest. We went through the buildings — few, if any, so large and complete in every way are to be seen in British Guiana, and even then new machinery was being erected to double the manufacturing power ; but I need not describe again the interior of a sugar-house. Coming out of the factory, a surprise awaited me. There stood a long line of little children, of each sex and every shade of brown, from the delicate tint of the Madrassee to the ebony polish of the hill tribes. I looked at them carefully as they grinned a welcome, nothing to obstruct a clear survey of their figures. Most were sleek, well formed, and many handsome — the deli- cately-carved nostrils and little pouting lips, the well-rounded, finely -proportioned limbs, and the healthy elasticity of motion, suggesting a higher caste than I knew them to belong to. Some of the smallest chits wore silver bands on wrists and ankles, or a necklet of small coins. They called off their numbers in English, and then gave three cheers for h 58 THE COOLIE. m the strange Buckra gentleman. Thirty rows of teeth were shining at once, and sixty small arms waving lightly as they went away, some of them holding out their hands and crying, " How dee, Massa r " The sight did one good. In the middle of its own field was the hospital. When I say field, do not picture to yourself a grass compound, but a surface of damp or hard-baked soil, according to the season, not very level. The building resembled the other hospitals of the colony — as our Chinese artist has represented them — two-storied, with wide galleries and open jalousies, allowing the air to play freely through. The lower ward was for men, the upper for women. A good English barn with a pine floor would give a fair idea of the interior. The beds were arranged in rows, and were simply constructed of painted wood ; the mattresses and pillows stuffed with the cheap but sweet and soft dried leaves of the banana. To prove their quality, the officious nurse forced open a pillow and held it to my nose. The latrines are placed at the end of a covered passage, but so indolent are the patients that it is difficult to enforce the use of them. The men were lying or sitting listlessly on the beds — several with ulcers, often aggravated by the lazy or filthy habits of the patient. The Hindu is not gene- rally strong, in skin or bone. A man who had been a temporary sick-nurse in one of the hospitals told me that as an overseer he had sometimes given way to his wrath so far as to knock down a labourer, but at two post-mortems had an opportunity of comparing the 111 I, SCHOON ORD. 59 skull and rbs of a Negro and a Coolie. He was so startled at the difference — at the comparative weak- ness of the latter — that he never ran the risk of man- slaughter again. As in India, so in Demerara, a very common cause of death is ruptured spleen, sometimes from comparatively slight shocks or excitement. In- stead of being an excuse for its frequent occurrence, this susceptibility should be rather a reason for extra carefulness of treatment. Slight abrasions received in the field are difficult to heal in an Indian, and managers accuse the people of irritating their sores in order to escape work. On this ground stocks were kept in some of the hospitals — not at Schoon Ord certainly. Not to speak without book, I transcribe the evidence of the Medical Inspector of Hospitals, Dr. Shier : — *' I have observed stocks, but not in all hospitals. They were forbidden very recently. When the present hospital 53'stem came in force there were already hospitals throughout the colony. They had existed under the old regime^ and the stocls^s were in them, or at least in many of them. On the very first inspection I made, I discovered some of these stocks, and the matter was reported to the Executive. But on an attempt be'ng made to remove these stocks by the Executive, some of the medical men intimated to the Governor that they were essentially necessary in hospitals in the treatment of patients. The Governor, not wishing to interfere with the medical men in their practice, did not order their removal, but made it a condition of using them that it should only be done by the medical attendant, and by an order in the 6o THE COOLIE. I case-book. I may state that during the years I had visited these estates I have very seMom indeed found a case in which they had been used. A case, how- ever, occurred about two years ago where an overseer in the absence of the manager, and without authority, placed an immigrant in the stocks. The result was that the manager lost his situation. It was on Plan- tation Affiance, Essequibo. In these stocks there was something peculiar. They had never been in the hospital before. They had been introduced. I only saw them once in the Court of Justice. I had never seen them on the estate. The apertures in the stocks appeared to be more elevated than in any I had ever seen, and the consequence was that unless the person confined in them had been placed in a chair, it would have been almost impossible to put him in. It was not done under pretence of treatment — I believe by way of punishment. The subject is one which has given a very considerable amount of u)ieasincss (?) to the Executive at all times ; and on the very last occasion of its coming to the notice of the government they were suppressed entirely." The case here referred to occurred but a short time previous to my arrival in the colony. A Dr. Duffey had improperly confined in the stocks a woman named Putea ; and Dr. Shier's naive remark on this was, " When this case occurred, where a medical man had actually applied them to an improper use, his Excellency said it was time they should be removed ! " It is no unfair comment on this, that ** his Excellency " and his Excellency's predecessor were a long time in coming to this conclusion, after .SCHOON ORD. bi the exhibition of the " something peculiar " stocks of Plantation Affiance in a court of justice. The Com- mission have made a dry and caustic report on the stocks, to which I shall have occasion hereafter to allude. ■ A diet list in English, Hindu, and Chinese is hung up in the hospital, designating certain scales of diet. Over each bed the doctor ought to chalk the prescrip- tion and the diet, so that any patient who can read may check the administration of food and medicine. At Schoon Ord, doubtless, the patients receive good * rations; but, as our Chinese satirist has hinted, there are estates on which that is a moot question. We next reach the Negro-yard. To this place I always looked as affording the most trustworthy indication of the spirit of a manager towards his workpeople. Good houses and enforced cleanliness about them would show that he looked upon them as brother beings, not as mere brutish hinds. At Schoon Ord new ranges of cottages were in course of erection on a plan suggested by Dr. Shier. These were rows of well-built wooden sheds a single story high, each house consisting of one room, which reached to the pitch of the roof. They are set upon clay floors, raised about a foot or eighteen inches above the soil, to protect the inmates from the ground-damp. The provision for ventilation is good, but tJiat the coloured races abhor. On the hottest night, as I observed both in Demerara and Barba- does, half-a-dozen, crowding inta such a room, will close tightly both doors and shutters. If, like the 62 THE COOLIE. European houses of the colony, these immigrant dwellings are raised on pillars or double-storied, they are rife with quarrels and dirt. The Chinese will utilise the under space as a pig-pen, or, taking up a board in the floor, convert the under part into a general cesspool. Or the upper-story people disturb the pla- cidity of their lower neighbours by presenting them with uncalled-for surprises, either through the cracks of the floor or the open windows. This led Dr. Shier to devise the dwellings I have described, which are now generally adopted when new ones are required, but a large number of the old barracks still remain throughout the colony. The back-roof of the ranges at Schoon Ord jutted out a few feet, enabling the women to use the shade for kitchen purposes. Here they had neatly-moulded clay fire-places for their pots. Along the verandah we could see the women preparing their food — some triturating the rice, and others boiling it in pots. I stepped into one of the rooms — closed and dark, the floor cleaned with chunam. A dirty piece of calico was hung up as a screen to divide the room into two parts. The furniture is a rough seat, a simple rickety bamboo cot, a few clothes hanging against the parti- tion, some sticks and implements, a few pots, and a wood engraving from some penny weekly, Mr. Spur- geon, the Duke of Wellington, or President Lincoln — I forget which, and certainly the inmates did not know or care. Not a place you or I would like to stay in long ; iDut give the Coolie twice the money he earns, and it is doubtful if he would desire a better SCHOON ORD. 63 a iDur- oln not to he tter home. Let him have rice, a little curry, some oil to anoint himself withal — cover his wife with silver ornaments, and dress her in a gala dress — invest his own person, when off work, with a clean white babba and a gay cap or muslin turban, or, better still, a bright scarlet uYiiform of some <7;\;tinguished regiment — and your Coolie will not thank you for a furnished house. At least, that was the impression I gathered. It seemed to me the Chinese were much more anxious to have comfortable homes, and their ideas of living were far in advance of Indian notions. Along the ranges are trenches. In scarcely any estate I visited were these properly drained and cleaned. The unconquerable flatness of the ground presents great difficulties ; but zeal and a single Coolie told off to the labour might keep the surround- ings of the yard more neat and healthy — would, I am certain, save in the better condition of the people all the cost of the work. Several of the women were laden with silver — so much so as to excite my wonder that it did not im- pede their usefulness. Three or four rings of solid silver, as thick as one's little finger, rattling round their ankles, must have tried their endurance. One rather handsome woman wore large bangles, several heavy armlets, two necklets of rod silver, one or two more composed of silver coin's, gold rings in her ears and nose, and several on her fingers. "Well, how dee?" " How dee, Massa r" "Very rich," said the manager, at which she 64 THE COOLIE. 't li.i laughed softly. She was flattered by our examina- tion of her ornaments. *' She has a lot of cows, and plenty money in the savings-bank. How many cow ?" She held up seven fingers. . " She pays a man to take care -of them. How many dollar in bank ?" She shrugged her shoulders. She did not care to tell that. I believe some man lived with her as her reputed husband, perhaps the cowherd aforesaid, but her wealth was probably acquired at the price of her honour. Hitherto not the least serious defect in the Coolie system, as I shall have occasion in discussing it to show, has been the deficiency of women. Efforts have latterly been made to remedy this, and the pro- portion of women to men is now nearly forty per cent.* There are still at Schoon Ord several houses of the old two-storied type, which, judged by a European standard, would be considered questionably fit for human beings. But you may see as bad, or worse, in Ireland, and some Scotch Highlanders revel in no better. Round the Chinese quarter were attempts at gardening. Women were working up the ground with hearty good-will. They wear the blue cotton costume of their country, and their hair is as elaborately unnatural in its contortions as that of any English belle. Under a shed of one of the * 10,000 women to 29,000 is the proportion stated by the Commissioners. SCHOON ORB. 65 houses was a sturdy Chinaman, amusing himself with the ladies of his family. lie was not discon- certed by the manager's gentle hint. "Ah ! no gone to work to-day, Ching-ching r" "No. No think work." To complete the view of this estate I may add a statement of the numbers at work, and the wages paid and earned on it, placed at my disposal by its frank and able proprietor in London, to whom I am indebted, not only for much information, but for a great deal of kindness shown me through his in- fluence in British Guiana. He says — "The number of indentured immigrants at Schoon Ord at the time of your visit was — "otn' Men. Women. Children. Total. Indian Coolies 272 116 62 450 Chinese . . . . "4. 2 2 118 Africans .... 2 2 388 118 64 570 "The numbers at work on Friday of each of the four weeks in August were — Buildings. Field. Hospital. Ofl Friday 5th ■ 76 450 IQ 25 1 2th . 76 439 19 36 „ lyth 70 450 24 26 „ 26th . 36 456 34 44 " The numbers of unindentured people at work, Coolies, Chinese, Portuguese, Creoles, Barbadians, &c., including mechanics, porters,- &c., in fact, all classes — ii^fi; m ' I !' •- il f 66 TI/£ COOLIE. August 5th 756 764 1 780 M 759 (The totals, therefore, at work would be 1,282, 1,279, 1,300, 1,251.) "The wages paid in the month of August were $8,014.61, or equal to ^i,66q i^. 2d. Of this sum the immigrants received about $2,400, or say ;^5oo. You are aware that extensive works were going on at the buildings, so that mechanics, such as carpenters, engineers, and masons, were drawing large sums weekly, and in this way the Coolies appear to earn less. I find, however, that Mr. Russell's evidence as to the rough estimate of Coolie earnings is about what we do at Schoon Ord. On the week 29th October of the present year (1870) the earnings amounted to $590.18. This sum divided by 570 would give an average of $1.04, or 45. ^d. per week, which divided by 6 days would be 1 7 cents per day for every soul on the estate, so that my people are doing well. Mr. Russell says he usually divides the total earnings of the Coolies by the total number of souls, and this by the number of working days. If they only earn 10 cents they are doing badly; if 12 cents they are doing middling; if 14 cents they are doing fairly; if over that they are doing well."* * My coirespondent apportions the earnings tlius : — (S590.18 earned in one week by 515 indentured immigrants.) 210 men averaging Si. 50 per week .... $315 137 M 1.20 „ .... 164.40 29 in hospital, nil. 12 absent on leave or deserting, nil. 388 men. Carried forward . . 479.40 SCHOON ORD. 67 I paid my next visit to the handsome properties of Montrose, Better Hope, and Vryheid's Lust, respect- ing which I need only add a few notes. In these the resident attorney is employing- his great agri- cultural skill in improving the method of cultivation by subsoil drainage and steam-ploughing. Bricks and pipes are manufactured and burned on the estate. As we turned up the middle dam of Mon- trose, the large wet fields on either side, grass- grown and partly overrun with low bush, seemed alive with cattle. These lands had been invaded by the sea, and were unfit for canes, so that the pro- prietors permitted the Coolies to pasture their cows upon them. Many of them were valuable, and in fine condition. The immigrants will pay eighty or a hundred dollars for a cow, and tend it with the utmost care. I have seen an Indian woman dili- gently picking out the ticks from the animal's hair with one hand, while she softly smoothed the skin with the other. The steam-ploughing is done by an engine stationed in a punt, g-^tting its fulcrum from the bank of the canal on which it floats. At the other end of the field to be ploughed is a movable anchor, Brought forward 47940 70 women averaging %\ 70 34 M $0-72 24.48 6 in hospital, nil. 8 nursing and missing, nil. 118 women. 36 girls and children about buildings, total 28 infants, nil. 16.30 $590.18 I ;: 68 THE COOLIE. V with a steel pulley, in which works a wire rope. This rope winds over a drum in the punt, and to it is attached a powerful plough. As the rope is wound upon the drum, it pulls the shear through the stiff clay soil with resistless force. A clever Negro alter- nately held the stilts, or rode on one to balance the machine, occasionally, r>.t an obstacle, getting a " cropper," which seemed to give him no trouble. As we drove along the coast from Better Hope, we passed a huge village. It consists of a number of freeliold sheds built by Negroes and free Coolies — miserable places enough some of them. Here are four thousand inhabitants, yet not half-a-dozen work on the adjacent plantations. They either go five or six miles up the coast to show their independence of the neighbouring managers, or do not work at all : plantains and bread-fruit grow at the back of the village with little trouble. They love to fish in the mor^ilng, and lie with full stomachs watching the slow wings of Time. There is an Anglican church here, the rector of which tries hard to wake the people from their apathy. Not long since, he succeeded in getting a draining-engine erected to keep the village free from water. The koker, or sluice-board, on the shore gave way, and the water, breaking through the bank, soon surrounded the houses. Mr. McG. told me that he went down on the morning after the occurrence, and found a couple of hundred blacks, who had been turned out of their houses by the tion. flood, sitting on the bank eyeing the inunda- li «llli %' fe ^i-3«r !<"«x,....„.. SCHOON ORD. 69 (( What you sit there for ? Get up, and go into the trench and bank it up." " Oh, massa, who pay us for doing it ? Want dollar a day for work like dat." They were unwilling to purchase the luxury of safety without the additional incentive of wages. The condition and characteristics of these people set before one a problem almost as terrible and quite as insoluble as that of the Irish peasant. Il m CHAPTER VI. GOVERNMENT, GOVERNORS, AND GOVERNING CLASSES. MR. TROLLOPE'S description of the govern- ment of British Guiana as a mild despotism tempered by sugar, would be more correct if altered to — a mild despotism of sugar. Sugar is the ambi- tion, means, and end of nearly everything done in the colony. It gives aim to the energy of the trader, animates the talent of the lawyer, protipts the re- search and skill of the doctor, and sweetens the tongues as well as the palates of the clergy. Little else is cultivated for exportation. Cotton and cacao have, if any, only a miserable footing. There are plantain-grounds and cattle-farms (some of the latter very extensive), a few coffee and cocoa-nut planta- tions, and a considerable quantity of timber is ex- ported ; but most of the wealth and business of the country is concentrated in the one hundred and fifty- three sugar plantations. In the flourishing slavery times British Guiana produced large quantities of cotton and coffee. The return, in 1820, of cotton was 4,536,741 lbs., and of coffee 8,673,120 lbs. Of cacao lT , GOVERNMENT, GOVERNORS, ETC. -ji the same year there were 1 13,956 lbs. In the appren- ticeship years 1835 — 1838 more than a hundred mil- lion pounds of sugar were produced ; last year (1870) the exports of the colony were — Sugar 94.944 lihds. Rum 20,716 puncheons. Molasses 17,606 casks. Timber 153,127 cubic feet. Cotton 103 bales. Shingles 6,221,225 Cocoa-nuts .... 28,062* From this it will be seen that sugar is the monopo- lizing interest, and necessarily occupies nearly all the estates. The plantations are owned and managed almost entirely by Europeans, and chiefly by men of British origin. In 1861 the population of British Guiana was 155,917, of whom 1,482 were natives of Europe and 147 of North America. Although there are influ- ential Creole Europeans, I cannot be far wrong in say- ing that in the hands of a small proportion of these 1,629 people, or their equivalent in 1870, are centred the real power and wealth of the colony. Taking the one hundred and fifty sugar plantations, we may soon trace to a certaint}^ the number of persons in whom that power resides. f There are many absentee iM:.- , , * Report of the Commissioners, &c., f 938—941. t The Commissioners say in their Report, f 269 — 70: "There are in British Guiana at present 153 sugar estates, according to the Directory of 1870, more or less under cultivation. Unions, of two or more of these, under one management, and with one set of machinery and buildings, where atljacent estates have come into the possession of the same pro- prietors, liave reduced the number practically to 136. Of these about 20 i 1 1 1 1 ■ i 1! li, 1 1 1! I 1 7* THE COOLIE. proprietors, British and Dutch. For them persons act in the colon}'-, overlooking and supplying the are only very partially cultivatcl, and two or three have but quite recently resumed into cultivation. Upon 123 sugar estates are there indentured immigrants; and also upon one plantain estate, making 124 in all; and there are besides a few ol the iialf-abandoned estates which are partially worked with free Coolies, " Aoout one-tenth only ^f the whole, that is to saj', 14 or 15, have the proprietor or part luoprietor residing on them and managing them. 85 are entirely owned by proprietors not resident in the colony ; the remaining 35. or 36 are, at least partially, owned by colonists who are either merchants, estate attorneys, or, ih some cases, managers of other estates- Among the non-resident j)roprietors the largest holder is the Colonial Comjiany, with nine large estates ; Messrs. Daniells, of Bristol, also own 9 ; and Messrs. James Ewing and Co., Messrs. Sandbach, Parker, and Co., Messrs. Bosanquet, Curtis, and Co., and other West Indian houses, either by them- selves or their partners individually, hold a large portion of the remainder. Perhaps 40 out of the 85 estates, owned entirely out of tiie colony, are in the hands of such merchants, and these include nearly al! the largest, finest, and best cultivated of the whole. " The extent to which these same houses hold mortgages upon the remaining estates cannot of course be guessed ; but the tendency of estates in general is evidently to fall into their hands ; and for reasons hereafter to be explained, this process is likely for the present to continue. The resident proprietors have, moreover, all purchasec, not inherited, their estates ; and since there does not seem to be any strong feeling even among English owners in favour of treating a sugar estate as a family property, by devising it to a sing t heir, a thing, moreover, which corld not be effected under the Dutch CL^onial law, except by an application of •the doctrine of election ; and since a sugar estate will never bear partition, the death of the proprietor is often followed by a sale. " In this way most of the old families have disappeared whic?i were formerly associated with this place. Only one estate remains in the possession of a Dutch gentleman, the single relic of the times before the cession ; six or seven exhibit well-known English family names ; but upon thL whole the aspect and future of the tenure of land throughout the co'ony is not territorial, aristocratic, patriarchal, or feudal, but simply and exclusively commercial ; whatever elements of natural or artificial beauty, whatever traces of refined leisure may formerly have surrounded the planters' houses, have vanished ; even tlie tropical luxury for which it was so famous has, to a great extent, disappeared; and in its place utility, economy, and the latest a])pliances of sciemitic farming and manufacture now constitute the chief feature of a thriving sugar estate." GOVERNMENT, GOVERNORS, ETC. 73 estates. These persons are called attorneys. To live upon, direct, and cultivate each estate, a manager is appointed, acting iii some cases also as the attorney. Under him are generally from five to eight overseers, who were formerly for the most part coloured people selected in the colony, but are now principally brought from England or Scotland. Under the overseers are black or Coolie " drivers," to take charge of the gangs. We see at once that, allowing the utmost margin, the total of attorneys, managers, and overseers of estates will not be great, and the number of those of British extraction will be even more limited. On looking over the list, it appears that about 240 firms and individuals are either owners, attorneys, or managers of all the estates in the colony. Of the estates, 106 or there- abouts are under the care of 35 attorneys. Some of the attorneys have an enormous responsibility. I find, for instance — Mr. James Stuart, attorney or co-attorney of Mr. AlcCalrran \ " Co'ouial Co." J " " °' Mr. Giunett ,, ,, of Mr. Russell — 13 estates. 21 21 — but ]\Ir. Russell shall describe himself on oath. Question by the Commissioner3 ; You are the manager of Leonora, with other adjoining estates r A. I do not know whether you can call me manager. I have chargvi of those estates, but I have managers under me with full salaries. Q. You are also attorney for several estates, are you not r V, ! ! 1 |i ' 1 ' 'i ': 74 THE COOLIE. A. I am. Q, Do you consider yourself as attorney for Leo- nora ? A. I am. Q. What are the duties of attorneys ? A. The duties of an attorney are to pay periodical visits to the estates, to inspect the cultivation and manufacturing departments, and in town to examine all the weekly reports coming in from the estates. Q. Does the attorney appoint the officers on the estates ? A, He appoints the manager, but generally the manager appoints his own overseers. I may men- tion that on the Colonial Company's estates a great many young men are sent out indentured from home, and they are placed on the estates either by myself or by my co- attorneys. Q. You are one of the attorneys for the Colonial Company's estates ? A. I am. Q. What are the estates for which you are attor- ney ? A. Well, to begin with, Hampton Court, on the Arabian coast. I am at present also acting for Anna Regina as planting attorney. I then come across to the west coast, wdiere I am attorney and part pro- prietor of Plantation Tuschen de Vrienden. The next estate on the west coast of which I am attorney is Plantation De Willem ; then Zeeburg, Leonora, and Anna Catherina. They are combined in one estate. You may call it one very large estate, making GOVERNMENT^ GOVERNORS, ETC. IS about 3,000 hogsheads of sugar, where my residence is. I have two managers, and each receives a salary of 2,000 dollars per year to conduct the field work and manufacturing department. Q. Are these all ? A. The next estate is Windsor Forest, on the same coast, and Haarlem. These two estates join each other ; you may almost call them one ; they soon will be one combined estate. We then go up the river to Plantation Farm and Peter's Hall, on the east bank of Demerara river; then to Plantation Success, on the east coast, and La Bonne Intention ; of that estate also I am part proprietor. That embraces my duties in Demerara and Essequibo. I pay two half- yearly visits, and oftener if I can find time, to the Colonial Company's estate in Berbice, which consists of Plantations Friends, Mara and !Ma Retraite, on the Berbice river, and Plantation Albion, on the Corentyn coast. I also inspect a mortgaged estate Goldstone Ilall, on the Canje Creek, and I have paid one visit to an estate which is slightly indebted to the agency of the company here, called Waterloo, in Leguan. Those are all. Q. How long have you been in the country ? A. I have been in active service here ever since 1847, with the exception of a visit of six months which I paid to my native country in 18C5, two months in 1868, and two months in 1869, when I travelled through the West IndianTslands. Q. All that time you have been employed upon estates ? 76 THE COOLIE. !;: i 1 1 1 , Miii 1 Iiii ti ■ -'I it A. Yes, I commenced my career on Plantation Friends, on the Berbice river; and from there I went to Plantation Diamond, on the Demerara river. Q. As what ? A. As an overseer. I commenced as an overseer, that is to say, I commenced my career here as an overseer. I had done something before I came here. Q. And from that you have risen to the important situations you now hold ? A. Yes, if they may be considered so. One of the ablest men in the colony, Mr. Russell's talent and energy have made him a very sugar-king. It appears that there are, in round numbers, about une hundred managers who are not proprietors, and about thirty-six proprietors who are neither managers nor attorneys. At the extreme I take it, then, that 35 + loo 4- 25 = i6o people and firms on the spot may be said practically — though there are some wealthy men of business not bound up with sugar — to have the interests of the colony in their own hands, to be the main employers of labour, the main patrons of the professions ; and that of these the thirty-five attorneys and a few proprietors constitute a kind of local aristocracy, with the monopoly of social and political power. To this state of things an important balance theo- retically exists in the peculiar form of the govern- ment. The Governor, as her Majesty's representative, is the embodiment of executive power. The legis- lature, called the Court of Policy, consists of ten persons. Five are government officials, namely. GOVERNMENT, GOVERNORS, ETC. 77 the Governor, the Attorney-General, the Government Secretary, the Receiver-General, and the Auditor- General. To procure the other five, resort is had to a College of Electors. This is a relic of Dutch times, the College of " Keysers," and consists of seven persons elected for life by a constituency qualified by property. This qualification is an annual income of £^2^. Persons of every nationality and pursuit are included in the constituency. The total number of voters in 1865 was 907. Upon a vacancy in the legislature, the College of Electors send up two names to that court, which thereupon selects one to fill the post. The Court of Policy sits sometimes publicly, but may and does hold secret sessions. Is it possible for one gravely to criticise such a legis- lature as thie — governing 155,000 persons? It takes one's liberal breath away ! Even the limited cream of popular representation is filtered through that colander with seven holes, the College of Electors for life ! Theoretically, I say, the Executive has a heavy balance against the five elected members in itL influence over its own nominees, the official mem- bers. But of these some may — as I conceive, most improperly— be attorneys or planters, as is the case with the present Auditor-General. Without any im- putation that the power thus concentrated into the hands of one interest is actually abused, an impiirtial spectator is apt to conclude that a legislature so framed will be a subject of much suspicion. This, although men, not of the planting interest, have been i -\- H!:tl'i! 11 78 THE COOLIE. and are members of the legislature. The least pos- sible reflection against it is a very strong one, namely, that in the main it will only represent and discuss one side of all public questions. Its most well-meant paternal kindnesses may be misapprehended by the objects of them. Thus I found in Demerara evi- dences of a strong under-current against the planting influence. Persons of all classes, professions, and hues, when they could speak to me confidentially, expressed a dissatisfied feeling ,bout the relative strength of the sugar party and the popular ele- ment. In the case of the Portuguese, numbering some 25,000, and the aboriginal Indians, this took the form of strong representations to be presented to the Home Government upon the injustice of the legislation and the imperfect administration of the laws. This brings me to an important question already foreshadowed. The counter-check to the dominance of sugar on behalf of all other interests — including that of the Coolie — is the Governor. His responsibility is enormous. He is a modified little autocrat in power — if he chooses or dares to use it. If he does not use it, he may be simply a tool. If he abuses it, he is a dangerous weapon. Probably the same may to some degree be said of most of our West Indian colonies. At all events, in British Guiana the quality of the Executive is a matter of immense moment, as weil to the energetic and wealthy planters as to the vast community of powerless and unrepresented races. Hence the responsibility thrown on the Home Colonial GOVERNMENT^ GOVERNORS, ETC. 79 Minister of selecting her Majesty's representative is very grave. A Governor ought to be a man of ripe experience, of high social and intellectual position, and of very firm character. He should be strong enough to have the full confidence of the Colonial Ofhce, and to hold his own against a whole com- munity on any point of policy, while sufficiently liberal and genial in his tastes to assume the leader- ship of society. A man who does this will more than any other be appreciated even by the planters them- selves. The post in British Guiana is a good one. The salary is ^5,000 sterling a year, with perquisites, and a very handsome sum for " entertainments." Are there no talented peers, no junior statesmen, no retired judges,, no experienced and able military officers, willing to accept such a position for five years ? — and why should such important governments as some of those in the West Indies be confided to political adventurers or dried officials r The British Guianians, as one of the richest and most enterprising communities attached to the Crown, are entitled to ask this ques- tion, and to have a specific reply. How, for instance, came Mr. Francis Hincks, a Canadian politician, of whose political career it were better not to venture on a retrospect, to be appointed Governor of Barbadoes, and then of British Guiana ? An able, astute, schem- ing, uncompromising, terribly energetic Scotch-Irish- man, from the dangerous neighbourhood of Belfast, endued with semi-absolute power, and incontinently pitched into a community like that of British Guiana, could scarcely fail to produce a pyrotechnic com- ^ ^^,^ ^^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 l.i tis ';; Iitt 1 2.2 |3.6 lllll^^ i.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ,;^ 4>^ c> ■/# /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 3» All this was going on regardless of the passengers or the time-table. The guard, who put his head and his watch in at the door in a remonstrating attitude, was forthwith collared and experimented upon with the same delicious medicine. This was the morning refresher, not a little needful, since we should not reach our breakfast until eleven o'clock. Mahaica is a wide creek of deep, black water ; near it stands one of the Coolie gaols, from which the prisoners are sent out in gangs to work on the estates. Our horses and traps were extracted from the train amid a tumult of water — there called " a tropical shower " — and we commenced a long drive, mostly through a country of abandoned estates ; the tokens of Dutch in- dustry, or rather of Negro labour and Dutch tyranny, still remaining in the endless intersecting lines of trenches. We were in the police-waggon — absit omen ! — a huge basket of provisions nearly crowding us out, arid our beloved Inspector-General doing his best to break the springs with that transcendent British solidity of his. Alternately we passed wild bush and stretches of a mile or two of swampy grass, the cattle standing in the water and eating the tops off. In a couple of hours we reached our destination, a pretty garden, well laid out, and — rare decoration in these latitudes — an iron gate, which, being opened, permits us to drive 'neath flowering trees to the wooden house, paintless, but vast and comfortable. Up _ the steps we find a wide gallery furnished as a sitting-room and dining- room, in fact the place to live all day, lounging in the basket-chairs or swinging in the hammocks. The '32 THE COOLIE. Drill Farm is a bachelor establishment, anc^ only occasionally invaded by such parties as ours. The abandon is perfect. You eat, drink, and sleep when you like. The ingenuity of the host and that cease- lessly restless Inspector-General are exercised in providing some fresh surprise "^ delicacy or cooling drink every hour. Anon, we >ae forth in the now glaring sun, with guns under arm, in search of alligators or plover. In rhe early morning — not to say anything of the night, for Drill Farm mosquitoes make the most of their very rare chances — a tremendous shouting and lowing filled the woods about the house, indicating that the " driving-in " was in progress. The cattle are permitted to roam wild through marsh and wood to feed themselves during the week, and are driven in by their keepers on a certain ' to be counted. Hfere they come, converging n all parts, crackling through the forest, plunging through the marshes, galloping along the roads, the closing ring of men and boys deeply or sharply calling, the cattle uttering their complaints in bovine bass or treble. One was forced to turn out in spite of himself. When I ran down to the yard, a mass of black mud surrounded by a stout fence, I found it full of excited animals, leaping, lowing, and struggling ; fine English-bred cows or bulls beside the lapped and hunch-backed Indians, the wild breeds of Orinoco, or powerful de- scendants of Western Prairies. Presently some bars were dropped, and the manager, standing on the fence with pencil and book, cleverly counted the masses as A CATTLE FARM. '33 they rushed tumultuously by, nearly a thousand having been driven into the pen that morning from one portion of the farm. The cattle of Demerara are a credit to the colony. They aiford good beef — for the tropics, and the trade in them to Coolies is enormous. Great care and enterprise are exhibited on some of the farms in securing good breeds, and doubtless with pecuniary results not unsatisfactory to the pro- prietors. I'I'i y 111 M CHAPTER XI. THE COMMISSION AND SOME OF ITS CONCOMITANTS. AFTER a delay of six weeks, Mr. W. E. Frere, the third member of the Commission, arrived in Georgetown. By the previous steamer had also arrived the Advocate-General of Bengal, Mr. Cowie, retained by the planters in London, with a fabulous fee, to represent them on the inquiry. Let me say here how much both truth and good feeling were assisted, and how fortunate was every one concerned, in an acces- sion to the personnel of the investigation so thoroughly high-minded and gentlemanly. The Government was now in a position to constitute the Commission. For though it had been ordered by Lord Granville, it was, in form, an inquiry on behalf of the ColonirJ Executive. An act already existed conferring on the Commis- sioners the powers usually accorded in the colony to special commissions appointed by the Governor, but enduing them with very inadequate and clumsy means of enforcing their demands on refractory wit- nesses. The right given by the colonial act to prose- cute or sue such persons before the Superior Court, which was empowered to punish them by fine, was THE COMMISSION. »35 clearLy illusory in its constraint on wealthy planters. The Commissioners very firmly insisted on receiving additional powers : the Court of Policy was therefore summoned on Thursday, August 25th, and in one day passed through all its stages a bill conferring those powers on the Commission. In the afternoon, a Gazette Extraordinary so called — not that I wish any one to presume the Royal Gazette, in its usual issues, is not an extraordinary affair — announced the formal opening of the Com- mission on the following day. It contained also another proclamation, relative to Mr. Cowie and myself, in effect desiring all persons to take notice that we had turned up in the colony with the alleged determination of appearing before the Commission in behalf of certain persons, but assuring all persons whatsoever that we had no official connection with it. This unprecedented production, I was given to understand, was one of those specimens of weak elasticity sometimes exhibited by the ministry at home. A member of Parliament had asked a ques- tion in the House relative to the retainer by the planters of the Bengal Government official in a capacity that might seem hostile to the Coolies. The Colonial Office, which was at least aware of Mr. Cowie's journey, pressed between the philanthropists and the West India Committee, both with powerful representatives in Parliament, hit upon the expe- dient of publishing a disclaimer of Mr. Cowie's official relation to the business. I, respecting whom no such question could arise, had the honour to be ■;7- 136 THE COOLIE. i .. it ;,■' ■ S' ;.; *:■ coupled in the proclamation with my learned and agreeable friend, in order, I suppose, to ease off the awkwardness of the advertisement. If I acted as a *' buffer " to any one's feelings, it is a use of me which I cannot resent. I wish, however, our rulers would act always on principle, and not in spasms. On the 26th, at twelve o'clock, Georgetown, ever hot enough, had worked itself up to a climax of anxious heat. The vast but ungainly " Public Build- ings" were the centre of converging excitement. Whites, drabs, browns, and yellows — merchants, lawyers, doctors, planters — were collecting, while Negroes and a few Coolies lounged without, or formed a closely-packed source of caloric and other consequences within. The Commission sat in the Supreme Court, a reasonably large rectangular room, with arrangements similar to those of an English court of justice. On the bench Vvere the Commis- sioners : below it sat the secretary of the Commission, Mr. Davis, a young gentleman, native of the colony, who has deservedly received from the Commissioners in their Report very high commendation. The temper of the colony may be judged of from the treatment experienced by this gentleman, who was bold and honourable enough to be independent. He was one of the many persons attacked by a scurrilous writer, who, under the pseudonym of " Fair Play," attacked every one not distinctly favourable to the planters. My colleague, Mr. Carbery, a young but rising barrister in the colony, who did good service after my departure, and deserves honour and grati- THE COMMISSION. 137 tude from all interested in the Coolie, afterwards endeavoured to unmask, by proceedings in the Superior Court, a person whom he designated on oath as the author, without any repudiation by the person referred to — a principal attorney in the colony. Mr. Davis's conduct on the Commission is now regarded in the colonial community as a barrier to his success ; but no doubt the Home Government will take care that he does not suffer by his inde- pendence. I may mention another instance signifi- cant of the tone of public opinion — and this I con- ceive to be infinitely more important in considering the Coolie system than any legal and administrative regulations ; for the effectiveness of these, unless they are sustained by the feeling and opinion of a com- munity, will always be matter of uncertainty. I had great difficulty in obtaining any one to act as a clerk, or in any way to assist me. One coloured person who was bold enough to offer his assistance turned out to have begn a compulsory visitor to Massaruni, the penal settlement. At length I was fortunate in finding an Englishman, newly arrived, and perhaps unduly careless of consequences ; for he was repeatedly warned by managers and others that he was ruining his prospects in British Guiana. To these matters I allude, because they are of that subtle and intangible nature that no Commission could lay hold of, and yet are more telling than many facts. A society the governing portion of which is endued with a temper so inflexible, can blame only itself if injustice is sometimes done to its goodness. One '38 THE COOLIE. cannot but think that instances such as these are not confined to the special cases named, or to a subordi- nate class of society. The spirit they indicate must show itself on many occasions, and through all grades of the community — must, indeed, restrain the free action or expression of opinion of any but the few who are absolutely independent. This to my own mind was the worst evidence presented against the planting community, taking it in the general — I carefully guard myself from implicating many of its individuals — and it is because I think it the worst that I refer tp it. The prevalence of an influence like this may, nay must, clog the wheels of govern- ment, thwart the administration of justice, and dis- turb the moral equilibrium of many fine minds. Could an ingenuous and generous spirit be trans- fused by those of my planter friends who possess it through their brother classes of British Guiana, I, for one, should feel more confidence in that influence alone, than in all the checks and counter-checks of an elaborate legal system. Unhappily, the hostile attitude too often assumed by those who, in the generous heat of philanthropy, criticise the proceed- ings of such a society as that of British Guiana, con- tribute to hold together, not only in common action but in common spirit, men of markedly dissimilar culture, taste, and feeling. The noblest humaneness, let us ever strive to remember, is not the most suspi- cious or the hastiest to form adverse opinions. The Commission was opened in due form. Mr. Cowie asked leave to appear not so much in the THE COMMISSION. '39 character of an advocate as of a disinterested searcher after truth. My own declaration was similar, and the Commissioners then announced that we and all others were free to suggest any questions or facts likely to assist them, but that they were the inquirers, and could flot recognise any one as an advocate. On the succeeding day they began to take the evidence of Mr. Des Vceux. The first sessions were exciting, but always conducted with a dignity and decorum equal to that of the most august courts I have ever seen. The examination of Mr. Des Voeux, whose letter to Lord Granville had given rise to the inquiry, proved to be of a very unsatisfactory character. Though some of his charges were wide in their range, and others specific, he was unable to verify the former from any but vaguely-expressed remembrances, while the latter proved to have been incorrectly stated, or not always to warrant the conclusions drawn from them. In fact,, Mr. Des Voeux had written a very long and serious letter, with the honestest of intentions, but with the least business-like of performance. Ac- cording to his own account, this was done, upon the spur of a report which led him to fear the colony to be in danger, without notes, memoranda, or documents to verify his statements. He considered himself, by the circumstances, justified in relying on his general remembrance of the conclusions formed by him in the course - of five years' ex- perience in the colony. That he had, to a consider- able extent, read the state of its society aright is 'W" 140 THE COOLIE. ini^i proved by the Report ; that he was justified in ex- pressing them in the definite, exaggerated, and fi^rmal manner in which he wrote to Lord Granville, hardly admits of argument. Yet I think that this was for critics and not for the Commissioners to consider, and in the Report before me the severe animadver- sions on Mr. Des Voeux's conduct would appear to be beyond the proper sphere of their duty, and to have been more appropriate from a Colonial Minister re- flecting on the issue of the inquiry, than coming from the persons appointed to inquire and report. W en they speak, for instance, in this manner, are they not commenting needlessly on the witness, instead of confining their judgments to his evidence r " Before proceeding to consider the system, we must express a decided opinion that Mr. Des Vceux was ill-advised in bringing, under any circumstances, a series of charges so vague, so sweeping, and so little admitting of satisfactory proof, as those which we have hitherto discussed. Although we agree with him in believing some of the most important of the facts which he has adduced to prove them, yet in order to substantiate them fully more was required ; and we consider that in default of surer knowledge and wider information he was personally not entitled to bring them. It was never required or expected of him (?) that he should, as he expresses it, ' prove by his own evidence the whole of his case ; ' but it was incumhcnt on him to produce sufficient evidence to excuse at least, if not to justify, all the imputations and insinuations of which his letter is full." Such remarks as these I could myself («li THE COMMISSION. 141 have written with, both truth and propriety, any friend of the planters might fairly have argued, or a Secretary of State have indignantly affirmed ; but the Commissioners seem to me in this particular to have travelled out of their sphere. With this diffi- culty in my mind it would be dishonest in me not to express it. Mr. Des Voeux, as they state, explained to the Commissioners that in writing this letter he did not expect to be called upon to prove it by his own evidence, though he was prepared, were time and opportunity given him, to substantiate it from evidence existing in the colony. The opportunity was denied him previously to the opening of the Com- mission. An application to the Governor to permit him to examine certain records was refused, exactly as a similar application by the planters' committee had been rejected. This and a very serious accident to his spine which befell him but a short time before the inquiry, unquestionably rendered him unfit to appear to support his long indictment, and it was an un- fortunate fact for the truth that so much had been, by his previous policy, made to depend on his own knowledge and precision of statement. For both these proved imperfect. Nevertheless it is due to Mr. Des Voeux to say that on one or two points absolute justice does not seem to have been done him in the Report ; but the discussion of this must be postponed to my review, at a later stage, of the Coolie system in British Guiana. After him a large number of witnesses came forward, the principal being the Immigration Agent-General m In Mr * 142 TI/E COOLIE. and sub-agent, the Medical Inspector of Hospitals, Mr. Oliver, of the planters' committee, to produce a series of most elaborate and costly statistics, Portu- guese merchants, magistrates, barristers, doctors, &c., &c. Wherever evidence had been given im- plicating any person, he was permitted if he pleased to clear himself on oath. The whole of the public evidence was published, in very handsome form, and with admirable correctness, by the Colonist^ their very skilful reporter and sub-editor having taken it down in shorthand. From this evidence I only excerpt the amusing episode of the Coolie HuUoman, or Hooni- maun, which the reader may take cum grano. Fortu- nately most of the Coolie examinations are unreported. HuUoman, a Coolie, examined. The President — Is your name HuUoman r — Yes, sir. What religion are you, a Christian r — A Hindoo. Mr. Cowie — Then, if I might be allowed to suggest, he should be solemnly affirmed. * The President — Is that how he would be sworn here by the law ? Air. Cowie — The Solicitor-General tells me Hindoo witnesses are generally asked how they would prefer to be sworn. The President — Will you be satisfied with my inter- pretation ? Mr. Russell — If I may be permitted, he has been my driver for a number of years, and speaks English nearly as well as I can. THE COMMISSION. M3 The witness was then sworn with a glass of water, which he declared to be his oath. Sir George Young — When did you come here ? — This country, sir ? Sir George Young — Yes. Hulloman — Twenty-one years ago ; past one-and- twenty years. Sir George Young — You came out to work on plantation r — Yes ; I came out to Anna Regina, in Capoey. • You were indentured there r — That time I came 1 was indentured for six months. Why were you there only six months ? — The estate " broke," and all the Coolies went away. Where did you go then ? — I have been about Capoey, working all about, sir. Did you indenture again ? — No, sir. You got to be a driver, where was that first ? — First under Mr. at , on the West Coast. I left Capoey to go to . How long did you stay at r- eleven years ; nine or ten years, exactly, but I lived there very long, sir. Were you a driver all that time r — Sometimes I worked in the field with the task gang. When you first went to , did you go as foreman or driver r — No, no ; working task gang among the village blacks ; then the manager took me to be driver to the Coolie gang. How long were you a driver ? — It may be some fourteen or fifteen years since I began driving. -Something like I cannot tell . t 14.4 THE COOLIE. m U ? ( When you left , where did you go ? — I had one and a half years in town then. And after that r — Under Mr. McCalman, at Farm. Were you a driver then r — Yes. For how long ? — About one and a half years, some- thing like that. How long is it since you came away from Farm ? — I worked one year and three months at Peters' Hall. And after Peters' Hall ? — I came into town, and stayed six months. What was the next estate you went to r — ^Windsor Forest, Mr. Cameron's place. And after that ? — I have been at Plantation Blankenburg, with another Mr. Cameron. Are you at Blankenburg now ? — No, sir ; I am back in town. Did you go to any estate since you were at Blankenburg r — No, sir ; that was the last. So you have been at Anna Regina, at Leonora, at Farm, at Peters' Hall, at Windsor Forest, and at Blankenburg, all those estates ? — Yes. Which did you like best of all those estates } — I worked for Mr. long time ; he had an overseer named Mr. . He came and told me one after- noon in the house, manager want me ; manager treat me very bad, say Mr. Crosby come, I must take bounty. I asked you which estate of all those you liked best ? — Every one estate is going bad, I was begin- ning to tell all serious. I liked , but at last I THE COMMISSION. H5 at at :ed fin- 5t I was obliged to go ; manager treat me bad. Next morning Mr. himself met me, and asked me to take the bounty money, and stop on the estate. I said, ** No ; the estate no good ; one day absent you carry me to the magistrate and put me in gaol ; me no want bounty money now." I worked my full week ; next week I asked manager to give me leave to take a little walk to Berbice ; I wanted to go to Berbice. He said he would, but must have somebody in my place before he give me a pass. At that time I took one Coolie named Ram Lall, and put him in my place. I told manager I had put a man in my place, and the manager gave me a pass to go to Berbice. When I came back from Berbice, I heard Mr. Crosby had given bounty money and gone back ; so I go to my room. Next morning I go to the manager, who say, " Well, Mr. Hoonimaun, my friend, have you come back?" and I said, "Yes." The President — Is your name Hoonimaun ? — Yes. Manager say, " Me keep two shops, one on the estate, and one in the village. And me keep cows. Where you get all these things ? " I say, " Me worked, get them that way." He say, ** Oh yes, me know your tricks, me soon learn you other tricks." So the manager called a constable named Louis, and he carried me to the police-station, and before Mr. Daly, the magistrate at Stewartville. Well, and then what happened ?^-One day and one night I was there, and the next day at three o'clock Mr. Daly loosed me on bail. At the very same time me pay my money down, Mr. come in, and he '■ '-ii 146 THE COOLIE. say, " My God, you go loose that man ! You not right to let the man loose." And Mr. Daly say, " Well, I cannot help it now." So I go in my house, and I see all my shop broken up ; me ask the people who did it, but they no tell me anything ; me ask my wife, but she not know who do so ; she was in her room. So I come to town to the lawyer the same day, and I fetch a barrister. Me hire barrister and a carriage, but Mr. did not come to the court when I appear in the court. /. — Will you ask him what fee he paid ? — Me paid Mr. $30 for the fee, and $5 for the waggon. I come into court with Mr. , and Mr. Daly say, "You must come n court next week, go now." So next week again, 1 go to Stewartville Court. Me no see barrister, me no see manager ; both me no see. So me stop until the court over. Then me go close to Mr. Daly, and me say, " Mr. Daly, you no call my case, sir." Mr. Daly tell me, manager no come to the court ; very heavy charge against me ; rob the estate. Next court, manager come, and will send me to Massaruni. So I come into town to barrister, to tell me why he no come and he say, "You must go to Mr. Daly, nn'^ get your bail money; the case is dropped ' nst you. Manager no make out case. ■ i^ he magistrate, and me tell him h- t .oney ; barrister say manager got >roof, .^e uropped. But Mr. Daly tell me he cani-ot giv me the money because manager have good case against me next ^ eek, and so long he could not give me the money hen me THE COMMISSION. '47 In me say, "You magistrate, you must make manager give me the money." Mr. Daly say, "Mr. very good man ; he might have you locked up, because you rob the estate ; but he no go against you." Well, did you get the money at last ? — Yes. How much money did you get r — $50. I gave $50 bail. And Mr. Daly did not send you to Massaruni ? — No. Manager say, " Take your things off the estate, and go away." Well, me no place to go to, no things to take. Why did you leave — = — ? — Me left P , and me go to . Why did you leave ? — ^The summer before last, or something like that. But why ? — The manager and me quarrel, sir. What was your quarrel with the manager about ? Don't tell a long story ; make it as short as you can. — ^Very well, sir. One Saturday, about three o'clock, manager came to my house, and he ask me, " Driver, have you not seen the hog-minder ? " So I ran out and call people, and they call the hog-minder. I ask why he not mind hogs ; and the hog-minder say, " Me got nine bitts last week, and the manager say, * Send to the missy.' " So me ask him what he send for. The President — I don't want all you said and he said ; tell us what happened. — Missy make cassava bread, and plantation hog-minder say, " Me no got half a bitt to buy nothing ; " so I tell manager, and the manager give me one blow on the breast, and me 1 ' »\ '•!» r^ 148 THE COOLIE. !i I Ir^^' fall down, sir — me fall down, sir; and my head get cut here, sir (pointing to the back of it). The President— ^Gwer mind your head ; I suppose it is healed by this time. — Then the manager got hold of me by the neck, and threw me down again, and told me to be off the estate. And you left the estate ? — Yes. Did you bring any charge against the manager r — Me come to town, and me see barrister. Did you lodge a complaint against the manager? — Yes ; me bring him up, and me had barrister, sir. What happened r Was the manager punished or not r — No ; manager begged that the case should not be taken on, and barrister consent to satisfaction ; and the manager gave $4c. Did you get the I40 ? — I got something like $40. I cannot remember how much I got of it. I had to pay la\vyer. And you dropped the case r — Yes, sir ; and he drove me away from the estate. If I heard one, I heard five or six hundred of such stories as that. CHAPTER XII. COOLIE PETITIONS. BESIDES the many deputations of Coolies from the estates, all persons who were in any way con- nected with the Commission became the suffering reci- pients of many letters and petitions. Some of these in Chinese I still possess, written on all sorts of paper — brown, straw, candle-box, cartridge, &c., ors on a tiny slip of scarlet torn off a wall or cut from a book. The woes contained in such documents were naturally unfathomable to me, but I sent them to the Commis- sion, on whose application the government interpreter translated them into English. Asiatic ingenuity and craft were sometimes plainly written between the lines, and although some of them may have been based on facts, the Commissioners found on testing them that many were built upon fiction. We were not, howfever, let off with Chinese unreadables ; the cacoethes scribcndi seized upon a large number of black persons in different villages, who, possessing a poor smattering of education, and an uncouth power of writing, ply a trade as v^illage secretaries or "law- yers." These fellows unmercifully fleeced the igno- ti'j >l, 150 TBI: COOLIE. rant Coolie, pocketing his dollars for writing down stories, the least obnoxious part of which was that they were ungrammatical. It was plain upon the face of some of these documents that the writer had supplied not only the ink but the frir^'ey perhaps, indeed, the whole of the matter. One of these epistles now lies before me^ and is so open a piece of Black and Coolie hypocrisy, yet so plausible, that I tran- scribe it, spelling, punctuation, and all. PETITION. To the Commissioners of Inquiry : Your Commissioners we give God the Glory, Who pitied the Children of Israel in their house of bondage, and sent Moses for their deliverance. So the same God send you Commissioners to deliver us here from out of the house of bondage. We we[re] brought into this Colony by our planters. From the [year] 1845. By thousand From the land that is ful of Hindoos Superstitions and Mahomraedanism in[to] a land of lights as it's called. But we were thrown in pastures like beasts in total darkness by our managers on the estates, they use no means to educate our children, they give us no religious teaching but help to harden us and make us ten times worse by their evil ex.imple of Sabbath breaking and more that. And not only so but compeled many of us on Sabbath, to do their various works Instead of stopping us from it. And while some of them in the house of God their Chinese and Coolie in the fields working. Not many days ago in the month of October 1870 on the New Amsterdam district on a Sabbath morning while the manager in the house of God. Several Coolie and Chinese was in the field working — this is always the case on most of the estates — So Your Commissioners our body and soul both are in suffering circumstance. All this sinfulness going on Because our managers keeps us in darkness, they are few Schools on the estates but useless. Because those whom the managers put to teach our children have no feeling and they will not spend even a half hour good to teache our little ones. And the managers themselves never put a foot there to inquire from the teachers to know how old they are. So the children going to School for many months and years, but they could not tell A from B. — they make laws to punish us when wc absent from their services — But no one takes notice of our souls matters. O what will be the results in the day of Judgment, when the many thousand of the Asiatic shall arise up against those that holds the light of the Gospel from them. Whilst our Lord say Go ye and preach the Gospel and to all nations COOLIE PETITIONS. 151 "Wliy our managers and others should keep it back — In conclusion your Commissioners. When you return to England we beg you in Christ's stead to mention about our miseries especially concerning the many thou- sand perishing souls — the Lord be with you — Your Commissioners (Signed) Your Obedient Servant I shall not give the names of these earnest Pro- testants. The appeal to Christian sympathies in this paper is shamelessly dishonest ; yet, from all one knows, is there not likely to be both truth and acute- ness in some of the suggestive reflections on the religious inconsistencies of Englishmen ? I should like to take some of those who decry the efficiency of missionary work among the heathen to the spot where, side by side with the zealous teachings and pure living of the evangelists, are openly enacted the vicious and unjust practices of men who go by the name of Christians. Our poor friends who propounded this remonstrance to " Your Commissioners " may themselves have been guilty of cant and deceit therein ; yet its rough sentences contain matter worth pondering by Chris- tian and unchristian Britons. The reference in this document to the schools is not quite correct. Where schools exist — namely, on such places as Schoon Ord and the Messrs. Ewing's estates of Better Hope, Vryhied's Lust, &c. — the managers take great interest in them. The Commis- sioners report the existence on the estates of a very small number of schools. Great difficulty is alleged to occur in enforcing attendance. In the school at 1 -1a. i J53 THE COOLIE. \ %A 11 , "!lll s \im\t\ 't 11 Better Hope I found a neat-looking* coloured mistress engaged with about fifteen children of various shades and sizes. She told me that when they would attend they did very well. Their copy-books bore compari- son with those of many a home school, though I fear they did not take away much from such elaborate maxims as I found one little fellow writing : ** A cen- sorious disposition is a disadvantage to its owner" — a hint, perhaps, that when he grew up he was not to be sinfully unreasonable in criticising the hospital supplies. Here is another brief letter, selected out of J) many : — TO GEO. WM. DES VOEUX ESQ. &C. Sir, I have to Inform you that the treatment I receive in the Hospital of Plantation is this I went in the sick house about tliis three weeks ago and now last night the China nurse beat me very much and I then tell it to the head sick nurse he said that he do not care nt>thing about it that the China nurse should have beat me then more After then he took the light and l)urn[t] my head in the morning I went and complain to the manager He said tome he do not care one al)out the matter and that If the nurse did even kill me he is nothing to do with my affair. I therefore think hard of this matter to see that If any person ill use me and I com- plain to my employer and then no satisfaction give to me 1 am Your Obedient servant his Dos Mahommeu X mark Every one will be sensible of the ignorantly clever way in which Dos Mahommed manages to mingle "i is facts and arguments together ; the burning with tne candle, and the dramatic addition of the manager's oath, all cunningly contrived to add probability to COOLIE PETITIONS. 153 his story. I soon found out that most of the Coolies were clever enough to utilise the swearing propensi- ties of my countrymen, for the purpose of enhancing the effects of their narrations, and that they were shrewdly intimate with the forms and occasions of this national weakness. One more to myself, which any one acquainted with the people will recognise to be in true African- Creole style : — . My Dear Sir, Although matters are now to the Height whether to hold or break. Yet still we are in no way better treated even now the judges are on their seat trying to put down wrong and robbery. Who are we now to make our complaints to but to you. You who stands up in our behalf. To complain to the Magistrates where is the Justice we will receive at his hands on the Bench vvhen he is a faitliful friend and a Bottle Companion to the very Manager we have a complaint against for bad treatment and keeping our wages. To complain to tlic sub-immigration agent there we are again. When we see him receiving such Hospitality to any amount in Hennessy^s or Renault' ^ very best. AVe say then we have but one resource to resort to, and that is in the Magi^itrate's Clerk who we think will file our charges and complaints right and set them before the Magistrate, but Oh lack-a-day! we are deeper down in the ditch than ever when it turns out that the very Manager we are then charging with bad treatment to us is son-in-law to the Magistrates Clerk. The complaints will be laid aside or hid away, and we will be told to come to-morrow, and when to-moiTow comes, not to-day Come ncAt week, and so we are put off untill the case is lost into oblivion for Ever, How then can we Get our rights up here when — things are in this st?te. At plantation Coast. Hoping you will lay this in F.vedience before the three judges, I remain Your Ob Servants three of Villagers & four Coolie immigrants. Since I have wrote I have heard that the same. practice is carried on at tlie West Coast, the Managers entertains the Magistrates, and the Doctors freely gives them plenty to eat and drink, so that everything must be in the Managers .favour look well to these true statements my dear good sir, don't think them anything like lies or from a malicious feeling but they F^ n J 54 THi: COOLIE. are written to shew you and others who have not the opportunity to see and know what things are going on between Managers, Magistrates, and Doctors. Could you but only transform yourself into a bird with wings and fly up here you will then see our just cause of complaint, in mercy to us try and do us some Good. I think you will see at your door about a hundred of us on Monday By the Train. I believe I did see a good many on Monday by the train, but fortunately I was not called upon to trans- form myself into a bird with wings, and fly up to the spot in question. i %. •i CHAPTER XIII. THE PENAL SETTLEMENT. THE only remaining condition of the Coolie as yet unpictured by me is his penal life. For offences against the Immigration Ordinances he is — under a new system — committed not to gaol, but to a district reformatory. On entering this, tasks are assigned to him proportioned to the number of days for which he has been committed. These tasks he must complete before he is liberated, so that it is quite possible a man committed for fourteen days may be six weeks in prison. The tasks are assigned on the adjacent estates, to which the prisoners are taken in gangs by the prison superintendents. I need not again describe this sort of hard labour. The criminals^ as distinguished from the offending labourers, are consigned to Georgetown Gaol if imprisoned but a short time, and if convicted of serious offences to the penal settlement on the Massaruni, a branch of the Essequibo. This, by the courtesy of the planters' committee, which I desire hereby to acknowledge with much gratitude, I had an opportunity of seeing a few days before I left the colony. A hint thrown out at 156 THE COOLIE. one of the parting dinners given to the two advocates was at once taken up by my oft-mentioned friend, the Inspector-General of Police. It is impossible to limit his abilities : for drilling a regiment, keeping a whole country in subjection, discovering a murder, catching a thief, playing a game of billiards or whist, shooting a plover, inventing new " drinks "' or scientifically concocting old ones, conceiving and purveying a dinner, and, finally, doing it the utmost justice, com- mend, me to my friend, the aforesaid " General." In twenty-four hours, the planters' committee having confided the arrangements to his hands, he had a steamer ready for us handsomely stocked with well, I would rather not schedule the variety and extent of our resources ; and at five o'clock in the morning, Mr. Cowie, an English officer from the garrison, the *' General," and myself, started in luxurious fashion for Massaruni, the "penal settlement." Slowly we steamed along the low shore of the West Coast for twenty miles, through the uncomfortable swell, to where the broad, smooth estuary of the Essequibo opened its mouth towards us, with two or three islands dotting the glassy surface. So broad and smooth the river, with the banks so low, one almost fancied it was flowing down in and among the graceful trees that reared their light, feathery heads againstthe pure sky. The sun was fierce enough as we panted along on the wide, silent, unpeopled water, rarely seeing a bird, only now and then catching glimpses of Negro huts, or Buck sta- tions, on the low, yellow sands ; steaming sometimes close to the shore, for the river is deep, and detecting THE PENAL SETTLEMENT. ni on the banks splendid specimens of ferns and other . plants. Thus we throbbed along in the quivering" air, some thirty miles, till at length we found timber- ships loading for England, and then an island at a fork* in the river, where the Massaruni sleepily joins the larger stream. In the distance we had seen a blue line of hills, perhaps one or two hundred feet high, a refreshing variation in the flat scenery ! As we turned into the Massaruni river, we could discern a slight elevation, which may pass for a hill in these regions; on it some buildings with a flag flying at the staff. This was the Penal Settlement, an island chosen for its conformation as a place at once secure and healthy, used, indeed, by some of the " first families " in the days of the then vivacious and hospitable governor, Captain Kerr — since, alas ! de- ceased — as a sanatorium. Hither, once a month, certain Commissioners came in their steamer, not seldom, with some good company, to make a disagreeable business pleasant. We were soon along- side the wharf, a sergeant bringing down a file of policemen to guard against surprise, and Captain Kerr there himself, pistol in belt, to bid us welcome. Any Christian was welcome to the solitary family in that sequestered place. I was cheered by a sight of the first rock I had seen in the colony, from which the convicts v/ere quarrying granite. When we had walked up the only incline available within fifty miles of Georgetown, we found ourselves at the end of cool avenues of fine mahogany trees, under and about which was the green grass ; and puffing up an It 4 i.. it 1^8 T//£ COOLIE. indifferent hill, which absurdly tested our unaccus- tomed legs, we reached the large house devoted to the Governor of the colony and the Commissioners when they visit the island. It is a good house, but so rarely occupied as to be in bad order. Behind it were the strong stone walls of the gaol, an extensive and well-built fortification. Further on were police buildings and the residences of the governor and the chaplain. Captain Kerr was not only a brave and determined officer, but a man of taste and a botanist. Visitors to Kew may see some of the specimens of his discoveries in the woods of Guiana. The island exhibited his taste. Every advantage was taken of the position to beautify it with the plants of the colony ; while, at the burying-ground, he had, with the assistance of neat-handed Chinese convicts, laid out an elaborate and ingenious garden, terraced and ornamented with cement vases and walls, where grew many species of the English rose and other home flowers. In some instances the loving atten- tion of the exile was shown by the care with which some English plants peculiarly open to the ravages of ants were tended, the legs of the stands that supported them being placed in jars kept constantly filled with water. Sad as were the memorials about and above which these flowers flourished, their home- like beauty seemed to quicken one's longings and hopes for the land of which they told. In the evening there was a service in the chapel of the gaol. I slipped into the governor's pew, and there, below and beside me, were the collected THE PENAL SETTLEMENT. '59 criminals of British Guiana — some murderers in fact, though not in law, some thieves, some clever and daring cheats, and some ringleaders in estates' riots, sent here to expiate their two or three hours' vicious excitement by a seven years* punishment. All in loose canvas suits, with their numbers printed on the back. Two or three whites, dark Negroes and Quadroons, little Coolies, with their quick, black eyes darting about in uneasy resentment, or the stolid and repulsive features of " the heathen Chinee," certainly of the Bret Harte stamp. A curious little chapel it was, to which the incumbent and ingenious convicts had attempted to give some sort of ornament ; his own part of it, by the way, being of a ritualistic character, too tawdry to be worth his while in that situation. Some of the mt»: —there are no women — followed the prayers and joined in the singing ; most remained stolidly impassive. I will not criticise the service further than to say that it seems to me a painful thing if the minister of such a congregation cannot speak to them from his own heart some words of humane and earnest appeal, and deems it con- sistent with his duty to resort to the tame expedient of reading from a book a children's paraphrase of Hebrew history, done in the inert and stupid style assumed by too many of the pedants who undertake to dilute the Bible for infant minds. Yet the service was impressive, when one looked round on the hundred or so of unhappy criminals, many of whom seemed to be interested in its simple celebration. The buildings resembled in most particulars those ,^- ,. \z f^ '! \il ,? ' • I ! 4 I .1^^ 160 THE COOLIE. of an English gaol ; the long carefully-cleaned cor- ridors, the doors piercing the thick walls, and leading into small cells, to occupy which in that climate must be a penalty indeed. All except the most refractory are, however, taken out during the day, and em- ployed in various ways about the island. Sometimes they escape, but they cannot go far through the trackless woods, and are brought back by the Indians. They have before now risen and attacked their gaolers, the deceased governor once being nearly killed in a sudden assault. It must have been altogether a melancholy place for such a man to live in. I wonder whether it was that which had induced in him and his family so earnest an affection for flowers, and birds, and animals, as some relief from the sickening monotony of an ever-present crime, and danger, and loneliness ? After a twelve hours' residence, we bid adieu to the pleasantest-looking place in Guiana, our engines pulsating, as we went, with strange and prolonged distinctness, over the silent water. Three or four days after, Mr. Cowie and I were prepared for a longer and more welcome journey. I am bound to say that twelve weeks or so of Deme- rara life had amply satisfied my curiosity and tested my physical patience. Its flat and monotonous land- scape, its hot and humid air, its warm waterspouts, its trenches simmering in the tropic sun, its mosquitoes, born, bred, and feeding with relentless and multi- plied persistency, its prickly heat making your bath a purgatory, your nights a martyrdom, its land-breeze like the warm breath of steam-engines, its sea-breeze HOMEWARDS! iGi ire -y- le- led id- jits les, Iti- a ize ;ze like the baneful activity of a furnace, its fever days and nights, and its everlasting sugar — had reduced my temper to a state which I should not care just now to analyse. Yet how much there was to keep you .up ! The untiring hospitality, the genial kindliness of the ladies, the honest honhovnnie of the other sex ; the dinners, with their coaxing appeals to a debilitated British appetite, their ducklings and peas, their roast beef and plum pudding, their American cod-fish, English salmon, peaches, apples, and pears, and all the delicacies of the latest ice-ship; the "crab-backs," unknown dainty to any but a Demerarian, worth the voyage alone to taste; the "iguana," that tender and delicious lizard, whose too susceptible skin when alive is converted into an essence when dead such as rarely challenges a mortal mouth ; the milk punch, the chilled champagnes, the frothing swizzles — who, with such a menu before him, could cast an envious reflection on the comparatively indifferent ills of that shocking habitat of his fellr -v-beings ? As I stood in the late evening, leaning over the taffrail of the Mersey, after many kind "good-byes" from kindly lips, and through the dim, hot night just traced the uneventful outlines of Georgetown, left by me for ever I now trust and then fondly hoped ; as I felt the feverish glow of its wind and the heavy oppres- sion of its air; as I thought of its hospitality, and recalled its tortures and its dangers — I was reminded vividly of an epigram attributed to one of the Cana- dian Commissioners who, not long ago, visited the same shore: "The motto of this place seems to be. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." M PART II. CHAPTER XIV. THE COLONIAL EMPLOYER. \'\\ Brail c \i..r ill T NOW purpose to review the Coolie immigration -^ system of British Guiana, as its outlines have been clearly ascertained by the late inquiry. Un- questionably no such authgritative and complete investigation of the system in British Colonies has yet been made ; while the increasing tendency to resort to ihe crowded territories of India and China, on the part both of our colonists and of the United States, in order to supply the deficiencies of labour, opens up in the future possibilities so vague, so vast, so portentous, that this latest and most authentic contribution to the question must have an intense interest for every statesmanlike and Christian philan- thropist. There are two methods of Coolie immigration, which, arising out of different circumstances, are conducted under differing conditions, and need to THE COLONIAL EMPLOYER. 163 be discussed independently of each other. One I may term Natural Immigration^ the other Artijicial Immigratiofi. The natural immigration is such an immigration as has taken place into California and other parts of the UniL^d States, and into Australia, whither, prompted by the ^reed for gold or the energy of trade, vast numbers of persons have, at their own expense, and under little if any supervision, transferred themselves, of their own free will, to a promising field of labour. wSuch immigration as this can only arise out of some unusual circumstances, such as a discovery of gold or the existence of a saaden and extensive demand for labour in some place conveniently near to the labourer. It may, nevertheless, call for very serious attention on the part of the legislator. Its incidents and results, if it is a movement of any importance, may give rise to grave social difficulties. The trans- port of weak and ignorant people to a strange land, the representations by which they are induced to leave their own country, the provisions for their safe and healthy transit, the arrangement for their recep- tion on arrival, their distribution through their adopted country, the proportion of the sexes, their relations to the people among whom they are to live, must all excite in any government concerned the most anxious solicitude. Such are the problems now agita- ting the United States. But if natural immigration forces itself upon the attention of the statesman and the philanthropist, an artificial system of immigration — conducted by an !1^ ^^-^ >!^Di ' ! i>:' r Ml 164 TI/i: COOLIE. elaborate machinery and involving relations and duties of a special and anomalous kind — cannot but cause the gravest anxiety to any government on which rests the responsibility of its working. In this case the position of the relative parties is reversed. Instead of the immigrant seeking the employer, the employer seeks the immigrant ; instead of voluntary and independent transportation, the immigrant is recruited before he leaves his native land, has bound himself to go to the place designated by the contractor, is transported at the expense of the employer, and cannot on landing exercise any discretion as to the nature and locality of his labour. This system on the face of it demands more careful investigation and is more exposed to criticism than the natural immigra- tion first alluded to. In considering a system so anomalous, we are bound to ask whether it is neces- sary r What ends are answered by it that cannot be attained in any other way ? And whether the attain- ment of these ends counterbalances any inherent evils which may be discovered in it r wSuch are the ques- tions to which the succeeding chapters are designed to supply the materials for the reader to answer. I have already sufficiently described the social, political, and physic£il circumstances of an immi- grant in British Guiana to enable the reader to apprehend the issues hereinafter raised. Politically, we have as'^ertained, the Coolie is ;/// ; he has no voice, nor the shadow of a voice, in the government of British Guiana. Socially he is not only a Idbourer, he is a bondsman — not using the word in an invidious THE COLONIAL EMPLOFER. 16S sense — he is not free to come and go, to work and rest, as he pleases. Now there are several points of special interest arising out of the system, the natural but not most convenient order of which would be as follows, but which I shall arrange differently : — 1. There is the original contract, the parties to it, and the method of making it. 2. There is the transfer to the seat of labour. 3. There are the laws at the seat of labour. 4. There is the machinery for enforcing these checks and sanctions. 5. There is the condition of the Coolie in his inden- tureship — i, in relation to himself; 2, in his relation to his masters. Before detailing and criticising the arrangements for collecting Coolies in India, I ought to indicate with precision who are the parties that set the vast machinery of immigration in motion. The very able chapter of the late Report, in which the Commis- sioners review the history of immigration to British Guiana, will be found at length in the Appendix.* Here it needs only to be said that from the time of the apprenticeship which succeeded the abolition of slavery, the energetic planting community in the colony exhausted its arts in attempting to introduce substitutes for those labourers whom freedom and indolence had withdrawn fron^ the market. Africans, Barbadians, Portuguese, Chinese, Coolies, were suc- cessively and alternately tried, under arrangements • Appendix C. iSM iiiii i66 THE COOLIE. prescribed, varied, and improved from time to time by pressure from t'le Colonial Office. From the out- set there was* "a struggle between the colony and the Home Government as to the conditions upon which an immigration was to be conducted, and the mannei in which the scale of it was to be fixed from year to year. With the immigration question was mixed up, to the great hindrance of a speedy settle- ment, the inveterate colonial controversy about the renewal of the Civil List. The object of the Home Government at this time was to secure that the amount to be expended on immigration should be regulated by the Governor, before whom the interests of all classes were on an equal footing, rather fnan by the Com.bined Court, a quasi-representative body, which reflects only the views of the landed proprietors or planters. It was desired by this means to retain in the hands of the Governor the power v )f at any time putting a complete stop to immigration, in case any conditions thought necessar '- to secure the welfare of the immigrant should not be complied with : in particular, the maximum number to be introduced in any one year, and the ports from which immigration was to be allowed, were reserved as points in the discr'^tion of the Governor. The efforts of the colo- nists were directed in part against this governmental control of the expenditure, but even more strenuously to obtain immigration without limit as to the places from which the immigrants should come. Africa was still the field from which most was expected ; and * Rcp'>rt, &c., H 89, p. 38. THE COLONIAL EMPLOYER. 167 :al India began to assume the first place only when it was found that the Home Government was unalterably determined not to allow its efforts to suppress the slave trade to be neutralised by permitting labourers to be recruited upon African soil." This struggle as to " the conditions on which such an immigration should be conducted," has existed and ever will continue between the planters, eageij for the means of acquiring wealth, and the British Govern- ment, not unmindful, let us hope, of the importance of encouraging enterprise in any part of the British dominions, yet, as a powerful and comparatively impartial outsider, bound to see that justice shall be done to those who are the instruments of profit. It is the intervention of this supreme authority in the Coolie immigration to the British colonies which renders the system unique ; and which, moreover, on its present terms, is the only possible basis whereon any wise and philanthropic patriot would admit that immigrailon should continue. It is by this power alone ihat supply can be judiciously regulated to demand, or provisions be enforced for tho safet}^ and comfort of the labourer. How far at present this supreme authority may be efRciently doing its work will probably appear to the reader of these chapters to be a question. In some colonies, by t^e help of efficient administrators — as in the case of Sir Peter Grant, at Jamaica, and Air. Arthur Gordon, at Trinidad — the Colonial OfiRce has pro- bably been able to bring the system into reasonable ap- pro s.imation to soundness. In Guiana, the wealthiest ;■•■ '!li III ■\ ':^l 1 68 TI/i: COOLIE. of all the West Indian colonies, with a constitution which confers considerable power on the planters, there has been more difficulty in moulding" the system into a satisfactory shape. Mr. Beaumont, lately Chief Justice of British Guiana and a member of its Govern- ment, very neatly describes the situation : " If the planters cannot dispense with the system of govern- ment (in the colony), they can at any time bring its machinery to a dead lock. And as the Governor must keep things quiet in Downing Street, the oligarchy must keep things quiet in Parliament, and the Colonial Minister must satisfy the West India Committee, the result is that fusion of forces, practically irresponsible, which has been so well described as * despotism tem- pered by sugar.' " That there is too much truth in all this is shown by the results of the recent in- vestigation. The Immigration Ordinance of 1864 alone is an evidence, were any needed, of lamentably perfunctory criticism at the Colonial Office. However, it is clear that the persons immediately interested in Coolie immigration are the planters, and it would seem to a superficial observer that on them ought the entire expenses of the system to fall. But in British Guiana it is held that the whole community is a gainer by the results of immigration. The move- ment is therefore conducted by the Colonial Execu- tive, on behalf, theoretically, not of any class, but of the whole community ; and its expenses are met by a general contribution in the following rather com- plicated manner :* — " An aggregate total is formed by * Report, &CC., II 109, p. 43. THE COLONIAL EMPLOYER. i6g adding the expenses of administration, that is, of the Immigration Office in the colony and the agencies abroad ; of recruiting with advances for transport and maintenance of the emigrants up to the time of embarkation ; of passage money ; of medical care and sustenance at sea ; the costs of return passage, claimed by those who have been ten years in the colony ; and a sum representing the amount of bounties paid by planters to immigrants entitled to such back passages, if they are willing to postpone their return, and enter upon another five years' term of service ; this last item is merely credited to the expense side of the account, and debited /^r contra, so as to swell the total on each side. One-third of this total — that is, one-third of the expenses of immigra- tion proper, plus one-third of this last paper item — is defrayed out of the general revenue ; another sum, consisting of the duties levied on estates' supplies, has hitherto been handed over by the colony to the fund, and considered as a part of the planters' con- tribution ; the rest is paid by them in the form of a contract duty on allotments, which was at first fixed at $50 for Indians, and $80 for Chinese, and intended originally to cover the cost in each case of the passage money. To this is added certain special duties on re-indentures, which have vaned from time to time, and in fact have been levied in most years of late to cover deficiencies on the planters' side of the account, as it was found to be falling into arrear ; and which have, since last year, become a permanent feature in the account. t r 170 THE COOLIE. "There is also an insignificant sum levied from Coolies, by way of fees for replacing lost certifi- cates, and for the registration of marriages. Lastly, there is the per contra entry of bounty money paid by planters to immigrants above noticed, which is entered merely as a matter of account, but with the result of increasing considerably the amount of the colonial subsidy." In addition to its third and the amount re-credited to the planters for the re-indenture money, which I think a very questionable piece of financial fairness, the colony incidentally makes a further ascertainable con- tribution of $65,985.31 for the expenses of the Medical Inspector of Estates' Hospitals, repairs to the Immi- gration Office and Coolie district gaols, besides the additional burthen of maintaining the large police force necessitated by the immigration. I have already shown how that " one section of the community," which, say the Commissioners, is the wealthiest and most powerful, and, moreover, which, in fact, absorbs all the representative element in the government, " regulates the taxation." It imposes on necessaries of life a heavy duty, partly, no doubt, because this is the only way open in such a community to a financial secretary, of distributing the burthens of government over all classes, unless, indeed, a graduated poll-tax were resorted to. Hence, between his actual contribu- tion to the immigration and the unequal incidence of the taxation on the planter and himself, the poorer colonial tax-payer may well grumble that so much of the colonial success is due to his unwilling contribu- THE COLONIAL EMPLOYER. '7' of tions. The Commissioners have pointed out with some force that so long as the extension of cultiva- tion keeps pace with the immigration, that extension — which means extension of the capital which employs labour — is advantageous to the general community. They point out also that its contribution to the immigration, and the consequent recognition of its interest in the matter, gives the community a control of the movement which the imposition of the whole cost upon the planters might seriously affect. But on what ground is it possible to defend a financial system framed by the planting interest, in which exaggerated contributions are levied on the people for the maintenance of the Coolie system and for general purposes, while that interest reduces its contributions to the exchequer, both for the cost of the system by which it flourishes and for its own importations ? It seems to me this is making the rest of the colony express its gratitude for the favour of a governing class with a vengeance. The Commissioners acknowledgedly speak on this matter with reserve. The reasons above given are far from conclusive. When a colony was dragged down to the lowest depths, and almost all hope appeared to have died out of it, it may have been a legitimate economic move to levy from its people generally the mean*> of introducing a new element which was cal- culated to change the features of things. But when once that has been done, and those- primarily benefited have begun to enrich themselves by the use of the new agent, are the people properly called upon to '.V* Mi ^1 .isn" 1-2 77/^ COOLIE. contribute any longer ? Immigration has ceased to be a question of life or no life ; it is now an esta- blished system ; the colony is prosperous ; and an artificial demand for increased numbers is kept up by artificial, it may be unbased, expansion. This expansion speculatively or carelessly continued might lead to a crisis and to most deplorable consequences. It is clear that the temptation to speculative plant- ing will be greater under the present plan than if the whole of the expense were imposed on the planters. Nay, it may be asked, in this latter ar- rangement should we not have one pledge of a more careful selection in India, and of greater care of the emigrant in Demcrcira ? Mr. Oliver at the head of one of the greatest planting houses in the colony, owners of estates, agents of absentees, merchants, shippers — declared on oath before the Commission that the general profits of the planters during the last three years have not reached tlircc per cent, per annum on the capital employed. These years have been the most signally successful years of the after-slavery sugar production, and in my belief the statement can- not be proved : but it is needless to say that, if it be true, not another Coolie should be permitted to leave the shores of India for British Guiana until the sugar interest is in a more satisfactory condition. With an artificial forcing system, with increasing suppltes of labour, with vast changes in machinery, and an enor- mous expenditure, if this is the net result, will it be safe to count upon a good future for the Coolie r An explanation of this extraordinary statement — one preg- \.% THE COLONIAL EMPLOYER. '73 nant with the gravest possibilities should be at once demanded. To stay, or at all events to reduce, the chances of such "unhealthy forcing," as the Com- missioners term it, the most obvious plan is to lay the cost of immigration proper on the planters, leaving to the colony the still ample burthen of main- taining order and good government in the anomalous state cf society created by it. It appears, then, that the agents in India are agents, not of any section, but of the whole community of British Guiana, which assumes theoretically the re- sponsibility of its agents' acts ; that, in fact, however, the greater part of that community having no repre- sentative whatever in the government, this agency is, in reality, an agency only of the planters, and incidentally of the English Government. Having considered the parties, we come to the original con- tract in India, and the method of making it. I have said that artificial immigration arises out ot the necessities of the employer. He must look out his man, and offer sufficient inducements to lure him away from home and friends to a strange land and an unknown fortune. The government of the country in which this search is pursued has very much to say about it. Its duty clearly is to see that in this delicate operation its subject is not cajoled, or misled as to the nature of his contract, its terms, its sanc- tions, or the conditions of the field on which it is to be executed. For here is an agent going in and out among its population, seeking to withdraw them for years from its protection. The Chinese Government IMAGt EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // .V ^o- :/ 1.0 I.I 1.25 "i^-lllM 1112.0 IIM 11112.2 12,0 14 IIIIII.6 ^ ^. V # // '5^ (? / /A Photographic Sciences Corporation m Jv \\ "^ V ^> 6^ .^;#'- 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^ ,. m.s w- J 74 THE COOLIE. llii ( J! II I recognised this duty, and made the emigration of its people a subject of treaty. The Indian Government, in a similar way, of course subject to the Imperial Government, has also accepted the responsibility of keeping a rein on the movement. Foi the present, the impracticable conditions imposed by the Chinese have virtually stopped Chinese immigration to the West Indies — one condition being viewed by the planters as of crucial hardship, namely, that of paying the cost of the return passage at the end of five years. The planters have calculated that with the expenses of agencies, of bounties to the recruits, of passage and temporary keep, of hospitals, and so forth — they cannot, in five years, recoup themselves sufficiently out of the average labourer. This is specially the case in British Guiana, where acclimatisation both of Chinese and Coolies is a protracted operation. Discarding the Chinese emigration, and confining the view to Coolie immigration from India, it at once appears that the British Government and people are immediately interested and responsible in every branch of the Coolie system. The transference is of our own subjects from one part of our dominions to the other — as much so as if we were to permit English farmers to indenture Irish people in thousands, and use them as Coolies. We cannot escape responsibility in supervising the initiation of the contract, any more than in superintending its performance. Both take place within our own jurisdiction, and with our own subjects. CHAPTER XV. IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION IN INDIA AND BRITISH GUIANA. FROM the account of the origin and progress of the immigration into British Guiana given in the Commissioners' Report,* it will be seen that as early as 1838 a ship-load of immigrants was intro- duced into Demerara from Calcutta. From that time onwards the luckless planters, as they found their crops dwindling, their emancipated blacks shirking all labour, and bankruptcy staring them in the face, looked longingly towards those exhaustless Asiatic sources of labour-supply — China and India. Portu- guese had been introduced in large numbers on the failure of the vine in Madeira, but the " mortality was appalling to the community that had invited them." Barbadians and free Africans were tried without success. Up to 1845-6 so much as ^378,830 had been expended by the colony in immigration efforts with hardly any good results, and with an amount of suffering to the poor creatures concerned * See Appendix C. 176 THE COOLIE. which it were better now to bury from human memory. The Commissioners, referring to the time from which the prosperity of the colony dates, have re- marked upon two points of differing but interesting significance. " It is a singular fact, well worthy the notice of economists, that the fall of the old proprie- tary, and the consequent transmutation of colonial agriculture into a business entirely commercial and speculative, by the loss of the traditional sentiment which attaches to old family estates- was contempo- raneous with the first signs of recuperative energy in the sugar industry. Mr. Kelly dates in 1848 the first pause in its downward career; in 1851 — the two dates just covering the transition period in question — the first symptoms of its revival. One cause of the revival was the timely and judicious assistance at this time voted by Parliament to the West India interest. Of the sums permitted to be raised u^'ider Parliament on guarantee, ^250,000 was the share apportioned to British Guiana, and it was decided by the Colonial Government to expend ^50,000 of this upon a railway, and the rest in reviving the East Indian immigration." This latter point is worthy the special attention of those who look upon our colonies as a useless ap- pendage or an unendurable burthen. The timely and natural aid given by a government then conscious of imperial duties, as it was animated by imperial pride — two feelings which of late seem to have been subject to the anaesthetic of a false political economy — while it did not rob the British tax-payer of a solitary farthing. • IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION, ETC. 177 has been over and over again handsomely recipro- cated by British Guiana. While a Financial Reform Association — so called — by statistics unfairly used, by uncandid representations of the expense that his affec- tions cost him, excites the animosity of the British tax-payer against his natural brethren of the pre- sent, his most hopeful allies of the future, let me ask him to consider for a moment the following facts. A rough astimate has been made of the amount of duties levied on the produce of British Guiana imported into Great Britain, under the fiscal regulations of the Home Government, even at the reduced rt.tes of duties in i865. These are — On 90,000 hhds. sugar .* ;^676,ooo 30,000 pans, rum 1,769,000 15,000 casks molasses 26,200 ;f 2,471,200* subject to deductions for what may be re-exported from Great Britain. In 1861 the colony cost the British Government ^40,000; and yet in face of the above figures ** financial reformers " will argue that the connection of such a colony is not worth the cost of preserving, that we were being robbed to pay for people four thousand miles off. While they print an elaborate pamphlet to show what duties are levied in the colony on British manufactures, and by impli- cation protest against the injustice of it, they say nothing whatever of the levy of duty on British Guia- nian sugars and rum by the Home Government! In addition to the English shipping and labour employed * British Guiana Directory, 1870. . N Z78 THE COOLIE. and benefited by this great trade, there is the corre- sponding export from Great Britain by and on behalf of the British Guianian houses. In 1861 the average annual consumption of British goods amounted to the sum of £^ 6s. 8d. per head. In 1864 the sum per head was £5 iis* This by the way. Through the history of the course of legislation in India and British Guiana I do not propose to carry the reader. It will be sufficient to review the arrange- ments by which at this time Indians are converted into immigrants. This legislation was in 1864 embodied — principally by the great industry, ability, and experience of Mr. James Crosby, the Immigration Agent-General, and every way as honourable and upright an officer as the colony contains — in an ordinance designated ''Number 4 of 1864." I do not speak of the ordinance with as much unmixed admiration as of its compiler ; for not only was it rather complicated, verbose, and untechnical in its original draft, but, its author alleges, was still more violently distorted from concinnity by the treatment it endured at the hands of the legis- lature. By a singular omission the head of the Immigration Department is not a member of the Court of Policy. When one considers the dominance given in that body to one interest, this omission is, until it is rectified, clearly fata^ to any claim that may be advanced by the planters to the sympathies of the British Government or British public. Even this would afford but a limited redress of the in- * British Guiana Directory, 1870. 1^ IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION, ETC. 179 equality, but it would at least give to some representa- tive of the Coolie's rights a voice in the legislation that concerns him. The exceedingly earnest language of the Commissioners on this point will need to be kept in view by those to whom it is addressed, and those who have pledged themselves to vindicate the Coolie's interests. "The mishaps which have attended the work of legislation in immigration matters, of which many clauses in the Acts of 1864 and 1868 are conspicuous monuments, might all have been averted, and pro- bably would have been, if the official whose duty it was to carry them into execution had had a voice in the discussions which preceded their enactment. It appears likely that legislation will still be necessary to remove the more flagrant of the anomalies which exist, if not to introduce novel provisions for the improvement of the system ; but the experience of past legislation would leave us hopeless of any approximation to completeness in the work, if it were to be conducted in the hap-hazard way of former times. The present Agent-General tells us that he drew the ordinance of 1864 ; the present Acting Agent-General made the first draft of the ordinance of 1868; but in both cases they refuse to recognise their offspring, ill-treated as it was in their absence by the legislature, without their having any oppor- tunity of explaining it, or of bringing the modifications so effected into harmony with the whole. " In another respect, we think it expedient that the Immigration Agent-Gene^ral should have a seat in the I l8o THE COOLIE. Court of Policy. He would represent in his official capacity the interests of a very large section of the population who are at present necessarily excluded from direct representation in the legislature. The weakest side of the constitution of British Guiana is confessed to be the exclusiveness by which direct representation is confined to one interest, the most powerful in the colony, although certainly the most capable ; and any small modification which would tend, although indirectly, to diversify the constituent elements ought to be thankfully welcomed, both by the public and the predominant interest itself. There are, as we have endeavoured to show, special reasons in the nature of his work for allowing the Agent- General a large discretionary action before calling in the interposition of the Executive in person. To these we desire to add, that in any future nomination to the office, it will be simply impossible to secure the services of an official qualified to perform its duties so long as his functions are limited, as at present, to the merest routine work, and the expansion into letters of minutes written by the Governor. Such duties might be satisfactorily performed by a head clerk without any particular standing ; but this is not all that has to be provided for. Personal qualities of a higher order, though of a kind happily not rare among our fellow-countrymen, are required in the official to whom 50,000 expatriated Asiatics are look- ing for watchful protection and guidance. Powers also of considerable magnitude must be frankly intrusted to him if he is to have any personal influence for good." IMMIGRA TION ORG A NISA TION, ETC. x 8 1 In the consolidated ordinance are provisions for the erection of an Immigration Department, with its Agent-General, sub-immigration agents, clerks, and interpreters in the colony — its Emigration Agents "to superintend the emigration of labourers to the colony from any of the ports of the East Indies, China, or elsewhere," with their staff; and lastly, its Medical Inspector of Estates' Hospitals. I will briefly review the position and work of these officials. There is the Emigration Agent of the colony in India, with a salary of ;^i,ooo sterling a year, and a capitation allowance of three shillings on immigrants sent by him and arriving in the colony. This latter allowance was granted as an incentive to the agent to send a proper class of people, for undoubtedly before 1862 some of the unhappy creatures shipped by the gentleman who then drew his ;^ 1,000 a year were unfit for any good purpose. They died like sheep, or suffered from diseases worse than death. The injustice to the planters was manifest and great. The Government of India also supervises the emi- gration of its subjects, and curiously enough it came out before the Commission that the capit ition grant was contrary to the Indian Act.* The Commissioners say (par. 202) : " We presume from this that the Government of India is no more aware that the Emi- gration Agent is still Daid by capitation allowance, in addition to his salar^ , than the Immigration Agent- General in the colony was found to be of the pro- ♦ 13 of 1864, s, 12. l82 THE COOLIE. !i!| !r ii visions in the Act against it ! " However, it seems to have had the effect of stopping the careless supply of inefficient Coolies. A Protector of Emigrants at Calcutta is appointed to perform on behalf of his government the work which his name implies. As to the co-operation between the Indian and Colonial officiaJs, Mr. Crosby, in reply to a question, " Have you had any correspondence with the Protector of Emigrants ? " said, " None other than merely a letter announcing * I have sent such and such papers.' When I have made any comments upon any circum- stances I have never had the gratification of receiv- ing -any reply. I have frequently hinted at matters which I have thought might be improved, but he has never condescended to reply." — Worse than the man who sends you an insolent answer — which at least admits you to be worth his indignation — is the man who never condescends to reply. He stands upon a rock, and is as iraper- turbable to busy reformers as his basis. But I had scarcely thought it possible that in this age, when the rigid insolence of place has had its back so thoroughly broken, there existed even among; the fossil remains of permanent officialism a specimen of the civil servant who never condescends to reply. Now that the Secretary of State for India has had his attention drawn to this singular officer, he may perhaps find room for him among the curiosities of the India Museum. — It will be seen at once how important both to the commercial interests of the planter and the humane IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION, ETC. 183 interest of the philanthropist is the part to be played in the Coolie system by the emigration staff in India. Unwise selection of people, who are either of weak frames, sufferers from disease, or not fitted for agricultural labour, will not only prove a loss to the employei, but an increase of sorrow to themselves. Among the Chinese immigrants I found people who had been doctors, schoolmasters, and the like, and Mr. Crosby stated that on inquiry he had found the immigrants from China to have belonged to as many as one hundred a|id fifty occupations — one returning himself as "a professed gambler." The Commissioners examined personally some immigrants by a ship called the Mcdca, with this result : — '* Out of thirty adult immigrants, only thirteen were agricultural la- bourers, who, with one lime-burner, one cowherd, three peons, and a sweeper, made the list of those accus- tomed to outdoor labour ; the ro^vadivixixi^ fourteen were priests, weavers, scribes, shoemakers, beggars, and so forth. It is to this circumstance that a great deal of the discontent upon estates is due; the immigrants on arrival find they have to do work to which they have never been accustomed ; they get disheartened, and soon find their way into the estates' hospitals." * The effect of vigorous remonstrance by the Deme- rara authorities has been to induce greater care in the Indian agents in endeavouring to secure a better class of im.migrants. But in all fairness the whole of the case in British Guiana, as presented at the * See Appendix D for a description of the method of passing, and rc- lUiirks on recruiting. h.:^l:± IH in iSh- THE COOLIE. incjuiry, must be reviewed subject to the considera- tion that a large number of the early inefficient importations still survive. The difficulty of deciding in the case of these poor people whether indolence or feebleness were the real cause of neglect to work, has all along been insuperable to the colonial administration. The Indian agencies have been established as the result of much thought and corre- spondence on the part of the Colonial Office, the Indian Government, and various Colonial Execu- tives. If any one will take the trouble to consider the number of colonies taking or requiring emigrants, the various agencies, the various laws and their intricacy, he will be convinced that in this single department that office has a task considerably be- yond its present ability to perform well. It is an enormous business. I have heard that a san- guine official once expressed in Parliament his admiration of the beauty and perfection of ^he system of that office ; but it is to be feared that while the head of the official ostrich was in the sand, curious and not very reverential spectators were passing their remarks on the scandalous exposure of his body. At all events, it is perfectly certain that ve; y few independent colonists, honestly speak- ing their mind, would concur in this egregious assumption. The Colonial Office has not the force at its disposal to attend properly to half its business, admitting it to have within its ranks the practical ability or the appropriate colonial representation to regulate it. . I IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION, ETC. 185 The recruiters are engaged and sent out by the Colonial Emigration Agent, acting under the Indian Acts 13 of 1864 and 6 of 1869. They are further licensed by the Indian Government official to whom I have before alluded, called the I'rotector of Immi- grants, at Calcutta. The recruiter's license innst have been countersigned by the resident magistrate of the district in which he works.* Their business is to visit the country districts, and represent to the natives the advantages of immigration. What is it that they represent ? The planter's answer will be, that whatever the recruiting'agent says, the actual contract is there in black and white — such a contract as Lum-a- Yung's in my first chapter — to show the terms on which the immigrant left his native land. But then the inden- tures with Indians are executed in Demerara. More- over, on the other hand, the Coolies complained to me frequently that they had been deceived by the agents in India. I had placed in my hand by an immigrant in Georgetown a sort of advertisement or circular pur- porting to'have issued from the colonial agent, with a statement as to the character of the country, work, and wages, and a promise to the immigrant, if I remember rightly, of land for gardens. This paper I produced before the Commission, and asked the Immigration Agent-General to verify; but he said he had never seen a similar one, and was unaware of its issue. Though there is no reasonable doubt * Report, &c., H 185. nr i8b TVF COOLIE. I'l! % liil! |:i: 1!. ; i that the circular was an authentic one, distributed by the recruiters in India, it was quite properly rejected by the Commissioners as not sufficiently verified for their purposes. Such representations are of the utmost consequence, and the colony, through its agent, is directly responsible for them. Exaggerated statements in print, or verbally made by the recruiters, mislead the ignorant Coolies, and lay the basis for that permanent sense of wrong, which makes a resentful labourer, with the danger of converse harshness and oppression in enforcing another view of the contract. The action of these recruiters, therefore, needs careful watchijig on the part of the Indian Government ; and after their work is done, and the Coolie has been separated from them — nay, even up to the time of embarkation — perfect freedom of choice should be insured to the recruits. Belter no crop of sweetness than one bred of deceit and discontent. The temptation to these recruiters, who can hardly be exempt from some of the characteristics of the Hindu, has repeatedly proved too great to be resisted. Persons of poor physique, of the basest moral stain, suffering from leprosy or other diseases, have successfully passed under the supervision of all the persons whom I have mentioned — the recruiter, the magistrate, the colonial agent. Protector of Immi- grants, doctors — and have reached Georgetown in a .state which proved their disabilities to have been chronic. When this appears, we cannot be sanguine as to the cai-efulness with which the Coolie's mind is IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION, ETC. 187 made to appreciate his contract and its prospects. A very gross case has recently come to light in India — I trust an unusual one; but the fact that a considerable attempt at kidnapping was made by recruiters does not speak well for the Indian agencies.* So much for the recruiter per se. Now as to his authoritative representations. The recruiter takes his people before the resident magistrate of his dis- trict to be registered. Copies of the register, stating age, sex, caste, former occupation, and the rate of wages in the colony, are given to the immigrant, and duplicates are forwarded to the colonial agent. " In these certificates the emigrants are almost invari- ably entered as agriculturists, whether that has been their former occupation or not. Their caste, which appears side by side with this description, directly belies it."t Hence many tears, troubles to managers from incapables, sorrows to the inca- pables themselves, to whom Spartan drowning or hanging were a better fate than to have contracted to do what they cannot do with the alternative of shot- drill. " ■• ■ A certificate was produced to me by a Coolie, and by me handed to the Commission, with a wages column, in which it was stated that wages in the colony were from ten annas (i^. ^d.) to two * In a pamphlet recently printed with the too sensational title " The Kew Slavery," Mr. Beaumont reprints from the Madras Times an account which, if true, proves a state of things simply atrocious and unendurable. See Appendix E. t Report, &c., II 187, 189. . . . , i88 THE COOLIE. ! i rupees (45-.) per diem for agricultural labour. On a Chinese indenture before me as I write is a note as follows : — " Resolution of the Governor and Court of Policy of British Guiana — 'That the immigrant should be guaranteed full employment, on adequate wages, paid weekly, with a house rent free, with medical attend- ance, medicine, food, and hospital accommodation when sick ; and that it should be explained to them that a man can earn easily from two to four shillings ^ women from one to two shillings, and children eight- pence per diem, and that a full supply of food for a man can be bought for eightpence per diem.' " The indenture was made in 1863. Let us, therefore, take only that of which there is indubitable evidence, namely, that the above state- ments were made by the recruiting agent. If it should turn out that only a strong man can earn two to four shillings a day, and that one shilling or one and threepence is a fair statement of the usual average pay, and that not earned so easily^ what remedy would Tan-a-Leung or Achattu have against the govern- ment of British Guiana or against h.'s employers ? None whatever. When he arrives there he finds himself to be subject to a law which overrides his certificate, and he must either sit down content or — look out for shot-drill. In such a case his only appeal would be to the British people and Govern- ment. Let us see Mr. Crosby's opinion upon this point : — Q. 2500. Might I ask whether you would not IMMIGRA TION ORGANISA TION, ETC. 1 8q consider that certificate a sort of contract with the immigrants made out of this colony ? A. I consider it was upon this representation that they came to this colony. It is a statement made by the magistrate in India to the immigrant, when he is taken before the magistrate, under Act i6 of 1864, by the recruiter ; because this is presented to the Pro- tector of Immigrants on his arrival in Calcutta. Q. This is the representatioxi made to the immi- grant on which he comes here ? A. Yes. Ten annas, I believe, is i^. id. Q. In this colony it would not be considered as a contract, because such contracts are rendered invalid by legislation ? Is it not so ? A . There is no contract^ in facty made in India with the Indian immigrant. Q. None acknowledged in this colony ? A. None. Q. It may be a question whether this is not a con- tract in India ? A. This is not looked upon as a contract. It is not presented to us. We know nothing about it in point of fact. I believe it to be very seldom that they possess them on their arrival. I dare say many are very careless of them, but some preserve them with great care. Q. Then in answer to my question whether this could be recognised as a contract in this colony, you would say certainly not ? 'A. Certainly not. > On the statement in the Chinese indentures the T' 190 THE COOLIE. Commissioners report : " Now, although an able- bodied Negro can earn from three to foar shillings by from nine to ten hours of work in the field, it is well known that a Chinaman cannot ; moreover, the Negro does not ' easily * earn it, but earns it by a good steady day's work. It is hardly fair to compare the Negro and the Chinaman where hea^^y field work is required ; for the Negro is physically far superior to the class of Chinese who have emigrated to this colony. The Chinese complained that they had been deceived in this respect, for on arrival they found they could not earn the wages they had been led to believe they could." As to the Indian certi- ficates they say : " A more serious matter is the state- ment of wages inserted in the certificate without note or comment, but required by the Indian Act to be specified as that * agreed upon between the immi- grants and the recruiter.' The rate is entered as from ten annas to two rupees, no difference being made in this particular between the certificates given to tnales and females. We shall hereafter examine into the rates of wages really earned, and show plainly that the effect of this statement can only be to mis- lead and deceive those to whom it is made. " The copies from the registers kept by the Protector and resident magistrates, which are given to the immigrants, and by them considered as a contract, may not indeed be held binding by the colonial law, but are none the less direct pledges of the faith of the community. This is another, and we are sorry to say a still continuing instance of that carelessness IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION, ETC. 191 as to the acts of their agents abroad, which we have had occasion to notice in the case of the Chinese. Were it not that we have a confident expectation that the calling public attention to it will cause the immediate stoppage of this abuse, ivc could not look forward with any satisfaction to the continuance of immigration from India." Thus it appears that the rates of wages heretofore stated in the certificate — which is not admitted in the '■olony to he a contract^ though taken to be so by the Indian Act, but is regarded merely as a representa- tion — are now proved, without doubt to be excessive. Yet " the Governor and Court of Policy of British Guiana" authoritatively pledge themselves to ignorant and confiding Coolies to these rates. Again, a complaint frequently made to me by the im- migrants was, that until they arrived in Guiana they had no idea whatever that penal consequences were to result from their breach of contract. No doubt they are cunning and fraudful. They would like to take their bounty money and get their free passage and do no labour ; but they ought surely to know that if they wilfully fail the prison is their resource. Why not give them a proper form of contract, epitomising its conditions and honestly informing the recruit of the incidents to which he is subjecting himself? You say : He would not come. Then what right have you to bring him ? As for the land, which is temptingly held out to innocent, greedy ears, that inducement is acknowledged to be a farce. The agents, after taking the recruits before a ma- Ii II / ir)2 'iE COOLIE. gistrate, who visf.s the certificate, send them on to the depot at Calcu^tta, where they await shipment. Here they are ex.amined by the agent, by the surgeon- superintendent, and depot surgeon, and passed. The method of passage was the subject of investigation by order of the Demerara Executive in February, 1870, when Dr. Crane, the surgeon- superintendent of the Sophia JoachiUy stated :* — " The official inspection took place on Saturday, the nth September. The people were collected on the ground-floor of the brick buildings. They passed out individually through the back verandah in which Dr. Palmer and myself were sitting at a small table. As each person came to the table he presented his certificate, and a native — I think the ' native doc- tor ' of the British Guiana depot — inqijiired of the man his name and father's name, and if they cor- responded with the ticket it was handed to Dr. Palmer to sign, who thereupon affixed his signature and handed it to me for my signature, which I declined to attach, as I found it impossible, from the rapidity of the examination, to refer to the notes which I had taken at my previous inspection at the depot, as to the condition of such individuals as I considered likely to be unfit for embarkation. I then stated that I would afterwards examine the people myself, and compare them and the certificates with my notes, and sign the tickets of those that I approved. Dr. Palmer said emphatically that it would take a great deal of time. I stated that it would not be necessary for him to * Report, &c., Pars. 196, 197. IMMIGRATION ORGANISATION, ETC. 193 remain during such examination. I contented my- self, as directed by Dr. Palmer, with stopping such people as manifestly required, in my opinion, a more rigid inspection. When an individual was objected to, and Dr. Palmer and I had concurred that he was not fit for embarkation, the certificate was handed to me to record the fact and the reasons ; but while I was engaged in doing so, other people were being rapidly passed without my having any opportunity of noticing them, and in this manner the inspection was continued until finished. *I think about two hours were occupied in this examination. I then requested the Baboo to collect the people again for my own official inspection, having no confidence in the examination which had just taken place. While the people were being collected, the Baboo, accom- panied with a clerk from the British Guiana depot, returned, when I was informed by them that there was no time for such an inspection, as the certificates of the people were required immediately for making out the list of immigrants for embarkation. I then said that I would look over the certificates, and select from them the certificates of those of whom I had made notes on my previous inspection. This I did ; and out of forty-one of whom I had made notes I found but one-half, of whom I passed fourteen after another inspection. Of these fourteen three died. This concluded the inspection." Adhar Chander Doss, the surgeon-superintendent of the Shandy gives similar testimony : — " At the time of the embarkation, Dr. Partridge, the . m 194- THE COOLIE. inspecting surgeon of the emigrants, passed them in my presence. On my pointing to some of them as looking very sick, he replied that a little good feeding and sea air would bring them round. On my appointment, no reason had been assigned for my hasty appointment." There is no question that the Indian system is rotten, and that its continuance on its present basis must lead to an early outbreak of public indignation in England. The Government now has its attention officially called to the abuses, and has no excuse for postponing investigation and the immediate adoption of remedial measures. The nature of these measures is easily indicated. To secure that due notice of the terms of contract is given to the Coolie, the provisions of the ordi- nance more immediately affecting him should be translated into his language, and read to him by the magistrate at the time of recruiting. The Protector of Immigrants in Calcutta should be instructed to examine, and perhaps to countersign, the forms of certificates issued to the recruiters ; and should also hold at least annual communication with the Immigration Agent of each colony to demand an official statement as to the current rates of wages.* To sum up, there are three important matters arising out of the Indian organisation : — i. The phy- * By theOrdinanceof 1843 (British Guiana) the Agent-General was called on to prepare once in every quarter, or as often as the Governor should appoint, a statement of the average rate of wages and of the advantages generally afforded by employers in the colony, for transmission to all places which were ports of government emigration, and to all the collect- ing agents of the colony. — Report, &c., H 115. IMMIGRA TION ORGANISA TION, ETC, 1 9 S sical quality and the occupation of the recruit. 2. The representations actually made to tha Coolie by the re- cruiters. 3. The representations not made to him at the time of making the contract. On all these points the organisation fails, and immediate, trenchant remedy is required. At the depot examination particularly the three cru- cial points above specified should be finally settled. A careful medical inspection of the people by European doctors, representing the colony and the Indian Govern- ment, should be made, and the unhealthy be rigidly excluded. Secondly^ the Protector of Immigrants, or some other trustworthy person, should examine each recruit separately, and explain to him or her, in native language, the outlines of the contract, its sanctions, and the rate of wages. Thirdly^ the kind of labour and the consequences of a breach of con- tract should be distinctly made known. It is possible that fewer immigrants would come, but they would be of a better class, and such a class would materially reduce the necessity of an expen- sive and minute organisation to watch their interests. The bounty must always prove a great temptation to these people, and if the facts affirmed by the planters are true, the returning immigrants must always be the best recruiters for the colony. To this question, then, it now becomes the duty of the Home and Indian Governments to give their at- tention. I for one should not demand or hope for a perfect system, but cannot be content with one so far from tolerable as that which now prevails in India. 196 THE COOLIE. \ \ 1 1 ' From the depot the immigrants embark, a general register being made out of their names and ages. A surgeon accompanies each vessel, who makes a return of deaths and sickness. During last year sixteen ship-loads of immigrants reached Georgetown^ from India. As these ships enter the Demerara river they come under the control of the Immigration Department. This consists of an Immigration Agent-General, with a salary of ^i,ooo sterling per annum, three sub- agents, one of whom acts as a chief clerk, two clerks, and four interpreters. Here we resort to the Ordinance. By section n it is provided that, on the arrival in Georgetown of an immigrant ship, the Immigration Agent-General and the Health Officer of the port shall forthwith go on board, and ascertain by personal in spection whether the provisions of the " Chinese Passengers Act, 1855," or the "Passengers Act, 1855," have been complied with. They are bound then to " personally muster and carefully inspect the immigrants, and determine when necessary (?) their ages, and more especially the ages of all minor and infant immigrants ; and shall separate such as, in their opinion, are not able-bodied labourers, and not physically capable of performing service as agricultural labourers, from those who are," and then report upon the result. The immigrants are then allotted to estates by the Immigration Agent-General, under the Governor's direction, in proportion to the numbers applied for by t'le proprietors. They do not see their future master il IMMIGRA TION ORGANISA TION, ETC. 1 97 — they have nothing to say in the matter of their allotment ; but, by section 37, the Agent-General is enjoined to take care that children under the age of fifteen years are not separated from their parents^ )iatural gnardianSy or protectors^ and that relatives are so allotted as to accompany each other ^ and that even friends are not separated unless unavoidable. The employer, obtaining a receipt for the allotment fees from the Colonial Receiver-General, produces it to the Immigration Agent, who then " orders them to be delivered to the said employer." This is suggestive of the transfer of a flock pf sheep, and the whole transaction needs, in every detail, the most delicate, keen, cautious hu- manity and tact. In no carping spirit let me point this out to every one interested — to the Colonial Office, that it may watch with anxiety the appoint- ments of the officials both in India and the colony; to the planters, that they may, in their own favour, take care that the men selected for this, I may almost say, terribly responsible post shall be conspicuous for integrity and humaneness. For it is a critical point of the system, that any part of it should depend so ipuch upon the character of the individuals who administer it — that according as these are trust- worthy or the reverse, it may work well or ill. In Mr. Crosby the system had a man whose character and position were a pledge of his integrity ; and his successor should be as earnest a philanthropist, as thorough a gentleman. It may be a question, too, whether he should not be selected from without the colony. Nay, in my opinion it is no question ; for no 198 THE COOLIE. ^ man in the colony who would accept it is fit for that particular post. Shall we pause a moment and regard a flock of these strangers as they pass through the streets of George- town on the way to their estate ? Can we possibly enter into their feelings ? Coming from their Asiatic homes, with their notions of Asiatic life, with the very air and mystery of that life hanging about them ; simple in their knowledge, though cunning enough in apprehension, they curiously scan the new country to which, with vague and ignorant faith in some good to be won by it, they are voluntarily exiles ! I can conceive of nothing more touching to a humane sympathy than this situation, and I am happy to believe that it docs strike chords in the hearts of some managers, and that in a kindly way efforts are made to mitigate its uncouthness. Mr. Russell, in answer to a question (5388) respecting the acclimatisation of the Coolie, thus describes the treatment of fresh immi- grants at Leonora estate : — " I may tell you the rule I have established in respect to Leonora. The people are received in the hospital from the ship ; they re- main there on full rations for three or four days ; they receive a supply of soap and cocoa-nut oil to clean themselves and their clothes ; then a good many of them draft themselves out to go and live with people who hail from the same village in India. The balance are allotted houses on the estate, separate houses for themselves. After working for four or five days, chopping grass about the * buildings/ they are allowed to select their own implement to work with, IMMIGRA TION ORGAN ISA TION, ETC. 1 99 ^h, whether to become shovelmen or weeders. Those who go to shovel-work, there is a steady old hand g-oes with them to trim their tools, to get their shovels and cutlasses sharpened, to get the handles made smooth, so that they will not blister their hands, and he looks after them and assists them to learn their work. They are found in full rations ; every man gets his rations before he goes out in the morning; they are given to them as to ordinary patients in the hospital. I liand in a bundle of orders on the estate's store for the provisions that are supplied to a gang of twenty-five to twenty-nine — sometimes a few go into the hospital, and then, perhaps, there would be only twenty-five. They go off the list by degrees, and till then food is supplied them like ordinary patients in the hospital. At the end of six weeks I give them notice that so many have to be put on their own hook entirely. The weaker are allowed to continue a week or two longer. Some of them never get off the pension-list ; two or three become permanent pensioners, and are always either in the hospital or working about the yards and grounds. My ex- perience in a great number of yards leads me to suppose this to be the best plan. I have dieted on many systems, but I find that the best; it leaves the people in good heart. At the end of the six weeks they get their money to start on their own hook. The best batch I ever had arrived in the month of May, when the water was coming over the back dam : they went on the second day to work, and when the roll was called, at the end of five years, in I la ;r i ; ! 200 THE COOLIE. every one but one answered to his name ; that one was a girl who died of pulmonary consumption, which she had when she came. They came by the Clarendon^ CHAPTER XVI. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE AND ITS Cl.x.£F. THE Immigration Office in the colony is the next organisation connected with the Coolie system which demands examination. With this the Coolie first comes in contact on landing in the colony, from this primarily takes his orders, to it must from time to time look as his protector, friend, and guide. To the childlike Asiatic it stands in loco parentis. One who has not seen something of its working would with difficulty conceive of the responsibility and labour attached to this office. With between forty and fifty thousand wards in the colony, distributed over the one hundred and fifty estates that spread along the sea-shores and river banks for hundreds of miles ; with the ncimes, ages, estates, &c., of every one of them to be kept duly registered ; with four or five thousand additional per annum arriving to be dis- embarked, identified, allotted, registered ; with semi- annual visits to be paid to every estate, and re-indentures to be granted to immigrants whose » time has expired; with constant apparitions of dis- ■ contented individuals, and occasional irruptions of large bands on strike,; with investigations to be made 202 THE COOLIE. • l! i into complaints either of officials or of the labourers — this office may now be said to be second to none in the colony in amount of the work to be done, as it certainly is second to none in importance. It is needless here to review the history of the Immigration Department in British Guiana, one pro- bably similar to that of other immigrant-receiving colonies, changed and adapted as it has been from time to time to the exigencies of the service. In the earlier days there was less need of officials, and less for them to do. The Immigration Agent-General was himself able to make half-yearly visits to all the estates in order to re-indenture and receive complaints. At that time his travelling expenses and those of his in- terpreter were paid by the colony, besides a salary of $3,360 per annum. " An addition was made to the prescribed duty in i860. The Immigration Agent was to call upon the immigrants whose indentures were within six months of their expiration, to state whether they wished to re-indenture on the same estate or to change their employer, or to commute their service out and out. The competition among employers for acclimatised and skilled labourers now began to make itself felt in the number of trans- ferences of service which the office had to superintend. A complicated system of payments and repayments was necessary, and much extra difficulty was ex- perienced owing to the policy adopted by the office in endeavouring to check these transfers, by which it was permitted to any immigrant to retract his in- tention of effecting a transfer, although he had pre- THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. 203 viously obtained the consent of his new employer, at any time before the new indenture of service could be actually signed by the new employen in person. This led to re-indentures and * re-re-indentures ' innu- merable, and at last the situation became one of intolerable perplexity. Managers not inclined to quarrel openly with each other, quarrelled with the Immigration Agents, who were in this matter merely ministers of their own pleasure ; and the Agent- General assures us that the * demoralisation ' among the planters and (as we should hardly have expected) among the immigrants was so great, that it became absolutely necessary to put a stop to commutations altogether. It seems hard to call that demoralisation in the labourers which was, after all, merely a taking of their labour to the best market." * The real history of the office, and the most inter- esting, is that of the administration of the present Immigration Agent-General, Mr. Crosby ; and if I give a "brief resume of this history as related by himself and the Commissioners, some of the extra- ordinary circumstances connected with it will be found worth the examination. When Mr. Crosby was appointed in 1858, after having been for a short time a stipendiary magistrate in the colony, he was to all intents and purposes a Protector of Immigrants. He visited the estates twice a year; he inspected them, the law conferring on him the right of entry ; he entertained complaints ; he preferred informations on behalf of immigrants before the magistrates. " I * Report, &c., H 125. |:.i* i' ID Kiii 204 THE COOLIE. had in effect almost entire control of the Immigration Department, that is to say, I exercised under all cir- cumstances my own discretion, subject of course to the approbation or disapprobation of the Governor. If a difficulty arose I consulted him, and if occa- sionally his acquiescence and authority were necessary under the (existing) act, I applied to him ; but other- wise I was completely at the head of an important department." Two sub-agents, so called, who prac- tically acted as clerks, were at that time appointed, one of whom, formerly a schoolmaster, has latterly on occasions acted in Mr. Crosby's absence for the Agent-General. As the business of the office in- creased, and with it the duties of the Agent-General, it became necessary to re-distribute the work. By successive ordinances certain important registers were required to be kept. A register of married heathen immigrants introduced into the colony ; a register of marriages of heathen immigrants in the colony, whereof the Agent-General's certificate was made evidence ; a register of births and deaths ; a register of immigrants sent to the Colonial hospital for treatment ; a register of the certificates of the Coolies for industrial service ; and copies of returns from public prisons, &c. By these registers Mr. Crosby's object was to be able at any moment to account for any immigrant who had landed in the colony, by showing him to be dead, or on an estate, or in a public institution — a clear matter of necessity where the range of country and seclusion of estates might admit of occurrences irregular or nefarious. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. «os The Agent-General took the superintendence of these important registers, as also of the landing of immigrants and the large amount of business, both concerning planters and Coolies, that required to be attended to at head-quarters. To the sub-agents was now assigned the duty of making the half-yearly visits, and provision was made for the payment of their expenses. They were persons of less individual weight as well as of less official authority than the Immigration Agent-General, a man whose in- flexible nature and high sense Ji duty very likely made him a troublesome visitor. He retained the power of paying extraordinary visits to the estates on special occasions; but the planters took care to clip his wings by witholding any provision for the expenses of travelling — expenses in British Guiana incredibly great — on such special complaints. The Commissioners say : " It was most unfortunate that no definite arrangement was made for defray- ing the expenses of these extraordinary visits. If it was considered that the increase in the Agent- General's fixed salary was to cover them, we have seen that it was impossible for the Agent-General to understand it in that sense. From time to time a very large increase in the number of complaints has called for a considerable expenditure in these inves- tigations, and it cannot have been expected that the Agent-General should defray out of his own limited salary a charge so heavy and so fluctuating. The result has been, that the investigations in out- lying districts have almost always been committed .1 ip I i '^>.i^ 206 THE COOLIE. to the sub-agents, whose travelling expenses were provided for, which is the more to be regretted, inasmuch as it has thrown the Agent-General into the background as a peace-maker, an office (par- ticularly in the case of Asiatics) it is important should be filled by a man of independent authority, and also because it has excluded Mr. Crosby from the exercise of functions for which he seems to have been peculiarly fitted. In three or four in- stances during the last six years, such investiga- tions have been held by himself in person, and have been more fruitful than others in suggestions for the prevention or settlement of similar com- plaints in future. That at Bel Air, in 1864, appears to us to be a good model of patient and impartial inquiry." * Under the Consolidated Immigration Ordinance, the duties and powers of the Agent-General were defined with some precision. He might ** at any time enter into and upon any plantation on which immi- grants might be employed, and inspect the state and condition and general treatment of the immigrants, and the state and condition of dwelling-houses and hospital accommodation, and inquire into any com- plaint " of employer against immigrants and con- versely, and make a report to the Governor.f He might also prefer a complaint before a magistrate on behalf of an immigrant, when the immigrant was not provided by his employer with sufficient work to enable him to earn a just amount of wages in terms ♦ Report, H 135, p. 49. t Ordinance 4, 1864, sec. 97. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. 207 of his contract, which complaint, if successful, is to be reported by the justice to the Governor, who may thereupon order the indenture to be cancelled.* By another section it is provided in these words : f — " If it shall at any time appear to the Immigration Agent-General that any immigrant has not been paid the wages due to him, or has suffered in any way any ill-usage, or has not enjoyed or been deprived of [sic] any of the privileges, advantages, immunities, and comforts [sic] intended to be secured to him by the provisions of this ordinance, &c. ; or has been treated in any way contrary to the provisions of this or any such ordinance ; the Immigration Agent- General may prosecute an inquiry in respect to any such matters as aforesaid ; and the Immigration Agent-General may either before or after such inquiry lay an information or make a complaint in his own name or in the name of any such immigrant as he may think fit, against the employer of such immigrant or any other person," &c. But by an oversight there appears to be no penalty affixed to any offences not coming within other laws of the colony, the result of which is that in cases where wages are withheld or stopped the magistrates do not feel authorised to apply a summary remedy.J These provisions conferred on the Immigration Agent-General powers of the highest consequence to the Coolie, since, if he were a man of independent spirit, he could by them set in motion all the forces of * Ordinance 4, 1864, sec. 98. t Ordinance 4, 1864, sec. 99. X Report, &c., H 137. If" |i ? : 1*1 208 T7/£ COOLIE. the law and the Executive to obtain justice for his Coolie wards. It will surprise any reader attached to constitutional usages to learn that the whole of these powers were practically withdrawn from the Agent- General, not by a repealing ordinance, but by a stroke of the Governor's pen ! "The history of Mr. Crosby's relations to Sir Francis Ilincks was a continual diminution of his (right, of) initiative, until, from being the head of an important State department, he had become a sort of chief clerk in an office directed in its minutest details by the Governor in person." So say the Commissioners ; and doubtless the history of the relations of Sir Francis Hincks to the colony, could it be written in its bare facts and con- sequences, would be one of very remarkable interest. The Commissioners do not go on — as they might well have done — to probe the motives, real and apparent, which urged Mr. Hincks to take so autocratic a course. His duty to the Office which had appointed him, as well as to abstract justice and humanity, was clearly to uphold to the utmost that power which alone checked the absolute power of the planters, yet he thought fit to assume to himself, as the head of the Executive, the discretion of carrying out or holding in abeyance some of the most important duties or sanctions of a great department. Only the authority of the Commissioners could have unurned the records of this odd proceeding, and I give the result in their own words :* — * Report, f 140-147, 152, 153. THE IMMIGRA TION OFFICE. 2og "This prohibition was communicated to Mr. Crosby in a letter from the Government Secretary, written by the Governor's orders, upon the occasion of a corre- spondence arising in reference to another case, in which the conduct of a stipendiary magistrate was impugned, of which an extract is subjoined : — " * There is, however, a question of a more general nature suggested by this correspondence, namely, how far it is desirable that you should, as Immigra- tion Agent-General, ir^stitute legal proceedings on behalf of immigrants, and conduct them in your pro- fessional character as a barrister-at-law. "* The Governor has naturally considered this branch of the subject, and recognises to the fullest extent the zeal you have displayed and the anxiety you have manifested to discharge your duty to the Government and to the immigrants whose interests are so espe- cially committed to its protection. His Excellency has, nevertheless, arrived at the conclusion that it will be preferable for you, in future, to submit all cases in which you may think official interference called for, for the consideration of the Executive, by whom they will be laid before the responsible legal advisers of the Crown ; and if they should be of opinion that the circumstances are such as to require it, the necessary steps will be taken to secure the object you have in view, by providing for the appear- ance of counsel in all cases where the circumstances may seem to require it.' " Mr. Crosby evidently considered this prohibition to apply rather to the manner, than to the act, of con- i I m 210 TI/i: COOLIE. ducting a prosecution ; for, on the 3rd of February, 1865, he again appeared in court as prosecutor in a case against two overseers, for assaulting a Chinese immigrant on Plantation Wales. The case was dis- missed ; but the overseers had previously been dis- charged from the plantation. The expenses and cost of suit to the Agent-General amounted to $5.94. "This case was followed by another communicar tion, as follows : — • *"3 February, 1865. " ' Sir, " * I am directed by the Governor to acquaint you that his attention has been called to a statement in the newspapers of your appearing before Mr. Stipendiary Magistrate Plummer, in your official capacity, as his Excellency infers, to prosecute a complaint on behalf of an immigrant, under the pro- visions of sec. 99 of Ordinance 4 of 1864. "*It is his Excellency's opinion that it is unde- sirable for the Immigration Agent-General to appear as prosecutor, except under special circumstances ; and the object of my letter, No. 1,800, of the 23rd December last, to which I request your reference, was to signify to you the Governor's wish that, be- fore acting under the clause in question, you should acquaint me, for his consideration, with the grounds on which you consider interposition necessary. " * Not having received any reply to that communi- cation, his Excellency assumed that you would be guided in your future proceedings by the view of the Executive; but he has reason to believe that THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. 211 in a similar case you brought an appeal before the Supreme Court of Review, without any such previous consultation as his Excellency had hoped you would have adopted. " * He cannot, therefore, but fear that a difference of opinion exists between the Executive Government and yourself as to the extent of your powers under the ordinance, and he has thought it expedient to afford you this further opportunity of explaining your views upon the subject. ** * I am. Sir, " ' Your most obedient servant, (Signed) "*Wm. Walker, *' * Gov. Secretary.' " This letter not unnaturally produced an answer of some length, in which Mr. Crosby endeavoured to show the inconvenience of the method of proceeding now enjoined upon him. "A third communication followed, in which the Governor laid down more fully than before the extent to which he wished to be consulted in immigration matters ; and, in fact, assumed the cognizance of all matters of any importance, at the same time facili- tating business by suggestions for the adoption of a less formal style in reports and minutes than before. y ■*.; "* I have received and laid before the Governor your letter of the nth instant, which only reached me yesterday; and I am directed by his Excellency to acquaint you that he deems it undesirable to notice 212 THE COOLIE, I further the specific cases adverted to by you in your letter at some length, as his object is rather to secure a more satisfactory administration of the department in future than to occupy himself with the past. " * The Governor desires me to remind you that he has a direct responsibility for the acts of any depart- ment of the Government which necessarily involves consultation with him on all subjects of importance, so that his sanction may be obtained to the action taken in the department. *' ' Although reference has been made in the present correspondence to proceedings which may be taken under section 99 of Ordinance 4 of 1864, the Governor is aware that many other proceedings have been adopted by you without his previous sanction, though, in his opinion, such sanction ought to have been obtained. " * The Governor wishes you clearly to understand that, ill making these observations, no censure is implied. If the system be defective, the Immigration Agent-General is even less responsible for it than the Governor. " *■ The object which his Excellency has now in view is to devise an improved system for the future, calculated to lighten materially the work both of this office and of the Immigration Department, to secure harmony and to expedite the despatch of business ; that the present circuitous mode of correspondence may be dispensed with ; and that this department may be to a great extent relieved from "-he charge of keeping voluminous records upon immigration matters THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. 213 which must always be accessible in the Immigration Department. " * The Immigration Agent-General should then adopt the system now pursued in this office. All letters received should be registered, and then docketed with the number and date of receipt, and sent to the Government Secretary, with such sugges- tions as to disposal of the matter made in a brief marginal note as you, as head of the department, may think suitable. "'The papers of each day should he sent in a canister to this office every afternoon, by three o'clock, or oftener in cases of emergency, and would be returned the following morning, mark d "Ap- proved," with the date on the paper ; or, if th' abject should require discussion, or that the Governo. .lould wish to refer it to other departments, minutes should be made in the same informal manner on the original document, or on papers attached thereto, so that the opinion of every person consulted would be on record, the Governor giving his ultimate decision on his own responsibility. " * Such minutes would require very little time in preparation ; and when action had to be taken, a letter, the substance of which would be embodied in the final minute, might be written without a rough draft in the great majority of cases. " * While the Governor has thought this a convenient opportunity of communicating to you his views as to the proper mode of conducting the business of the department in future, his Excellency, pending the ■Hnr 214 THE COOLIE. report of the Commission of Inquiry now sitting, has merely directed me to acquaint you that he must adhere to the opinion already communicated to you, that, with regard to proceedings under section 99 of Ordinance 4 of 1864, and to all other important matters, reference to him should be made before any action is taken ; and his Excellency desires me further to assure you that this mode of proceeding will not involve the delay which you apprehend, as it is his invariable practice to despatch all business with the greatest promptitude. " * I have the honour to be. Sir, " ' Your obedient humble servant, (Signed) " * Walter Howard Ware, " * Acting Government Secretary.' " It will easily be gathered, from the above commu- nication, that some difference of opinion and loss of harmony existed at this time between the Governor and the Agent-General. " In fact, the ver}'- same day that the letter last quoted was wricien, the Combine! Court reported a discussion upon a proposition of the Governor'^ for placing on the estimate a sum of $1,500 by way of tra- velling expenses, payable in equal proportions to the sub-agencs, indcpcndciu ^' of tJic action of the Agent- GcncraL* To this Mr. Crosby strongly objected, as taking the power of travelling himself, and of regulating the travelling of the sub-agents, entirely out of his hands. The Governor, looking only to the ordinary visits, regarded the travelling as a matter * The italics jire mine. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. aiS with which Mr. Crosby had nothing to' do, and appealed to the very small sum expended by Mr. Crosby on special visits since the time that the travelling expenses had been defrayed on account, as a proof that it was unreasonable to place the disposal of the large sum of money now voted in his hands. Into the question of the comparative increase or decrease in the respective emoluments of the Agent- General and the sub-agents, we are not disposed to enter ; but it is due to Mr. Crosby to say that, throughout the controversy, he alone seems to have kept in view the importance of securing the utmost facility of paying special visits to estates — visits to investigate complaints, as distinguished from the ordinary visits for re-indenturing purposes. " Governor Hincks, on leaving the colony for a short period, forwarded to the Colonial Office a series of complaints against the action of the Agent-General in opposing this scheme, and in other matters of trifling importance ; and follows it up with a parting direction to Mr. Crosby, dated three days afterwards, to send every paper ^ however insignijieaut^ aceonipanied by a vtinnfe, to himself for approval before acting npon it. Governor Hincks then left the colony; and this last com- munication was not acted upon for a considerable time. " The return of Governor Hincks replaced matters as he left them with regard to prosecutions. Mr. Crosby was censured by the Home Government for indiscre- tion in the manner of his opposition to the Governor's plans ; but it was not until a year afterwards that he found himself compelled, upon his own return from V 7W 2l6 THi: COOLIE. leave, to conform to the instructions issued in May, 1866 ; and to send literally every note that came into the office in his canister to the Governor. '* The particular communication which Mr. Crosby quotes as having occasioned this final order was not quite so insignificant as he deemed it. It merely contained the name and description of an immigrant, but it seems that the result of this information was that ]\Ir. Crosby's correspondent, apparently without his knowledge, took up the cudgels against ait m- fiticntial manager in respect of some grievance alleged by the ii?imigrant, and complained to the Governor of his [the manager's) conduct.* From this time forward, at all events, and perhaps it may be said for some time previously, the Immigration Office, as a depart- ment of the Government, has no history." No one who reads this account can fail to see its distinctive bearing on the relation of the planters to the Executive. Why should the Governor desire to hold absolutely in his own hands control of the entire busi- ness of the Immigration Office ? Is it not dangerous that he, who may be intriguing in other matters, should suppress any original power in an important State department, and reserve to himself the right of setting in motion or restraining the laws against the most powerful class of a community r Lastly, let any one candidly ask himself what would have been the effect of a similar interference by the Governor in any other of the Colonial departments, and whether the plutocracy of Demerara would not soon have made * I{inc illcp. lacryma ! ''-,.. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. 217 audible in Downing Street a very loud protest against his usurpation ? In fact, I fear we may take it that the planters looked with jealousy on Mr. Crosby's officiousness, and the Governor was not unwilling to appease their discontent. Mr. Crosby himself, in the course of his examina- tion, protested very strongly against the injurious effect upon his official status of Mr. Hincks's usurpa- tion. " • "(2- 1 1 20. Section 99 (Ord. 4 of 1864) appeared to leave me to judge whether I ought or ought not to take legal proceedings ; but in consequence of one or two cases which were brought before the higher Court, in which I appeared, not as counsel, but as representative of the immigrants, there was a degree of restraint put upon me ; it was on an occasion when, never exercising the functions of a barrister, but coming to Court in the habiliments of a barrister out of respect to the Court, I appeared as I did in- variably as the Protector of Immigrants. There were a great many reports by me on the subject. I was very hostile to that sort of restraint, but of course, being an executive officer, rtiy duty was to bow. I was compelled to do so, and I did it of course. An executive officer has no choice, he must obey the commands of his superior officers whatever they may be ; he has no business to exercise any independent action. But I maintain that I ought to have and . exercise independent action, being at the head of so responsible a portion of the Colonial Government, answerable to the Executive if I exercise an unwise 1 ■ i|; :li III'' - '1 •' ' 218 TI/£ COOLIE. discretion, and very much more so if I exercise any imprudent discretion or anything that could bear any bias. " Q. 1121. With regard to the subordinate officers of your department, are they under your direction ? — A. Yes, they are ; but I have no hesitation in saying that in consequence of that communication made during the period of time when I was on the bench, ?"/ dtsorgatiiscd the estahlishment and made those parties , independent of me who ought to be stihordinate to me. " ^. 1 1 22. The President. That was during the year 1864. — A. During the time I was on the bench. " Q. 1123. In 1864 ? — A. In May, 1864. I not only commented on it personally, but / commented on it very strongly to the Secretary of State himself. I showed him that it was a complete disorganisation of the whole establishtncnt. '• ^. 1 124. Sir George Young. Was your office recognised as the office of Protector of Immigrants for the Colony? — A. No ; I was not called Protector of Immigrants, but under Act No. 7 of 1864 you will see that the powers given in effect and in reality caused the Immigration Agent-General to be Pro- tector of Immigrants as much as the Protector of Immigrants in Calcutta ; and therefore the Immi- gration Agent was the party to step in on all occa- sions and under all circumstances for the protection of these immigrants, and to see that they were fairly and justly and properly dealt with. " ^. 1 125. The President. Which Ordinance gave you these powers? — A. No. 7 of 1854. It was the THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. 219 earliest organisation of the system passed by Mr. Wodehouse. By it the Immigration Agent-General is protected when he goes on any estate, and is secured from interruption." In 1866 and in 1868 Mr. Crosby was absent from his office, either on leave or to take the place of an absent judge. He was, however, still the Immigra- tion Agent-General. His head clerk, or sub-agent, Mr. Gallagher, acted for the head of the office, and, from all I could learn, acted with the distinguished approval of the planters. By the Ordinance 12 of 1866, which is even a few degrees more desultory a piece of legislative literature than the celebrated 4 of 1864, each estate was to keep its register of births, deaths, desertions, &c., — and this register^ after signature by the sub-agent^ was to be " good frimd facie evidence of the correctness of all and singular of that which is therein set forth " — " a process of evidence- making very justly objected to as an abuse of legisla- tive authority."* Both this ordinance and that of 1 868 — the provisions of which were chiefly and obviously to facilitate, not the Coolie's remedies, but those of his employer — were passed without consulting the Agent-Genercd. Though Mr. Gallagher drafted the original drafts of one of the ordinances, at least, and seemed very proud of the achievement, neither he, nor the Governor, nor the Court of Policy, had seen fit to communicate their intentions to the head of the department immediately interested ! He first heard of them after the ordinances were passed f — a state of ! * Report, &c., f 155. t lb., H 156. 220 THE COOLIE. ( I relations in the Colonial Administration that naturally awakens some very curious reflections. To the honour of the present Governor, Mr. John Scott, it should be mentioned that his course in rela- tion to the Immigration Office has been in some degree to restore to it the dignity it had lost ; but it now needs reconstruction and establishment by a firm hand on the broadest possible basis. "It will be seen," say the Commissioners,* " that we make no secret of our conviction that the conversion of the Immigration Office from a public department into a sort of secretariat of the Governor's [sic] f for immigration purposes was a gross administrative mis- take. If the Governor of British Guiana were absolute, it would still be impolitic that his personal initiative should be required in a series of details of small im- portance to the welfare of the colony at large, but touching very closely the interests of the principal private persons under his sway. But being as he is an officer of great, indefinite, but not absolute power, standing face to face with an aristocracy wielding a power equally indefinite and not incommensurate with his own, it is in the highest degree inexpedient that the daily routine work of an office expressly founded to protect the immigrants, when necessary, against the mistakes or failings of the individual members of that aristocracy, should be done, and known to be done, under his eye, if not by his own * Report, &c., H 157. t The Commissioners' style throughout has a delightful luxurious tropical abandon about it, but the enormous range of their labours abundantly excuses them. THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE. 221 hand. The tendency which we have observed in perusing the very important series -of complaints from which we have quoted so often has continually been to deal with the grievances of immigrants as matters of administration or even of private corre- spondenc'e, rather than of public justice. The penal clauses of the Consolidated Ordinance affecting em- ployers and managers, except in two or three cases of ill-usage, which might after all have been treated as cases of common or aggravated assault, have been suffered to lie dormant, while the Government Secre- tary was writing to the attorney or manager — obtain- ing a promise of redress more or less indefinite, and informing the Agent-General thereupon that no further action was required." Hence, as we have seen,* the Commissioners em- phatically recommend that the anomaly on which, long before their Report had been made, I had animadverted in Good Words — namely, that the head of the Immigration Department was not a member of the Court of Policy — should be remedied. f When we consider the range of questions involved in this elaborate and difficult system ; the extent and variety of the machinery necessary for its efficient, not to say its felicitous, working, and the natural disadvantage at which the Coolie stands on all occa- sions in his relations to the planters, there can be no question of the imperative call for this reform — one, I hope, that the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who has seen fit to retain Mr. Crosby in his present ♦ Ante, pp. 178, 179. ^ t Report, &c., H 161, 162. -S l', t. i It I .f I iturn of the sanie miserable crea- tures to rep(\'it the process, till death, or hopel(\ss debility, or suicide, relieved the estate of th(^ incubus. It was against such occurrences that the planters themselves ft)und it necesriary to act, though I cannot help thinking that many of them were so anxious to have the labour, that they were willing to run the risk of taking the small amount it cost thcmi even out of third-rate immigrants, l-^at cxpcn'innifnni in rorpon' 7v7/', rather than not at all. In the future, care must be taken, not only in British (iuiana, but in other West Indian colonies, that opportunities are not afforded of repeating that dreadful experiment. I have spok(>n of the above process as a "natural" process. In a INDENTURES, REGISTERS, ETC 2 2f) despatch of Sir Philip Wodohouse to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the; provisions of the Con- solidation Immigration Ordinance, he says: — "P>om the first of these Ciiuses [i.e., the expens(\ &c., attending the immigration) there arises naturally in the minds of the immediate employers, and p(^r- haps of all classes, a strong desire to obtain from the immigrant what they regard as nothing more than a just return for the heavy outlay attendant on his introduction, and his restoration to his own country." This I should explain alluded only to the length of indentures, but the expression is a signifi- cant one. I was informed that previously to the Commission the streets of Georgetown used to b(; fre(|uented by terribk; and ghastly subjects of dis(3ase. Lepers are now l*y the law of British Guiana, in contravcmtion, I believe, of the Report of the I.eper Commission against the C(mtagiousness of the disease, confined to a leper villag"e. Yet 1 have seen a few objects exposed in Georgetown, for which humanity and decency demanded a kindly asylum. The exporta- tion of old or feeble men to the West lndi(>s as labourers is obvit)usly inhuman, but it is against the interests of the planters, and is therefore an evil not likcdy to be of long duration. It is clearly of the first moment that the Executive in any Coolie-worked colony should maintain a rigorous watch ov(T tlie pirsotnirl of the estat(*s. Every man, woman, and child under indenture should bo registered, identified, and from time to time ac- j'H I •r r 230 THE COOLIE. \ counted for, by the planter to the Government of the colony, and by that Government to the Colonial Office. There need be no more difficulty in doing this respecting fifty or sixty thousand persons than in accounting, as they do in some of our mammoth establishments, for every pound of staple that goes in and out during the year. The Immigration Ordi- nances contain provisions aimed at securing this end. Whether they are sufficient, and are rigidly enforced by the authorities, must be vital points in any inquiry concerning Coolie immigration. Registers of inden- tured persons, of marriages, of births, of deaths, of deserters, of suicides, of immigrants imprisoned, care- fully kept by the employers and duly reported to the Immigration Office in the colony, are essential to the proper working of the system. In fact, Mr. Crosby's ambition was a right and reasonable one, namely? '* to be able at any time to account for every immi- grant in the colony." The importance of this will be clear to the reader if he will consider the vast extent of the country, the seclusion of the estates, and their contiguity to a wilderness. The Immigration Agent- General referred to the inconveniences likely to arise out of imperfect returns in this quaint fashion : " The registers of mortality are not in all respects certain and reliable, because sometimes persons are reported dead when they are not so, and sometimes persons are reported as having just died when they have died three or four years before. Then we are obliged to write and ask who are really dead, as the person mentioned had died three or four years before ! " The INDENTURES, REGISTERS, ETC. ^3' difficulties of identification are aggravated by the number of Indian " Smiths " or " Joneses " who come in the same ship. The uncertainty and imperfectness of these returns were the less excusable because, by the Ordinance 4 of 1864, a penalty of $24 was imposed for neglect to make them. Mr. Crosby, however, in the course of his examination, defended the Immigra- tion Office from its too evident omission to enforce the law by suing for the penalty, on the ground that, by a technical construction of the Act, the clause was inoperative. " The words in the directory clause of the Act being, that such a person shall make out and deliver the half-yearly and other returns. Whereas the penalty is for not sending them in." The Commis- sioners express their surprise that such technicalities had in this and other cases restrained the action of the Immigrant Agent-General, but a not very deep study of the courts of Demerara enabled me to see that, in their love of judicial straw-splitting and nonsensical adherence to the letter, they too much resembled our courts in the days of special pleading ; and no doubt Mr. Crosby, who has had considerable experience as a colonial judge, knew his measure. The indenture, as we have seen, extends over five years. At the end of that time the freedman is open to a re-indenture, if he pleases, y"6»;- another term of Jive yearSy and for no less period. For this he receives a bounty of $50. We may consider, Jirst, the law regu- lating the machinery of re-indentures; and secondly y the policy of re-indentures, for any and what term of years. And (i) it is the duty of the Immigration 232 THE COOLIE. w Agent-General, or his sub-agents, to visit every estate in the colony once in six months, after giving seven days' notice by advertisement. The manager is then required to produce every indentured Coolie who may have completed, or may within the next six months complete, his term of service. Thereupon the agent may, if the Coolie is willing, renew his indenture. The state of the law with respect to these re-inden- tures is less than satisfactory. Its main policy is to encourage re-indentures — to encourage them for a long space of time, and thus to keep the Coolie in bond and out of the free market. This is directly contrary to the policy originally entertained in the Colonial Office in the Duke of Newcastle's time, when one of the ends held in view, in permitting immigration, was the ultimate establishment of the Coolie as a free labourer. This also must be opposed to the real and permanent interest of the immigrants, who are by this expedient kept in a floating state, and whose fate, as I have previously pointed out, is made to depend on con- tingencies. The means by which this policy is carried out are twofold. One is an appeal to the Coolie's cupidity, by offering him the bounty for five years lumped in one sum. The other is by enactments which often place it in the power of the employer to hold serious threats over the immigrant if he will not re- indenture. By sec. 94 of Ordinance 4 of 1864, and 7 of Ordinance 13 of 1866, the agent, before granting the certificate or re-indenturing the Coolie, must ascertain whether he has, during his period of ser- vice, deserted or been imprisoned for a longer time INDENTURES, REGISTERS, ETC. 233 than one month in each year of his indentureship, and, for whatever time has thus been lost to the master, extend the indenture. So that a Coolie who had, during his five years, spent six or ten months in prison, would, in addition to that punishment, be obliged to repay his master six or ten months' service. This seems unreasonable, but is almost a necessary consequent to inflicting imprisonment for breach of contract, on which I shall have a word to say directly. The manner of proving this is, perhaps, unique in modern legislation. It is done by entries in a book called the Estates Register, kept by the manager^ and his oath is the voucher for its correctness. No reference is, in practice, made to prison registers to verify these statements. "The Estates Register," says the Report, "of Imprisonments and Desertions, upon which so much is left to depend, is in general fairly kept ; but the Acting Immigration Agent-General (Mr. Gallagher), who avers himself to be the suggester, appears to consider that * if the employers choose to omit entering desertions and imprisonments, it is not for the Immigration Office to find fault with them ; the duty of the Immigration Officer being restricted to seeing that no entries are made which are not bond fide' It is obvious that a register which is kept with accuracy only if and when it is intended to use it as evidence is not merely an ex parte document, but an ex parte document of second- rate value as evidence, and the device of propping its au1;hority by the manager's etatement on oath is distinctly contrary to principle." The Commissioners If 234 THE COOLIE. ,1 here are rather hard on Mr. Gallagher. They expect him to know, what his antecedents gave them no ground to hope for, Latin and jurisprudence. He evidently used bondjide in ignorance of its meaning, his own intention being expressed by the words " accurate," " correct ; " while, as to the other branch, prificiplcs are not permitted to be stumbling-blocks in the way of West India legislation. But, as a fact, these injudicious provisions appear rarely to work any practical injustice, since the right under the law is rarely enforced. The power, howeve'* which it, in conjunction with the large bounty, puts in the hand of the employer of putting the screw upon an immi- grant to re-indenture is one which it would be good policy to withdraw. For the terms of imprisonment alone, it would every way be better that they should be counted as part of the service. It would have a beneficial effect in restraining the employer, not un- duly, from too frequent appeals to the magistrate, if there were placed before him the certainty of absolutely losing the time of the labourer in case of a conviction. The equitable addition of lost days, which I presently propose, should be rendered in- capable of misuse as a threat, by making it subject to the provision that, in every case in which such lost days have been proved, they must peremptorily be added to the old indenture before a new one is per- mitted. But I say, it is doubtful whether the infliction of imprisonment under the Labour Laws will bear the test of examination. Imprisonment for breach of a civil contract is INDENTURES, REGISTERS, ETC. i 235 opposed to modern, if not indeed to ancient, English noticns of freedom, and is on principle open to serious criticisms. By the common law — so high a reverence had our Saxon forefathers for the idea of personal freedom — " the body of a frccvian could not be made subject to distress or iinprisonnicHt by contract, but only by Judgment." Under our Master and Servants Acts, it is now possible for a man in England to enter into an agreement for a term of service, a wilful breach of which exposes him to imprisonment for three months with hard labour. I should be glad to see an enact- ment so invidious blotted from our statute book. Is it policy to permit any man to make a contract based on such a contingency ? Is it well to record in the laws, in a concrete form, the inequality of rich and poor? For my own part, I cannot hesitate to express a strong opinion against the imprisonment of Coolies or any other labourers for breach of contract, a re- pugnance confirmed the more I inquired and thought about the immigration system. I know the defenders of this provision will say (and say with much plausi- bility) that the labourer has no other amends to make — he must give his body for the sin of his soul. The master you can mulct in money, and goods, and credit, and social standing ; but the pariah — without wealth, or possessions, or credit, or position— nothing but his bare poor skin — full of bones, thews, and sinews — you must, like another Shylock, in another way, take your terms out of that. God help me if I could do it, were the^re never a stroke of work done on 236 THE COOLIE. any property of mine ! And when you attentively look into the effect of it, you will see how It de- moralises the subject. Should he complain of his master's breach of contract, he sees the latter asked to pay a monetary fine, while he, for a converse breach, suffers as a felon. Repeat that operation a few times, and then behold the sort of man you have made. Hardened, harassed, unwilling, shirking, — broken perhaps in spirit; rightly or wrongly indignant that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, — what kind of work do you get out of him ? Is it hopeful, energetic, strengthful, willing r or is it such as you would get out of your stubborn child if you stood over him with a dog-whip ? You have no right to inflict on a man a punishment dispro- portioned to his offence. Wherein any law has failed to adjust with tolerable accuracy offence and penalty, it is, and must be, not only unjust but injurious. Were it to be proved that such a provi- sion is essential to a system, it were better the system should not exist. But I do not believe it to be essential. Where wages are sufficient to main- tain in comfort an average Coolie, regard being had to the existing prices of staple articles of food in the country — and he ought not to he imported into any country where that condition docs not ordinarily exist — I suggest that the proper and just method of punishing him for breach of contract would be for the magistrate to mulct him in a small weekly sum for two or three weeks — taking care, however, not to make the fine so severe as virtually to reduce the strength of the INDENTURES, REGISTERS, ETC. m labourer ; or, it may be, peremptorily to add lost days, proved in court from week to week, to the term of his indenture. This would, in the long-run, and as to the general body of immigrants, be far more effectual than imprisonment to repress their indolent or wanton breaches of agreement, and would, moreover, have upon its face an equity easily recog- nised by the general body of their fellows. I cannot help thinking that the importance of creating and fostering a healthy public opinion among the im- migrants has been too little regarded by planters and planting legislators. With tact in management and judicious legislation they might turn this hint to good account. (2) The second point is as to the policy of permitting re-indentures at all, and for what, if any, length of time. Considerable changes have taken place in the Colonial legislation on this subject. The Home Government seems to have been loth even to permit a first indenture to extend over so long a period as five years ; * but when it was shown to be impossible, or at all events difficult, for the planters on any shorter period of indenture to work out the expenses of obtaining the labourer, that point was conceded. But, as the Commissioners show, it was conceded in contemplation of the object of preparing and acclima- tising the immigrant to be a free labourer at the end of that term. By that time, it was anticipated, short indentures or free service would provide sufficient facilities to the planter for securing the labour. But, * Report, &c., If 232—242. '. 238 THE COOLIE. by Ordinance 4 of 1864, apparently unnoticed by the Colonial Office, an immense lever was put in the hands of the employers, since the only further con- tract empowered by that law was a contract of re -in- denture /6';'y?7'<:j)rrtr5 certain. This ran directly counter to the drift of the opinion of the Duke of Newcastle in favour of free labour and short terms. It placed the Coolie in an unfortunate position, because he was tempted with the $50 bounty, and in some cases with $5 or ^10 extra inducement from the planter; and if he did not accept this he found himself denuded of the advantages of free houses, hospitals, &c. Ilence " the effect of later legislation has been to keep the immi- grant population as a whole out of the free labour market. It is true that no man is bound to indenture a second time, but care has been taken so to arrange the incidents of the system as to induce Jiim with a very strong inducement to re-indenture.* For this purpose the supervising duties of the Immigration Agents have been postponed to the offering of greater facilities for re-indenture. A harsh system of law has been kept up, not so much for use as that condonation for offences under it might be bartered against re-inden- ture. The position of a fx'ee immigrant disposed to remain in the colony has not received that considera- tion from the legislature which a new country needing population should have afforded to such an element; and the bounty, always a questionable means of inducement when employed to persuade * What is the use of a Governor if he cannot resist a legislative current like this? INDENTURES, REGISTERS, ETC. 139 those in a dependent position to refrain from claiming their independence, has been kept at a high rate, in order that the inducement might be suflficient. . . . // 7votild scan to he a coiiccsston that iiiimigrntion, so far as the Coolies arc concerned, has failed to fulfil its first purposes if after being acclimatised, after learning their ivork, and after paying their passage out, they must still be brought under indenture after indenture, and not encouraged to take their station in the country as free labourers." * Thus speak the Commissioners upon one of the most serious and fatal defects of the immigration system in British Guiana. In Trinidad it has been directly met by legislation. By the Trinidad Ordinance 13 of 1870, the first indenture is to be for five years; but it provides for the re-engagement in these terms : f — "When and so often as any immigrant who shall have already completed, or shall hereafter complete, an industrial residence of five years within this colony, shall be willing to enter into any engagement to labour for any employer, it shall be lawful for the Agent-General of Immigrants from time to time, if he shall see fit, and on payment to such immigrant by such employer such premium or bounty, if any, as may be agreed upon between such immigrant and such employer, to indenture such immigrant to such employer for such time, not exceeding twelve months, as may be agreed upon between such immigrant and such employer, and every such indenture may be according to the form in the schedule D to this ordi- * Report, &c., IT 249. t Trinidad Ordinance 13 of 1870, sec. 20. I ■' 240 THE COOLIE. 11 nance ; and the Agent-General of Immigrants shall keep a register of such immigrants, and shall enter opposite the names of such immigrants the day on which, and the time for which, such indenture shall be made." I have been informed by the late Governor and by one of the principal planters" of Trinidad that the one-year system works well, and, while encouraging independence in the Coolie, exercises also on the master a beneficial restraint, since he can only keep his best immigrants from year to year by kindly treatment. There is all the more reason for enforcing the adop- tion of this provision, that the immigrants are not entitled to their return passage until the end of ten years, and therefore are generally bound to remain in the colony duriii^^ five y(>ars after their first inden- ture has expired, and also that their acclimatisation, and consequent increase in value, help to place them in a more independent position towards the employers, a gain to them which should be carefully guarded, instead of being imperiU'ed by legal regu- lations. It is a very grave fact, that out of 40,220 persons under indenture, b< 'ween 17,000 and 18,000 have re-indentured, aiui ^^at of these some are in their fourth, fifth pvon sixth indenture — thirty years of ' A fact to awaken the sympath >f idififerent spectator. The planter <\ ^ues th it is essential to his interests, to the safety of the capital he invests, that he should be ♦ Report, &c., If 5-3. >-*tt>- INDENTURES, REGISTERS, ETC. 241 assured, if he risks his money upon it, a continuous supply of labour. Why, after having this for five years, even though it be admitted that those five years are the least valuable of the immigrant's service, he should be allowed to claim over capitalists in other parts of the world, whose fortunes are always dependent on the fluctuations of a free-labour market, this ad- ditional advantage, it is hard to see. The effects upon the labourer are too clear and too perilous to be overlooked. Not only is his independence at stake, but the hopes are endangered of his trans- formation into a better man. The Commissioners have put his situation in a striking epigram : " T/w rc-indc7ituring Coolie has only once in his industrial residence of ten years the opportunity of acting a)ul judging as a free man." The immigrants themselves are not indifferent to this question. They expressed to us their sense of the iron rigidity of a system, which seemed to leave them no alternative but five more years of bondage. In one instance cited by the Commissioners, where the immigrants of Plantation Hamburg had been to town to see !Mr. Des Voeux, they, on their return, refused to re-indenture until the Commissioners had reported, in the hope that the Report would be in favour of one year's re-inden- ture.* The Commissioners have made this recom- mendation very strongly,t and it must necessarily be one condition of any further extension of Coolie immigration. "^ * Report, &c., If 523. t IL»., n 522. R w e CHAPTER XVIII. WOMEN AND MARRIAGES. IN considering the other provisions of the Immi- gration Ordinances, we may next turn to the serious question of women. By section 48 of the principal ordinance), a Chinese woman maybe allotted to a plantation and indentured to reside there for five years, but is not "bound to work or perform any labour whatever." Yet it will not be imagined by any one that she is intended to be merely ornamental. If not married, she may assist to keephor male fellow- countrymen on the premises. The dark problem .vhich this suggests is well known to be one of the most difficult arising in the Coolie system. The sexes among the Coolies in British Guiana are in the proportion of 10,000 women to 29,000 men ; a serious disproportion, but a far more favourable one than we should be led to hope foi- from a consideration of the circumstances. The inducements to women are few ; the demand for women, apart from the moral or purely animal question, is necessarily a subordinate one. Hence the number of women already imported into British Guiana is one of those WOMEN AND MARRIAGES. 243 features which is creditable to the good sense and good feeling of the employers. It is true, this is a comparatively recent improvement. The Chinese female immigration seems to have been frightfully disproportionate, and the reader will perhaps have noted with surprise the number of Chinese women in proportion to men at Schoon Ord, as returned by its proprietor, namely, 2 to 114. The disproportion, how- ever, is still great, and gives rise to some of the most anxious difficulties of the Executive. These diffi- culties are twofold. t. Those which arise out of improper relations between employers or their sub- ordinates and Coolie women, with the naturally resulting complications, evils, and injuries. 2. Those which arise among and between the Coolies them- selves. The readers of the previous pages will perhaps already have gathered enough to indicate to them the perilous aspect of the body social and politic in this peculiar colony. Very few whites, and those whites absolutely ascendant ; a large, lazy, pro- digiously sensual and fecund black population ; nearly fifty thousand Coolies, of whom a little over one-third are women, scattered in estates through a long range of country : living on each estate the manager, the young overseers, the drivers — the whole of them generally unmarried. It needs no prurient fancy to conceive of the difficulties of such a situation. From the number of complaints that reached me, I was assured that an investigation into the morality of some of the estates would reveal most revolting cir- :■ -9' 1 ''^ ■ P'1 ?l i 'n , :!, i 244 THE COOLIE. cumstances.* The Commissioners report (par. 308) : " The records of complaints which we have had occa- sion to peruse, and even our own observations iv. visiting estates, have shown u^ that it is not at all uncommon for overseers, and even managers, to form temporary connections w4th Coolie women, and in every case with the worst possible consequences to the good order and harmony of the estate." Indeed, they express it as their belief, founded on good autho- rity, as well as on incidents which came to their knowledge, that the recent disturbances were origi- nally due, in a far greater degree than is supposed, to some interference with women on the estate. If we disregard altogether the planters and their assistants, with the temptation held out to them to use force, or fraud, or injustice in the pursuit of their passions, enough occurs in the Coolie com- munities to shock the steadiest nerves. In one case I saw a Coolie come to Des Voeux with his wife, a fine-looking girl, who stood meekly by his side while he expressed a resolution to " chop her up " — the favourite method among these people of abolishing matrimonial inconveniences, the cutlass being a handy weapon. He informed us that the manager had arranged with her that she was to visit him at his house. On closer inquiry it turned out that the man was not imbued with any holy indignation at her infidelity, but that the quarrel arose about the disposition of the profits. These she was desirous of retaining for herself, and expending on silver • See the Report, &c., f 865. WOMEN AND MARRIAGES. HS ornaments, while he wished to assert his marital rights, if he had any, over the price of his own con- fusion. The picture of morality here disclosed on all hands is sad enough, and could be intensified by other statements. One Coolie missionary employed by the Wesleyans told me, if I remember rightly, that some years since seven men were hung in the colony in one week for wife-murder. At Leonora I saw an unhappy woman whose face and body had been frightfulAy disfigured with a cutlass by her " man." The Ordinance 4 of 1864 directly recognises the difficulties, and endeavours to provide a remedy. By section 125 it is enacted : — " Whereas it is expedient if possible to prevent the repeated acts of violence committed by male Indian immigrants upon their wives, or reputed wives, or the women with whom they cohabit : Be it enacted, that if the wife or reputed wife, or the female Indian immi- grant with whom any male Indian immigrant may cohabit, or any other person, shall exhibit an informa- tion before any stipendiary justice that any such male immigrant did unlawfully threaten to murder, wound, beat, or ill-treat any such female immigrant, and that from the threats so used by such male immigrant towards such female immigrant she is afraid, or that such person apprehends such male immigrant may murder her or do her some grievous bodily harm or injury, it shall be lawful for such justice, and he is hereby required, to inquire on oath into all the cir- cumstances, and to order, if he shall deem it neces- 246 THE COOLIE. m sary so to do, the removal to some other plantation of such one of the parties concerned as in his discre- tion he shall select, and in the meantime to commit the offending party, with or without hard labour ; and such justice shall forthwith forward a copy of the proceedings to the Immigration Agent-General, to be by him laid before the Governor for approval." So soon after the passing of that ordinance as the 12th October, 1864, a circular was issued by Govern- ment, embodying the Attorney-General's opinion that the magistrate had, under the above enactment, the power to order the removal of either the man or woman, or even a third party, such as the paramour. " Still, some of the magistrates, among them Mr. Ware, hold that the wording of the clause does not bear out that interpretation of it, and they never remove any one threatening or the woman threat- ened. It is to be regretted that there should be any doubt upon the subject, as it frequently happens that the paramour would be the proper person to remove, and that the husband and wife should not be separated. Such we find to be your Excellency's opinion, as in the case of Toolsie, who seduced Luchmonia from her husband Seoran. Your Excellency remarks, * It has always been the opinion of myself and Mr. Crosby that the man who takes away the woman should be removed, if the circumstances of the case will justify this being done. To remove the seducer is a warning to others.' And again, in a more recent case, in which the magistrate recommended that Nusseebun should be removed, WOMEN AND MARRIAGES. 2+7 who had left her husband, Noor-ali, and went to live with Konhaye, who threatened her life, and the Acting Immigration Agent-General supported the magistrate's recommendation, your Excellency ob- served, ' If the woman is removed we separate man and wife — a proceeding to be avoided : the danger to be avoided arises from threats made by Konhaye against Noor-ali, and that will be removed by the transfer of Konhaye to another estate — the woman's life has not been threatened by her husband.' And to such an extent was this principle in one case fol- lowed, that when Chee-Shee left her husband, Woo- a-Lee, for another, and Woo-a-Lee threatened to commit suicide, on the case being submitted to your Excellency. Mr. Crosby remarked, the woman having declared that she would not return to her husband, the Governor will no doubt order the man Chin-a-foo to be transferred to another estate, if possible, in Ber- bice, and not separate husband and wife, whatever she may say.' " Thi'i your Excellency approved, and we regret it kas not been possible to follow the principle up in all cases." * '' The case of Nubbeebuckus is another of a similar kind. He came from India eight years ago with his wife Astoreah, who left him soon after their arrival in this colony, and went to live with Maighoo for some seven years, but she left him, and returned to her husband, Nubbeebuckus ; upon that Maighoo threat- ened her life, and the magistrate, thinking Nubbee- * Report, &c., f 862. •^ :, 4^8 THE COOLIE. buckus the seducer, recommended that he should be removed. It would have caused a curious com- plication if Astoreah had claimed the right under section 70, Ordinance 4 of 1864, to be indentured on the same estate as her husband, or of commuting for the rest of her service. " But these cases, though tried by the magistrate under section 125, may have been treated by the Executive under section 1 1 2 [by which the Execu- tive is empowered to remove immigrants at any time at discretion] which has been used to separate husband and wife quarrelling without any feeling of jealousy, as will be seen in case No. 39, where Sandhoo left her husband, and refused to return, because she was unable to work for both, as she had been doing for some time past, and he became violent and threatened to do somebody, it is pre- sumed Sandhoo, some bodily harm. This case, Mr. Crosby thought, came under section 125, and ought to have been referred for the magistrate to try, instead of being disposed of on a request from the manager under section 112; but your Excellency thought otherwise, being of opinion that it was not worth while to run any risk, and ordered the man's removal." * The law or the practice both of Governor and magistrates appears to have been full of incongruity on this point, for the Commissioners go on to say : — " Mr. Huggins, on the other hand, when Dookhun, a free immigrant, was brought before him for using threatening language to Sundolee, with whom he * Report, &c., HH 866, 867. WOMEN AND MARRIAGES. had formerly cohabited, but deserted for another woman, held that Ordinance 20 of 1856 was not applicable to a case of this nature ; and because the man, who was a free immigrant, could not be re- moved, he recommended the removal of Sundolee, forgetting that there was nothing to prevent Dookhun from following her if he wished to carry out his threat. Imprisonment and an order to find security would, it appears to us, have been more appropriate. " So in case No. 69, when Sooful was brought before him, charged with having assaulted and beaten Rook- moneah, he took no notice of the assault, but proceed- ing under section 125, recommended Sooful's removal. The Acting Attorney-General gave it as his opinion that the case did -not fall within the provisions of section 125, and Sooful was accordingly removed under section 112. We think that, without multiply- ing cases, we have given enough to show that removal of somebody, either under section 125 or 112, appears to be considered the panacea for all disputes and quarrels between men and women. "We wish that Mr. Ware had punished for the assault when a distinct charge under that head was brought before him, and that he and all the magis- trates had adopted the course pursued by Mr. Dampier, and punished the husband for assault or threats, and then, perhaps, it would have occurred to the magistrates that the provision of section 11, Ordinance 10 of i860, might be put in force against the seducers of married women. "It is remarkable that a case under that section 250 THE COOLIE. was brought before Mr. Dampier in November, 1 869, in which Seewotohul was charged with enticing Mahadaye away from her husband, Boodhoo, and the manager apprehended that Boodhoo would do Mahadaye some bodily harm. Mr. Dampier tried the case, Seewotohul being the defendant, not Bood- hoo ; but instead of punishing the defendant for the offence with which he was charged, he recommended his removal from the estate. Your Excellency ex- pressed your regret that the man was not punished under section 1 1, Ordinance 10 of i860, as you wished to prove to immigrants the advantages they have by becoming man ' and wife by the modes sanctioned by the ordinances.' " So in another case which came before Mr. Ware, a husband Dccnah was charged with threatening to cut his wife Bussunteah's throat, there was no doubt of their being man and ivife^ and she was said to be living with a man named Tolah ; but there was no one apparently to advise them, and instead of a case being preferred against Tolah, the magistrate had the case brought before him under section 125, and recommended that Deenah sJiould he removed. *' Mr. Crosby, in that case, minutes that section 125, Ordinance 4 of 1864, was not passed in ignorance of Ordinance 10 of i860, but in contemplation of that ordinance being amended if not repealed, and further penal clauses inserted for the punishment of adultery. A man may now be punished for enticing a woman from her husband, but there is no punishment for the woman, nor any for a man forsaking or discarding WOMEN AND MARRIAGES. 251 his wife. And in a population where there are, as we have before remarked, only 10,202 females to 29,767 men, a provision might be introduced, punish- ing married men for adultery ; the proviso would not be repugnant to the ideas of people who con- template the social state of the Indian and Chinese immigrants, which is more than can be said of section 10, Ordinance 10 of i860. "If penal clauses were introduced and flogging made a part of the punishment that could be awarded to the men, and * disgrace ' by having their heads shaved a punishment to the women, we should strike at the root of the evil, and the provisions of section 125 would very seldom be called into use, and section 1 1 2 need never be used in these cases. We are well aware that the above suggestions are opposed to the spirit of modern penal legislation ; but the state of society we find here among the immigrants requires exceptional legislation. The Indian immigrants, on whose condition we are called upon to report, are brought into this colony in very unequal proportions in regard to sex, and the spirit of the laws they find here is not properly adapted to the state of society in which they are placed. We know it may be urged that severe and degrading punishments are steps in a wrong direction, and that we admit, but sometimes in an exceptional case and for a particular purpose it is not inconsistent with the principles of penal law to stamp out the evil by strong measures. If a due proportion of men and women came to this country, or if there were k proper proportion of women in the 25* THE COOLIE. t H' country, exceptional legislation would not be neces- sary ; but in the absence of all prospect of such being the case for a long time to come, we see no hopes of overcoming the evil, except by legislation in a direc- tion that would not be tolerated, because it is not required, in better populated and more civilised parts of the world. There are few of the women we imagine who come to this country to whom the punishment of having their heads shaved would be a novelty, at least in idea ; very many of them tell us they have come from Lucknow, and that territory has not been long enough under the British rule for all recollection of the punishment to have passed away from the memory of inhabitants of it. But the probability is that if the law was passed, even the abandoned creatures we find coming out here would be coerced into propriety, probably without the law ever being enforced." * I can hardly agree that it is necessary to resort to the extreme measures here recommended by the Commissioners. It seems a somewhat startling thing that we should first of all create an anomalous state of society, should introduce into it a person unprepared by education or habits to endure it, and then by such singularly harsh artificial measures as are here proposed force him to adapt himself to it. Looking at it in this way, the policy of artificial immigra- tion cannot be acquitted of a serious blot. In our anxiety to make money, we place a number of labourers in a situation of peculiar temptation, of * Report, &c., UH 871—877. m WOMEN AND A/ARJi/AGES. 253 peculiar trial to their nature, and when they find it difficult to adapt themselves to that situation we are to hang them, or flog them and shave their heads. Thus the law is their schoolmaster, but I fear it takes them to the devil. Some of the forms of marriage produced by the Commissioners are very curious, so many as six " kinds of marriage " appearing to be in vogue, of which only four are recognised by the law.* " Of the 130 cases we have had before us, we find that in 37, persons claim to be married, one according to the rites of the Church of England (case No. i), apparently converts; another couple (No. 117) say they were married on board ship. The ceremony there appears to consist in signing the following paper : — Ship Skand, Sea, October 21, 1869. I, L»e,j]mie, the daughter of Akaloo, take thee Dumree, the son of Mukhan, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in licaUh, to love and to cherish till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance, and thereto I plight thee my troth. Signed Witnesses — " 1st. Adhur Chander Doss, L.M.S., Surgeon. 2nd. Heniy Le Pau, Master. 3rd. A similar paper was signed by Dumree and wit- nessed by the same people. Three marriages are said to have been under Ordinance 10 of i860; 29 were married in India, and one in China. Of the marriages of doubtful validity, one is a « Report, &c., HH 879, 880. i ^Md 254 TI/F COOLIE. marriage by bond succeeding to a written be- trothal. The papers are as follows, though there is some difficulty in recognising the same man's name in the different ways in which it is spelt in these two papers : — Plantation Enmore, 27 September, 1869. I, Nellema, of Plantation Annandale, in the parish of St. Paul, county of Demerary, colony of British Guiana, do hereby agree to marry to Year Anny Yew, of Plantation Enmore, in the Parish and County aforesaid ; and from the said Year Anny Yew I have this day taken the sum of Thirty Dollars in way of binding the bargain. I have agreed to live with him at once until such time as he shall be able to marry me, that is, in three months time. I have also agreed to pay to the said Year Anny Yew the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Dollars, that is, on condition, that is to say, should I leave him for any other man. Nellema her X mark. Witnesses — Joseph A. Bostick, Mootoo Sammy. 27th Sept., 1869. An agreement entered into this Twenty-Fifth day of April, 1870, between the man Ermeinen and the female Nelliam... The female Nelliama agrees to live with the man Ermeinen as husband, ;'.nd the man Ermeinen agrees to live with the female Nelliama as wife. They both agree to live with each other as man and wife in the presence of these witnesses. The man Ermeinen agrees also to pay all her debts, which debts amount to S37, which she owed to the man Ramsammy (No. 7) of said estate, and the woman Nelliama agrees in case she leaves the man Ermeinen to pay the sum of S40 in addition to the money paid by the man Ermeinen, and which she agrees to pay in case she leaves him for another man. Plantation Enmore, 25th April, 1870. The cross of Nelliama X her mark. The cross of Ermeinen X his mark. Witnesses — Shaikadam X his mark. Chenalumbir X his mark. It will probably be the reader's impression, that marriage among Coolies in British Guiana is in a state of chaos. CHAPTER XIX. IMMIGRATION LAWS AFFECTING THE COOLIE. THE enactments immediately relating to the mutual performance of contract on the part of the Coolie and of his employer next demand our review. These were consolidated in the Ordinance 4 of 1864, and afterwards amended by Ordinance 9 of 1868. I propose to take first those relating to the Coolie. They are contained in sections 115 — 126 of the earlier ordinance ; some of these sections, however, referring to technical points of no importance in our present inquiry, and to the female difficulty which has been discussed in the previous chapter. They may be classified in this way : — 1. The obligations of labour; times and tasks. 2. Provisions against desertion. 3. Provisions for securing the immigrant his free- dom during the periods when he is entitled to it. 4. Provisions against neglect or injury of employer's property. Before entering on a technical discussion of the enactments which touch this important branch of the subject, it should be borne in mind that, as I mentioned 2!;6 THE CQOLIE. in my account of the estates, the system of work adopted in British Guiana is, as a rule, that by task^ in prefer- ence to that by tinic. The payment by results, which was the favourite maxim of an education code, is the politic principle of remuneration adopjted by the sugar- planter. It was the plan of slavery ; it continues to be the plan undcx' the indentureship. Its advantages are readier and more precise reckoning, with the saving of an elaborate and expensive system of personal oversight. With this explanation, the reader will the better be prepared to consider the two following sections of the Ordinance 4 of 1864, by which the Coolie's work was originally regulated :* — "115. Every indentured immigrant shall perform five days' labour, or five tasks, in every week ; and in case of any complaint against any immigrant for neglect or refusal to work, it shall be necessary, in order to obtain a conviction, to prove that such immi- grant has neglected or refused to attend any time not exceeding, if he shall be employed in the field, seven hours between sunrise and sunset, and if he shall be employed in the estate's buildings, ten hours between the hours of five in the morning and eight in the evening. And if such complaint shall be made in respect to the non-performance of task-work, it shall be necessary, in order to obtain a conviction, to prove that such immigrant has not performed within the week five tasks of the extent assigned for the same rate of wages as daily tasks to the Creole labourers of * Seclions 115 and 116, 4 of 1864. ' IMMIGRATION LAWS. «S7 in the colony. Provided always., that it shall be the duty of the magistrate before whom any complaint is brought under this section to inquire and ascertain how long the immigrant charged has beon in the colony, and to satisfy himself as to his ability to per- form the work assigned to him." And if it should ap- pear to such magistrate that such immigrant, either from want of experience or from bodily infirmity, is unable to perform five days' labour or five tasks within the week, the complaint shall be dismissed. Provided further, that in any case in which the said magistrate shall be of opinion that such immigrant is able to perform a less amount of work, or a less number of tasks, per week, it shall be lawful for the said magis- trate by order to assign the amount of work or num- ber of tasks per week to be performed by such immi- grant during the time to be fixed in such order. And such order may be continued from time to time at the discretion of the said magistrate ; and during the continuance in force of such order, such immigrant shall be liable to conviction for disobedience thereof, in the same manner as is provided in the case of immigrants neglecting to perform the full amount of work prescribed by this Ordinance. "ii6. Any indentured immigrant who without reasonable cause shall neglect or refuse to attend at the daily calling over of the names of the immigrants on the muster-roll at the time and place hereinbefore mentioned ; or shall neglect or refuse to attend at the time and place at which he may be ordered to attend, to perform the work required of him ; or shall neglect 258 THE COOLIE. or refuse to begin the work required of him ; or shall leave unfinished any work required to be performed by him ; or shall neglect or refuse to finish any work required to be performed by him ; or shall be absent from his work without leave ; or shall be drunk while employed at any work ; or shall use to his employer, or any overseer or headman, or other person placed by such employer in authority over him, any threat- ening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour ; or shall commit any nuisance upon or in the immediate neighbourhood of any dam or public thoroughfare of the estate — shall, on being convicted thereof, be deemed guilty of an offence, and shall pay a fine not exceeding $24, or be imprisoned with hard labour for any time not exceeding one month, and shall in addi- tion, if the convicting justice shall think fit, forfeit the whole or any part of the vages due to him, not exceeding the wages of one week." If the perusal of these sections test the reader's patience, and any admiration he may be disposed to entertain for the unknown in colonial legislation, his interest in them may be roused when it is stated that, wordy as they are, they were held by the late Chief Justice to be inoperative in a most important part ; that no conviction could take place under section 115, and that the term "task" was prac- tically incapable of interpretation. This decision seemed to be a fine stretch of technical art, but it was a decision of the Superior Court ; it was notorious in the colony ; it gave rise to great heart-burnings ; and, more singular than all, proof was afforded to the Com- IMMIGRA TION LA WS. 259 missioners that after this decision had been given, affirming the law to be that no convictions could take place under these sections, magistrates in the colony did convict, and immigrants suffered the penalty under them.* I regret to find in the Commissioners' Report that this occurrence, which, short of actual cor- ruption, is one of the most startling proofs that could be afforded of magisterial demoralisation, is treated with undue lenity. Their own words are : " Upon this point, it must be observed, that the decision in question took the colony by surprise, and became the subject of much controvt/sy. For some time it was evidently hoped by the planters, and very likely it was expected by the magistrates, that the ruling of the Chief Justice would be reversed, if a case could be brought before the full court. Unques- tionable as zuas the magistrates' diity^ in the meantime^ to conform to the law laid dozvn in the . Superior Courts the fact that they were somewhat slow in accepting a decision of such a character, under such circum- stances, is not sujjlcieiit ground for imputing to them fartiality in their administration of justice ! " If the " character " and " circumstances " of a decision of a superior court are to be considered in lower review by magistrates, and to be accepted as palliations for what would otherwise admittedly be a gross mal- practice and an evidence of partisan feeling discre- ditable to all concerned, it seems to me the founda- tions of a pure legal administration will be sapped. The position is as untenable as its adoption by the * Report, &c., H 28, 29. 26o THE COOLIE. Commissioners is a perplexity. I cannot see that any absurdity in the decision, allowing it to exist, or even the fact adverted to by the Commissioners that the immigrants could, in most of the cases, be as easily convicted under the next section, in the least excuses this sort of magisterial strike against a higher tribunal. The decision, affecting as it did very seriously the labour of the colony, was remedied by legislation. In order to remove the doubt and uncertainty caused by it as to the minimum of work required from the immi- grant, that was defined, by Ordinance 9 of 1868, sec- tion 7, to be one shilling's worth of work per day — the former estimate of a day's work having been a guilder, or \s. \d. — and the weekly minimum of tasks was fixed at five shillings' worth per week, or five days' labour of seven hours a day in the field or ten hours a day in the buildings. PracticaEy, I may say, we have only t") deal with the tasks. The effect of these enactments together, was, yfr^'/, that the standard of wages was to be "the same rate as the wages paid to Creole and other uninden- tured labourers working on the same plantation — or, in case there should be no such labourers, or they should not be paid according to the average rate of wages for unindentured labourers employed under similar circumstances on the neighbouring planta- tions, then at tlfC same or the fair average rate of wages, such as are paid to such last-mentioned labourers on the neighbouring plantations." The reader will need to bear in mind both the rha- "W IMMIGRATION LA WS. 261 racter of the country, as previously described — stretch- ing for hundreds of miles, with a scattered population, with some estates in lonely and distant localities — and the peculiarity of the relation, an obligatory service by a vast number of labourers, at a rate of pay com- pulsory on the employer. Into this peculiar relation the present system is obviously intended to force free-trade by putting all labour, indentured and free, into equal competition.* The second effect was to make the amount of wages earned the measure of the task which it was incum- bent on the Coolie to execute before he could clear himself of the minimum of his week's obligation. Let us then analyse for a moment the Coolie's posi- tion under this arrangement. He is bound to do five shillings' worth of work a week. The question of what is five shillings' worth is an open one, de- pendent on circumstances — those circumstances of a fickle and uncertain character. They are either : — 1. That some free labourers are labouring at the same sort of work on the same plantation ; oVy in de- fault of that, 2. That free labourers are lajouring at the same work on adjacent plantations. Then, in case Number i, he is to be paid at the same rate as those labourers ; in case Number 2, he is to be paid at the average rate of the adjoining plantations. But what if the employer takes care to put no free labourers on the work ordinarily done by Coolies r Test Ni'.mber i does not apply. Or what if neigh- * Report, &c., H 251. ;:*i';'it? 262 THE COOLIE. bouring planters are equally shrewd ? Ditto. Or what if there are no adjacent plantations r We reach uncertainty again. Let us suppose a case in which — as is quite possible on some estates — no Creole labourer is employed either on, or in the neigh- bourhood of, the estate at such work as ** weeding." A gang of Coolies then is told off to weed a field, the overseer offering six " bitts," ix.^ six fourpennies, for twelv^e beds. The immigrants demur. What is to be done r The standard does not exist : the Coolie must accept or strike. The latter course holds out to him the prospect of a summons before the magistrate, and fine or imprisonment ; the former is yielding to terms dictated by the person most interested. A hard problem is this every way. *' Sometimes," says the Commissioners, " there are no Creoles at work under similar circumstances in the neighbourhood, and this happens the oftcncr, because much of the work of a sugar estate is positively refused as a rule by the Creoles^ while of some kinds they have a practical monopoly." Clearly the Com- missioners are right when they say that this must be taken as " a rough approximation to fairness, rather than as an infallible test of what is due." Moreover, the standard as the planters fairly urge, is in one sense an improper one. The free labourer must maintain himself, and find his own doctor, and hospital, and house. It is illusory to expect a planter to pay a Coolie, for whom he is put to the expenses of indenture, houses, and hos- pitals, as much as he pays a better working free IMMIGRATION LAWS. 263 A labourer. I should expect to find the employer in practice trying to shirk this standard, and not to be solaced by the alleged counter-consolation that the supply of labour " is constant and continuous." I cannot but believe that the hundreds of quick-witted Coolies who came to me, and complained that their wages were below those of the Blacks, and that they had no alternative but to accept them, had some ground for their dissatisfaction. Nearly all their disputes with managers and all their riots seem to turn on this vexed point of wages. The Commissioners, though evidently not in love with the system, content them- selves with saying " the convenience of it, in appeal- ing to a rough sentiment of equality is so great, that it is not easy to suggest any amendment for the better." But it is perfectly clear that unless some amendment is suggested by some one and brought into practical operation, the establishment of endur- ing content among the immigrants is a doubtful — nay an impossible — prospect. The objections to the alternative, a fixed tariff, are strong. They are — its inflexibility in adaptation to individual cases, and the difficulty, when once it is established, to get the rate of wages raised or de- pressed in accordance with changes in the labour- market. On the other hand, such a schedule has this decided and supreme advantage, that disputes as to rates of wages can be immediately settled by a reference to it. Though in peculiar cases it may lead now and then to hardship, yet in the main, while the general body of labourers profit by it, it must 264 THE COOLIE. ■'A HI ■! I \% ■ I - :^9h 1 '1 tfilaU ;' -i£^^H ■■i:, :,flB \ jI^^B ■ ll' |n| H (.' HB r V: ^^^H -. ll. MB '■f ^^^■1 { jy i contribute to diminish the chances of agreement. It would give a fair average justice. My opinion is in favour of this method over the one in vogue in British Guiana, but I give it with diffidence. The mainte- nance of the present " free-trade " system creates difficulties which, I think, can be proved from the Report to be insuperable. Who is to settle the ques- tion of a disputed rate where the tests are wanting ? The Immigration Agent-General at one time inter- vened with good effect in such cases ; but his subor- dinates did not take his view of the policy of such an intervention. IMr. Gallagher "was careful in giving evidence to disclaim all knowledge which should enable him to decide these matters for him- self." Accordingly the singular method was adopted of referring the Coolies' complaints at the Immigra- tion Office of insufficient wages to the manager — that is, back to one of the parties concerned. The tender objection of the Acting Immigration Agent -General to placing the office in a " position of hostility " to the employers, seems to have prompted him to this " abdication of the functions of protector of immi- grants," as the Commissioners very correctly term it.* But in several instances w^here strikes had occurred, the agents or magistrates adopted the plan of calling in neighbouring planters to arbitrate. These arbitrations seem sometimes to have served their purpose. The objection to them was that the Coolies' side could not be said to be represented among the arbitrators, who were always employers. " Successful settlements of somewhat formidable * Report, &c., II 377. IMMIGRATION LA WS. 26s strikes were effected by this means in many cases ; for instance, [complaints followed by proceedings. No. 6 Waterloo^ iSth August, 1869] a case which we have above noticed as the worst of the kind — in which it was decided by three managers as arbitrators, that while two of the subjects of complaint adduced afforded no ground for complaint, some ivork was being paid for at a little more than half its vahte^ and certain other work at tzvo-thirds, which in their opinion ought not to have been task-work at all." This discovery exhibited a sufficiently flagrant wrong ; but one can scarcely read the denouement without some indigna- tion. " The decision had to be followed up by pro- ceedings before the magistrate. A summons was taken out by each of seven immigrants under the advice of the sub-agent of immigration. In two of these, judgment was given in favour of the immi- grants, but the remainder were found to have been settled by the manager out of court. This is a strong instance of the effect of leaving the labourer with only a civil remedy for the recovery of wages. Five of these cases were dismissed upon its being found that the manager had settled the claim ; and in these, of course, no costs could be recovered. It deserves consideration that the result in this case — that is to say, the recovery of two sums of $1.20 and $3.38 with costs, and the dismissal with costs of the five other cases — is the only uistance^ so far as we know, of a dispute as to the rate of wages in which the' immigrants were enabled to recover by the interventio7t of the Immigration Office in the Magistrates' Court; and that before arriving at it, '-!iV! T 266 THE COOLIE. 1 41 If if .'?! (ill lit! h ..; > ^; ] there had been tv/o inquiries and one arbitration on the estate, several complaints from the Coolies addressed to all nianncr of atitJioritieSy and a strike of more than a fortnight^ during which the loss to the labourers must have been considerable, as well as to the estate." * In the result the arbitration system thus conducted has failed,t the Coolies refusing to accept decisions by the class most interested in keeping down the rate of wages. The Commissioners therefore propose to invest the stipendiary magistrate with power to call in the assistance of experts, both planters and labourers, and to pay them for assisting him as assessors.:}: But it is rather confusing to find on the same page of the Report, following this recommendation, the state- ment : " In considering the administration of justice in the Magistrates' Court, we are brought face to face with a condition of things the gravity of which it is folly to extenuate. Wherever zve went we heard the ivwiigrants loudly protesting a complete zvant of confi- dence in the Magistrates' impartiality.\\ The second effect of the legislation, we have said, was to make the measure of a task one shilling's worth of work. " This was suggested, no doubt, by the long-established custom under which the day's task which could be enforced by law and a guilder's worth of work had been, since the times of the appren- ticeship, considered as equivalent ; but since- it was not desired to press hardly on the Coolies, and since it might be said that their average was at least one quarter less per week of work or wages than that ♦ Report, he, HIF 379, 380. t lb. HH 382—384. X lb., n 384. II lb., u 387. IMMIGRATION LA ]\S. 267 of tho black labourers in former times, it was decided by Sir Francis IlJncks, in consultation with Mr. Gal- lagher, then Acting Immigration Agent-General," to fix the Coolie task upon this principle.* The manager, then, can summon a Coolie for, "without reasonable cause," neglecting or refusing to begin the work required of him, or for leaving work begun unfinished, or for absence from work, or for not performing five tasks of one shilling in value in the week. This produces a curious situation. Sup- pose the employer requires the Coolie to begin work on Monday morning: the latter has before him six days in which to do his week's work. That work is five tasks. May he not do all these tasks in three days r May he not elect to begin his five days' work on Tuesday r Are the five tasks the limit of the employer's requirements ? — In practice the employers seem not to have so recog- nised it. They summoned men under one or other of the provisoes, who did not commence work on Monday; they summoned men who had done five shillings' worth of work in five or less than five days. "We believe," says the Report, "that the right of standing idle for the rest of the week after finishing five tasks has not been, in fact, recognised by mana- gers generally — we have no doubt that men an3 occasionally convicted of neglect or refusal to work, or of absence, who have, if the fact were ascertained, already done five shillings' worth of work during the week. 7/", however^ the fact came out in tvidcnce^ a conviction would hardly be obtained."-^ The critical reader will ask how, if a magistrate is alive to his * Report, &c., f 260. t Vo.,^ 299. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // <" Mi'.. S Ml 1.0 I.I 1.25 m 11^ i^ 2.0 1.8 1-4 IIIIII.6 Pm <^ VI ■c^ r V^ el /# /. y /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 %^ V iV \\ % .V ^,*,*l, ;\ > % n> ''•b^ f^s 03 w ^■ Wr , 268 THE COOLIE. duty, it is possible that the fact should not come out in evidence, unless the plaintiff's witnesses perjure themselves. The Commissioners suggest that the enactment in this respect needs amendment. In my opinion, if the clauses constituting offences were all abolished, and. a new clause enacted, creating but »jne offence under this head, namely, a refusal to perform five, or even six, tasks on as many separate days of the week ; the task and rate of wages to be regulated by a tariff: the tariff to be revised every six months by a committee consisting of the Governor, the Immigration Agent-General, two planters, and two labourers, annually selected by the immigrants — simplicit}^ justice, and contentment on both sides would be secured. The lawful excuses for the above offences may here bo briefly alluded to. One is that peculiar to a female, namely, that she is pregnant. Mr. Des Voeux has, in his letter, laid some stress on the employment ot pregnant women, and I saw a woman who stated she had been committed to prison with hard labour by a magistrate, the result of which had been rather more literally to that effect than he intended it. But the Commissioners, I am glad to say, report the general charge to have been very fully refuted, and, in fact, speak in terms of approbation of the treatment of women in that condition on the estates.* This con- firms my own impression. Another just exception would be that of conva- lescents discharged from hospital, but not quite fit for work. These people give rise to very nice ques- * Report, &c., U 300, 574, 575. IMMIGRATION LAWS. 269 tions. In cases where the defendant is obviously ill, the magistrates would send him back to the hospital. Under the Act 4 of 1 864 it was made incum- bent on the magistrate to make inquiry into the fitness to work of persons brought before him under sections 115, 116. Under the amending Ordinance 9 of 1868, the onus of raising the question was at- tempted to be thrown on the immigrant. This was a blunder. The Commissioners describe the difficulty, and animadvert upon it thus : — " It is difficult actually to draw the line between a convalescent dismissed from hospital as cured, but in an unfit state for work, and one for whom, al- though not quite cured, some slight compulsion to exert himself is in the highest degree beneficial. On the one hand, the usual practice of sending a convalescent into the buildings to turn megass, or do some otl-.tr slight work, within reach of shelter from the weather, is both humane and salutary. On the other, the plan followed by Mr. Bascom at Spring Garden, of employing a regular convalescent gang, under a black driver, is quite as clearly an excessive utilising of available labour. The number of convalescents, properly so called, is smaller than might be supposed, because the hospital, partaking rather of the nature of an infirmary, generally retains its inmates longer than a regular hospital would do, and although, in this respect, we have found instances in case-books which seem to show that vigilance is needed in the -i.atter, we do not believe that the magistrates generally hold themselves bound to sentence a prisoner on the mere production of the 270 7HE COOLIE. case-book containing the doctor's testimony to the discharge as cured of a man who is obviously still weak and infirm."* The faith which the Commis- sioners here put in the magistrates is clearly the " evidence of things not seen." 2. The laws also contain provisions against the desertion of immigrants. Originally this desertion was defined to be "absence without leave at the daily calling over of the muster-roll" — a ceremony then enjoined upon the manager, subject to a penalty not exceeding $24 — " and absence from work for the space of seven days." The penalty on the immigrant was not . to exceed I24, or one month's imprisonment. This pro- vision was found impracticable in the working, as the immigrants would not attend, many of them preferring to begin work before six o'clock, the hour designated for roll-call by the ordinance. By Ordinance 9 of 1 868, sec. 12, the option was given to the managers, after notice, to substitute another pi in, described in a former page.f The notes in the overseer's books, transcribed into the pay-list, were made to constitute '■^ prima facie evidence of the matters required to be entered therein." If a Coolie had absented himself from the planta- tion, the manager was bound to give notice of his absence to the police within forty-eight hours, in de- fault of which a penalty of not more than I24 was to be imposed on him. This seems in practice to have gone the way of all planters' penalties. Its primary object was to prevent collusive desertion of weak or sickly labourers who might, for instance, when they * Report, &c., IF 301. fAnte, p. 92. Report, &c., II 265. IMMIGRA TION LA WS. 271 were felt to be a burthen on the estate, have been given $5 to run away, and whose identification would afterwards become a very difficult matter. We natu- rally step from the deserters to 3. The provisions for securing to the immigrants their liberty in cases where they had served tueir inden- ture, or in the cases where, during the week, they had completed their tasks. The 107th section of Ordi- nance 4 of 1864 enacted that — "Every employer of any immigrants under indenture, or the servant of such employer, or any police officer or rural constable, may apprehend without a warrant any such in migrant who may be found on any day and at any hour he may be bound to labour at a distance greater than two miles from the plantation on which such immi- grant is under such contract to perform service, unless such immigrant has in his possession a pass signed by such employer, or by some person authorised by him to sign the same, certifying that such immigrant has been permitted so to absent himself" One exception to this strict law exists in the right of the Coolie to absent himself on reasonable grounds to complain to the Immigration Agent-General. The confusion necessarily arising out of these enactments, taken with the others prescribing his work or the remedies of the employer, is not in favour of the Coolie. It has already been shown that for two years he was deprived, through magisterial inadver- tence and the misunderstanding of the police, of the protection just mentioned ; and, in addition to that, it was a very nice question what the " hour he may be bound to labour" implied. Supposing he had 272 THE COOLIE. i f completed five tasks, and was taking a holiday, could he be arrested in this summary manner? There is no doubt that in piactice he was so arrested, and that the enactments as they stand are so incongruous and so indefinite, constitute so many forms of offence, that it is almost if not wholly impossible for a magis- trate to decide the question. Brought up now under one, now under the other charge, for similar offences, the Coolie may well be confounded about a justice itself so confused and indeterminate. "The pro- vision requiring the performance of five tasks is found to infringe one of the best principles of legis- lation, that no penal law should exist which is only occasionally put in force." There is a glaring in- justice, as the law now stands, in arresting, at any distance from his plantation, a Coolie who has done his week's five tasks. The only evidence of that fact which would technically excuse him from arrest would be a pass signed by his employer. But the granting of this pass is not enjoined on the employer, any more than the right to enforce its delivery to him is conferred on the immigrant. Hence the freedom of the indentured labourer at times when he is not bound to work is "ot insured. The Commissioners have recommended, contrary to my suggestion on a previous page, that the five-shilling task should be struck from the statute-book, and that the charge of " neglecting;' or refusing to work " and of " absence from work" should be left to be the means of en- forcing labour from the Coolie. This, of course, must be the remedy for the present confusion if the existing system of estimating and laying down work is to be IMMIGRATION LA WS. 273 maintained ; but it is matter of grave doubt whether that can be patched up for permanency. The immigrant who has completed his indenture and is free in law is still, owing to the peculiar necessities of the system, not quite so in fact. He must carry about with him a " certificate of industrial service," countersigned by the Immigration Agent-General ; in default of which he is liable to be arrested, and to be detained until he is identified. Should he lose this valuable document — the patent of his freedom — he must pay $5 for a duplicate. I do not know that this disability on freed-men can, consistently with maintaining discipline throughout the colony, be removed. But, while sufficient proof is demanded that a certificate has been lost, no charge should be made for the duplicate. To remedy the former disability, the laws defining the offences of absence and desertion^ if they are to remain, require to be more accurately drawn. The nght to demand a pass on certain contingencies should be peremptorily laid down ; the right to grant one summarily should be given to stipendiary magistrates, who now sometimes assume it ; and llie power of arrest should be guarded by very strict and careful provisoes. Indeed, it sho\. Id be the aim of legislation to confer upon the Coolie, and to protect at all events, the maximum of liberty consistent with an honest performance of his contract. The policy of legislation has hitherto been rather to remind him of the force of his bonds than to render them so light as that he may almost be unconscious of them. 274 TI/F COOLIE. Some managers, Mr. Des Voeux alleged, stated it as a rule of their management, that an immigrant must either be at work, in hospital, or in gaol on their estates : " — more than one manager has expressed his opinion that the rule does, in fact, fairly represent the obligation it is expedient to enforce upon an immi- grant. This is Mr. Russell's opinion, and a similar one was expressed by Mr. Daly, of Vergenoegen, and Mr. Bascom, of Cove and John. " There is perhaps some ground for apprehension that a manager who propounds the general rule in harsh-sounding and injudiciously-sweeping language, will be rather less likely to be indulgent in the concession of leave to immigrants in giving them holidays, in letting them off when charged and liable to be sent to gaol, and in tolerating some laxity of obedience to the rule of labour, where there is grass to cut for a cow, or some other private pursuit not carried to excess. " Mr. Des Voeux asserts, broadly, that the estates are governed, with a very few notable exceptions, not by kindness and good treatment, but through the fear of the severity of the law. We are convinced that there is^ in fact^ more kindness and good treatment than he is disposed to allow; but that the system is one under which the immigrants are too much governed through fear of the severity of the lawy we shall shortly have occasion to show." * 4. Lastly. — Under this head, there are the pro- visions against the destruction of the employer's ♦ Report, &c., H 302. IMMIGRATION LA WS. *7S property. The Coolio who loses or damages the pro- perty of his employer by negligence, or carelessness, or other improper conduct, or by " a careless and improper use of fire," or who " wantonly and cruelly illtreats animals belonging to his employer, or, by negligence or carelessness^ shall suifer or cause the same to be wantonly beaten, &c. (?)" — is liable to a penalty not exceeding $24, or one month's imprison- ment ; and, if twice convicted, to a fine not exceeding $48, or two months' imprisonment.* Some of these provisions seem to overlap the criminal law, since an improper use of fire would seem to be very characteristic of arson, v^hile the " negligence " of " suffering " an animal to be " wantonly beaten " is an ingenuity in legislative definition well worthy another special ordinance to explain it. The burning of " logies " stocked with the dry megass is one of the most facile and malicious methods of revenge, and one frequently employed by a people of so few moral notions as the immigrants. It is one, moreover, to be punished with the utmost rigour, and no penalty short of death or torture would be too great for a destruction which hampe-s the productive power of the estate, and often imperils the whole of its machinery. But lighter negligences or carelessnesses need more accurate definition, since the spoiling of a box of sugar by an accident may expose a hand to penalties exceeding a hundred- fold such claims as it needs very gross carelessness on the part of a domestic servant in England to enable a master to enforce. * Ordinance 4 of 1S64, sec. 19. y- M CHAPTER XX. THE coolie's remedies AGAINST HIS EMPLOYER. THE employer is bound by the law we have cited to provide the immigrant with suitable and suf- ficient d'welling-house and hospital accommodation, and to secure to him, when sick, suitable and sufficient medical attendance, medicines, maintenance, and the services of a competent nurse ; to pay him weekly, on a fixed day and without deduction, wages at the same rate as the wages paid to the Creole and other unindentured labourers on the same or adjacent plan- tations, &c. Summary remedies against the employers for fail- ing in these particulars are, as the Commissioners say, " conspicuous by their absence." There is one enactment in these terms : " If any employer shall in any way ill-use any immigrants, on being con- victed thereof he shall be deemed guilty of an offence, and shall pay a fine not exceeding the sum of forty- eight dollars, or be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for any time not exceeding two months, or pay such fine and be so imprisoned." " It is a very strange assertion," said Mr. Crosby, " but that is the REMEDIES AGAINST EMPLOYERS. Ill only protective section in the whole of this ordi- nance." The employer's penalty for ill-using his labourer is, as regards the fine ($ 48), only twice that imposed on the Coolie for ill-using his master's pro- perty, while the imprisonment is equal. Moreover, the vagueness of the term "ill-usage" would probably prove too hard a problem for magisterial solution. With regard to hospital treatment and proper dwellings, the Coolie himself can, it appears, set in motion legal action against his master for providing improper medicines, diet, &c.* But he never does. In practice that t.s left entirely to the Executive, and their management of it will be presently considered. Meanwhile I may point out that the Trinidad Ordi- nance also gives the Coolie the right to initiate a proceeding upon the failure of the employer to send him to hospital, if he requires medical treatment — the penalty, on conviction, not exceeding ten pounds. f It is clear, throughout, that a stronger hand has been at work in Trinidad than in British Guiana. For any failure to pay him his wages the immi- grant's remedy i > a restricted one. J Under the Petty Debts Ordinance alone he may, in the case of work actually done and wages actually earned, enforce his claim. Under the sec^^ion, whereby reduced tasks are to be assigned to those who are incompetent to per- form full work, the immigrant has no remedy for the employer's default to provide it. " Turning to the parts of the Act intended to enforce its substantive * Ordinance 4 of 1864, sees. 151 and 154. t Trinidad Ordinance 13 of 1870, sec. 37. X Report, &c., H 253. 278 THE COOLIE. \\ vy\ provisions, we find provision for enforcing the pay- ment of wages conspicuous by its absence. It does not seem to have been intended to give to the in- dentured immigrant by this Act the power of suing for wages under the magistrates' summary jurisdic- tion." Practically then, he has no remedy. Yet of all his complaints the one most frequently made is that of a stoppage of wages. By this is not meant a refusal to pay any wages, but a deduction made at the pay-table for alleged imperfection or incomplete- ness in executing his task. The injustice of such a custom arises from the fact that in nine cases out of ten no test of the accuracy of this deduction can be applied. The task may have been done early in the week. No objection may have been taken to it at the time : nevertheless an overseer's note in his book or the report of a driver may be accepted as con- clusive evidence of unfinished or ill-executed work. The Coolies alleged that this was constantly done, and the Commissioners bear them out in the asser- tion. It is right that the exact words of the Report should be given. " Stoppages for one reason and another are, on most estates, everyday occurrences. The immigrants complain bitterly that they do not know what fhey are to get, that they have no notice, that there is no rule, and that the manager does what the driver tells him. In all this there is much exaggera- tion and some truth." * They then point out that the greater part of the stoppages so called are deferred payments for unfinished work. The only legal stop- * Report, &c., H 447. REMEDIES AGAINST EMPLOYERS. 279 pay- does pages are under section 11 Ordinance 9 of 1868, by which the manager or overseer was enjoined to take note of bad or unfinished work and to call on the defaulter to complete it ; and on his failure to do this might hand it over to another to finish, withholding payment from the defaulting immigrant. But the planters went beyond this proviso. For instance, on Plantation Industry sixteen cents, was deducted for any day except Saturday when an immigrant ab- sented himself without leave.* In another case, $1.84 was stopped from the wages of thirty-one shovelmen to pay " for a fork." TJic money ivas subtracted week by wecky mid after three months seve?i out of the thirty-one were still in debt to the estate.^ The worst case is entered in the Report : — " Visit to Plantation Zeelugt — Regular System of Stoppages, &c. — On another estate the stoppages were till recently very regu- larly entered. There were entries of * stopped temp.,' which, of course, indicated deferred pay- ments, and of * stopped perm.,' which covered stop- pages proper. An account-book as between manager and overseer was produced, in which * amounts de- ferred' was a regular entry; sums varying from %i to $34 appeared to have been stopped either tem- porarily or permanently in each week of June and July last, and no satisfactory explanation^ either from m.emory or from documents, was vouchsafed to the Commissioners of the circumstance. This, however, we believe to have been an extreme case, and it is not surprising that the name of this estate has figured more than once in the recent disturbances." The * Report, &c., H 454. f lb-. ^ 456. 28o THE COOLIE. name of this estate should figure no more among the recipients of Coolies. These are the cases to be visited by the Governor's supreme power. If, fired by such injustice as this, the immi^-rants should have fallen on the manager in question and written their sense of wrong upon his body in some cruel characters, their penalty would have been /ery properly ten years at Massaruni; but it is a frightful anomaly that if they did not take that method of remedying the injury there was no other open to them. When Coolies are living from hand to mouth, as many of them are, the stoppage of their wages on the Saturday is a very serious matter for them. The law decidedly implies that whatever a man has earned during the week he should receive on the pay day. We therefore put our finger on a great defect in the laws, when we find that provisions for asserting this right are denied to the Coolie — a defect so flagrant and perilous as to call for immediate remedy. That remedy must correspond with the remedy of the em- ployer against the Coolie, and be penal.* Further, when he charges the employer with an illegal stop- page of wages and succeeds, the latter should be deprived of the power, which it seems to be admitted he now has, of bringing a counter-charge for insuffi- ciency of work, and in his turn succeeding.f There needs also a more stringent condition as to the time and manner in which the employer is to take note of the insufficiency of work, J a matter of no small consequence in a colony where a " tropical shower " may change the aspect of work in two or three hours. ♦ Report, &c., IT 4^3. t lb., 1. 4/4. % lb., f 475. REMEDIES AGAINST EMPLOYERS. 281 Such are the very proper and peremptory suggestions of the Commissioners. Perhaps, among the forty unlucky sections, which Mr. Crosby tells us were " struck out at one swoop " by the Court of Policy, these remedies were with- drawn from the immigrant. The absence of such provisions is the more significant because, in 1853-54, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir George Grey, distinctly refused to sanction the Bill which became Ordinance 7 of 1854, because "the most im- portant clauses of the ordinances of previous years, which imposed penalties on the employer for non- performance of his duties, were silently expunged."* The provision was reinstated in that ordinance, to be again silently expunged in Ordinance 4 of 1864, with- out any remark, apparently, from the then Colonial Secretary. " It seems," says the Report, " somewhat strange that while so much jealousy was exhibited by the Home Government at the omission of any such provision from successive Acts, this particular one — certainly not the least important — should have been tacitly allowed to disappear in 1853 from the general Labour Code, and in 1864 from that relating to immigration." In proceeding under the Petty Debt Ordinance the Coolie is restricted, we have said, to recovering wages actually due ; but that would premise an admission by him of the terms of the labour or the rate of wages. He cannot raise the question of the equity of the rate * Papers relating to Immigration to the West Indian Colonies, pre- sented to Parliament August, 1857, pp. 55, 1 69. Quoted by the Com- missioners, f 254. I I 1 282 THE COOLIE. 5 j I in this proceeding. Hence it is only in rare cases that he can avail himself of this limited remedy. One of the magistrates is of opinion that properly even this is not open to him ! * To add to the legal hotch-potch, by a technical arrangement of late legislation the free immigrant, who formerly had remedies under the Employers and Servants Ordinance of 1853, has been deprived of them, and has no higher advantages than his inden- tured fellow-countrymen. For claims ranging from $24 to $240 resort may be had to the Inferior Court of Civil Justice established in 1856.1 This court, however, is for the rich, and not for the poor. The legislators of British Guiana have legislated wholesomely against litigation. The expenses of " service of citations, summonses, taking up sentence, &c.," are heavy. As onl> ten per cent, on the amount of sentence can be recovered as taxed costs for counsel's fee, it is practically im- possible to retain counsel. The Commissioners quote a return of the proportion of Coolie cases in this court. 1867. 1868. 1869. Totals . . • 423 424 463 of which Immigrants . 28 45 45 When we come to examine the machinery by which alone the Coolie can enforce his claims upon an em- ployer, we find that he is offered very few facili- ties for exercising his litigious faculty. He has, under any circumstances, but a slight chance of be- coming acquainted with a law not translated into his ♦ Mr. Muggins's evidence, Q. 7755, Report, &c., 51 256. t Report, &c., U 218. REMEDIES AGAINST EMPLOYERS. 283 own language, and in its original sufficiently puzzling to an Englishman. The expense of securing legal assistance is inordinate. Whether the reason be the^ general dearness of the colony or the superlative quality of the law provided, the fees absorbed by the barrister- attorneys of Georgetown would make a decent Q.C.'s mouth water. Forty dollars and ex- penses is a fee for attending a court seven miles out of town, and very frequently Coolies mentioned to me that they had given "Massa" So-and-so $20, $30, or $50. The Bar is not very extensive. There are an Attorney and Solicitor-General, both able and accom- plished gentleman, and two white juniors, waiting, I presume, for those lucrative posts. A clever and lively Irish barrister, who gaily wavered between the courts and the newspapers in alternate legal and literary spasms, has I believe left the colony, and two or three black or coloured practitioners complete the legal tale. There are also attorneys. But I suppose no prac- titioner in the colony would look at $.5, which would be an ample fee for a Coolie to pay in most of his cases, and mayhap for the assistance to be obtained by it. The reader will observe it as a favourable sign that Coolies are to be found with $30, $40, or $50 to expend in litigation. But, on the other hand, few can accom- plish this ; and even the occasions on which they take up a general subscription to help each other must be rare. It might, perhaps, be well to en- courage a few Hindu barristers to settle down in British Guiana. They might be guaranteed a certain h. ;j i ii 284 THE COOLIE. amount by the Indian or Colonial Government; or might form part of that body of immigrants' counsel which I have proposed should be maintained in the colony. Their acquaintance with the language and ways of their people would enable them to render great assistance, not only in vindicating their rights, but also, one would hope, in allaying their discontent. The cases of injustice arising out of the inefficient way in which a Coolie necessarily puts his own case* before a magistrate would, were he provided with legal assistance, be rendered impossible. When the Coolie appears in court, his ditticulties are aggravated should he, as nearly all the new and many of the old Coolies are, be unacquainted with English. — E7i parenthhe^ here I may mention that if he knows English he declines to speak it at his peril : witness this incident, related of himself by Mr. Ware, a stipendiary : — Q. On the 27th of August do you remember locking up a witness for four hours on a Saturday because he refused to speak English r — Yes. He was locked up for about an hour. There was evidence before me that the man could speak English well, and I looked upon his refusal as a contcvipt of court ( .?), but he was not fineii. Q. Did he speak English when he came out r — When he came out, I told him he had better con- sider whether he would speak English at the next court, and he then uttered several words. The inter- « See the incident related in Chapter VIII. ante^ of a vain appeal to an ordinance. I REMEDIES AGAINST EMPLOYERS. 285 preter who was present said the man spoke English fluently. He was an old Coolie. — To return to the Coolies. Those who are not stubbornly disinclined to use English, but are inca- pable of doing so, must plead and conduct their case through the interpreters of the court. These persons themselves speak the most indifferent English, and are paid only $24 a month. The Coolies told us they were obliged to pay these men to get them to interpret fairly ; and their low position and native cupidity lay them open to convenient douceurs from drivers or overseers who want to show something to the managers for the day's justice. Mr. Alves, one of the acting stipendiary magistrates, possessed of some knowledge of Hindustani, instanced a case within his own experience where an interpreter pleaded *' guilty " for a man who had pleaded " not guilty." Very properly do the Commissioners comment on the absolute necessity of remedying this evil, in order to make the administration of law for the Coolie as pure as possible. " It is easy to see how far a fciv dect'swiis, either known or suspected to have been brought about by false interpreting of the evidence, would go to impair confidence in the administration of justice. Want of acquaintance with the laws and forms of law, inexperience of European habits, and a general defect of moral courage, are disadvantages for which nothing can compensate the immigrants save care and patience [they might have added, and immacu- late independence] in the presiding magistrate. They are not greater, however, in their case than in that of m I ii if ■1 1 286 TNi: COOLIE. many others, between whom 'and Europeans justice has been done by European judges."* In his defences the Coolie is yet more heavily ironed. The notorious profligacy of deceit common to his people, and the necessarily strong and too little riddled evidence of the estate's staff, place him in a singularly helpless situation. The Commissioners say : " Great pains appear to us to be taken by the magistrates to explain and afford to him the facilities to which he is entitled by law." I have already commented on and admitted the difficulty of the magistrate's position, but it seems futile to hope for any improvement unless the Coolie is legally repre- sented at the trial. It is part of the overseer's duty to appear against the immigrants at the police-court, the manager's attendance being seldom required. The Commis- sioners think " it is to be feared that it is considered as much a duty of the overseer to get the men fined or imprisoned, whom he appears against, as to get the work done which he takes down." They instance a case in which a manager was summoned for assaulting a Chinese. The case was adjourned in order that the manager might summon another over- seer, the one he took with him havi^tg szvorn that he did not see what occurred. It was suggested that the over- seer was dismissed in consequence ; but this, in the Commissioners' opinion, was disproved. " Still it appears that it never entered the head of the manager to ask the overseer whether he had seen all that took place * Report, &c., f IT 390, 391. REMEDIES AGAINST EMPLOYERS. 287 before summoning him as sole witness — a mistake that might have cost him dear. In fact, he took his over- seer's evidence for granted. It is almost needless to observe that such a question is a different thing from asking a defendant beforehand *what evidence he could give.' This taking of evidence for granted is the bane of justice as between class and class." * And lastly, as a culmination of his disabilities, the Coolie defendant ca^tnot, u?ider the Immigration Ordi- nances^ give evidence in his own case. Perhaps nothing wiH more startle the reader of these pages than to learn that in a matter professedly of civil contract the mouth of the unforti^nate defendant contractor is shut. " It was pointed out to us," say the Commissioners,t "by Mr. Huggins that an immigrant defendant under the Labour Law, although tried for a breach of con- tract, which is a civil offence, nevertheless is made to occupy the position of a criminal. It may perhaps be con- jectured that this anomaly has crept in to some extent by accident. In the old days of free labour which suc- ceeded the apprenticeship, the difficulty of compelling a labourer to work was found insurmountable. ' I conceive,* said Mr. Brumell, now sheriff of Demerara (as quoted in the Report of Governor Barkly's Com- mission, published in 1850), 'that there can be no strict enforcement of a contract between two parties, one of whom is known and responsible, and the other unknown, and possessing only a cloth round his loins.' This often-repeated argument for a penal contract law, when reinforced by considerations * _Report, &c., f 307. t lb., H 394, 395. !!'li m i! "'] 288 Tff£ COOLIE. peculiar to the case of an immigrant under indenture, who has a debt to work out to his employer and to the estate, was sufficient to justify the substitution o^ penalties, such as fine and imprisonment, in the place of damages, by way of sanction to a contract. But it is hard to see by what logic the liability to fine and imprisonment, even with hard labour, should of neces- sity draw with it all those incidents which the Eng- lish law attaches to the position of a man charged with a criminal offence. The indentured labourer finds himself convicted often upon the sole evidence of his employer or a subordinate ; he is not allowed to give evidence in his own behalf. It is true, it might not make much difference in the case if he were. As it is, a good magistrate will always ask him for his defence, and show by his demeanour that whether or not he accepted it as true, he at least regards it with consideration. But we may be per- fectly sure that there is no immigrant so deficient in the instinct of justice as not to perceive, so soon as he begins to perceive anything of the manner in which business is carried on, that he, the defendant, and his employer, the prosecutor, have not equal rights of telling their respective stories before the law. " If the converse case of the rule came within their experience — if they were in . the habit of bringing charges against managers, and of seeing them tongue- tied whilst their character was sworn away — they might recognise an even-handedness, if not an equity, in the law. But as a matter of their daily experience, a few exceptions set aside, the penal enforcement of REMEDIES AGAINST EMPLOYERS. 289 uity, nee, It of the Labour Law has hitherto been an enforcement against the labourer alone." When we come to review the work done in the magistrates' courts, we get a fair idea of the immi- grant's legal disabilities. The entire number of the charges under the Immigration Ordinances before stipendiary magistrates in the colony, for five years ending June 30, 1870, is returned at 32,876. Of these the Report says ^^ certainly not a hiindrcdy perhaps not a scorCy were cases by immigrants, or by others on their behalf, against employers; and the charges brought by officials against employers under the same Acts may be almost counted on the fingers of one hand. It follows from this that the im- migrants must look upon the Court as a place for doing justice rather upon them than to them ; and although no one can wish to see their charges against their employers multiplied, yet it must be allowed that the number brought by the employers against them is, apart from all comparisons, large, and even excessive. This is not the case in Mauritius. The charges brought by immigrants against employers bear comparison in number with those brought by employers against them ; showing that it is not im- possible to get them to regard the magistrate's court as a protection to themselves." * Both prijiciple and policy demand that to the rigid powers conferred on the employer, of enforcing his contract against the Coolie the latter should have corresponding facilities against the former : on prin- * Report, &c., If 397. U '.t 290 THE COOLIE, ' ?K -'::>:! ^! •'•'' >i,'i' ciple, as a simple matter of equal justice between two contracting parties; on policy, because the greater the facilities of maintaining his rights afforded the Coolie the less will be the likelihood oftheir invasion, as the less will be the inducement to attempt it. We thus see that practically almost every method of asserting or of defending his rights by law is absent from the immigrant. He is in the hands of a system which elaborately twists and turns him about, but always leaves him face to face with an impossi- bility. Until I had read the Commissioners' Report I had not fairly realised that the situation was so bad as it is proved to be. With such blots upon the legis- lation of British Guiana, with such miserably inade- quate provision of remedies for those whose terrible disadvantage should have been an appeal to legis- lative sympathies, if not to the legislators' sense of right, it is ;iot to be wondered at if there is disquiet in the Ccolie camp and trepidation among the employers. I should be sorry to see any people so successfully degraded as to sit down quietly under disadvantages so monstrous. I should be sorry to see any English Governor venturing to avail himself of an armed police force and Enfield rifles to suppress the righteous indignation of people subjected to these disabilities. And I shall be astonished if an English Government and an English public, learning of these things, do not very determinedly, very quietly, with- out the least fanaticism in the world, set themselves to see that they are remedied. CHAPTER XXI, WAGES. IT will be necessary to enter somewhat minutely into the details afforded by the Commissioners of the wages-rates in the colony. They investigated these points with great thoroughness, and with results rather surprising to any one who had heard the evidence of Mr. Oliver, a gentleman de- servedly occupying a high position in the colony and at the head of one of its principal firms. The local Defence Committee established by the planters had issued a series of papers to the managers of the various estates calling for certain returns, with the anticipated purpose of refuting Mr. Des Voeux's exaggerated charges. These returns were with great labour, and in the most admirably business-like way, tabulated for presentation to the Commissioners, Mr. Oliver, as chairman of the committee, producing them, and lend- ing the authority of his own faith in them. His high character rendered him, personally, quite free from suspicion, but unfortunately the Commissioners deemed it their duty to test the practical value of these returns, and the dry and caustic way in which 292 THE COOLIE. i they dispose of some of them is peculiarly significant. As the wages question is one upon which depends not only the subordinate, yet important, question of justice or injustice to the Coolie himself, in that matter of officially representing the average earnings in the colony to be " easily" from \s. /^d. to i\s. a day — but also the larger, and to us more serious, question whether the average is still sufficient to sustain a further im- migration, I transcribe from the Report the analysis of this part of Mr. Oliver's evidence : — " Form No. 2 — professes to give the average daily earnings for the year of all classes of immigrants, estimated for the days on which they have actually been at work. The immigrants are divided into men, women, and children, and again subdivided into effec- tives and non-effectives. Mr. Oliver gives the follow- ing summary : — " * With regard to Form No. 2, 1 may observe that it has not any special reference to Mr. Des Vceux's letter ; but we have obtained the information as a guide to the Commissioners when they go into the country. They will then have an opportuni y of checking the returns by personal inquiry and obser- vation. The returns from 115 estates show that the effective Indian immigrants, the better class of male Coolies, effectives, we call them, earn on an average 34*94 cents, or as nearly as possible 35 cents a clay. Ineffectives, the weak, sickly people, earn only 20 cents a day, effective women 25 cents, ineffectives 15. J cents, and children 13 cents. Of the Chinese under indenture, effective men earn 35 cents, non-effectives WAGES. 293 20 cents, effective women 26 cents, ineffectives 15 cents, and children 13 cents. These are the people under indenture on estates.' " The ineffectives are said to be — '* * All who are able to do work, not those in hospital, but all the weak and sickly, who are not yet able to go out and do some amount of work. Now as to the free people resident on estates. Coolies first : effective men earn on an average 35.1 cents, ineffectives 21 cents, effective women 25 cents, ineffective 16 J cents, and children 13 cents. Of free Chinese, the effective men earn 38 i cents, ineffective 24 cents, effective women 25 j cents, ineffective 17 cents, and children 13 cents.' " We notice that the instructions sent with this return were hardly definite enough. They run, * You will observe that we have divided the immigrants into two classes, effective and non-effective. We would suggest that your best mode of arriving al the result would be to take the total amount paid to the man or woman, as the case may be, for the last twelve months, and divide by the number of days at work, two half- days to count as one whole day.' No rule is given for the classification into effectives and non- effectives, which has accordingly been carried out on the most various principles, even by the most careful of the compilers ; ]\Ir. Field, for instance, counting 98 per cent, of his male immigrants as effectives, while Mr. Kelly makes out 29 per cent, of non-effectives. " Without going into a detailed examination of these returns, we think it necessary, before putting forward '^•.k 294 THE COOLIE. our own somewhat different conclusions, to point out a few of the statements and figures which render them as a whole untrustworthy. " a. The sum entered on the return from Plantation Cumings I.odge as the average daily earnings throughout the year of effective male indentured Indian immigrants for each day on which work was done was 64 cents. The abstract we have ourselves made of the pay-list on this estate shows that none of the indentured labourers^ drivers excepted, could have earned more than 46 cents as a daily average^ and that only the best man earned that sum per diem on the days that he was actually at work. This is taking the number of days he worked during the year at 260, which is but a moderate estimate for the best man on the estate. The mistake is easily accounted for. We were informed when we visited the plantation that the return had not been taken from an actual analysis of the pay-list, but was rather an estimate of what it was known a good man could earn. There is a foot-note to the table: — 'The system on which the books of this estate are kept (?) renders it impossible to give this return correctly.' "3. Another return, that of the Bel Air estate, gives the rate of wages for the same class of immigrants at 56 cents a day. On examining the return we found that only about half the real number of residents on the estate had been accounted for, among the several division'^ by which the total earnings of the pay-list had been reduced into daily rates of wages. " c. On Plantation Schoon Ord the daily wages of WAGES. 295 the same class were entered at 48 cents. Two hundred and sixty-three men were entered at this rate, and Mr. Arnold stated before us, in evi- dence, that these men generally averaged four days' work in the week; therefore, supposing them to have worked 200 days in the year, their total earn- ings would be 200 X 263 x 48 cents, or §25,428. In referring to Form No. 14 in the series where the tota^ earnings is given of the whole body of male Indian immigrants, indentured and unin- dentured, effective and ineffective, together, we fina it stated that only $10,471, that is to say at two- fifths of the sum that at 48 cents per working day, ought to have been earned by the effective indentured males only. The return No. 14 is not likely to be incorrect so far as immigrants are concerned, as it is easily obtained from the totals entered in the pay-lists of estates, which are regularly carried forward to the end of the year. This return Mr. Arnold considers must be correct, within a very few dollars. Here again the discrepancy was accounted for, when ]\Ir. Arnold informed us, on the occasion of our visit to the estate, that he had made out Form No. 2 from his own knowledge of what an effective East Indian labourer could earn, without going through the laborious process of taking out the averages from his pay-lists.* " It appears to us from our inquiries on estates that scarcely any of these returns were really made out from analysis of the pay-lists. Some were made up * See another more detailed and correct statement of wayes by the proprietor, nnU; pp. 65, 66. ■ ".O'l •m 2gb THE COOLIE, by ascertaining the rates earned by five or six of the men, known to be regularly earning good vages, without allowance for the deficiencies of others ; and the rest of the same class, numbering often from one to three hundred, were then set down at the same rate. In some cases when the rates were really taken from the pay-lists, it was found that the days spent at work were not separately entered, but only the amount paid when a man had finished a certain piece of work. For instance, there might be only one entry for a whole week of 20 bitts, or $1.60, which the labourer could not have earned in less than three or four days. In most of these cases the number of days worked had been estimated by guess. Finally, too many of the returns sent in presented the unsatisfactory aspect, in a statistical sense, of a series of round numbers. " What has been said of the Indian immigrants applies equally to the Chinese. The danger of rely- ing upon g, series of returns of this character, unless they are hondfide extracts from documents, lies in the tendency to confound the real average with what is called * a good average rate of earnings' — meaning the average earned by a good man working well. To this tendency there is, in fact, no corrective ; so that the taking of a great number of estates together is no security, as sometimes happens in taking averages, for correctness.* " Form No. 5 attempts to show the amount a really able-bodied agricultural labourer, whether Indian, * Report, &c., HH 55—62. WAGES, 297 no """> Chinese, African, or Creole, would earn at field labour, working forty-five hours in the week. The average is given at $3.30. It will be seen from another part of this Report that an effective male immigrant can earn at taskwork in the field about 5 cents an hour. This makes only $2.25 a week. One employer con- siders that such a labourer, a Coolie, could earn 8^. in the time ; others put it at 20s., and one actually at 30J. The week of six days, at seven and a half hours a day, is taken as the full amount of what all able- bodied men might do. It de'^erves to be remembered that this is not timework, but taskwork. It is done under greater pressure, and more is done in the time. Without allowing for the climate, it represents more work than would be done in the same time in Eng- land ; allowing for the climate, it represents a larger time spent at work than the employers, as a fact, expect. However, we do not say that it is beyond the capacity of an able-bodied Coolie to work seven hours and a half daily for six days in the week. " But Mr. Oliver says, * To do a task only occupies about four hours,' and calculates that twelve tasks might be done in the week. This is correct of the Negro ; but an ordinary able-bodied Coolie could not do a task in four hours, or nearly so. In fact, hardly any of them could. The stress of taskwork will be best appreciated by remembering that the Coolies prefer from thirteen to sixteen hours' work in the buildings where they are not pressed to seven hours' work in the field where they are.' " * * Report, &c., ff 67, 68. 1^ 298 THE COOLIE. The verdant indifference to facts exhibited by some of the managers in drawing up these returns strikes me with regret as one of the most discreditable features of the whole inquiry, and is made worse by the egre- gious deception thus practised by their subordinates upon Mr. Oliver, and the very respectable Committee who were made to stand sponsors for statements so irresponsible. It may be that the form in which the blank schedules were made out misled the rural managers — as, for instance, the instruction in No. 1 1, which, said its issuers, " is for the purpose of shozu- ing that the importation of Coolies, ' instead of lowering the rate of wages, has increased it." It is just possible the managers may have conceived this to be a direction to prove the proposition, instead of to state the facts. In effect they did neither. "The size of the task during the time of slavery [A] differed from that during the apprentice- ship [B] and many customary tasks set at the present day differ materially in magnitude from both. The consequent dilemma was solved by the managers of estates in a variety of ways. Most of them fol- lowed column B, a few A, and some took for granted the dimensions customary on their own estates. It is obvious that a general average calculated on such data represents, in fact, nothing at all." * The Commissioners report upon the wages under two heads: — i. The rates usually paid for the per- formance of given quantities of work. 2. The sums * Report, &c., U 78. WAGES. 299 generally earned by immigrants and others, daily, weekly, or hourly. I . To understand the work hereinafter designated under this head, the reader will only have to turn to the descriptions of estate-work in Chapter IV. The field work is paid by the task. Digging trenches, 12 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep, per rod of I2| ft., 80c. to 960. J^igg'"g new small drains, 2 ft, wide and 2 ft. deep, per rod, 4c. to 8c. or Sc. to 6c. Clearing out small drains, i ft. or i shovel, per rod, ic, i^c, and 2c. Drilling, i shovel deep and 2 ft. wide, for 3 rods, 8c. Weeding and moulding, \ according to ground, kc, per acre, §2.00, Weeding and trashing, / $2.50, S3. 00, $3.50. "Relieving " {i.e., ranging loose trash on trash banks), per acre, $2. 10 to S2.50. Cane-cutting, per cord, 48c. to 54c. ; per judge punt, 96c. to §1.08. The Commissioners explain : " The rates we have given for field work are those generally paid. It is impossible to fix a given rate for any kind of work, and hold to it in all cases. The state of the weather, the nature of the soil, and condition of the field must all be taken into account. This, in cases of disputes between employers and labourers, can only be done by some experienced person visiting the field when the question arises, inspecting the work done, and estimating to the best of his ability what the value of the work is." The work in the buildings, being of a totally different character from that in the field, is paid differently. Long as are the hours sometimes in these steaming places, the immigrants prefer the work to any on the estate. The measure of work is the number of clarifiers or " boxes " of juice made if i : I fp ♦•1 i; ' 300 TI/£ COOLIE. in a day. Should this number, which, I believe, is usually forty, not be reached, there is a deduction from the day's wages ; should they be exceeded, on most plantations the workmen are paid something extra. In case the machinery breaks down, the alter- native is given to the Coolies to take to field work, or be paid only a proportionate amount, and go home. The stories told me by immigrants of the tremendous strain sometimes put upon them in the buildings are confirmed by the Report. I used to see the smoking chimneys which told of grinding going on late at night, and the first streak of dawn in the morning showed them to be still, or early again, at work. A gentleman very highly esteemed in the colony, and a thorough friend of the planters, told me that the excessive work in the buildings was one of the evils of the system. The employers get on without any difficulty, because work in the buildings is better liked than field work. They are occasionally tempted by the facilities this predilection affords them to exact too much labour ; sometim.es without giving extra pay.* " It is not un- common, especially on the Saturdays and last days of a bout of work, for fire to be put to the engine at three a.m., or even earlier, for the gangs to he called at f oily and to be kept working till near midnight. We have .even found instances of twenty-three hours' continuous labour without any relay of labourers, and we have noticed the carelessness and waste produced by excess of labour demoralising a gang." "The average number * Report, &c., H 342. or ' WAGES. 301 of hours is about fifteen a day ; but we have found in- stances where they had been working for eighteen to twenty-two hours without a change of hands and with- out any extra pay given. This was the case on SkeldoUy Canefieldy Johan7ia Ceciliay and Leonora estates." * " This is one among many instances which show that the ability to contract on equal ten s with his em- ployer is not within reach of the indentured immigrant, and serves to establish the conclusion that all — even the minutest operations of the system — must be sub- jected to official supervision and control. We consider that work in the buildings ought to be paid for by time, and not by the task. Almost every employer we have spoken to on the subject says the immigrants prefer work in the buildings to that in the field. It seems, therefore, that there would not be much diffi- culty in getting them to work steadily by the hour. Work in the buildings would be held out as a reward to good labourers."! Moreover, the Commissioners complain that on the estates where defective ma- chinery, &c., led to long hours, the immigrants were not paid more than on others where this was not the case. The rates in the buildings are as follows : — Engineers, carpenters, coopers, &c per day 60c. to Si. 00 Head boilermen ,, S6c. ,, 64c. Firemen >, 40c. ,, 48c. Millfeeders (for cane-traveller) ,, 32c. „ 48c. Cane-tlirowers , 24c. „ 32c. Boxmen, for caixying off damp megass .... ,, 32c, ,, 40c. Liquor pump men or lads , 20c. ,, 32c. As clarifiers, men and lads „ i6c. ,, 40c. In distillery , 20c. „ 48c. * Report, &c., f 363. t U 343- .if 302 THE COOLIE. Porters, by job per day 32c. to 48c. At centrifugals — feeding them and watering sugar ^ (a skilful operation) ) " 32c. ., 40c. Female sugar carriers — " common process " . . ,, 24c. ,, 40c. Megass carriers — women generally „ 24c. ,, 32c. Digging and packing megass , 32c. Children and convalescents spreading megass . . ,, 12c. ,, 24c. " At Zecliigt we found a Coolie man employed as head pan-boiler, who was under indenture, and only- paid 48 cents a day, which was much less than a Negro or other person would have accepted. The manager, Mr. Menzies, said he had paid $50 to have him taught to work the pan ; but even taking this into consideration the pay was too little, for the manager would save about $70 to $80 the first year after his apprenticeship." (Par. 345.) This is the same estate with regard to which the severe animad- version of the Commissioners on stoppages of wages has before been quoted. Whatever may be thought about the field work, the buildings' work seems to be of a kind that yvould best be carried on under a fixed tariff. 2. The tables of average earnings prepared by the Commissioners have not as yet been published ; but the general results of their analysis are extremely pertinent. They first compare the returns on two great estates — Albion and Great Diamond.* "On Albion effective male Indian adults average i2\ cents a day for every day they work during the year ; in- effective 29 1 cents, while on Great Diamond they earned respectively 233 cents and 13! cents. Effec- tive females on Albion 2 6 J, and on Great Diamo7id 15-J- * Report, &c., IT 364. ^^■a;:, WAGES. 303 cents. — The differences are partly owing to the fact that Mr. Kelly has only entered 7 1 per cent, of his males and 90 per cent, of his females as effectives, whereas Mr. Field has 98 per cent, of his males and 92 per cent, of his females as effectives. Mr. Kelly's appear to have earned 20 per cent, more than Mr. Field's." Taking the wages of about 8,000 persons, the Com- missioners found that /or/y per cent, have earned the minimum ^s. and upwards per week ; many of these 8,000 perhaps only working two, three, or four days in the week. " These returns and some figures taken from an analysis of pay-lists of Plantations Farm and Cumings Lodge^ which we shall give hereafter, show that even if the males are taken alone at least forty per cent, of those who work in a given week do not earn five shillings and upwards. " It has been stated, and we have ascertained the fact for ourselves, that able-bodied men (or efficient male immigrants as they are called in the returns furnished by the Planters' Committee) generally average from four to five days' work in a week. Mr. Field, in a foot-note to one of these returns, has given a very valuable statement showing the number of persons of each class absent from work daily, from sickness, leave, or other causes. Every day, out of a gang of 327 effectives, 63 have been absent, taking the working days in the year at 313. Thus a little more than one-fifth were absent daily. Mr. Field's effective labourers must, therefore, have turned out to work nearly five days in the week ; but as it is generally f' -^t- >*' ^ '. ' * '± . '% 'k ■ i a' 304 THE COOLIE. I the case that they work not much on Mondays and not at all on Saturdays, the number of full days' work may be said to be about four. " Two sets of pay-lists have been examined by us from the estates Ctimings Lodge and Faring the figures drawn from which will further serve to show . what the earnings of indentured immigrants really are. Mr. Clementson the proprietor of Cmnings Lodge, is generally spoken of as a man who manages his immigrants with great skill, and who never has occasion to bring any of his labourers before the magistrate for breaches of the Immigration Laws. When we visited the estate, the people appeared quite content, and did not come forward with any complaints, though they had ample opportunity of doing so. His pay-list contained the building, shovel, and weeding gangs all in one, and thus presented facilities for ascertaining the whole amounts earned by each person, which were not so readily open to us on many estates. The wages earned by each indi- vidual for twelve months have been taken from this pay-list, and give a very good idea of the earnings of immigrants on well-managed estates. Those who died, deserted, or left the estate during the year, and one or two women, who appeared scarcely to have worked at all, have been omitted, in order that the return may convey a fair idea of the earnings of immi- grants who have worked during the year on one estate. Two hundred and thirty-one persons on Ciim- ings Lodge earned 113,239.62, equal to an average of I5 7.3 1 each. One hundred and eighty-five of these i i WAGES. 305 were men, forty-five women, and a boy. The highest amount earned by any of them was $1 19.76, «^»nual to an average of I2.30 a week. From his being a first- rate man on an estate noted for the superior cha- racter of its people, we may fairly assume that he averaged five days' work in a week. His average daily earnings would, therefore, have been 46 cents ; of the remainder, 94 men and 2 women earned more than 5.V. a week. Thus 90 men and 43 women out of the numbers taken did not earn 5s. a week. On reference to the visits to estates it will be found that on Cumings Lodge some of the men and women earn very little, and this will be found to be the case on every estate, but it does not follow from this that they are suffering from want of food or other necessaries. Some are regular malingerers, who will not work, and are being well fed in gaol ; others are women whose husbands are earning high wages, who do not care to work themselves ; while others are patients in hospital, where they are fed gratis. The extract from the Farm pay-lists are not quite so complete as those we have just dealt with, because the names of the immigrants were entered in two books — the building and the field pay-list. In the field pay-list their names were entered in alphabetical order, but in the other according to the work they were doing; and they were not always spelt in the same way. There were 274 persons in the gang, but 98 have been omitted; 78 of these were either persons who had died or who had been in hospital, deserted or absented themselves from X I Ml 306 THE COOLIE. work from other reasons, such as nursing, pregnancy, &c., for a great part of the time over which our examination extended ; the remaining 20 were per- sons who had worked in the buildings, or at other occupations, but the amount of whose earnings we were not able to ascertain quite correctly; of the 176 who remain the earnings were as follows : 2 men, who were foremen or drivers, earned $76.80 and $72.80 respectively, during 25 consecutive weeks, equal to an average of $3.07 and $2.91 weekly. The highest amounts earned by any of the labourers, leaving out the drivers, were $64.24 and $48.52, or $2.57 and $1.94 a week; of those left, numbering 172, only 43 averaged as much as 5^. a week. "When it is remembered that the 176 persons taken were selected from a gang of 274 persons, all who had been much absent in hospital, or elsewhere, being omitted, this return must be taken as a favourable statement of the average earnings of healthy immi- grants on this estate. *' Mr. Kelly has favoured us with some returns showing the wages earned, by sixteen of the labourers on his estate. From the number of days they have worked, and the amounts they have earned, we infer that they were first-class men. Taking all of them together, they have averaged more than five days work in a week throughout the year. The best man worked for 2^:}^ days, and averaged 49 cents a day; and he who earned least worked for 278 days, and averaged 30 cents a day. From the returns of Messrs. Field and Kell) , together with the tables referred to WAGES 307 and other da/a already given, it is evident that very few immigrant labourers average 48 cents a day for five days in a week. It will also be seen that of those classed as effectives, those who earn above 36 cents a day are few compared with those who earn from 24 to 36 cents. • " We believe, from what we have seen, and taking these da/a as far as they go to assist us to form an opinion, that the average earnings of this class of immigrants, drivers, artisans, and other headmen excepted, throughout the colony, are about 28 cents a day for every day that they do a fair day's work. 28 cents is i^. zd., and is equal to not quite lo annas. When employed by the task in the field, they average 6 hours at work, an*^ earn about 5 cents an hour. About four-fifths of .... male adult immigrants may be included in this class. Women earn from 16 to 32 cents, but do not, as a rule, work as many days as the men. Children between the ages of 10 and 15 earn from 8 to 16 cents a day. " It may be as well to mention here the case of a Coolie on Chateau Margot Estate who had earned a great deal of money ; and, as far as we could learn, only by agricultural labour. Ujoodha, No. 123, ex ship Oasis, who arrived here in 1865, earned during the year 1870 $203.34 ; he intends to return to India next year, having saved several hundred dollars during the five years he has been here. He said that he was never sick, and that he seldom missed a day's work in the year, Sundays excepted. He was a well- made muscular fellow, much above the average of his 3o8 THE COOLIE. I !• i fellow-countrymen here, and said that he had been an agricultural labourer in India. Mr. Gray, the manager, gives the following account of him : * He is a man of very good character, and most industrious. He is seldom absent from work. I have never had occasion to bring him up before the magistrate.' This is, however, a very exceptional case, and is the only instance we have met with where a labourer had earned so much simply by estate work. Moholly, an immigrant on the Adclphi Estate, who had been here before, had gone back to India, and returned again to this colony, was another example of what first-rate men can earn. During the year ending 30th June, 1870, he had earned I155.70 by work in the field and buildings, and owned several cattle." I have deemed it best, on this grave question, to adhere to the words of the Report, so that, on my part there may be no undue light or shade thrown upon any of the facts stated in regard to it. There can now be no doubt whatever on the reader's mind that, to represent to a recruit in India, the current rate of wages in British Guiana earned by a man, to be easily from i^. 3^^. to 4.?. per diem, when the average for male Coolie eifectives is is. 2d. for a fair day's work, is to awaken in his mind expectations never to be fulfilled, and to initiate a wrong whose bitter consequences may not fall alone upon the sufferer. CHAPTER XXII. AIDS AND REMEDIES ON THE COOLIES' BEHALF. OF the remedies enforceable against employers by the Executive or the Immigration Agent-General for infractions of contract under the Immigration Ordinances, we have already seen that the Governor, Mr. Hincks, saw fit to take them altogether out of the hands of that official. Hence the Governor, while practically degrading the Protector of Immigrants, and assuming to himself administrative functions, diminished also to a great extent his own dignity and authority. He was no longer the c/c//s ex via- chindy only to be produced on great occasions, but he was the immediate dealer with recalcitrant planters. On the other hand, he was in a posi- tion, were he so disposed (it is of no consequence whether he did so or not), to play off his powers according as this or that personal end was to be served. Instead of an administration of the law, con- ducted by the proper officials, and subjected to the rigid scrutiny of the judges, the administration of immigration was a loose and irresponsible and irre- gular circle of threats, correspondences, and compro- H .{'■■ r > ^^m 310 THE COOLIE. mises. Of this the Colonial Office had notice from Mr. Crosby in the course of the correspondence arising out of the Governor's complaint against him. They censured Mr. Crosby for the manner of his opposition, but not apparently for the matter. Yet they did not insist on a change. Nothing could more clearly show to the English public how necessary it is that constant vigilance and active criticism should be brought to bear on our Colonial Administration. It surely ought to have occurred to any Colonial Secre- tary that in permitting this dangerous usurpation of power by a petty Governor, he was sowing seeds of discord in the colonial community and of injustice to the Coolies, whose protection the Government admit to be part of their duty. There was, then, a practical repeal of such enactments as enabled the Immigration Agent-General to initiate any pro- ceedings under the very large powers of sections 97 and 99 of the Ordinance 4 of 1864. By the intermediate section (98), if it were esta- blished before a magistrate on any complaint pre- ferred by an immigrant, or by the Immigration Agent- General^ that the immigrant was not provided by his employer with sufficient work to enable him to earn a just amount of wages in terms of his contract, on a report by the magistrate to the Governor, the latter might cancel his indenture, and transfer him to another estate. The difficulty, however, of establish- ing such a case, even were it not a rare one in so busy a colony, renders this section of secondary im- portance. Another section, which overlaps section 99, AIDS AND REMEDIES. 3" gives great power to the Governor. "If it shall at any time appear to the Governor, on just cause shffivn to his satisfaction (?), that all or any of the immigrants indentured on any plantation should be removed therefrom, it shall be lawful for the Governor to order " them to be released and discharged from that employer. This power, which the Governor holds i7i terror cm^ is exercised in special instances, particularly when men who have threatened women require to be removed; but it is evidently one of so delicate a character and inflicting so great a punishment that it ought only to be resorted to in extreme cases. The planters themselves should be foremost in objecting to the play of this private and irresponsible power wherever the open judgment of a court of law can be made available for the purpose in view. In the celebrated Enterprise case, where several Coolies were alleged to have been improperly con- fined, Acting-Governor Mundy attempted to compel the proprietors or attorneys to dismiss the manager. This they refused to do. It was an admirable oppor- tunity to avail himself of his powers under this section, and to show the firmness of the Executive, by withdrawing all the immigrants from the planta- tion ; but he did not do it. He may have received notice, as was suggested on good authority, that they would not be received elsewhere. The power is so great that most men would naturally shrink from applying it, and a mitigated power might practically be more powerful — to use a paradox. The *' suitable and sufficient dwelling-house ac- ^*.V \ i I i ip 312 THE COOLIE. commodation" was one of the matters by the Ordi- nance 4 of 1864, sec. 152, committed to the supervision of the Medical Inspector of Hospitals, who "was to report upon the state and condition of the houses, and the state and condition of the yard and grounds about the same." Section 129 had enjoined upon the manager the obligation of taking care that the yard and grounds for the space of fifty feet (when practicable) round about the dwelling-houses were well drained, and the drains clean and in good order, &c., the extreme penalty being $24. Certain police-officers, called Commissaries of Taxation, also had the duty cast upon them of entering the plantation once in three months, inspecting the yards and grounds, and, after notice and failure to comply with it, of laying an information against the employer. These pro- visions were so elaborate that no one seems to have mastered them. The Medical Inspector of Hospitals " never considered it his duty to do more than report on the state of repair of the dwellings ; the Immigra- tion Agents considered their primary responsibility on all matters connected with the dwellings to be at an end;" while the Commissaries exercised a discretion not accorded to them by the ordinance, and avoided raising unpleasant issues. Hence that state of the surface drainage about the houses on which I have animadverted in describing my visits to estates. Hence also the state of unrepair of some of the more ancient tenements. "In April, 1870, the Executive promulgated a rule that no new immigrants should be allotted until Dr. Shier had reported that there was house room for them on the estate ; but there is too AIDS AND REMEDIES. 313 much reason to fear that the very strictness with which this wholesome rule has been carried out, has, in the absence of proper airangements, tended rather to the disadvantage, both in quality and quan- tity, of the accommodation of the old immigrants. Of all the excellent dwellings which we saw in the process of building upon the estates, by far the greater part were intended for new immigrants ; whereas frequently we should have preferred to learn that their destination was to replace the very ruinous lodgings occupied by the old immigrants." In reviewing the persons by whom the rights of the Coolie are to be preserved, the magistrates necessarily occupy a prominent position. They are scattered over the colony, hence are more conveniently approached than the solitary Immigration Office, and indeed are now often applied to in matters not strictly judicial. In the enormous number of cases arising under the Immigration Ordinance, unless they exercise unusual keenness, industry, and watchfulness, they must inevitably do a considerable amount of injustice. Nothing, for instance, could be more demoralising to a magistrate's district than that he should be known to be an easy-going justice, accepting evidence with- out troublesome inquisitiveness, availing himself of the too extraordinary facilities for evidence-making afforded by the Immigration Laws. ** Asking no questions for conscience sake" would be the motto of such a justiciary. He would be beloved of pro- secutors—detested of defendants. Are there any such in British Guiana ? Mr. Des Vceux, himself formerly a magistrate, dis- -i' ' «ll 3H THE COOLIE. tinctly brought against his late brother magistrates the charge of undue subserviency to the planters, and it was a necessary subject of investigation. The Commissioners in their Report are inclined to attri- bute the principal evils of the administration of justice rather to the laws than to the justices ; but they seem not to have drawn from the facts stated by themselves the deductions warranted by them. The amount of space afforded to the hospitals in the Report seems disproportionate to their importance in the system. The management of these places is a matter of grave moment ; it respects the Coolie in his lowest estate; it undoubtedly may exhibit criminal abuses ; but, in looking at the immigration system, those abuses constitute a subordinate part of it; their management can, by stricter supervision and reorganised machinery, be made nearly perfect. But how are we to change a society ? How to secure a just administration of law? How to insure to the Coolie, well or ill, a safe resort in cases of wrong, oppression, and fraud ? This seems to me of infinite consequence. It concerns not only his physical health, but his welfare, his morality, his happiness. Therefore I should wish to have seen in the Report some larger attention paid to the great question of the magistracy of the colony. The difficulty in criti- cising such a body of men is that the innocent and high-minded necessarily get mixed up with the guilty. And there are men of high character among Deme- rara magistrates. In reading my observations on the magistracy, therefore, the reader should understand AIDS AND REMEDIES. 3»5 that though general in language, it is not intended to be general in its incidence ; and of the magistrates themselves no one will be offended who does not feel himself to be worthy of reproach. When testing a charge of subserviency and parti- ality against the body of magistrates in British Guiana, we must advert to the fact that they are placed in a peculiar relation to a subordinate class of another race, with a special responsibility arising out of that relation. An English magistrate, surrounded by constant witnesses of his proceedings, criticised by newspapers, watched by lawyers, and open to an appeal, will be necessarily careful to preserve an even balance in his adjudications, and is not likely to commit errors of set purpose. But if a judge, sitting in a court sequestered from public obser- vation, dealing with ignorant and puzzled natives of another race and language, in the presence only of spectators strongly interested against them, suffers himself, not once or twice or in one set of particu- lars, to be loose in administering the law, or to be one-sided in his leanings, there is no possible con- clusion but one. In addition to those grave evidences of magisterial weakness which have been animad- verted upon in former pages, it is my duty to refer to others. • . > ■ ■ Mr. Des Voeux alleged a "practice" — one of the many unhappy generalisations from very few par- ticulars used by him in the course of his long indict- ment — of winking at illegal summary arrests, made by order of managers, who are often justices of the r . 3' '- 'i !.r i !i . ill! IV 316 THF COOLIE. peace, on charges for breaches of contract under the Immigration Laws, which clearly did not authorise the proceeding. Thus it was suggested a man was, as a punishment, locked up on some slight pretence, who it was known would be discharged by the magis- trate at the next court. Mr. Des Voeux said that on becoming magistrate of his district he found persons in custody on such charges, and dismissed them ; that cases again came before him where planters continued the "practice;" and that his de- cided action thereupon brought him into odium. The Commissioners were unable to follow Mr. Des Voeux to the extent of his inferences. Nor was he himself able to produce evidence that covered his statements. Yet the Commissioners report as follows :* — " Two other cases are those of arrests for desertions. The charges in these cases were produced in court by Mr. Inspector-General Cox ; upon them there was an endorsement in Mr. Des Voeux's handwriting, * Discharged as being in illegal custody.' It appears that the only offence against the Immigration Labour Law, for which the arrest of an immigrant without warrant is authorised, is the being absent, without a pass, more than two miles from his estate. Such a person is commonly called a deserter ; but the legal definition of a deserter does not exactly coincide with that of an indentured immigrant liable to arrest with- out warrant. The deserter is a labourer subject to indenture, who has been absent seven consecutive days from the muster-roll and from work. If, ♦ Report, &c., f 19. AIDS AND REMEDIES. 3'7 therefore, the charge were laid as 'desertion/ and there was no warrant for the arrest, the imprison- ment would be informal, and the prisoner ought to be discharged. It seems, moreover, that there has been considerable laxity in the interpretation of the words, * found at a distance greater than two miles from the estate.' When a deserter is found he is taken back to his estate in charge of the police ; and it has often occurred that a manager, wishing to charge him with the offence, has at once given him in charge to the same policeman, and had him locked up, without waiting for a warrant. Thus, during this same year 1867, three immigrants, sent back to their estate from Georgetown, after a detention in custody of unusual length, which was due to the police miss- ing the steamer, were taken to Tiger Island, and upon their arrival at Plantation Hamburg were immediately given into custody by the manager for desertion, and re-transferred to the lock-up at Suddie. They were dismissed soon after upon the remon- strances of Mr. Firth, Sub-Agent of Immigration, who happened to be on the spot ; and on his report an investigation took place. It appears that they had, in fact, come to town to lay a complaint before the Immigration Office — an act which at the present time would not be a desertion, and certainly ought never to have been so held. A final minute was made on the papers by Lieut. -Governor Mundy to the following eifect : — . : " ' The Inspector-General to be requested to give particular instructions to the police not to detain ! I U- i.! 318. TWiT COOLIE. persons in the lock-ups without a magistrate's war- rant. These men ought at once to have been for- warded to Hamburg, and proceeded against by the manager by complaint and summons' (R. M. M., July 5th). ** For another instance of the same irregularity we beg to refer to Mr. Des Voeux's letter and evidence, and also to Mr. Trotman's evidence, for an account of the same case, in no material respect diffiering from this, as it appeared to the other principal actor in the matter. Such arrests have undoubtedly in former days been common, and in some districts are so still. Mr. Huggins tells us that if it came out in evidence that a deserter had been illegally arrested in the manner above described, he should consider it his duty to discharge him ; but that he has never pressed the point in the case of a desertion so far as to inquire where the party had been arrested. Mr. Ware in his evidence seems rather dozihtful whether the arrest under such ctreumstances is noty after ally legal; hut concludes that it is noty Whether these illegal arrests were or were not common throughout the colony at the time — as the Commissioners think they were not — the following order of the Inspector-General of Police, issued on January i6th, 1863, stands as an evidence that the Executive looked upon the matter with some anxiety : — " Representations having been made to me that some of the officers of the police in charge of stations are in the habit of receiving, and confining as pri- AIDS AND REMEDIES. 319 soners, persons charged with neglect of duty, refusing to work, being disorderly, and with committing ordi- nary assaults, petty breaches of the peace, and such- like offences, orders are now given that in future per- sons charged with the two first-mentioned offences are not to be received on any terms whatever," &c. If that order states the truth, and it must have originated in some singular condition of the police administration to attract so decided an ukase, the ma- gistrates, who would be the first to be brought face to face with the illegality, cannot exonerate themselves from blame, since they were bound immediately to discountenance it, not only by discharging the pri- soners, but by distinctly warning the offenders that they were laying themselves open to actions for false imprisonment. The Commissioners remark, by the way, " that in the present state of the law, to have an indentured immigrant (at all events) arrested on a trumped-up charge either of theft or trespass, would be a most unnecessary piece of chicanery. There is quite sufficioit facility afforded — too much indeed— for getting a convict io7i against any man whom a manager is at all likely to wish to punish, by means of a direct charge tinder the Labour Law" But, as I understand it, the gist of Mr. Des Voeux's suggestion is that, in these cases, the manager did not want a conviction, but a temporary punish- ment or fright, ending in a discharge. Let us take another instance. It may be convenient, but it is illegal and unjust, to try a number of persons in a batch for offences that could not be, or were not. i 320 THE COOLIE. !■!,, jointly committed. It would lift off the wig of an English judge with astonishment were he to hear of such a proceeding. How do the Commissioners report upon this ? " For the practice in Mr. Ware's court, Mr. Yewens, who was clerk there before and during Mr. Des Voeux's time, bears testimony that it in no way differed from Mr. Des Vceux's, but in some other districts his experience was different; and circum- stances have accidentally come before us which show us that a good deal of laxity has prevailed. For instance, one such charge was actually submitted to us by Mr. Ware, which had been taken in his district, although not by him. Another was heard by Mr. Dampier, magistrate in the West Coast district of Demerara, on the 22nd of June, 1870 — a charge in- formal in more than one respect, although a conviction was obtained. Besides the joint charge for an offence not joint, it specifies a task allotted to two, a thing not recognised by law, and allotted 1 oreover on two days, whereas the legal task is only o ^ day's work, and it is signed by an overseer * on behalf of the deputy-manager, instead of, as it should have been, by the deputy-manager, or whoever was the com- plainant, himself. Although this case became the subject of correspondence, and the papers came under the cognizance of the authorities, these irregularities do not appear to have been noticed. We have also found another instance, a case heard by Mr. Bury, which also became the subject of investigation and comment, though not on this ground, and we have no reason to doubt that there are others, the motive AIDS AND REMEDIES. 3>i apparently being, as Mr. Des Voeux says, that they may be disposed of more quickly."* On this the Commissioners make no comment, and it needs none : but they might have drawn a conclusion. Another instance arose out of a practice of the employers to force open the doors of immigrants' houses and turn them out to work. It is a very nice question whether the manager has not as much right to enter a Coolie house as a master has to enter his servant's room ; but it was considered illegal by some of the magistrates. "Upon this head Mr. Ware himself confirms the fact that such a practice was common, since he found it in existence after he resumed charge of the district. He then set his face against it, and in two instances imposed a penalty. We noticed that Mr. Des Voeux himself never found an immigrant willing to bring a complaint on this score ; and his accusation of the other magistrates is, under the circumstances, a little out of place. It is as follows : — " ' I frequently suggested to the immigrants, on their complaints respecting such acts, that they should bring criminal charges against the aggressors ; but although their fears invariably prevented their adop- tion of this course, I believe that the mere hint had the effect of checking a practice which I was given to understand had never before met with reproof from the Bench.' " Mr. Yewens says that he is well aware of the prac- tice, and of its always having been considered illegal * Report, &c., f 23. Y 322 THE COOLIE. wVv \\ \{ ii by the magistrates. As to the' practice of * turning out,' in popular parlance, we observe that it is in fact the regular morning duty of the overseers, or drivers, who are bound to see the people out at work, a task which requires great tact and tempr^ in the perform- ance, and for which it is hard to lay down a line where the transgression of the law begins and justi- fiable energy ceases ; a mere fault of manner will soon convert what is probably looked upon merely as a part of the disagreeable necessity of getting out of bed into forcible entry and intrusion, and a violation of the principle that every immigrant's hut is his castle. It is very likely that the sanctity of the latch is not sufficiently respected in Guiana; but if the people are aware of their rights, and in a position to enforce them, there is not much risk of abuse." It seems to me open to very severe observation, that other of the magistrates throughout the cclony, believing the practice in question to be illegal, should not have animadverted upon it with severity, and advised the Coolies of their rights. The poor people have no other adviser. We have seen that a magis- trate can advise a planter. A " common practice " coming to the magistrates' knowledge and permitted to continue unchecked, even up to the time of the Commission, can scarcely be passed by with a simple regret, especially if it be taken along with a number of other not easily explainable circumstances. In the case of that proviso of section 1 2 of Ordi- nance 9 of 1868, before alluded to, the conduct of the magistracy is yet more indefensible. It is not to be I AIDS AND REMEDIES. 3*3 expected that the unskilled immigrants will rake up a proviso, to use an expression of the Commissioners, "stuck into" the end of a long section. The proviso embodies one of the most valuable of Coolie rights — that of laying his complaint, if he has a reasonable one, before the Immigration Agent-General. Can we regard any magistrate refusing — as we found one doing — the right altogether, and a whole body of magistrates neither suggesting it to the Coolie nor recognising it, without suspicion ? Even Mr. Hincks, whose error was not undue partiality for the immi- grants, in one of his minutes (4th Feb., 1865) said: " With regard to the magistrates, I have to observe that I feel persuaded from my knowledge of what has been directed in other colonies, that the Secretary of State looks on the stipendiary magistrates as in a great degree the protectors of immigrants. There is no colony, I am persuaded, where the magistrates have so carefully abstained from putting themselve:< in the position of prosecutors as in this. But a magistrate is not to shut his eyes to gross abuses ! " The position is correct. • If the Colonial Office cannot show us on the magisterial bench in the colony a body of independent men, one of its main- stays in defending the Coolie system is gone. The relation of the magistrate to the immigrants —certainly a peculiar one for an administrator of justice under English forms — throws on him a weighty responsi- bility, and necessitates his doing far more than merely to hear and discriminate upon a one-sided story. He is to ascertain whether under any pro- 3H THE COOLIE. (Til • vision of the Acts any point can be taken in favour of the man who, with every disadvantage, stands before him, his very weakness pleading for justice. The Report of the Commissioners on the charge ot undue severity of sentences I transcribe verbatim ; * — '* The last and gravest charge against the stipen- diary magistrates is that of undue rigour in inflicting punishment on immigrants, defendants in labour cases. Mr. Des Voeux has supplied us with figures, by which it appears that the average of his fines was lower than that of other magistrates ; and from further experience of the wages earned in the colony, •he considers that his own mark was too high rather than too low. Mr. Huggins, while magistrate in the West Coast district, was found fault with on account of the lowness of his fines. Mr. Des Voeux's average for a month, taken at random, he gives at $2.50 for offences against the Labour Law ; for a month of Mr. Ware's he gives an average at I3.25 ; and for one each of Mr. Dampier's and Mr. Cox's $5 each. Mr. Dampier's average for a recent month, however, is given at $4. These figures we have not verified, but think them not improbable. It is to be observed that Mr. Des Voeux more seldom gave the option of a fine than other magistrates, especially in cases of desertion, so that the average of his fines as compared ♦with theirs is not the exact measure of his lenity. We regret to say that we are bound to consider this complaint as being to a great extent well founded. The subject is so important that we prefer to discuss * Report, &c., f 30. AIDS AND REMEDIES. 3»S it hereafter, apart from personal considerations. In the meantime, we acknowledge that Mr. Des Voeux has done good service in drawing public attention to the circumstances. As a matter of opinion, we agree with him that the magistrates' sentences are too severe. We do not, however, on this ground, subscribe to his charges of partiality and subservience against his late colleagues." The average of sentences of imprisonments without a fine in the county of Demerara was 28'8 days. For over 3,000 convictions the average for men is 39 days, for women 257 days. The average of imprisonments in default of payment of a fine is — men, 23-4, women, 20. Of imprisonment in default of payment of fine there were 5,218 against 3,078 without that option. The fines imposed as an alternative, which the immi- grants could not pay, averaged for males $6.47, and females %'].'] 1. The whole number of convictions in the county during five years was 10,555. The Com- missioners conclude that the number who go to gaol is over eighty per cent.y and the number who pay fines tinder t7venty per cent., of the total nnniber convicted. This would seem to some extent to modify the statements advanced by Mr. Oliver of the generally wealthy condition of the immigrants. The average over the whole colony appears to be $5 fine and twenty days' imprisonment. The reader who has read the evidence about wages, and who considers that only about forty per cent, of those working in a given week earned //z'd? shillings [i.e., 8d. over one dollar), and upward, may judge of r f 326 THE COOLIE. M ■ the severity of fines, the average of which is from ^6.50 to $5 ! They may also form their own opinion of the terms of mild deprecation the Commissioners use. I hesitate to say a qualifying word to the admi- ration and satisfaction which the Report merits ; yet I cannot but express my opinion that if half the severity expended on the luckless Dr. Shier had been assigned to this branch of the question, the value of the Report would have been materially enhanced. For the working key of the Coolie system is the magistrate's court. It must be admitted, how- ever, in some mitigation of too harsh a judgment, that many of the apparent imbecilities of magisterial administration in Demerara are due to the imbecility of the enactments ; hence these require the earliest attacks of reformers. Not alone do the Coolies mistrust «?ome of the magistrates. The Portuguese and Creoles are equally unconfiding. The former have forwarded to the Colo- nial Office a memorial complaining in very strong terms of the Magistrates' Courts. The Blacks do not appear to be better satisfied. One story told me, v/hich was, I understood, a current joke in the colony, concerned a worthy stipendiary, who, like brother stipendiaries elsewhere, sometimes fell into debt. A Portuguese creditor, after many vain applications, took out a summons against him in the Petty Debt Court, and the case came on to be tried before the delinquent himself. When it was called on — let us name it " Carvalho v. Smith " — Smith the magistrate, qua magistrate, called for the defendant, and qua Smith responded, *' Here !" AIDS AND REMEDIES. 327 Smith (magistrate, loquitur). — Well, Mr. Carvalho, what have you to say against the defendant ? Carvalho. — ^Why, sir, you know perfectly well you owe me the money, and have a long time since. I sold you, &c. &c., and I lent you, &c. &c., and I served the account on you, and you admitted it. Smith (magistrate). — ^Well, defendant, what have you to say for yourself ? Putting his hand to his mouth — Smith (as defendant). — Well, sir, I admit the debt, but I can't pay it just now. I am willing to pay it if I get time. Smith (magistrate to plaintiff). — You hear what the defendant says ; what objection have you to give him time ? Carvalho. — No, sir ! I will not give you any time. I have already been kept out of my money these many months. I will Smith (magistrate). — Oh ! you 7jmst give him time. Judgment for plaintiff: defendant to have six months to pay the money. Call the next case ! In the country districts 28*4 per cent, of all the cases heard by the magistrate are under the immi- gration ordinances.* Out of 31,900 cases returned for five years, 16,222 resulted in convictions. A large proportion of the rest were withdrawn or compromised, and a small proportion were acquittals. Nothing can be more significant of the course of justice tiian this ! It is incredible that this is a proper average of acquittals. In one district there were : * Report, &c., H 398. 1' : ", 'X: - •>■:- r ? i P'' 328 THE COOLIE. Charges Convictions . , 219 Acquittals ... 4 Withdrawn, t&c. . 523 818 Balance 72 81S In another district (Berbice River) in five years, out of 1,603 cases there were only 33 acquittals ; and in the last three yearSy of ']^t, cases not one has elided in an acquittal! This is simply monstrous. The Com- missioners suggest in mitigation of too harsh a judg- ment, that after withdrawal of half the charges, it is not likely that those persisted in will turn out un- founded ; but .s they have previously, and quite cor- rectly, stated that charges are constantly brought by managers as a means of coercion or punishment, with no intention of carrying them further, we must come back almost to a normal calendar in the numbers actually tried. The attempted palliation therefore has little weight. It seems to be too true that " to be pro- secuted is with an immigrant almost the same thing as to be convicted and sentenced." Happily the general percentage of charges resulting in conviction has been decreasing year by year.* Further, the Commissioners have entered into a calculation, based on the numbers of actually working immigrants, to show that, exclusive of a large proportion of sick, infirm, &c., half the immigrant population are con- tinually liable to punishment under the single clause requiring them to perform five tasks. f The holding, in a proper and trustworthy manner, of inquests on immigrants dying under any extraordi- * Report, &c., H 409. t Il>-, ^^ 4'4i 4iS« AIDS AND REMEDIES. 329 nary circumstances, is obviously a matter of necessity. If conducted by persons in whom the Coolies have confidence, it allays the too quick suspicions of foul play which a nervous and ignorant people are always ready to entertain. On the other hand, it is rendered imperative by the seclusion of estates, the opportunities for murder, assault, or poisoning, the general maintenance of executive discipline over both employers and Coolies. The situation of the planta- tions in Demerara gives rise to natural difficulties in obtaining trustworthy inquisitions. One-third of the justices of the peace are resident managers. They have the power of holding inquests. The jury con- sists generally of three persons. In many cases the jury is chosen from "the employes of the estate on which the decease occurred. The coroner is the neighbouring manager. Mr. Des Voeux discovered one case in which Mr. Menzies, the manager of Zeelugt, had held an inquest on a Chinese indentured on his own estate.* " It may be said, therefore, without imputing personal misconduct to the administrators of the system, that in those doubtful cases of death under circumstances of suspicion which will sometimes occur, as, for instance, where an immigrant puts an end to his life in a fit of misery or despondency, or where accidents happen in the buildings among the machinery, or where loss of life is due to the bad state of repair in which are many of the struc- tures upon estates, the colony has not sufficient security that the facts should be thoroughly and . * Report, &c., HH 287—292. ,^-' 330 THE COOLIE. liiv I impartially investigated. Two or three instances which were brought under our notice in consequence of complaints by immigrants, impressed us strongly with this fact. We do not wish to be understood to say that in any of these cases we had reason to doubt the accidental nature of the circumstances which caused death ; but it was plain that in the minds of the immigrants the investigation bore no satisfying character, a thing the less to be wondered at by our- selves after spending the time and pains necessary before we could assure ourselves that there was no ground for suspicion in the circumstances of the hasty and inadequate inquiry. , " Mr. Sheriff Fraser tells us that it is his habit to reserve all important inquests to himself — that is to say, he lets the justices of the peace know that he will always be ready to undertake them, and that all they will be called upon to do is in cases of emergency to swear in a jury, and take the medical evidence. That this rule, which there is no direct authority to enforce, is still not quite sufficient, we have a pain- ful proof in the circumstances of an inquest held at Goldstone Hall on the 6th day of December, 1869. The Coolies on this estate made a complaint that seven men had been pushed out of a two-story window in the overseer's house where they had gone to receive their pay. One was killed by the fall, one was since dead, and another a cripple. The loose- ness with which the evidence was taken, and some other unsatisfactory circumstances in the version of the story given to the Commissioners on the part of the estate's authorities, will be apparent from the A/nS AND REMEDIES. 33' notes of visits (Goldstone Hall), and from the report of the inquest printed in our Appendix. "Another case on Plantation Aurora, into which we found it necessary to inquire, did not appear to have been the subject of an inquest at all. In the absence of the manager, Mr. Trotter, pait proprietor of the estate, undertook to investigate the matter for us, and afterwards informed us in evidence that he had discovered an inquest was held, which, on apply- ing for the papers, we found to have takcti place after our visit had called attention to the subject., and three weeks after the occurrence. But the gravest of all the cases in this connection is that of the murder of Low- a-si on Plantation Annandale, on Friday, the 28th May, 1868, and repeatedly referred to in evidence before us.* In this case, a series of assaults of great barbarity were committed upon the person of a Chinese working as * boxman ' — that is to say, wheeling away the trucks containing megass in the buildings on an evening when, apparently owing to bad health and fatigue, he was unable or unwilling to work. Although it is not to be supposed that there was any definite intention on the part of the two overseers and drivers who were implicated, especially the head overseer and driver, in these acts of violence ; yet it would appear from the evidence taken before the coroner that a oX^diX prima facie case of murder existed against Matheson and Baker, the head overseer and driver in question. The inquest was held by a neighbouring manager, in favour of whose impartiality it is recorded * The recital of this case occupies a large portion of Mr. Beaumont's pamphlet, " The New Slavery," before mentioned. \", f i3^ THE COC^IE. \ :i .. .1 by Mr. Cox that on one occasion he sent on to the Supreme Court the son of the lessee of another estate for murder. The jury returned a verdict against the driver of * manslaughter,' and the coroner reported to the police that there was no evidence against the overseer, meaning apparently that there was no evidence against him to which the jury could have given credit. In the meantime, both Matheson and Baker had absconded on the very night of the murder, and warrants were out for their apprehension. On receipt of the private information from the coroner that there was no evidence against Matheson, Mr. Cox seems to have come to the conclusion that it was his duty, of his own authority, and without further inquiry, to suspend the warrant for his apprehension, at the same time that, with some inconsistency, he directed a prosecution of the driver, not for * man- slaughter,' in accordance with the verdict, .but for ' murder.' The proceedings in the inquest, ap- parently, must have been forwarded to the Attorney- General; but of this we are compelled to remain uncertain,, as also of the fact — which we should have considered hardly admitted of a doubt — how far the Attorney-General's responsibility in such matters covers that of the Inspector-General of Police. Mr. Gilbert, the present holder of the office, in his evidence seemed to consider this is a question of law so doubt- ful that he would not be justified in stating his opinion on oath, or in any other than in the professional form. " Baker the driver was caught in Trinidad, brought back, and tried for the murder. Matheson is reported to have remained in hiding until intimation was con- *ti.>l^ I AIDS AND REMEDIES. 333 veyed to him that he was not * wanted,' under cir- cumstances implying that considerable interest was being made to protect him from the law. Finally, the driver was acquitted. Whether the jury thought he was being made a scapegoat for a crime for which his superior was more responsible than himself we cannot say ; but we can hardly suppose that if both the perpetrators had been put at once upon their trial, it would have been possible for them both to escape without punishment. " The conclusion we draw from these and other cases is, that the English notion of a coroner's jury is utterly unfitted for the country districts of British Guiana. We recommend that the duty of holding inquests be transferred to the stipendiary magistrates, or coroners specially appointed, that the jury be dis- pensed with, and that the magistrates be required to report directly to *-hr Attorney-GeneraU on aP cases of death by violence, or under suspicious circum- stances, stating whether, in their opinion, there is ground for a prosecution ; but if not, reporting to the Attorney-General all the same. The duty of deciding in such cases whether or not a warrant is to be enforced should also be clearly made and recognised as part of the Attorney-General's functions." There are other very painful conclusions to be drawn from this transaction. » ; The number of floating stories, among the Chinese especially, of murders or suicides occurring on various estates, which, it was alleged, were never disclosed or made the subject of inquests — the ghastly fables of hanging men, cut down and forthwith buried where 33^ THE COOLIE, ai ;. i they fell, all that were investigated turning out to be untrue — proves that the extreme suspiciousness of the immigrants requires extraordinary care and attention to repress it. I go no further than that. The Com- missioners, I am very happy to see, and as I antici- pated, find that instances of personal cruelty on the part of managers are very rare. They are not so clear about the black and Coolie drivers ; but the less cause there is for suspicion the more policy is there in placing these dangerous questions beyond the pos- sibility of a doubt. To sum up, therefore, the natural conclusions from this chapter. To the Immigration Office should be restored its lost powers of an original and originating department ; as a necessity arising out of that, the Agent-General is required to be a man of consider- able ability, tact, and force of character. The Medical Inspector of •Hospitals should have placed at his dis- posal funds for prosecutions, and should not threaten, but prosecute. The flagging zeal of Commissaries of Taxation should be spurred by a strong hint from his Excellency, the Governor. To enable the Coolie, and all acting for him, to resort with confidence to the seats of justice, the greatest care in the selection of able and independent magistrates should be exer- cised by the Colonial Office. Gentlemen-justices of the p< ace should be abolished in the colony, and the aquests held, as the Commissioners sugges't, by the stipendiary magistrates, without a jury. I should hope none of the great planters, either in the colony or at home, would offer any objection to this re sonable programme. CHAPTER XXIII. MEDICAL INSPECTOR, DOCTORS, AND HOSPITALS. AVERY large portion of the Report of the Com- mission is devoted to the subject of health, hospitals, and the medical staff. The valuable section on " Mortality and Acclimatisation " will be found in the Appendix.* I do not propose to enter at any great length into this subject, as it appears to rae to be a subordinate one in relation to the general purpose of this review. Enough has already been said of the dwellings, the drainage about them, and the absence of legal en- forcement of penalties by the medical or other autho- rities. The planters are showing so much energy in improving their dwelling accommodation, that one may hope before long no pressure, legal or otherwise, will be needed in that respect. The water supply — a matter of no small interest in a colony where nearly all the good drinking-water is collected from the skies during the rainy season — is, as yet, rather imperfectly provided for. Generally the immigrants are obliged to drink the bush-water, * Appendix F. 336 THE COOLIE. W 'A- \ which is charged with a great quantity of organic matter ; and though one ot the managers assured me that every day when he went " back " he took a large bowlful as an alterative — a process which, if per- sisted in, ought, I should say, to convert him into a fine specimen of moco-moco weed — there is no doubt that this water, seldom obtainable from the trenches with the limited purity even of its native woods, is an unhealthy beverage. Many proprietors are now importing from England large tanks of iron, and no doubt will find, in the improved health of their immigrants, the double recompense of greater use- fulness and happiness. The hospital system of British Guiana is rather elaborate, and gives rise to one of the largest items of expense in estate management. Every estate, before immigrants are allotted to it, is required by law to have a hospital suitable and sufiicient for the immigrants on the estate; and if at any time it is made to appear to the Governor and Court of Policy that any such hospital is insufficient, or the arrange- ment is in any respect defective or injurious to the health of the patients, the Governor and Court of Policy, by order under the hand of the Government Secretary, may call upon the proprietor or lessee to provide additional accommodation or remedy the defect.* Why the Legislature should be mixed up in a matter purely Executive will be a natural ques- tion to any one considering the above enactment. The existence of an Immigration Office and of a * Sec. 127 Ordinance 4 of 1864. "'V«as,«^ MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 337 Q>i a Medical Inspector of Hospitals is disregarded, though we should naturally look to one or other of these powers to take charge of this matter. Further, the proprietor or lessee of every estate on which immigrants are situated is bound to employ a duly licensed medical practitioner, reporting his name to the Government Secretary.* The rradical practitioner is to visit the estate " at least once in every forty-eight hours, Sundays excepted, unless in cases of emergency," when the manager is bound to bring before him every immigrant needing medical assistance. The doctor is then required to make certain entries in register and case books, to be produced by the manager. He is, unless the nurse shall hold a proper certificate of competency for the purpose, himself to make up all the medicines which, during his visit, he may order for the patients. He is bound to inform every patient in the hospital of the scale of diet ordered for him ; and the articles are to be supplied by the manager, properly cooked and fit for use, unless, for reasons of caste, the pa- tient desires it uncooked. Further, on the doctor is laid the duty of " taking care that the hospital, with all bedding, utensils, and appliances belonging thereto, be at all times kept clean and in proper order, and diat there be at all times an adequate supply of the medicines required by law, of good quality ; " in default of which he is required to make a note . in the register, for the information of the manager. The doctor is subjected to a penalty, not to exccid * Sec, 133 Ordinance 4 of 1804. 338 THE COOLIE. il ^^^B 1 1 I^^H m % \M' $24, for default in complying with any of these in- junctions. The proprietor or lessee is also to employ one nurse, or more, when specially required to do so by the -^ledical practitioner, or by the Medical Inspector, in cases of unusual sickness, and a female nurse if there be any female patients ; these persons being removable on a certificate of unfitness by the Medical Inspector.* Another section f enacted that the Colonial Sur- geon-General, the Medical Inspector, and one other medical practitioner, selected by the Governor and Court of Policy, having already framed and submitted for the approval of the Governor and Court of Policy a list of medicines, and the quantities of each to be kept in each estate hospital, and likewise a list of the bedding, utensils, and other appliances, to be supplied for the use of the same, and copies of such lists as approved having been transmitted by the Government Secretary to the proprietor or lessee of each plantation, or his representative, such pro- prietor, lessee, or representative shall be bound from time to time, when necessary, to replace any such appliances which may be lost or worn out. The statement that the Committee had already framed such a list turned out, on examination, to be a legislative fib ; and afterwards the Committee, instead of framing it as enjoined, reported that " the provisions of the ordinancey as it stands^ are sic^cient for the attainment of the objects in vieWy and that it is unnecessary to com- * Sec. 134 Ordinance 4 of 1864. f lb., sec. 135. MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 339 m- plicate viatters hy further regulations !! !" I should hope that such a Report by official Commissioners appointed by statute to do a certain thing is unique within British dominions. The Legislature had decided that further provisions and regulations 7vere necessary; but these gentlemen — one the Medical Inspector of Hospitals — naively disagree with the Legislature. Disagreement often exists between a Legislature and those whom its laws affect ; but the former generally gets its way, or hands the protester over to justice. In British Guiana the Legislature, or the Executive, were not so unreasonable. The three committeemen had the pleasure of repealing an Act by a letter. Similar provisions * with regard to diet lists, and rules and regulations for hospitals, were also deprecatingly waived by the same Commis- sioners. Resort was however had to a circular issued under a former ordinance.f Under this circular suitable and sufficient hospital accommodation was defined to be : — That a kitchen should be attached to the hospital; that there should be a bath-room, a tub, and a suffi- cient supply of water ; a water-closet on the same floor as the hospital, together with two movable night- chairs ; that the hospital should be a building with at least two apartments for the accommodation separately of males and females ; that each estate possessing not more than fifty immigrants should have hospital accommodation for ten beds ; from fifty * Sees. 137, 144 of Ordinance 4 of 1864. t Ordinance 17 of 1859. i ^ ■ li M ji Wi ■1 I iM u .1 340 TI/i: COOLIE. to one hundred, fifteen beds ; and five per cent, for every additional hundred ; that between each bed there should be a clear space of three feet, and when the beds were placed in rows there should be a clear space of six feet between the rows, and nothing less than 1,000 cubic feet of air to each patient ; that each bedstead should be supplied with bed and pillow sack, with suitable dry material for stuffing, together with two sheets and a blanket ; that for every bed there should be a washstand, basin, chamber utensil, tin cup and plate ; that attached to each bed should be a black board, on which should be written the patient's name, date of admission, medicines and diet last ordered, and at the head of each bed should be a small shelf. This, then, was the ample machinery provided by the law for securing comfort and attention to the sick Coolie. The machinery was ample, but the performance came very far short of the promise. In hardly one particular can it be said that there were not many and flagrant evasions or breaches by all concerned, from the Executive to the sick-nurse, of the conditions thus laid down. In discussing this question, which is one Avell calculated to heat sensation to a boiling pitch, let us, to be just, consider the difficulties which lie in the way of the planter in coming up to such exacting regulations. Any one glancing over them must see at once that the expense of the provision here required will be very heavy. It falls upon the planter at the time when, perhaps, he needs all his MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 341 capital for the development of his estate. It is a continuous and heavy deduction from his profits or addition to his losses. He is simultaneously deprived of his workman's labour and charged with the ex- pense of keeping and healing him. Moreover, when he most wants immigrants, and has to find a large sum of money to obtain them, he finds himself forced to expend money to enlarge his hospital and stock it with the necessary furniture. The burthen is spe- cially great when the estate gets into difficulties, when it is hovering between bankruptcy and success, when certain ruin must ensue if immigrants are withdrawn or fresh ones denied, and yet the rrs angust(E prevent the fulfilment of the necessary condi- tions precedent. Now all this exhibits the difficulties, but it affords no answer to the reformer. The easy retort to planters in every stage of progress or decay is — No proper medical provisions, no immigrants. The immigration system is one that can only be successfully carried out by wealthy capitalists. It is worse than bad policy — it is cruel — to encourage speculative enterprise in any business in which the welfare of immigrants is in jeopardy. Hence, I expect it will be found that the sugar estates of Guiana will be absorbed by rich pro- prietors in proportion to the rigour with which the Executive enforces the conditions of the immigra- tion contract ; a process not to my mind undesir- able. The main questions that arose before the Commis- sion upon the medical management of estates are 3 + 2 THE COOLIE. H ; divisible into the questions of personnel and of plant and material. The supervision of the system is confided to the Medical Inspectorof Hospitals, an office at present held by Dr. Shier, a man of high scientific attainments and unusual abilities. It is his duty to visit every hospital in the colony once in six months, and at each such visit carefully ascertain whether all the provisions of the ordinance within the scope of his jurisdiction have been duly complied with, and in every case of omission or violation of them to direct the manager or the medical practitioner, as the case may be, to remedy it. Furthermore, he is, if necessary, to make a representation to the Governor and Court of Policy. He might also set in motion the law in particular cases of abuse, a power which, in the chapter on Remedies on the Coolie's behalf, vras shown to have been held in abeyance. In fact, Dr. Shier took ten years to consider whether he ought to put in force against managers the terrible sanctions of $24 penal- ties. The Commissioners have commented with some severity upon Dr. Shier's administration. I select from the Report the few paragraphs which describe, more significantly than any other I could select, an incident which illustrates the character of Dr. Shier's supervision, the amazing long- suffering of the Executive, and the cool, leisurely indifference with which gentlemen connected with a magnificent estate treated every one else but themselves. Anna Regina is owned by Mr. Thomas Edward ^loss ; the attorney of the estate, Mr. Josias MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. H?, Booker, was a member of the Court of Policy ; Mr. Griffin S. Bascom, the manager, was also a mem- ber of the Court of Policy, and one of the financial representatives.* " Dr. Shier defends the course he pursues because, if when he was appointed he had commenced a pro- secution for every departure from the ordinance, it would have been a ' dead letter ' at this day. He thinks there would have been no possibility of the hospitals attaining the state they have now arrived at ; and that it would have raised a spirit of antagonism instead of willingness to do what the law requires, and that he would have been foiled at every corner. We cannot, in examining the records of the inspec- tions, find much difference in the requisitions made on the 14th and intermediate inspections, and those made on the 21st;; they appear much of the same nature, and to be attended to, or disregarded, much in the same manner. •' Dr. Shier considers the violation of rules he dis- covered mostly trivial, and declares that if they were of serious moment it would be matter of very great uneasiness. We notice, however, neglect to build hospitals when required, occasionally under circum- stances justifying the imputation of a L^each of faith ; or to issue as rations the proper diet, and sick people kept in the cold for want of blankets, — which are not trivial violations of the rules. Dr. Shier's remarks, in such a case as Anna Regina, show tluit he does not look upon them as such, while Columbia, Haar- * Report, &c., HII 800-805. 344 THE COOLIE. lem, and Houston, to all of which we shall refer in detail hereafter, appear almost equally bad. " We cannot find that Dr. Shier ever enforced an observance of his instructions bj' means of the law, or that he ever, by mentioning a time within v/hich an alteration was to be made, took pains to put himself in a position to enforce it. " Until the 19th inspection, May, 1869, the notes and records were sent to the Immigration Ofiice, from thence submitted to the Governor, and if instructions were to be issued upon them, they were issued by the Immigration Department. In May, 1869, the plan was changed, the notes were submitted to the Governor, and the orders issued direct by the Government Secretary. We do not find any perceptible difference in the manner in which these orders are received and attended to, by the persons to w^hom they are ad- dressed ; they do not appear to pay more attention to the orders from the Government Secretary than they did to those coming through the Immigration Office. We have not been able to find a register of unan- swered references in either office, but on inquiring in the Immigration Office for the answers to forty- two letters, we were furnished with sixteen, and in- formed that twenty-six could not be found. So in the Government Secretary's Office we received ten answers only, out of twenty-nine that we asked for ; showing in both instances that about one-third only of these communications are answered. There are of course some letters answered in the best and most effectual manner, that is, by the work required being MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 345 done ; and then the neglect in answering the letter is a mere want of courtesy. " But to return to Dr. Shier's requisitions to build new hospitals. In December, 1866, Dr. Shier, at Anna Regina, ' requests that as little delay as pos- sible be allowed to take place in the erection of a new hospital.' " In October he writes, * New hospital now in course of erection, and will be ready for occupation ist January, 1868 ; if the wards are properly laid out this will make a very commodious hospital.' * I did not approve of the site.' 'April, 1868, new hospital being finished, and will be in use, it is thought, in a fortnight.' * October, 1868, old hospital still in use, requests that every effort be made to have arrange- ments in the new hospital completed so that it might be occupied as soon as possible. It is very much to be regretted that so much time has been consumed in completing and occupying this hospital. On the 14th April I was informed that the occupancy of the building was expected in a fortnight, and yet, six months later, matters are found in exactly the same condition. It appears that the contractor broke down in the fulfilment of his contract ; but the great cause of the delay is doubtless to be attributed to the cir- cumstance of the manager having to leave the colony in bad health. Had failing health not compelled him to be absent for several months, I feel sure the hospital would have been finished and in use soon after my visit in April.' 'May, 1869. To my regret and amazement, I found the old hospital still in use. The 34^ THE COOLIE. ■-! i %y' li; # u : i. remarks which I made in the foregoing entry regard- ing the manager, I have now to retract as being thoroughly inapplicable. I find that the manager had taken up his abode in the new hospital while a new residence was being built for himself. // is to he remarked that frei^h allotments of immigrants hare been made during the whole period. It is true that there has been comparatively little mortality among the immigrants, yet I can see no excuse for this most extraordinary conduct on the part of the manager. I cannot but look upon it as a breach of good faith.' " On this Mr. Crosby remarks, * There has been an application for 175 indentured immigrants for the season '69-70. I have allotted 25 to the Anna Regina estate by the Far East, 1869. I am of opinion not another immigrant should be allotted to the estate, or a single other immigrant, except such as already reside on the estate, be paid bounty. This is one of the finest estates in the colony, one of the most productive, and the proprietor is a very rich man.' "In November, 1869, Dr. Shier found, 'New hos- pital in occupation, bui only since the day before. This is one of the most unwarrantable cases of delay that has come under my notice, and strongly exhibits the apparent indifference of the manager to the comfort of the people intrusted to his care. The hospital is very scantily supplied with hospital furni- ture and requisites. It is stated that bedsteads, bedding, &c., have been ordered from England. Eighteen months have elapsed since I was informed that the hospital would be in occupation, and surely 'U^:^ MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 347 ample time has been afforded to provide everything necessary for hospital use.' ** On this the following letter was written to Mr. G. H. Bascom, and his answer follows : — \ ' "< 3rd December, 1 86f>. " ' G. H. Bascom, Esquire, *' * Sir, — The Medical Inspector of Estates' Hos- pitals, in his recent Report on his inspection of estates in Essequibo, remarks on the delay which has oc- curred in the occupation of the new hospital at Plantation Anna Regina, and states that it is very scantily supplied with hospital furniture and requi- sites. " * He adds that he was informed that bedsteads, bedding, &c., had been ordered from England, but as eighteen months have elapsed since he was told that the hospital would be in occupation, ample time has been afforded to provide everything necessary for hospital use. His Excellency trusts that this matter will receive early attention. " * I have, &c., (Signed) " * J. M. Grant, Government Secretary.' " ' Pin. Anna Ilcgina, loth December, 1869. " * Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your communication, No. 2,484, in reference to the hospital on this estate. In reply I beg to state that a new building has just been erected, at a cost o£ over $6,000 to the estate, containing the extent of .H« THE COOLIE. W i| !■ I iloorage and cubical contents prescribed by law, for the accommodation of 8o patients, being the propor- tion for a resident population of 8oo immigrants. Forty-eight iron bedsteads, and the proper amount of bedding and hospital furniture required in addition to the present furnishings, have just been shipped from Liverpool. " * I have the honour to be, vSir, your obedient Ser- vant, *' • G. H. Bascom. " * To the Honourable James Grant, Government Secretary.' " This was referred to Dr. Shier, who made the following note upon it : — * The Executive was in- formed eighteen months ago of the erection and capacity of this hospital. ]\lr. Bascom gives no reason why the hospital should have remained so long unapplied to its proper use ; nor why the neces- sary furnishings should be now only shipped from Liverpool. "'D. S., 1 8th December, 1869.' " Still, in ]May, 1870, Dr. Shier found the hospital with strangers in it, the apartments under the hospital still used as a writing-room by overseers and clerks, and one of the wards used as a medicine room, while patients are under treatment in it. The writing-room was to have been cleared without delay six months before. An office has been built within fifteen yards of the hospital, and the room, it was said, would now be vacated. Dr. Shier adds: 'What amount MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 349 of quiet and comfort these patients can enjoy in the bustle of a medicine apartment may readily be judged of It is from inconsiderate and unwar- rantable practices like these that the Estates' Hos- pital system in this colony is rendered liable to just censure.' " Upon this, Government wrote to Mr. Bascom that, * unless the suggestions made from time to time by Dr. Shier are not at once carried out, all further allot- ment of immigrants will be stopped.' " The Executive appears to have been as disgrace- fully chary as Dr. Shier in bearding so powerful a con- junction as the manager and attorney of this estate. It was, no doubt, one arising during its transitional development by means of the arriving Coolies, and could be defended on that ground with much plausibility ; but it is clear that, whatever sacrifices require to be made in such a process, the Coolie should not be called upon to make any of them, still less to be subjected to awkward and even perilous inconveniences. Before leaving the Medical 'In- spector of Hospitals, it should be mentioned that the criticisms passed upon him by the Report do not fall on narrow shoulders. Though he was affected with Scotch timidity in using his powers, and was too often hoodwinked by clever managers, his great energy, constant attention to business, and the shifts to which he put himself to avoid accepting managerial hos- pitality, deserve honourable notice, as I hope they will get their reward. Even the Commissioners have a word of excuse : " We have seen how the 1." 350 THE COOLIE. '¥: I Immigration Agent-General has been deprived of his powers, and it is but natural to suppose that Dr. Shier took warning from what he might have seen in the Immigration Office, and contented himself with leaving it for the Government to notice, if they would, what he found wrong on the estates, satisfying him- self with having laid the case before the Executive. That course was not contemplated by the law, but it * seems consonant with the system on which the de- partment is administered.'' The doctors, as I shall term them, avoiding the euphemism of the ordinance, are appointed by the proprietors or attorneys. Hence the very responsible duties they have to discharge, both to the Government and the Coolie, are performed subject to the appro- bation of their employers, the managers. On the face of it the position is untenable, and facts and criticisms explode it altogether. Many of the doctors in the colony are men of very considerable attainments, and great skill in their profession. But the temptation to undertake more work than they can v anage is dangerously strong. Of the duties cast upon them, the Commissioners have found several instances of neglect. The visit every forty-eight hours, which is carefully made by the Georgetown doctors, is some- times in remoter districts reduced to twice a week, or less. The injunction that the doctor should make notes of the cases in the register and case book was ad- mitted not to be usually observed. The compound- ing of the medicines by the doctor, insisted upon by ? MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 351 the ordinance, except in certain specific cases, is never undertaken by him. Again, patients are not generally informed by the doctor of their diet. The attention given to the furniture and utensils appears to have been discreetly indifferent. " Dr. Dalton would not notice them at all unless brought spe- cially before him ; and the medical practitioner at Eliza and Mary considers it his duty not to notice anything only when * glaringly wrong, that is, very much out of order.' That being the general rule, we were not surprised at finding all the defscts and deficiencies we have already noticed in hospitals we visited." On the other hand, Dr. Hutson assured the Com- missioners that he always found the managers most willing to carry out any suggestions made by the medical man. It is needless to go any furthei into the medical attendance of the estate. Its ability and integrity have been found consistent with great abuses and evasions of the law. The relation, on its present basis, is, as I have said, so indefensible in principle that it must give way before the alteration advocated by Governor Scott, and adopted in Trinidad, namely, the conversion of the doctors into Government officers. The independence of the medical officers who super- vise the treatment of Coolies is essential to its proper performance ; and no other consideration is worth the thought. As to the nurses, on whom too much of the real medical treatment of the Coolie depends, there is :>">■ THE COOLIE. I '•! l4i^:^_L, reported to be a peculiar opening for improvement Many of them are licensed by the Colonial Hospital, holding "certificates of competency;" others have undergone " probation and examination;" others are undoubted casuals. The law requires no qualification, and there are managers who, in that particular, respect the law. " At Golden Fleece," say the Commis- sioners, "the nurse, a respectable woman, who had been there about three years, had the charge of the hospital, and iiiadc up and administered all the medicine ; she had had no training except having been a year at Taymouth Manor and for a month at the Colonial Hospital, ' and learned nothing.' " They are lucky imn)igrants whose employer mixes the medicines him- self, as he may under the ordinance. As to the hospital buildings, and furniture, and patients' clothing, the energetic investigations of the Commissioners have accumulated a mass of facts running through all stages, from amusing to revolting. Dr. Shier himself had already, in one of his reports, noted that " where the estates' hospitals are not in a satisfactory condition, it will be principally found that it is on the estates on lease, estates in the market to be sold, and estates partially or wholly in the Admi- nistrator-General's hands." This the Commissioners confirmed. To such causes it must be partly attri- buted that the various rules as to the proportionate number of beds, spaces between beds, cubic feet of air to each person, are not unfrequently disregarded. The Medical Inspector also said in one of his reporcS : " I cannot but notice how frequent the disposition is, (( MEDICAL INSPECTOR, ETC. 353 when retrenchment of expenditure must be made, to commence with hospital expenditure." At the inquiry, Dr. Shier was asked whether he had ever heard that the expression was a common one, "Hospital ex- penses must be kept down." In answering yV ^ CHAPTER XXIV. MORAL AND MATERIAL WELFARE, AND CONCLUSION. TO complete our review of the Coolie's position in British Guiana, we must take a glance at its bright side and its hopeful circumstances. For in my opinion the system has broad shoulders, and if the criticisms advanced in the preceding pages should appear to any whose interests are involved dispro- portionately extended, or in some instances severe, that, they should remember, is almost an inherent difficulty of criticism, one only to be neutralised by duly calling up to the mind the extent of counter- vailing matter that has afforded basis for so much remark. Any one who has seen the Coolie in British Guiana is forced to admit that he has undergone a change for the bette. The faw^ning and crouching gait of the Asiatic has been transformed into the inde- pendent, and even proud, walk of a better race. Men of low caste and lower hopes have acquired what to them is wealth ; and many have improved in every way under the discipline of labour. There is now, I should judge, a most hopeful field for education. The number of schools is as yet inade- CONCLUSION. 163 quate to the requirements of the colony ; but two Indian- gentlemen — one a clergyman of the Anglican Church, the other a Wesleyan — appear to be. taking great interest in remedying this defect, as well as in endeavouring to disseminate Christianity among people situated, one would think, in peculiarly favourable circumstances to receive it. But as yet missionary effort has made no impression. It is possible that were the managers and overseers more frequently married, and were they and their wives imbued with religious sentiments, the powerful in- fluence they could then bring to bear on their immi- grants would result in a considerable conversion to Christianity. Tiopical Christianity is, however, a plant of curious and difiicult growth. * " The defenders of the Asiatic immigration to the West Indies have always been careful to point out, besides the material advantages offered to the immigrant, the prospect of moral improvement which it opened to the race. It has been held up as a means of carrying Western civilisation, and even Western faith, to the nations of India and China. No doubt the planting of an Asiatic population in the West Indies, if it lives and takes root there, cannot be without important influence upon the habits and characters of those who are so transplanted, and it is impossible to doubt that with the means of material advancement fairly opened to them, moral progress may be Expected to follow in its train. " For the present this great experiment in colonisa- * Report, &c., 5111 891, 892. ^'W. .. x-Ji ™ 36+ THE COOLIE. tion is merely in embryo. The Coolie and the Chinese population has only to a small extent taken root in the soil. Little or no familiar intercourse has sprung" up between them and the European and African races, and there is hardly any intermixture of blood. It is not surprising therefore that to all outward ap- pearance the Coolies are as much East Indian, and the Chinamen Chinese, as when they first landed in the colony. They acquire after some years the use of an English patois, more or less intelligible. They shake ofF, no doubt, a good many prejudices, and be- come more sensible than when in their o\/n country of the world of ideas which lies without them ; and all that we may say, however, of their acquirements in the direction of European cultivation is, that they show a readiness, in small matters of dress and habit, to engraft other fashions upon their old Oriental ones." A mere sight of the Coolies, as I have described them, in Georgetown streets, on my first arrival, shows that in material prosperity a large number have benefited by their introduction into the colony. Many of them invest their bounty-money in a cow, and from the sale of its milk continue to increase their wealth until they can buy another. Some own as many as six or seven. Others drive a less healthy but more profitable busi- ness in lending out their money on usury to the new Coolies, who before they are acclimatised can rarely earn enough to live upon. One sharp Indian, who took a great interest in the Commission, and gave me a great deal of information, brought me a list of debts due to him on one estate amounting, I think, to nearly ^m CONCLUSION. 365 1 |i,200. If this was proof of need it was also proof of well-being, and a considerable evidence of confidence, on the part of my friend, in the ultimate power of his countrymen to repay him. On many estates the Coolies are allowed free pasturage for their cattle ; on others — as at Leonora — they are allowed to tether them on the ground near their houses, and to cut grass upon orders issued by the manager, which he reserves to himself the right to cancel. The number of immigrant depositors in the British Guiana Savings Bank on June 13th, 1870, was 1,817, and their deposits amounted to $i38,4.?5.i3, over $70 a head. The very large amount of silver, and even gold, worn on the persons of the Coolie men and women is of course not calculable ; but ic is enough to convey an idea of a wide distribution of wealth. Much of this, no doubt, is the mere product of the indenture money, and not very much of it the result of regular earnings, as the rate of wages given by the Commissioners indicates :* " From papers sub- mitted by the Immigration Agent-General the Com- missioners gather that in twelve ships which sailed with returning Indian immigrants between the 15th November, 1834, and the nth November, 1869, 2,828 immigrants took away with them money acquired in the colony to the amount of 1453,369.70, or ;^94,452 oj-. 5^^. The whole number who have returned is 6,281 ; but the money of those who went by five ships out of twenty was not officially remitted, and cannot now be ascertained. The return of the * 1111854,855. !:.:-« 366 THE COOLIE. il Emigration Commissioners for 1870, which includes some items estimated rather than ascertained, gives a total of ;^ 1 16,473 175. bd. It seems of little use to calculate averages in this connection, or to guess at the amount of cash and value of jewellery on their persons, which the immigrants very carefully conceal. The number of those who go back is but a small fraction of those who come, and no attempt has hitherto been made to discover whether the method by which the well-to-do among them have made their money was one equally open to the majority of their compatriots. "To the above estimate must be added 42 1 passengers who embarked by the Ganges on the loth September, 1870, carrying with them through official channels $47,438.95. This convoy we had an opportunity of inspecting before they set sail. There was one man, aged thirty-nine, with his wife and three children, all born in the colony, who took back $1,100 of his own, and $200 in the name of his wife. Another, with wife and two children, took 1 1,000. It seemed to be the fathers of families who had thriven best ; but we did not succeed in finding any one who had made a large sum of money without having been aided to his wealth by trade and having lived for some: time in the colony as a free labourer. In particular, we noticed each of the two families above mentioned as having come from Berbice, wiure they had been engaged in cattle farming. A third, returning with his wife, and with the reputation of being rich, took with him officially $800. He, however, had come out CONCLUSION. 367 but eighteen months before, was paying his own passage back, and had made his money in the interval by begging, in his character of a Brahmin." According to the planters' returns, the amount paid to the immigrant Chinese and" Indians last year amounted to more than |2,ooo,ooo. Taking a fair review of the whole system, it is one which, spite of its disabilities, its dijfficultieSy its present evils, is full of promise, and in my belief can be made, with care and skill and honest endeavour, not only an organisation of labour as successful as any hitherto attempted, but ofie leading to almost colossal benefits. In considering the general relation to each other of the Coolies and planters in British Guiana, it is clear that for the permanent benefit and community of both, the policy of the Colonial legislation must needs be considerably altered. It has hitherto been a policy of coercion where only a policy of broad and liberal kindness can succeed, or indeed be admissible. It has conferred unlimited power on the planters, and reduced that of the Coolies almost to nil. When pressure becomes so tighi;, its natural effect is seen in Leonora riots and murders or half-murders of managers. One improvement ought not to be overlookea. It has been most sagaciously hinted by the Commis- sioners that while the legal rod has been rather strictly applied, the incitement of reward has not been held out to the immigrants. "It is our belief that in confining themselves to the penal aspect of the labour system and ignoring 368 THE COOLIE. its possible milder side, the planters have missed a necessary element in carrying out with success their great experiment. In the neighbouring colony of Surinam, the apprenticeship of the slaves, which will terminate this year, has been regulated ir part by this principle ; and the ndentures of all immigrants imported into that colony have contained a similar provision. Three hundred tasks, regulated by a fixed tariff, are prescribed to be performed during the year. The task is heavy ; but it can be exceeded by a good labourer within the working hours of the day. Apprenticed slaves who have performed their fifteen hundred tasks have been set free already, before the expiration of their indentures : whilf the Barbadian, who has bound himself for three years, has the satisfaction of knowing that he can hapten his enfranchisement by performing his nine hundred tasks within the time. It is a noticeable fact that under this system, which certainly does not err on the side of liberality in matters of detail — in the number and nature of the tasks required — the Sur- nam planters have been able to do what no Demerara planter has accomplished, namely, to get the Barba- dians to indenture themselves for a period of years. The labourer perceives, on taking bounty, that he will be able to make some profit out of his bar- gain by working himself free before the expiration of the term for which the bounty is calculated ; and the employer reaps at least a compensating advantage in the saving of supervision and hospital expenses, which follows upon his Barbadian - indentured a CONCLUSION. 3t>9 labourers doing each the work of two." I have sug- gested that a similar tariff to that of Surinam should be adopted in Demerara, and on that basis this arrangement also might be introduced. The Com- missioners propose as the limit of measurement under the peculiar wages-standard of British (xuiana, the task money-value instead of the task of the Dutch tariff. This, although they have proposed to do away with the provision which enjoins performance of five such tasks per week as a minimum of labour. It would appear more symmetrical, however, and that not seldom means more politic, to make the standard of reward correlative with the standard of punishments. I am convinced that the more deeply the matter is investigated, the more clearly it will appear that many of the difficulties and anomalies of legislation and cidministration in British Guiana, are due to the attempts constantly made to bolster up their im perfect standard of wages. Anyone who will read the sketch of "A Satis- factory Penal Labour Law " in the Report,* will, I think, agree with me that it is the least satisfactory of its suggestions. It professes to offer for vague terms others more definite and more easy of appli- cation. It proposes to inflict fines or imprisonment for the offence of " wilful indolence," for the reason that " In all good penal laws there must be some one word at least which will admit the equitable juris- diction of a magistrate." Moreover, if I understand their proposal, the labour is to be measured by time * See fir. 435—440. B B 370 THE COOLIE. and no' by results, a method which I fear any planter would consider, with anything short of exces- sive overseering, quite impracticable. Indeed, this attempt, by minds so capable, to construct a satis- factory penal law consistent with the present wages- system of British Guiana, proves its impracticability. The further proposal in the Report that the Ih'rei, or book of v/ork, should be given to each labourer to check off his own daily work, seems admirable, and will probably not be objected to by the Demerara managers. The legislation of the future needs to be largely in the direction of facilitating the Coolie's own remedies, and of increasing the protection to be afforded to him. by his appointed guardians. By assenting to this, the planters can lose nothing but money, if they even lose that, while they will giin in self-respect and in the greater happiness of their workpeople. Under any circumstances, England cannot be forgetful of her duty to her ignorant and un- protected Indian subjects. The more firm and manly our voice on the question now, the better will our purpose be appreciated by the planters, and in my heart I believe the better chance will there be of a kindly settlement. If we can avoid putting the whole system on defence for its life while we indicate and strive to remedy its blots, we shall find, as I can v(mch from my own knowledge, among the most powerful planters not only friendly but earnest allies. Another point of great importance calls for our constant attention. It should be carefully borne in CONCLUSION. 3V mini that Coolie immigration in the West Indies, and especially in liritish Guiana, is in a state of transition. The supply of labour is gradually creep- ing up to the point at which it will meet the demand, and a wise forecast dictates that it should never be allowed actually to reach, certainly never to overlap, that line. At the present moment a fall of one half- penny . pound in sugar would on many estates make the difference between a large profit and a dead loss ; a fall of one penny a pound would, according to Mr. Oliver, make the best estate in the colony lose money. Greater fluctuations, or a protracted fall — things which are not impossible, especially if beet-root culti- vation should be introduced, as it is likely to be, into Ireland — might severely test the ability of the plant- ing community to carry the enormous artificial burthen of labour it has imposed upon itself. The failure of a few large estates in British Guiana would give the Government no easy problem to solve, since it is scarcely probable that at the same time an expansion would be occurring on other estates, sufficient to absorb the aumbers thus thrown back on the hands of the Executive. To this contingency our own Govern- ment is bound to look forward with a very jealous regard. There is danger that speculators, in the pur- suit of profits, may not have their eyes open to the results of failure. An inordinate immigration, causing an inflation, at any time liable to collapse, would, on that cqllapse, be least damaging to the speculator ; it would throw th^ Coolie on the tender mercies of Government. The tender mercies of Government are 37* THE COOLIE. often like those of the wicked. At present there is a temptation, natural and not easily reprehensible, to the planters to forget the future, and to look only to the smooth-sailing success of the present. But, if Coolie immigration is to continue, they must lay now the foundations of its permanence. It cannot be permanent on its present basis. The artificial immigration " 'ust gradually give way to a system more and more natural, as the reasons for its artificiality cease to exist. We should look forward to the time when immigrants shall leave India for British Guiana, if at all, on a freer engagement, and when a large proportion of those who immigrate shall establish themselves in the colony, and build up a new system of labour. The planters are just now content if they get ten years' service out of a man, and send him home again. But the proportion of those who return to the numbers arriving must yearly become less ; and to meet the consequent state of the labour market both restraint and forecast will be required. At this moment, for instance, there is an indisposition on the part of the Executive to encourage the settlement of Coolies on land. Eager to make their money, and to go elsewhere to spend it (one can hardly blame them for it), the planters are jealous of establishing a system which, however politic f^r the time to come, appears at present to be restricting the numbers of cheap labourers. Only the strong resolution of the Home Government can regulate this movement ; one which alone will place the future of the Coolie in Guiana on a safe footing. CONCLUSION, 373 IS a It is possible this might for the time put a check on the rapid extension of cultivation ; but the check would be a hv^althy check, and in the long-run lead to the best results for every one concerned. In taking leave of my subject, it only remains to me to hope that my endeavour in this inquiry to strike the even balance between truth and right has not been unsuccessful. I have spoken freely. Should I, in the course of a review of such numerous and complicated incidents, relations, and interests, have unconsciously done injustice to any person, or to any portion of the subject, it will cause me a very deep and lasting regret. APPENDIX. APPENDIX A. MR. DES VCEUX'S LETTER. Government House, St. Lucia, 2$th Decetnber, 1869. jV/T Y LORD,~I have long had the intention, which I have -*■ been prevented by various causes and lately by the pressure of other public duties from carrying out, of drawing your Lord- ship's attention to the state of the Colony of British Guiana, where I was lately holding the appointment of stipendiary magistrate when your Lordship graciously acceded to my application for promotion. 2. But in view of the serious disturbances which lately took place at plantation Leonora, and the more recent meeting of West Indian proprietors in London, which has shown that, while alive to the unsettled state of the colony, and anxious of obviating its effects, they are either unaware of, or are regardless of removing, its causes, I felt that I should no longer delay the performance of what I conscientiously believe an obligatory duty. 3. Knowing as I do that there is a very wide-spread dis- content and dissatisfaction existing throughout the immigrant population, both Indians and Chinese (and especially among the latter, though their small numbers make the fact less apparent), and believing as I do that these ill feelings, which have already vented themselves in disturbance, will ere long, unless checked by remedial measures result in far more serious calamities, and believing also that my five years' peculiar experience in the colony enables me to throw a light on the causes of grievance, which may not reach your Lordship % 378 APPENDIX. from any other source, and may be useful at the present moment, I trust that I need no other apology for communi- cathig with you on a subject unconnected with my present duties. 4. If your Lordship should approve, I would in a future letter explain the peculiar grievances of which the Chinese have to complain, and which I believe to be so real and just as to furnish a strong argument against a renewal of that description of immigration, unless under far more stringent supervision. At present I propose to confine myself to those suffered by all classes of immigrants alike. 5. To superficial observation it would seem, that persons who have been rescued from a state said to be bordering on desti- tution in their own country, who are provided with free house- room, regular work and wages when they are in health, and in sickness have the advantages of a hospital, the attendance of a medical man and medicines free of expense, who have more- over a magistrate always at hand to hear their complaints, and a dejxirtment of officers with the especial duty of securing their good treatment, can have no ground for dissatisfaction. A closer scrutiny, however, would detract much from the apparent value of these advantages, and would show that some of them at least are more nominal than real. 6. I propose to point out that each of them is in fact a separate cause of discontent, and in each case most respectfully to suggest what appear to me the best remedial measures. 7. And, first, as to the medical men who attend estates. These gentlemen have the right tc retain as patients in hospital all sick immigrants, and to order for them at the estate's expense nourishing food and medicine. It would be thought that managers would always see their advantage in providing these of good quality. I fear, however, that there are many who are not sufficiently enlightened to take this view, and I have strong reason for believing that on some estates the food at least usually provided in hospital, in all but the severer cases, is of a wretched description, and that this fact is well known to the medical men, who dare not make complaint. APPENDIX. 379 present ommuni- present a future lese have ist as to scription >ervision. d by all sons who 3n desti- e house- h, and in mce of a ve more- ints, and •ing their tion. A apparent of them [n fact a pectfuUy res. estates. hospital expense ?ht that ng these who are ^e strong at least s, is of a n to the 8. I am, moreover, confident that it is a common practice of medical men to discharge immigrants from treatment before they are completely cured ; and to this may be attributed a large proportion of the cases of so-called idleness which are brought before magistrates. By the strict letter of the law, an indentured immigrant is bound to do his daily task of work, if he is not in hospital ; and though the magistrate has a dis- cretionary power of declining to convict, if he believes the accused is physically unable to work, it is difficult for him, on account of the accomplished malingering propensities of the Coolies, to decide in other than extreme cases against the expressed opinion of the doctor. 9. The consequence of this I believe is, that of the great numbers of immigrants who are weekly committed to gaol for breaches of contract, a very considerable proportion are con- victed of neglect to do what they were physically incapable of doing ; and whether my belief is just or not, I know that a sense of the injustice of such convictions is a very potent cause of the prevailing discontent. 10. The remedy which I would most respectfully suggest for this serious evil, and which I have urged without success on more than one Governor, is simple. 11. It is to make the estates' medical men Government officers, payable either out of the Immigration Fund, or by a tax directly levied for this purpose on the proprietors. 12. At present their tenure of office is almost entirely dependent on the will, or rather the caprice, of the managers of estates. Several of the most upright of them have at difierent times deplored to me their position in this respect ; and have shown me that any serious complaint on their part in respect of abuses which they saw going on under their eyes would only be followed by the loss of their liveli- hood, and the instalment in their practice of less scrupulous practitioners. 13. It is scarcely to be wondered at that few are to be found sufficiently high-minded, especially when they have famiUes dependent upon them, to adopt so dangerous* a course. One, 38o APPENDIX, i however, to my knowledge, did so, and he has in consequence, though known to be of great skill and ability in his profession, obtained but a very small practice, while estates almost at his door were entrusted to a person who is notoriously incompetent. 14. I could mention several startling instances from my own observation of the evils attending this dependence of medical men. But two of more than ordinary gravity your Lordship will probably deem sufficient for my purpose. 15. (i.) A Chinese immigrant had been dreadfully beaten by an Indian watchman, while in the act of stealing. He was taken * to the estate's hospital with five fractures of limbs — two compounds and three simple, both legs and both anns being broken, if I recollect rightly. His wounds were dressed by the sick-nurse, but the doctor on arrival ordered his removal in a cart to his own estate, a distance of two and a quarter miles, the very day on which he had received the injuries. The natural result followed. The patient died the next day. On the inquest, held before me as magistrate of the district, the doctor justified his order on the ground that the man was " doing extremely well " (if I recollect the words rightly) when he was removed, while another medical man, whr' attended the patient on his own estate, gave his opinioi. that he would probably have lived but for his removal. I sent the proceed- ings in this case to the Attorney-General,* but no notice was taken, as far as I know, of the doctor's conduct, who sacrificed a life in order to save a trifling expense to his employer. 16. It is a significant fact that this gentleman, although holding a lucrative Government appointment, and having a large practice in town, is employed by several large estates at a distance of several miles, and that some of these are sepa- rated from him by the river, which, owing to the ferry-boat ceasing to run, is practicably impassable at night, while they are within easy reach of two equally competent but reputedly more scrupulous medical men residing on the same bank of the river. 17.(2.) A Coolie boy about twelve years old, a general * Mr. Trounsell Gilbert, acting. I APPENDIX, 381 favourite on his estate, had been barbarously murdered for the sake of the silver and gold ornaments on his person. An inquest had been held before an ordinary justice of the peace, and an open verdict returned. On reading the evidence, I ordered the examination of the body and a further /^j/ tnorteni examination. Your Lordship will find it difficult to believe, but it is nevertheless true, that it was then for the first time discovered by the surgeon that one of the boy's arms had been cut off. The nature of the first examination can therefore be imagined. 18. The medical man who was thus neglectful of his duty has one of the best, if not the best, estate's practice in the colony ; and although resident in town, is allowed to have the sole medical charge of a hospital, which in my time contained frequently over eighty patients, at a distance of seven miles, and several other hospitals at distances of from four to six miles, one of them in a direction opposite to that of the others. 19. The present Governor contemplated, he informed me, a reform of this and similar abuses, and I can well understand that the heavy legacy of duty and difficulty which was left to him has prevented its speedy accomplishment. 20. These illustrations of the system of medical attendance were both derived from my personal experience in one district. From all accounts I believe them to be by no means excep- tional, and I would remind your Lordship that there are ten other districts in the colony containing sugar estates. 2 1 . The reform which I propose would not only render all the medical men more fearless in the performance of their duty, but would give even the more conscientious among them increased power of usefulness. Their practice would be con- centrated, and they would avoid the necessity which now exists of making visits at long distances, while rivals are in charge of hospitals in their immediate neighbourhood. The change would therefore b^ an equal boon to the profession and to the immigrants. 21.* The independence of the stipendiary magistrate is of even greater importance to the immigrants than that of the 382 APPENDIX. doctors. But, at present, these officers are almost ecjually, though not as directly, subject to planting influence ; and their decisions, in consequence, are, I believe, the chief cause of the prevailing discontent. They have, for the most part, risen from inferior positions, end have been long resident in the colony before their appointment as magistrates. They have thus insensibly acquired that awe of the powerful planting^ interest which more or less pervades all classes and reaches to the highest places. 2 2. Moreover, while by their antecedents and their educa- tion they are, as a rule, not superior, in position and emolu- ments they are actually inferior, to the managers of estates who form their society, and are the chief suitors in their courts. 23. Again, these latter are enabled by the large resources at the command of the estates, in many ways (singly too insigni- ficant to describe) to soften the harsher features of the magistrate's life, and have still larger means of heaping upon him trouble and annoyance.* 24. Your Lordship will readily understand that against such persons and in the courts of such magistrates an immigrant is by no means certain of obtaining his rights, and I do not hesitate to assert, not only from what I have commonly heard, but from personal observation, that they do not ; and that they are thus often reduced to a position, which in some respects is not far removed from slavery. The most trifling * As an illustration of the low comparative estimation in which the stipendiary magistrates are held in Demerara, I may mention that they are habitually known among persons who claim to represent "education and intelligence " by an opprobrious nickname peculiar to tliat colony. The Government, moreover, in its public notices, assists in degrading their, position by almost always, if not always, placing them after " the Gentle- men in charge of estates," As to the character and social position of these, I would refer your Lordship to the report to his Government of a highly educated and intelligent Hungarian gentleman, Colonel Figglcmesey, who is Consul of the United States ; a report which, though made by a comparative stranger in the colony, and within a year of his arrival (1864), confirms to a great extent many of the statements of this communication as to the condition of the indentured immigrants. APPENDIX. 383 offences too often subject them to loss of wages and exorbitant fines, or the alternative of certain punishment in gaol, and they are governed, not by kindness and good treatment, but through fear of the severity of the law.* 25. There are some well-known managers who give out publicly that the immigrants on their estates shall be alvvays, during the hours of work, either actually at work, or in the hospital, or in gaol ; a rule which can undoubtedly be enforced by the strict letter of the law, but which, invariably and rigorously carried out, inflicts extreme hardship in many in- dividual instances, especially in the case of women who are enceinte,\ or nursing young children, or when the immigrants are weakened from the effects of fever and illness, but being convalescent are not retained in the hospital. 26. It is commonly said that the Governor has the power of counteracting the influence of the planters to a great extent by changing the districts of magistrates who have become too popular with them. But this power, instead of checking, has, as frequently used, contributed in fact to increase this influ- ence ; for it is generally believed, whether truly or not I forbear to express an opinion, that changes of districts, which have been ordered of late years, have been brought about not on account of the magistrates' familiarity with the planters, but of their being obnoxious to them. Changes, unless for some • I speak only of the majority of the estates. Tliet are a very few notable exceptions, which, as will be shown below, have reaped both direct and indirect advantages from the better treatment of their labourers. t A manager was once highly indignant with me for refusing to punish for neglect to perform the ordinary task of work a woman who pleaded .her delicate condition in this respect, and was evidendy by her appearance near her confinement. He actually went so far as to appeal from my decision, as a means of testing my riglit to withhold a conviction on such a ground. I may mention that the support of my decision in this and other immigration cases was one of the chief real, though not ostensible, causes of the hatred of the planters for the late unfortunate Chief Justice, a gentle- man who incurred far more hostility in Demerara from his many sterling virtues, than from the indiscretion which was the cause of his removal from the Bench. 384 APPENDIX. private reason specially asked for, are as a rule dreaded by magistrates, on account of the great expense which is neces- sarily involved. Owing to difficulties of carriage and, too often, of pecuniary embarrassment, they are obliged to sell their furniture and effects. The price realised by these, owing to the persons in a condition to purchase being mainly planters, is notoriously dependent on the popularity among them of their owner. 27. So that to avoid not only removal, but the loss con- sequent on possible removal, the magistrate has an induce- ment to curry favour with the planters. 28. In order to convey to your Lordship a real and vivid illustration of what I have above described, I am reluctantly compelled, from want of other means of doing so, to relate somewhat minutely my own personal experience ; though I have the le:s fear of incurring suspicion of egotistic motives from the belief that I have already gained your Lordship's good opinion, and the knowledge that any material reward which I could hope for any service in Demerara has been already obtained from your Lordship's favour. 29. In February, 1867, during the absence on a year's leave of the regular magistrate, having been previously in a district containing only one sugar estate, I was appointed, in highly complimentary terms, by Major Mundy, then administering the government, to take charge of the most populous and im- portant district in the colony : a recognition of my public merits the more honourable to its author in that there were at the time existing causes of private difference between us. 30. The gentleman who had been my predecessor in the district is by common repute one of the best and most im- partial of the magistrates. He is possessed of some private means, and as the district extends to an equal distance on either side of Georgetown, and thus enables residence there, he is comparatively independent of the planters and their society. He is moreover from his age, long service, and experience entitled to more than ordinary respect. 31. His district, as I found it, may therefore be taken, APPENDIX. 385 for my purpose, as a fair, if not a favourite, sample of the others. 32. Almost the first, if not the first, week of my entry upon my new duties, I found confined in the " lock-ups " of the police stations a number of persons, and immigrants among others, who had been arrested without warrant, on the mere order of managers of estates, for neglect of duty and other simple breaches of contract. On thcmere sight of the charges I, of course, discharged them, as being in illegal custody, and, continuing this practice subsequently, I at once aroused the indignation of several influential managers, who severally, at one time or another, in no very courteous language, threatened legal proceedings and other means of intimidation. But find- ing that their pressure did not affect my course, and that it was moreover supported by the law, they devised various con- trivances to evade its effects. 33. I should be occupying too much of your Lordship's time by particularising these, but I would venture to describe one as characteristic of the class which furnished its author. 34. The magistrate sits as a rule only once a week at each police station. From the knowledge of this the expedient* was adopted of sending the prisoners to the lock-ups the day after the court, in order to insure their being at the least a week in confinement, " remands " being provided from brother managers who were also justices of the peace. 35. To defeat so glaring a breach of the law, I was obliged to order the police at each station to forward me daily returns of the prisoners, and thus the evil was eventually checked. 36. I found that it had been the practice to bring before the magistrate for breaches of contract the immigrants of parti- cular estates in gangs, for the purpose of their being tried altogether, and thus more rapidly disposed of, and my refusal to allow this practice was taken as a great grievance. As the and * Subsequent experience lias convinced me that t^is expedient is a com- mon one throughout the country, even in tlie districts of the most compla- cent magistrates, as it insures some punishment, is done with perfect impunity, and obviates the trouble of prosecuting in court. C C ■\ '; n 386 APPENDIX. charges are nine times out of ten for various forms of neglect to work, an offence which, except 'n the rare instance of a conspiracy, is never "joint," and involves in each case different circumstances and a different line of defence, your Lordship will understand that my course was necessitated by the com- monest dictates of justice. Though, possibly, in the large majority of cases the immigrants are really idle and culpable, the practice which I have described must have rendered it almost impossible to detect the exceptions. 37. I found in existence a practice, which I believe is still prevalent all over the colony, of forcing the doors of immi- grants' houses for the purpose of what ib called turning them out to work, and also of doing the same and searching their rooms without warrant for stolen goods, and even sometimes when there was only a suspicion of theft. I frequently sug- gested to the immigrants in their complaints respecting such acts that they should bring criminal charges against the aggres- sors ; but, although their fears invariably prevented their adoption of this course, I believe that the mere hint had the effect of checking a practice which, I was given to understand, had never before met even with reproof from the Bench. 38. I found that invidiously distinct positions in court were assigned to managers of estates, some of them, on the ground of their being justices of the peace, being allowed to remain on the Bench even during the trial of their own cases.* This may seem a trivial matter, and m England it probably would be so, but it is otherwise in a country where race-jealousies are so predominant, and where suspicion of undue favour is so easily and often, I fear, so justly aroused. Indeed, my further experience convinced me more and more that the tolerance of such a practice was the origin of much discontent, as giving the appearance of partiality even to the conscientious magistrate. 39. In this district the ordinarily extreme severity of the * One of these indeed was made highly indignant by my refusing to permit his whispering to me upon the subject of a case before me in which he was complainant. APPENDIX. 387 magistrate's work, which involves the trial annually of between four to five thousand separate informations and complaints, besides inquests and depositions for the Superior Court, was greatly increased in my case, not only by attempted reforms of the above abuses, but by another circumstance for which I was in no way responsible. 40. The regular clerk (only one is allowed) went away on leave, and when I had, after great trouble, educated his locum tcnens to work of which he knew but little before, the latter was removed at three days' notice, and in spite of my firm and most respectful remonstrance, and replaced by another, who had actually no acquaintance whatever with the routine of a magistrate's office ; consequently I was obliged, though in very- weak health, after sitting the greater part of the day, to spend a large portion of the night in teaching the simplest duties of the otlice, rather than give my openly-avowed enemies among the planters, who believed that they were supported by the Governor,* the opportunity of complaining that the district \. ork was getting into arrear. 41. No complaint was, or ever could have been, made against me on this ground, and I can conscientiously say that I performed the whole of my duties thoroughly, and, as I have reason to know, to the satisfaction of the large majority of the inhabitants of the district. I was, however, for reasons not stated to me, removed from the district at a few days' notice a month before the expiration of the leave of the regular magii-- * This belief was a matter of notoriety, but in proof of it I may mention that one of my most determined and powerful enemies, whom I had curbed in various illegalities, delayed for two months, while Major Mundy was acting, and until the return of Mr. Hincks, to make a complaint against two of my decisions, which I venture to say was not only groundless, but should never have been entertained by the Executive. I respectfully remonstrated against its being referred to me, both the acts complained of being the proper subject of legal appeal, but with no other effect than a reprimand. I should, however, never have referred to the subject again, but that I am otherwise unable to show in the strongest light the pressure under which a magistrate may be subject in Demerara, and how veiy strong are his inducements to quietly submit to the planters' wish. ■r wk 'f:i|i m Lvl : 388 APPENDIX. trate, and the public naturally concluded that the planters had been the cause. 42. After an interval of eight months, during which I had no concern with immigrants, 1 was again, at a few days' notice, and without reasons given, and at an expense of ;^2 5o to myself, removed * to another district which I had been offered and declined a few months before, my respectful request for only a month's delay on the ground of peculiar inconvenience to myself being refused. 43. In the new district, called that of the West Coast, which is only second in importance to that above mentioned, I found all the abuses before alluded to existing in an even more exag- gerated form, aiid moreover that cruelties were being practised on the immigrants, apparently without check or hindrance. 44. The manager of the largest estate, which, as making annually close upon two thousand hogsheads of sugar, is second to none in the British possessions, was brought before me on the complaint of a Coolie for assault. 45. It appeared from the evidence that the man had been knocked down for leaving the sugar-house at eight o'clock on Sunday morning (a day on which the immigrants are legally entitled to rest), he having been at work, with the mere inter- mission of nif j,ls, from an early hour on the Saturday pre- vious.t * Two days before this occurred I had firmly but respectfully declined to disclose officially a private conversation which occurred at my own table. t I have strong reason for believing, though the fact is concealed from llie authorities, that it is no uncommon practice to enforce from the immi- gi ants (in spite of the law) from sixteen to twenty hours' work in the sugar- lionse. In proof, I may mention that a part proprietor of several large estates, Mr. Quintin Kogg (a partner in the firm of Bos;mquet, Curtis, & Co.), expressed to me, during his visit to Demerara last year, his horror at finding that tiie immigrants on one cf his estates had been for some days worked for twenty-two hours per day, and added that the manager was ; ygrieved at his interference in ordering the employment of relays. It is hardly possible to conceive tuat human nature could have stood so severe a strain, and the time may have been exag„'erated ; but inasmuch as the blatement, as coming from a proprietor, was in the nature of a confession, it coiilti hardly have been far from the truth. APPENDIX. 38Q :ers had I I had notice, 46. Another manager, at, an almost equally large estate, was proved before me to have knocked down a Coolie immigrant and to have kicked him repeatedly while on the ground, causing bruises about his chest and other parts of his body. 47. With respect to this " gentleman," I further was informed afterwards that he had been repeatedly guilty of similar acts, and that the sufferers had been either afraid to complain, or believed that there would be little use in doing so. On one occasion, however, the assault had been upon a Coolie who had saved money, and who, having employed a lawyer, conir pelled his assailant to pay a large sum to compromise an action for damages in the Supreme Court. 48. In these cases I fined the guilty persons heavily, and informed them that a second offence w aid involve either im- prisonment or the sending of the case before the Supreme Court. I believe that this had the effect of checking the evil to a great extent for the time at least. But it is a significant fact that the first of these offences was committed on plantation Leonora where the disturbance broke out three months after my departure. 49. The reform of all these abuses" was not accomplished without arousing against me again the enmity of the planting body, while my compulsory residence among them gave them opportunities of displaying it in a more disagreeable form. 50. The simplest and plainest public duty, whenever clash- ing with the supposed interests of an individual, was instantly treated as a personal injury. Beginning with the withdrawal of ordinary courtesy, the managers, as one after another was inter- fered with in his malpractices, at length in concert began to subject me to a series of petty insalts and annoyances which were beginning to make life intolerable. Without a description of these your Lordship will readily understand that they were easily in their power in the case of one who was living alone upon a sugar estate (no house being procurable elsewhere), and whose only neighbours were persons connected with the plantations. 51. After other expedients had failed of effect, and a new f A^ 390 APPENDIX. i> ^ Governor having by this time arrived, they at length attacked me in the press, availing themselves of a newspaper called the Colonist, which is the organ of the planting interest. 52. I mention this, because the occasion which called forth the attack singularly illustrates the spirit of the planting body. 53. The person offended I had believed to have been more high-minded than his fellows, and capable of appreciating strict penormance of duty, even when apparently adverse to his own interest. For this reason, and because I was informed that he never entered a magistrate's court, I had accepted from him a short time previously some trifling hospitality. 54. However, when I had discharged from custody, as being in illegal confinement, three of his Chinese labourers, who had been arrested in their own houses, without warrant, for mere breach of contract, this gentleman came deliberately down to the police station, where I was holding court, and grossly in- sulted me before a crowd of people and a large number of managers, who had evidently collected for the purpose of wit- nessing the scene. Having no power of committing for con- tempt, I could merely order his removal from the court, but as he was a special justice of the peace, and, therefore, the last who should have set such an example, I appealed in person to the Governor for the purpose of having him removed from the Bench. But neither on that occasion nor on any other, except during the short regime oiM.2i]Ox Mundy, did I receive support from the Executive against a planter. I was in too weak health (having been unable for some weeks previously to walk without support, and been subject to continual attacks of fever) to press the point warmly at the time, and your Lordship's gracious offer of my present appointment reaching me immediately afterwards, 1 was relieved from a painful position which my physical con- dition could not have supported much longer. 55. The article in the Colonist of March 2nd,* above re- ferred to, while ostensibly written for another purpose, set forth the real grievance against me, viz., that I did not " please The article refened to was published on March 24th. — [Ed. C] APPENDIX. 391 the planters." As to my particular act complained of, viz., the discharge of the three Chinese, the essential fact is omitted, that their arrest had been without warrant. While I, of course, took no notice of the attack, I found an unexpected defender in the Creole, the organ of the coloured races. The articles in that paper of the 29th and 31st, though containing trifling errors and remarks which might have been better omitted, are never- theless a complete answer to the attack, and are most useful as showing the opinion of intelligent coloured people on the manner in which justice is usually administered. Ultimately, the planting organ threatened an appeal, which was, however, very advisedly never attempted, as the exposure of the legality of my course would have precluded from a contrary one more complacent magistrates in other districts. But a movenT^nt was on foot when the news of my promotion arrived to obtain from the Executive my removal from the district, though I have no reason to believe that such pressure would have had any effect on Mr, Scott. 56. Had I been ever unduly lenient to the coloured races,, and could I have been considered in any sense their cham- pion, it would have been easy to understand the estimation in which, I am proud to say, I was held by them, and the bitter enmity of the planters. But this was very far from being the case. No magistrate was, I believe, ever more severe on proved crime and misconduct, and in proof I may mention that in the eleven months during which I held office in the first district named I ordered more flogging than had ever taken place before in a similar time, and out of a population of twenty thousand at tne most I sentenced over twelve hun- dred* to imprisonment with hard labour, and of these probably two-lifths were indentured immigrants convicted chiefly of breaches of contract. During the same time, however, I have the authority of the chief of the district police for saying, that the ''feeding returns" of the "lock-ups" had been reduced by :m • T bnve not the returns by me, but I know that these figures are con- siderably within the mark. I 392 APPENDIX. more than one-third, wjiich aflbrds some indication of the extent to which improper imprisonment had been previously carried. 57. I have, as I have said, entered thus minutely into my personal experience simply and solely as the only means vithin my power of proving to your Lordship that under the present system in Demerara independence and impartiality on the part of magistrates is not and cannot be the rule, and that the dis- content which pervades all the labouring classes might under the circumstances be naturally expected. 58. If there was, as I trust there was, an exception in my case, I take no credit to myself whatever. Had I lived as long as most of n: brother magistrates amidst the demoralizing influence of the all-pervading West Indian moral cowardice, or had I, as they mostly have, a family dependent on me, my course might have been, though I trust not, only parallel with theirs. At all events, the difficulty and even danger of any other would have been vastly increased. 59. For the reform of the system described, of which I trust I have shown the extreme and urgent need, I would most respectfully suggest the following measures as the only ones which in my opinion would thoroughly meet the exigencies of the case. 60. As I consider that the attempt would be hopeless to obtain impartiality from district magistrates in Demerara, and it is yet desirable for the sake of order that those officers should still reside in the country, I would suggest that the creation of a new and superior class, with sole jurisdiction in all cases, both civil and criminal, between employers and employed, both indentured and free, and in cases of trespass.''' They should be required to reside in town, and to hold a court at each * A common practice exists among managers of estates which are con- veniently situated for the purpose of coercing the neighbouring villagers to work for them by vexatious charges of trespass. I have l..own cases where individuals have been thus charged for using a riglit of way wliich had existed for many years, though hundreds of others were passing over it daily whom there was no intention, or even desire, of prosecuting. APPENDIX. 393 police station not more than once a month. They should moreover be invested with a power of summarily punishing illegal stoppage of wages, and also false arrests and imprison- ment, both in its authors and its agents : the ordinary redress of a civil action being practically out of the reach of ninety- nine labourers out of a hundred. 6i. The residence in town would secure them against much of the pressure above described, and the diminished frequency of courts would check the tendency of governing immigrants by fear rather than by good treatment.* 62. Except perhaps at first, (.he new measure need be attended with no expense. The district magistrates, being relieved of a large portion of their work, would be able to take charge of much larger districts, and would be able to take exclusive charge of coroners' inquests, which, when before ordinary justices, are not only attended with expense, but, as I have shown, are most unsatisfactorily conducted. 63. Seven district magistrates would, therefore, amply suffice, instead of twelve, and thus ;;^3,5oo a-year would be saved for the payment of three circuit magistrates. 64. Finally, with respect to these ofticers, I would respect- fully suggest that they should be appointed exclusively by the Secretary of State, and from persons who had had no previous connection with the West Indies, except perhaps in an inde- pendent position, such as the army, or otherwise the object of the new creation would be partially defeated. 65. The eftect of this reform would be, I feel confident, the removal of much of the prevailing discontent, not only among the immigrants, but among the Creole labourers, who are also under the present system too often, on insufficient grounds and * That this is not only possible but profitable, I would mention the notorious fact that some of the most successful estates (as once admitted by Mr. Hincks in the Court of Policy) are those which least frequently trouble the magistrates. Mr. Clementson, a late member of the Court of Policy, who is in some respects the most successful planter in the colony (having from veiy humble beginnings acquired a large fortune), has not for y«ars charged an immigiant with breach of contract. 394 APPENDIX. t on hardly plausible pretences, deprived of their rightful wages. Another though less potent cause of discontent among the immigrants is their house accommodation. 66. Although I believe it would be found on inquiry that the immigrants are allowed considerably less room on the average than convicts in English prisons, I do not allude to the question of " cubic space," for even if the importance of this subject has not been too much exaggerated elsewhere, I believe that when houses are as little impervious to the air as those of the lower classes in the tropics, bad ventilation, if an existent evil at all, is the least of those produced by over- crowding. 67. The great majority of the houses in the " nigger-yards " (as they are still ordinarily called) which are allotted to immi- grants, are built of two stories, and consist of a number of very small rooms. These are ordinarily, as far as my limited observation has extended, from nine to ten feet square, and are divided by thin and easily-scaled partitions. 68. Most managers have, I believe, though I am far from sure, been compelled to allow a separate room to each married couple and their children, though three, four, and even more single men are, I know, frequently crowded in the same place. But married and single alike have to use passages, sheds, euphemistically termed kitchens, and other conveniences common to many others differing in caste * and sometimes in race. Moreover, from the filthy and lazy habits of the people, ilie occupants of the upper story are a continual source of discomfort and annoyance to those on the ground-floor, and hence, in a great measure, arise the endless quarrels, abusive language, and assaults, which occupy so large a portion of the magistrate's time. 69. A proof of the discontent of the Coolies with this state * Although all Indians lose their caste on leaving Hindostan, the dis- tinctions and jealousies are kept up to a great extent in Demerara. There are even many calling themselves Brahmins who, while averse from work themselves, obtain the perforr^ance of their tasl^ by working upon the superstition of their fellows. APPENDIX. 395 state of things, even if there were no complaints on the subject, exists in the fact that, whenever allowed to do so, they in- variably erect for themselves private cottages of mud. These are generally, as may be supposed, of a wretched description, and the preference of them by the immigrants to the com- paratively substantial houses provided by the estates, is usually cited by the planters as the deliberate preference of squalor to comfort. 70. From personal inquiries among many immigrants, I am satisfied that this inference is incorrect ; their invariable answer has been to the effect that these houses are their own ; their privacy is not so continually invaded, and they are more secure' from loss of their goods and attempts on the chastity of their wives. 71. This evil would not admit of so immediate a remedy as the others mentioned. But a long step towards its alleviation might be made by compelling all the estates which have surplus front lands (and these are very many) to devote drained spaces for the erection of these cottages by deserving immigrants who have the means and desire to do so ; and alsoi by preventing new immigrant barracks being built of more than one story, and without kitchens, &c., for at most every ten people. 72. The permission to erect private houses is already largely' granted on some estates to free immigrants as an inducement to them to remain on the estates. But the mode of living is otherwise discouraged by the planters ; as the people, being' scattered over a larger area, there is a great difficulty of what is called " enforcing discipline," which really means turning out to work. 73. Another frequent cause of complaint is want of 7i>aicr, either of proper quality or in sufficient supply. And this in dry seasons, such as occurred last year, becomes a cruel hard- ship. Though the country is everywhere intersected by canals and trenches, these, in the dry season, become mostly tainted with salt water, while many are poisoned by the " lees " from the rum distilleries. On the estate on which I resided last : i In m ■m 396 APPENDIX. year, I have repeatedly seen the people obliged, after their day's work in the field, to go more than a mile for water, which, even when procured, was putrid in smell and disgusting to the taste ; and I was informed that this evil existed even in a more exaggerated form on other estates. ^ Efforts were un- doubtedly made to procure pure water at a great expense from a distance of twenty miles up the Demerara river, but even this was muddy and unfit for drinking ; and, moreover, the distance and difficulty of transport inevitably rendered the supply meagre and irregular. 74. There is no excuse for such a want of water in Demerara. The average fall of rain of one hundred inches (there were even from -sixty to seventy inches last year) is amply sufficient to supply all the wants of the estates if the commonest precau- tions were taken for preserving it. 75. One or two estates are now setting a good example in providing iron tanks, but this could not probably be afforded by all. But, from whatever source derived, a sufficient supply of comparatively pure water should and could easily be en- forced from all estates to which immigrants are allotted. 76. Another much-needed reform is that of the Immigration Department. Its present head is a thoroughly upright, con- scientious, and indefatigable public officer, and he is, as far as possible in his circumstances, independent. The difficulties of his position have been very much lightened by the present Governor, even before I left the colony; but under the present system his time must necessarily be chiefly taken up by the mere routine of the office, leaving but little time for the proper and searching investigation of the complaints which are con- tinually pouring in upon him from all quarters. 77. His subordinates are insufficient in number for the proper performance of their present duties ; and entirely so, if others, such as it is desirable should be performed by the office, were added to them. 78. At present, the sub-immigration agents visit estates at stated periods for the purpose of re-indenturing and paying bounty, or of granting free tickets to immigrants whose term APPENDIX. 397 fter their or water, Hsgusting 1 even in were un- ;nse from but even iover, the iered the )emerara. vere even "ficient to t precau- :ample in afforded nt supply ly be en- id. migration ight, con- , as far as iculties of e present le present ip by the lie proper are con- r for the rely so, if the office, estates at id paying lose term of service has expired, and only at other times for the investi- gation of some matter of complaint of more than ordinary gravity. As they almost invariably, when on their travels, accept the hospitality of managers, it is hardly to be expected that their duties should be strictly, regularly, and impartially performed. 79. And, indeed, I have good reason to believe that they are not. For I have myself known cases where immigrants' indentures have been improperly and carelessly extended, and where complaints have been but cursorily and far from tho- roughly investigated. Moreover, by the very anomalous system, introduced by the late Governor, of granting them travelling allowance individually, they were made virtually inde- pendent of the head of the office and free of proper control.* 80. But even granting that the present work is efficiently performed, there is another duty which, for the sake of justice to the immigrants, should be performed by the office. 81. Under the present law, an employer is bound to pay to his indentured labourers the same price for their work as paid to free labourers. It is, however, notorious that this obligation is as a rule evaded, and sometimes openly broken. 82. The former is easily done, where all field labour, as in Demerara, is done by tasks, by allotting to both indentured and free an equal area for weeding, ploughing, or cane-cutting, at the same price, but selecting the more distant f field or ground, which requires more labour, for the indentured. 83. As regards actual breaking of the law, I have known cases, and believe them to be not uncommon, where immigrants have been compelled to work for a price which free labourers would have, and sometimes actually have, refused. 84. It is quite impossible for the most impartial magistrate, under the present system, to do justice in such cases, or in * I believe that this anomaly has been removed by the present Governor since my departure from the colony. t l5istance is of great importance where, as on most of the estates, some fields are three to five miles from, while others are in the immediate vicinity of, the buildings. 398 APPENDIX. many others, in which immigrants are aggrieved. The manager can always produce a number of overseers, drivers, and others dependent on him, to make an overwhelming weight of testimony in his favour, while the immigrant, who is perhaps generally in the wrong, has not the intelligence and cannot produce proper witnesses to present his case clearly when he is in the right. He has thus a direct inducement to supple- ment his ignorance by falsehood and suborned perjury, which, being usually transparent, of course invalidates other very possibly truthful testimony on the same side. 85. On the other hand, my experience has taught me that falsehood in court is by no means confined to the coloured races, and that the whites connected with estates, whether managers, overseers, or engineers, are often by no means scrupulous about the truth when their interest or their fears enter into the question at issue ; and this class of falsehood, Ks proceeding from greater intelligence, is of course the more difficult of detection. 86. As the result of all Ihese difficulties in the path of a most conscientious magistrate, an immigrant but rarely wins a case against his estate, either civil or criminal, either as prose- cutor, plaintiff, or defendant. The magistrates' returns would indeed indicate otherwise, from the large number of cases which appear there as dismissed. But of these but a very small portion have been really pressed by the managers. For it is notorious that very many informations are most impro- perly compromised by money payments, and in these cases but a slight show of resistance, if any, is maintained in court. 87. These evils, and many others Hke them, can, in my opinion, only be remedied by the appointment of Government officers whose duty it would be to make unexpected visits to estates, and whenever occasion might require, for the purpose of personally inspecting work assigned and the payment offered to immigrants, and of ascertaining the true facts in any doubtful case where these labourers were concerned, so that there might be always forthcoming, when necessary, independent and disin- terested evidence as a guide to the magistrate in his decision. APPEXDIX. 399 manager ^ers, and iveight of perhaps J cannot when he ) supple- y, which, her very me that coloured whether means leir fears dsehood, ;he more )ath of a ly wins a as prose- is would of cases t a very Ts. For t impro- :ases but rt. , in my ernment visits to purpose t offered doubtful re might id disin- icision. 88. The police would not answer for this duty, as in the first place they are, for the most part, entirely ignorant of any of the eastern languages, and, moreover, would be too much under the influence of the managers, many of whom are also justices of the peace, and would thus be furnished with a ready means of bringing pressure to bear upon them. 89. I would respectfully suggest that for this purpose the number of sub-immigration agents should be increased, that they should be instructed to acquire a practical knowledge, as might be sufficiently done in a very short time, of the difilerent kinds of work on the sugar plantations, and should be forbidden to accept under any circumstances the hospitality of managers, which is certain to be largely proffered to them. 90. As tending to prove the propriety of this restriction, I may mention that it is voluntarily placed upon himself by an officer of considerably higher standing than the sub-immigra- tion agents, and I have the less hesitation in mentioning his name in a matter which redounds so much to his credit in that I have no personal acquaintance with him ; I mean Dr. Shier, the Inspector of Estates' Hospitals. 91. So strictly scrupulous is he in this respect, that he is frequently obliged for his night's lodging to put up with such very scanty accommodation as is afforded by the court rooms at the police stations ; and I cannot but think that such scruples should be encouraged, as could be easily done by furnishing a room with necessary furniture at stations for the use of all public officers on their official circuits. 92. As your Lordship might deem it a matter of difficulty to find proper persons to fill such offices as I have proposed, I would most respectfully venture to suggest that such might be found among discharged non-commissioned officers of the army who had served in India. 93. Their residence there would have to a great extent acclimatised them to all tropical climates, and would possibly have given them a sufficient knowledge of one or other of the Indian languages to enable them to make themselves understood to a few of the immigrants of each estate. Their pensions 400 APPENDIX. I ! would moreover assist their salaries, and if they had been engaged in regimental or brigade offices they would have learnt something of official routine and correspondence. 94. In conclusion, it is not without earnest thought and a profound conviction of the good policy as well as justice of the measure that I venture to suggest a reform of the present arti- ficial system of immigration which is taking place in British Guiana, and this almost as much for the interest of the planters as of the immigrants themselves. 95. For, notwithstanding the superior value of the acclima- tised immigrant, I am satisfied that the power of obtaining an unlimited amount of new hands, to so great an extent at the public cost, is an encouragement of an uneconomical use of existing labour, and of carelessness and even cruelty in the treatment of those already under indenture. 96. And I would respectfully urge that on higher grounds the limit has been reached at which immigration should be allowed to continue on its present footing as a direct burthen on the public purse. It was, no doubt, fair enough that the general revenue of the colony should at first pay a third of the cost of immigration. labour was absolutely required, not only for the advancement of the general prosperity, but to prevent the wholesale abandonment of cultivation. The Negro labourers, moreover, required competition as an incitement to industry, and the lesson which has been taught them has been doubtless wholesome and just, though a very severe one. But I would respectfully urge that its severity is now becoming dispropor- tionate to its justice, and every year more so. 97. Though production has greatly increased, it has not done so in proportion to the labour introduced, and wages have consequently fallen in value all over the colony. In the dry seasons planters have often difficulty in finding employment for their indentured immigrants, and have therefore very little for free labourers, whom I saw last year in large gangs, peram- bulating the country unable to find work at all. Moreover, the excessively high taxation (raised chiefly from articles of general consumption) which is necessitated by the annual S APPENDIX. 401 id been e learnt t and a :e of the ent arti- ; British planters acclima- ning an t at the ,1 use of ;y in the grounds lould be burthen that the rd of the not only prevent ibourers, industry, ioubtless I would ispropor- has not id wages In the jloyment '■ery little , peram- loreover, rticles of annual charge* for the colony share of immigration, makes exception- ally dear nearly all the necessaries of life used by the labourers, both Creole and immigrant. 98. These are thus paying in two ways for what, instead of a benefit, is a direct and is becoming a grievous injury to them. On the other hand, the planters obtain free of duty the greater part of the supplies peculiarly required by the estates, and thus pay but a mere trifle towards the general revenue. 99. I believe that on a close investigation of this subject your Lordship would be convinced that the time has come when the planters should pay the whole cost of immigration, which now far more than formerly exclusively benefits tliem- selves. 100. They are well able to do so, for it is notorious that all the well-managed estates (and no others have a right to be con- sidered) have for some years been making large profits.! These were greatly increased by the destruction of the estates in Louisiana, J which alone besides produced the pc( uiiar kind of crystallized (or as it is technically called vacuum ^ lu) sugar, which is so greatly in demand in the United Sta' and were again largely increased by the enhanced value of dii kinds of sugar produced by the troubles in Cuba.§ * ;if 65,000. I have not the exact figures at hand, but I believe that this is an approximate amount. A comparison between the tariff and prices existing in British Guiana, with that of the other West Indian colonies, would show in how high a degree this is true. t The estate of " Schoon Ord " has for three years just published net profits averaging ^1^15,000 (last year /"l 7,000, if I recollect rightly). It has no superiority over a hundred others beyond freedom from embarrassment, command of capital, and good management ; the land is even considered inferior to the average, and not many years ago was nearly being ab.indoned as worn out and worthless. Ammonia has worked the change. Ruimveld (belonging to Dutch proprietors) has been worked at a profit for many years, and is now believed to be not far behind " Schoon Ord " in its net returns. The latter statement also holds good of many others, in proportion to the apiount of their crop. X Except ^Mauritius, but this supplies mainly the Australian market. ij To show what the profits must have been this year, I would mention that I was informed by the proprietor of an estate of average size, making D D % tiiili p li 402 APPENDIX. i 101. If any portion of these profits in any way benefited the labourers there would be less cause for the measure proposed. But so far from that, wages, as I have shown, are falling rather than rising. 102. Even when the whole direct cost of immigration is borne by the planters, the general revenue will still be charged for expenditure indirectly occasioned by it with an amount fully proportionate to any advantage gained from it by others than planters, these being the very small mercantile and shop- keeping community, who are not owners of or directly connected with the sugar estates. 103. I have, as I have said, no statistics to guide me, but I feel sure that your Lordship by reference to them will find that of the ;j^8o,ooo or thereabouts annually paid for police, hos- pitals, asylums, gaols, and expenses of justice, at least ;^25,ooo has been the direct result of Coolie immigration. This amount is annually increased, and to it must also be added the expense of the Immigration Office, or ;^3,ooo more. The reduction of the general expenditure by the;!^65,ooo or thereabouts devoted to immigration would permit of the admission, free of duty, of all the articles which are necessaries of life to the labourers (both Creole and immigrants), and thus would be, not only an enormous immediate boon to them, but, in accordance with the ordinary operation of free trade, would eventually benefit the planter himself 104. Were the production of the country to be lowered, or even its progress checked by the proposed measure, considera- tions of policy might still be allowed their weight against abstract justice. But I believe this would be in no degree the case. For even if less immigrants were applied for, which in view of the very large n....gin of profit on sugar cultivation I crystallized sugar, that he made a "handsome" profit when his crystallized sugar sold at 6 cents per pound, but the average price this year has been $6.75, and has been as high as ^J.^o. Supposing 40,000 of the 80,000 hogsheads made in the colony to be crystallized, the increased profit on this alone would amount for the year to 1540,000, or;^io8,ooo. The value of common sup^.^ has also been enhanced, but not in proportion. APPENDIX. 403 ited the oposed. 1 rather ation is charged amount y others id shop- )nnected le, but I find that lice, hos- ;^25,000 > amount expense uction of devoted duty, of labourers t only an with the inefit the vvered, or onsidera- t against egree the which in ivation I crystallized r has been the 80,000 olit on this he value of consider very unlikely, their additional cost would secure better treatment for those already in the country, which with cheaper living would render already acquired labour more willing and therefore more pr-^ductive. In the end I believe that the gain would be not less that of the planters than of the labourers. 105. In conclusion I feel bound to answer three plausible arguments usually put forward by the planters in proof of the well-being of the immigrants, viz. : — ist, the large number of them who re-indenture ; 2nd, the present small death-rate ; and 3rd, the large sums taken away by those who return to their own country. 106. It is true that a large number of Coolies annually re- indenture themselves at the expiration of their service, but this rriay be partly ascribed to many other causes than their well- being in servitude. 107. The 50 dols. (;j^io 8j. 4^^.) bounty paid to them for re-indenturing, often increased 5 dols. or 10 dols. by individual proprietors, is alone a very powerful temptation. The present advantage of a year's income paid down may well make blind the ignorant CooHe to the possibilities of the future. A similar advantage would be apt to distort the judgment and overcome the prudence of persons in a far higher rank of life ; and this tangible temptation is to my knowledge sometimes increased by false allurements held out by "drivers" of their own race, who have been promised premiums for the procurement of " hands." 108. But, notwithstanding these temptations, it would be found on inquiry that but very few of the stronger and more provident, who have saved any considerable sum of money, can be induced to re-indenture except on estates where the treatment is generally known to be good.* * To give another almost unneecled p.oof of the actual profit attending considerate treatment of the labourers, I may mention that an estate called Vreed-,en-IIoop, obtains all its required supplies of labour among old hands who have been attracted from other estates ; and these apply in such large numbers as to enable the srlection of the best after probation. They are of course far more valuable on account of theii being acclimatised, and being 404 APPENDIX. li', != I it' • ! 109. Planters as a rule do not exercise any discrimination in the choice of those to whom they give bounty. Inquiries are but seldom made about character or precedent, and, as though a large number of re-indentures redounded to the credit of the management with proprietors at home, hands are often accepted respecting whom the slightest inquiry would have discovered that they had spent the greater part of their previous service in idleness, desertion, and imprisonment ; consequently com- l)laints are frequent of desertion following immediately after receipt of bounty. no. But there is another, and perhaps the strongest reason of all for the amount of re-indentures, viz., that for those who have no capital freedom is really of little value as against indentures, made more attractive by the bounty and {as I have above described) privacy of living. Land is only to be obtained at a high price (the Government rate practically precludes sales), and the Indian Coolie is not fond enough of agriculture to make any immediate sacrifice, such as uncleared land re- quires, to engage in it on his own account. Neither stock- raising (his favourite occupation) nor shop-taking can be com- menced on nothing ; so that free Coolies without capital are almost necessarily obliged to work upon the sugar estates. It is thus that the bounty comes in so peculiarly strong a tempta- tion to all such, the strong, industrious, and practiced labourer feeling that he will avoid the severer pressure cf servitude, and the weak and idle looking to desertion, or at the worst imprisonment,* to which he has probably been well accustomed before. III. 2nd. The death-rate has certainly been largely reduced by the sanitary measures forced upon the estates by the In- practised in the various operations of agriculture and manufacture, than new impo'-tations for whom the same price has to be paid. * It is far from uncommon for immigrants (especially those who in their own country liave been accustomed merely to in-door work) to break the law with the especial view of going to gaol. Many have told me that they were unable to earn sullicient food on the estates, and preferred the regular rations of the gaol, though accompanied by shot-drill and conlinement. APPENDIX. 405 spector of Hospitals, and if, as I am informerl, it was last year little over two per cent., is hardly above the ordinary European average. But the returns give, I believe, a far from correct idea of the actual rate, and for this reason that no account is taken of deserters. 112. Many who have deserted from their estates, chiefly from inability,* but some of course from want of will, to earn proper sustenance, in the hope of gaining a precarious liveli- hood by begging and stealing, die while still deserters. These deaths are probably, for reasons stated below, many of them not known, and when known, do not enter the estates' returns from the impossibility of identification. 113. It is well known that but a very small number of immigrants have left the country, other than those exported by the Government. 114. Some, chiefly Chinese, have gone to Surinam and Trinidad, but these are known, from the frequent communica- tions between the two countries and from the strict watch kej)! upon outgoing vessels, to be very few, and their loss has been l)robably more than compensated by immigration from the French and other islands. Hat even deducting these, and the 7,500 or thereabout who have returned to their own country, from the total mmiber imi^orted, there still remains an enormous loss to be accounted for. If I recollect rightly, about 79,000 * Several most intclHKcnt Chinese, one of them having emigrated free, being in a position which gave him no indiicemont to speak untnitli on ihe subject, has told me that three-fourths of the Ciiincsc lal)ourers im])ortcd from Canton were artizans and other workmen wlio iiad never l)een accus- tomed to out-door labour, and had been informed in ("iiina tliat tliey would be allowed to follow their trades in British (iuiana. These are the people wlio find it impossible to earn sulhcient sustenance from lal)our in the sun, and become deserters and thieves. This remark holds good in a less degree of labourers imported from the other Ciiinese ports, and even in the same degree of t'le Indians. I am satislieil iVom a general concurrence of testimony that a 1 irge anmunt of imposition has at one time or another been practised upon them, and that their condition in British Guiana has been a grievous disappointment to all tlie Chinese and very uiaiiy of the others. 4o6 APPENDIX. . it u '■I I" Ik r;?8 hi Indians and Chinese have been imported, to which, moreover, are to be added the births, which, in the absence of statistics, I put down at 15,000 during the twenty years of immigration, and yet there are not now in the country 45,000 at the highest. The death returns cannot account for this fearful depopulation, and, if not, it becomes certain that from some cause or other they are not accurate. 1 13. These figures alone, if there were no other proof, would serve to show that the lot of the immigrants in British Guiana has not been an easy one. 116. 3rd. The 6,000 who have returned to India have un- doubtedly taken with them a large sum of money, and there is also a very considerable sum remaining in the country belonging to Indian Coolies,* being invested in stock, gold and silver orna- ments, and other kinds of property. But one who knows the habits and saving disposition of the Coolies, and at the same time considers the amount which should have been earned by them during the twenty years of immigration, is astonished, not at the large amount saved, but at its comparative littleness. 117. A very low estimate of the amount actually earned by the 65,000 Indian CooUes imported during twenty years and their children would be ;^3,ooo,ooo,t considering that the value of the sugar, rum, and molasses made mainly by them is little under ;!^2,coo,ooo per annum, and that they are earn- ing at the present moment at least ;^3oo,ooo per annum, that 39,000 had been already imported in 1861, and tliat wages have greatly fallen since their first introduction. 118. The Emigration Commissioners' Report states tht amount taken away by return Coolies up to 1867 at about :ili * For reasons which, if your Lordship should desire, I will explain in a future letter, only a small fraction of Chinese leave any property whatever, and the few exceptions are chiefly gaming-house keepers, " divers," and perhaps a dozen small shopkeepers. t Supposing the amount of Indian Coolies in the country to be now 38,000, and allowing 8,000 for ineffectives, such as prisoners, sick, &c., who arc supported by others, this would only afford 6^d. per head for food and clothing, whereas the Government, buying at wholesale prices, cannot feed its prisoners at less than 8d. per day. APPENDIX. 407 and ;^ 1 04,000. Allowing for omissions in that, for money taken away in the last two years, and for the value of property in the houses of Coolies still in the country, I am sure that ;^3oo,ooo would be a very high estimate for the whole amount of property realised, because it is to be remembered that the richer Coolies return to India when they have the opportunity, and I know that a majority of those left behind possess nothing at all. 119. But from this ;^3oo,ooo must be deducted at least ;;^'5o,ooo for profit made on savings, much of them being invested in cattle and other profitable securities, so that the actual saving would be only ;^25o,"ooo, or \d. per is. of the whole amount earned. 120. No one who knows the extremely meagre diet of the Coolies and the penurious habits of the great majority of them, could consider such a saving as any argument for their general prosperity. 121. I believe that a careful inquiry into this subject would show that property has almost entirely been realised by the exceptionally strong, and that the many die prematurely and penniless. 122. Your Lordship, if you should have been kindly induced to read this lengthy communication (which I would most gladly have abridged if I had found it possible to do so with justice to the subject) will, I fear, think that I have produced a picture over-coloured as a whole, and incorrect in delineation and detail. 123. I can only say that I have anxiously endeavoured not to do so, and I firmly believe that if the whole truth could be unveiled my case would be found under rather than over- stated. . 1 24. I am quite prepared to bear the grave responsibility of all I have said, and if, as I fear will one day be necessary, a Commission of Inquiry should be appointed, I shall be ready and willing to produce strong evidence in proof of my facts and in support of my opinions. 125. There is a gentleman said to be on his way to England who formerly governed British Guiana ; I mean Sir Philip 4o8 APPENDIX, m Wodehouse. I only know him from his reputation and his legislation. From these, however, especially from the ordinance passed by him which took away all summary jurisdiction from the ordinary justices of the peace, I feel sure that he had already begun to see the germs of evils which have been greatly aggravated since his time. 126. Though for this reason he would of course not be able to support my statements to their full extent, I am confident that if your Lordship should see fit to lay this letter before him he would allow the possibility and even perhaps the probability of their truth. • 127. Should Sir Francis Hincks, the late Governor, be of a contrary opinion, and I presume from his administration and legislation, which obtained for him so great a popularity among the planters, that he would be, I can confidently refer to a great number of the clergy of all denominations in support of my statements. The Bishop, with whom I have always been on very intimate terms, and who, though he has not had any opportunities of being behind the scenes, and, having been formerly a plantation proprietor himself, is inclined to look upon planters' failings with a somewhat lenient eye, I know agrees with me to a great extent, and would, at all events, give me credit for sincerity. 128. The present Governor has been so short a time in the colony that it is impossible he can have yet seen all the evils pointed out, or any to their full extent, and his position must always screen from him many of them. But I know that he has already discovered some of them, and was meditating their alleviation or removal. 129. From few others could the whole truth within their knowledge be obtained unless they were put upon oath. For practically there are no educated men in the country who are not directly or indirectly either dependent for their livelihood on, or under the control and influence of, the planters. 130. The Portuguese merchants and shopkeepers, and the Creole peasant proprietors, who form the only independent class, are almost wholly illiterate, the first entirely so. APPENDIX. 409 I and his rdinance ion from he had ve been : be able :onfident fore him obabiUty , be of a :ion and y among fer to a ipport of lys been had any ng been to look I know nts, give le in the the evils on must that he ing their in their ;h. For who are k^elihood and the pendent 131. The exclusive powers* of the planters in the Legisla- ture, added to their other influence, make the whole body of public officers, and even the clergy in colonial pay, in awe of them, especially since their success against the late Chief Justice. 132. But two public officers whom I have already mentioned, one well known, the other personally unknown to me, I believe to be sufficiently high-minded to speak out what they know, and their knowledge of the subjects on which I have treated is inferior to none, their respective duties having given them peculiar means of acquiring it. I mean Mr. Crosby, the Immigration Agent-General, and Dr. Shier, the Inspector of Estates' Hospitals. 133. The reforms which I have suggested I believe to be absolutely necessary, not only for the sake of justice, and of the comfort and happiness of the labouring classes, but for the interests of the whole colony, and especially to secure the public peace, which has already been so seriously threatened as to alarm! the planters themselves. They could not be achieved, of course, without strenuous opposition and some difficulty, nor at first without expense. But the expense would be trifling compared with the ultimate gain, and the difficulty and opposition would be readily overcome by a Government which is or might be so absolute as that of British Guiana. 134. Should these reforms, or others better adapted to secure the same ends, proceeding from your Lordship's riper judgment and more extended experience, be accomplished * I mean representative powers, the Governor being, if he desires, almost absolute, through the interest which he can exercise over immi- gration. t Tiiis is shown by the meeting in London, mentioned above, and strongly confirmed by a gentleman, Mr. Clementson, previously mentioned, as one of the most successful and humane, and I believe one of the most intelligent planters in the cohjny. In a visit to me the other day he informed me that he was seriously contemplating the sale of his estate (which, owing to the want of capital, would probably not realise more than five years' profit), owing to his belief in approaching troubles among the C oolies. 410 APPENDIX. through your intervention, not only will an enormous boon be at once conferred upon i4o,oop out of the 150,000 people in the colony, but the ultimate gain to the whole community would be such as to cause you to look back upon them in after days as not the least among the successes of your colonial administration. I have, &c., (Signed) G. DES VCEUX, Administrator of the Government of St. Lucia. The Right Honourable The Earl Granville, K.G. APPENDIX B. HTHE agricultural and other labourers of the colony who are employed in the cultivation of the sugar-cane and the manufacture of sugar belong to four distinct races — the Portu- guese, African, East Indian, and Chinese. The Portuguese formerly worked a great deal on estates, but have taken more to trade now, and very few are to be found working on plantations. Being as a class industrious and frugal, some of them have amassed large fortunes in the colony. Besides shop-keeping, many of them have taken to wood- cutting, at which they excel. In the African race we include African immigrants and the Creole Negroes -of the West Indies. There is no class of field labourers in the colony who can * earn as much at field labour, in a given time, as the Negro. He generally works for a greater number of hours during the day than the East Indian. When working by the task he gets through his work with great speed, and, if allowed, with great carelessness. When employed at trenching, or other work that he likes, he generally works from eight to ten hours a day, but seldom works more than three or four days in the week. He prefers living in his own house to living on an estate, rent free, as he does not care to turn out regularly to work, and knows that living in a house belonging to the proprietor means con- tinuous labour, to which he has a decided objection. Continuous labour here generally means four or five days' work in the field, and six in the buildings, when they are at work. This objection of the Negro to reside on the estate has, to a certain extent, made him independent of his employer — a 412 APPENDIX. fact which the legislature has made use of in regulating the wages to be paid to indentured immigrants. Several years after emancipation, when the prospects of sugar estates were very bad, some proprietors sold their estates, or the front lands of them, to the Negroes, who clubbed together and found the money to purchase them. This was at a time when wages were so high that it would have been ruin to their employers to continue their cultivation. On these estates villages have been built, and here large numbers of Negroes reside, going out to work on the neighbouring estates, under the direction of one of their own body, who is generally called the task gang-driver. This man contracts with the manager or proprietor of the estate to do certain work for him at a given rate. When the work is completed he receives the money in a lump from the employers, and settles with his people himself. On this amount he receives a percentage or commission for his superintendence. Most of the trenching and cane-cutting work is done by the Negro, though some Coolies and Chinese are pretty good hands at it. On the day when the Negro is not at work on estates, he generally goes to his garden, if he has one, for a few hours. * Negro women, when they work on estates, are generally em- ployed weeding, carrying megass or potting sugar. By far the greater number of artisans employed throughout the colony — of the police, of the sailors of coasting craft, of jobber or porters about the wharves, and of the boatmen on the rivers — are Negroes. Some of them have come from neighbouring colo- nies — the field being open to all who choose to take advan- tage of it. The Negro at present complains that he is not paid for his work as he used to be shortly after the emancipation, or, as one of the witnesses expressed himself, cannot now earn nine or ten dollars a week — that is to say, he cannot now get a price for his labour which was then and still would be simply ruinous to the employer. In this sense it is true that he has lost the command of the labour market just in time to prevent him from driving capital out of the country. Had the golden age continued, which the old labourers regret, it would not APPENDIX. 4'3 have been for their advantage. Experience has shown that the Negro is no exception to the rule that the pressure pf social order and the stimulus of the competition which capital sup- plies are necessary elements in the condition of things best suited to develop the human character. Relieved from this pressure, his tendency is to sink back into a less civilised state. In British Guiana, of all places, which is only kept habitable, like Holland, by means of a system of artificial drainage, such as requires either the organi- zation of large properties, or else a high standard of aptitude for co-operation in the cultivator, the substitution of small free- holds in the hands of Negroes for the directing mind at the head of a great sugar estate has always, as yet, had the result of sending the plantation out of cultivation. The class of Indian immigrants at present in this colony, as a rule, cannot earn more than half as much in the same time as the Negro ; their love of saving and desire to return to their own country, rather than a wish to make themselves comfortable during their temporary absence from the land of their birth, induces them to work. It often happens that men are sent out who have never been accustomed to agricultural labour. The result is, that they become in many cases discontented with their lot, and when sent into the field do hardly anything, or, as the planters say, " hang over their work." The Indian immigrant generally works in the field six or seven hours a day when engaged at task work, and for four days a week, some work five, and when in the building six days. The Indian does not much care to cultivate land ; his great object in life seems to be to amass sufficient money to buy a cow. The Coolie, after he has been here for some time, gives up to a great extent the habit of saluting his superiors that he had on arrival and becomes much more independent in his bearing. The difference of bearing between immigrants about to return to India and those who have just arrived in this colony is very marked in this respect, -^rhe Indian is very much given to romnncing ; when he has a complaint to make he is apt to mix so much that is false with what is true, that it requires great 414 APPENDIX. ;j: t:J patience to separate the truth from the falsehood. In this way the Indian who has a real grievance to complain of very often spoils his own case, or disgusts the person investigating it. Accustomed to be dependent on others in India, it is not till some time after his arrival in the colony that he learns to take care of himself. As a rule, he will not marry or live with jjersons of a different race from himself. There are, however, some instances in the colony where a Coolie man or woman has married a Chinesf' or Negro. On Adelphi Estate, a China- man was living with ; Jrassee. On Windsor Castle, a Negro woman was living wiu. an East Indian. The Coolie despises the Negro, because he considers him a being not so highly civilised as himself; while the Negro in turn despises the Coolie, because he is so immensely inferior to him in physical strength. There never will be much danger of seditious dis- turbances among East Indian immigrants on estates as long as large numbers of Negroes continue to be employed with them. The Chinese labourer possesses greater intelligence than either the Indian or the Negro, and is much quicker at learning to manage machinery than either of them. He is also very careful and neat in h' -ork in the field or buildings ; is much more independent t he Coolie, and not so easily led away by discontented persuus; rarely making a frivolous com- plaint, though when he does make one that is false ; it is much more difficult to convict him of lying, from the extreme inge- nuity with which he gets up his case and instructs his witnesses. Possessing a keen sense of justice where his own rights are concerned, he is very capable of strong resentment at anything that appears to him unjust. They are much more given to using knives and pointed weapons than the Indian, who gene- rally trusts in a riot to breaking his opponent's head with his hackia stick. The Chinese as a class are inveterate gamblers and opium- smokers. In their barracks they generally have a room set apart as a gambling saloon, where, as well as in their own rooms, they smoke opium. APPENDIX. 4»S The Chinaman here does not save as much money as the Indian. This is, perhaps, owing to the fact that he is not content with such meagre diet as the Indian, and has been accustomed to richer and more varied food. Opium-smoking is carried on by some to great excess, and it is not uncommon to see many of them quite emaciated and almost unfit for work from excessive use of this drug. We have occasionally seen Chinese in estates' hospitals who have been there for years from some chronic disease, and whom the employer has not only to feed, but supply with opium, the stoppage of which would cause their death. The wretched appearance of some of the votaries of this habit has more than once misled strangers into conclusions unfair to the planters and the immigration system. It appears, unhappily, that opium-smoking is not altogether confined to the Chinese. A few Indians have picked up this habit from them. The mischief is perhaps beyond the reach of legislation ; but such was not the opinion of a Chinaman, one of the cleverest met with in the colony, who allowed, when asked why his fel- low-countrymen, who earned so much, had saved so little, " that they spent a good deal on opium ; but it was the English ship that brought it here." Chinese are more given to deserting than Indians, and employers are getting chary of giving them bounty, as they often abscond immediately after receiving it. They have not the same objection to living with females of a different race from themselves that the Indians have. This may be owing in some degree to the small proportion of women who have emigrated from China ; but the principal reason for it is that the Chinese have not the difficulty of caste to get over that the Indian has, and are more cosmopolitan in their habits. The Chinese, as far as we are aware, have never combined with the Indians in disturbances on estates ; but, on the other hand, have occasionally taken the side of the employer in opposing them. They are more given to cultivating land and keeping pigs than breeding cattle. They are now getting into a habit in some places of going about in the manner of task gangs, living on the estates on which they are working for the time being. 4i6 APPENDIX. Many of them sent here turned out to be persons who ought never to have been recruited. It is worthy of notice that in phaces where the Chinaman has other careers open to him besides that of working as a field-labourer for wages, he invariably chooses one where he can work for himself. He either rents a piece of ground near town, or starts a provision or retail shop as sooi as possible. This is the case at Singapore, and Penang, to which great numbers of Chinamen emigrate, returning again, when they have made money, with their children, but leaving behind them the Malay mothers. One of the complaints made to us here by Chinese was that th«re was no other employment open to them but estates' work ; and, when it is considered that the Portuguese, from their prior introduction, have a complete monopoly of the retail trade of the colony, that crown lands cannot be purchased in blocks of less than one hundred acres, and that it is very difficult to find private lands for sale, their complaint seems to be well founded. , i i) 1 1 APPENDIX C. REVIEW OF IMMIGRATION.* nPHP^ State-aided immigration into British Guiana is a plant of -^ no new growth. It has existed in various progressive stages of organization for a i)eriod of thirty years. It began simulta- neously with the emancipation of the slaves. The Act of Abo- lition of Slavery in 1834 contemplated an apprenticeship of six years, during which the slaves might be educated for free- ■ dom, and the masters might provide for the contingency of their withdrawal from field labour. The first idea was to gather, up and import surplus population from the West Indian colonies, especially liberated Africans from the Bahamas, where captured slavers were condemned. As early as 1836 an "African Kmi- gration Ordinance " was passed, as well as a Colonial Indenture Ordin.Jice to enable private individuals imi)orting labourers at their own expense to retain them under an indenture of servi- tude, according to contract for a perioil of years. But altliough it was long before the fact was recognised, rcrrv iniportation of African blood, whether Aboriginal or West Indian, has from the first regularly disappointed Us promoters. The causes are no doubt the same as those which have ])revented the planters from retaining the continuous service of the Creoks of African descent. They lie partly in the character of the Negro, and partly in the incapacity of the old labour system for adaptation to a state of things in which the labourers had become free. The employers did not, however, confine themselves to the African blood. In 183S the first ship-load of Coolies was brought over from Calcutta by private enterprise. * Report, pp. 37 t'/. icq. 1; E •- ^.^.i.Kii. ' u^uum ' ua-^i UBi 4i8 APPENDIX. In the very same year the apprenticeship of the slaves was cut short, as regards predial labourers, two years before the term of it? expiration. Taken by surprise at the rapidity of events, unable to resist the current of opinion in England, which had set in irresistibly against every vestige of slavery, and distrusting their power to retain the freedmen in their service, the planters of British Guiana now commenced a series of efforts to replenish the labour market by systematic immi- gration under the auspices of the Government. In 1838 reso- lutions in favour of a general scheme of immigration were adopted by the Court of Policy. It was commonly agreed at this time that if conducted on an extensive scale, the business ought not to be abandoned to individual effort, and in the next year (1839) the first Immigration Ordinance was passed, and a proposal entertained for a loan of ;^4oo,ooo, tobe expended upon passage money and premiums. The loan met with opposition from the Governor and a party within the colony, and the ordinance, which was a very imperfect one, was disallowed in England, and never came into operation. This was the commencement of a struggle between the colony and the Home Government as to the conditions upon which immigration was to be conducted, and the manner in which the scale of it was to be fixed from year to year. With the immigration question was mixed up, to the great hindrance of a speedy settlement, the inveterate colonial controversy about the renewal of the " Civil List." The object of the Home Government at this time was to secure that the amount to be expended on immigration should be regulated by the Governor, before whom the interests, of all classes were on an equal footing, rather t/ian by the Combined Court, a quasi-representative body, which reflects only the views of the landed proprietors or planters. It was desired by this means to retain in the hands of the Governor the power of at any time putting a complete stop to immigration, in case any conditions thouglit necessary to secure the welfare of the immigrant should not be complied with. In particular, the maximum number to be introduced in any one year, and the ports from which immigration was to be allowed, '^--S., . APPENDIX. 419 2 slaves ■s before pidity of Migland, slavery, in their . a series Ic immi- 538 reso- on were greed at business i in the . passed, DO, tobe oan met thin the feet one, ition. /een the ms upon anner in r. With indrance rsy about Home nt to be rovernor, 1 footing, ive body, planters. is of the ? stop to to secure v^ith. In any one allowed, were reserved as points in the discretion of the Governor. The efforts of the colonists were directed in part against this governmental control of the expenditure, but even more strenu- ously to obtain immigration without limit as to the places from which the immigrants should come. Africa was still the field from which most was expected, and India began to assume the first place only when it was found that the Home Government was unalterably determined not to allow its efforts to suppress the slave-trade to be neutralized by permitting labourers to be recruited upon African soil. Besides the disallowed Ordinance of 1839, one passed by Sir Henry McLeod in 1841, as^ a part of his negotiations when settling the Civil List, was objected to by the Home Government. By the time this ordinance had been amended, and came home a second time for confirmation, the Home Government had by degrees arrived at the conclusion that the immigration (still exclusively African) must be not merely supervised but conducted by the State in vessels specially hired and licensed for the purpose. Accordingly the Ordinance of 1842, though it complied in every respect with requirements hithe'-to made, was not confirmed. The colony therefore set to work again, and passed an entirely new ordinance providing for the expenses to be incurred by the Home Government in conducting the African immigration, and other matters, of a more definite character than hitherto had been contemplated. This ordinance, when once more amended, was finally con- firmed, and became the first final settlement, though a partial one only, of a system of immigration destined actually to be put in practice. In the meantime, events had occurred in the colony pointing out too plainly the dangers which beset the course now fairly entered ui)on. A vigorous attempt had been made to jirocure immigrants without the aid of the State and without the sanction of an ordinance, the expense to be defrayed partly out of a fund raised by subscription, and partly by a fee to be paid for each indentured labourer by his destined employer. A society was formed in 1839 for the purj)ose, which procured 2,900 labourers 420 APPENDIX. from Barbadoes, and thirty from the United States, The scheme, however, notwithstanding the spirit with which it was started, proved a failure ultimately in more respects than one. The promoters quarrelled among themselves, the money contributed was wasted, and the immigrants became speedily absorbed into the mass of the village population. Very many of them, bad characters to begin with, found their way before long into the colonial gaols. Again, in 1841, during the temporary operation of the Im- migration Ordinance of that date, which, as before noticed, failed of confirmation in England, bounty was paid on 8,098 newly-arrived immigrants. Of these, 4.3 1 2 were Portuguese from Madeira, and 598 from Brazil. This Portuguese immigration had set in in a natural manner a few years before ; but was now found capable of indefinite extension under the stimulus of premiums by way of bounty to importers. Unhappily, most melancholy results followed, upon what was, in fact, a premature attempt to carry on without system the most difficult of all economical operations, the transfer, namely, of a labouring population by wholesale. The mortality among the Portuguese, a race hardly apt to labour, and reared in a climate more nearly resembling that of Guiana than many others, but turned loose into the fields under the stimulus of task work at high wages, and fed upon unusual food, without proper supervision or medical resources, was appalling to the community that had invited them. It became necessary, in May, 1842, to put a temporary stop to this particular immigration ; not before the Governor had found himself obliged to communicate with the Portuguese authorities with a view of checking the influx. In October of the same year the public immigration under the disallowed Act of 1 84 1 came to an end. The annual arrivals now fell to a few hundreds, and consisted of Portuguese paying their own passage-money, and of liberated Africans imported directly by the British Government. This African importation proved an economic failure. It was com- puted that thirty-two African boys, who arrived in 1843 ^^ the first vessel chartered by the Government, the Arabian, had APPENDIX. 421 le scheme, as started, 3ne. The ontributed orbed into them, bad ig into the of the Im- e noticed, 1 on 8,098 guese from !;ration had now found f premiums nelancholy re attempt economical mlation by race hardly resembling e into the 38, and fed or medical lad invited temporary e Governor Portuguese October of Uowed Act d consisted Df liberated lent. This t was com- 1843 in the ■abian, had cost the colony jQi)2 is. 8d. per head, and the numbers intro- duced in the years 1843, 1844, and 1845, amounting to only 2,128 in all, might well seem insufficient to meet the growing necessities of the plantations. Africa, the natural recruiting- ground of cultivators in the tropical regions of the Atlantic basin, had been closed thirty-two years before emancipation by the abolition of the slave-trade ; and now, thirty-two years after, still remains closed, as if by way of purgation for her ancient wrong, and at all events as a necessary precaution against its renewal. 12,000 of the rescued slaves, the legitimate fruit of that costly African squadron which humanity has so' long induced Great Britain to maintain, and 380 Kroomen, make up all the contribution as yet supplied by Africa to the labour market of British Guiana. It had become necessary to look further afield. Three Acts were passed in 1844, by the first of which provision was made for a Chinese immigration then anticipated, which, however, came to nothing; by the second, the provisions already in existence were extended to Asiatic emigration in general ; and by the third, a special credit of ^^75,000 was opened to defray the expense of importing 5,000 labourers from India. The first-fruits of this legislation were visible the next year on the arrival of 563 immigrants from Calcutta, and 225 from Madras. In the next year the Portuguese immigration re- commenced, and at once attained its maximum, nearly 6,000 arriving at once while the cjuota from India leapt up to 1,373 from Calcutta, and 2,455 ^^^^ Madras. The natural result followed on this extreme inflation of the system, and once more proved the absolute necessity of circumspection in promoting by artificial means the migration of large masses of people, who became colonists not spontaneously, but under the influence of strong persuasion, and facilities carefully provided. The ranks of both Portuguese and Coolies were ravaged by disease, and literally decimated year by year in the process of acclimatisa- tioi>. Sir Henry Light stated his belief to the Committee of the House of Commons, that one-fourth of the people from Madeira had died, and an immense number of the Coolies. 422 APPENDIX. The late Mr. M. J. Higgins, then a landed proprietor in the colony, gave an independent testimony to the same effect in a passage of his evidence, the graphic touch in which it is even now painful to read. " A good many of the Portuguese died, and a good many of the Coolies have died; they wandered about the colony. I should think a vast number have died, but I have no means of stating the exact number." The number who so perished, in fact, never can be known. We have grounds for believing that it amounted to a mortality of ten per cent, per annum. Wit];i regard to the Madeirans, the numbers introduced up to 1845 were 5,295; between 1845 and 1851, 13,412; making a total of 18,707. The census of 185 1 showed that only 7,928 remained at that time in the colony ; but a considerable num- ber had returned to their native country, ar'^ it is impossible to ascertain exactly how many. No certain calculation can be founded on these figures, which are, notwithstanding, suffi- ciently suggestive. The subsequent history of these people is remarkable. The most enterprising of them did not stay long on the estates ; on many estates not beyond the first monthly expiration of their hiring. They took to hawking cloth and other goods, and suj^plying the necessities of their countrymen, the Creoles, and the Asiatic immigrants, in the way of retail dealing. Of small shops there was a great defi- ciency in the country districts ; the Portuguese stepped in and supplied it. By degrees the bulk of those who were left on estates followed the example of their compatriots ; later immi- grants went with them, preferring the counter to the canefield, and the colony found itself endowed, as it were by accident, with a frugal, orderly, and intelligent race of small shop- keepers ; a great boon to the labouring classes, and a great advantage to all. The Portuguese shop is a regular feature at every corner of a street in a Guiana village, and upon every estate ; and it is said that they have in their hands nine-tenths of the retail-trade of the colony. Certain it is, that not even the Chinese, who in Singapore and many other places are the small traders of the community, have succeeded in ousting this 'ii IP' '§ m'A APPENDIX. 423 »r in the effect in t is even ese died, wandered died, but number Ve have ty of ten ;ed up to naking a ily 7,928 ble num- )ssible to 1 can be ig, suffi- 2 people not stay the first hawking of their 3, in the eat defi- d in and J left on er immi- anefield, iccident, .11 shop- a great mature at )n every le-tenths lot even 3 are the iting this industrious race from the position of vantage which they have created for ti»emselves. Few of them have made fortunes, thoujjli the number of those who have done so is increasing ; but the majority of them are rather rising than sinking in the wcrlO, and it is evident that public opinion in the colony regards them as useful, if not indispensable members of the community. To return to the mortality among the early immigrants : it was nothing more than the inevitable result of throwing large masses of uneducated people upon their own resources, sepa- rated from all they were used to, in a region where they had not the slightest means of realising by what new conditions, unfavourable to human life, they were surrounded. But there were other special reasons for the failure of the Coolie race to " become speedily acclimatised, and to thrive upon the estates. First, the climate of British Guiana is unique ; and, while the inhabitants are comparatively exempt from some diseases, they are peculiarly liable to others. The difficulty with which at certain seasons the skin heals from any slight wound is often disagreeably experienced by new comers. The small spines which cluster on the lower part of the leaves of the sugar- canes, the stings of insects, and the bites of chigoes and other vermin, insignificant in themselves, may, with neglect, come to produce ulcers affecting life and limb. Not merely medical advice is necessary in such cases, but medical superintendence, if not discipline ; and this was not regularly obtainable on sugar estates in the early days of immigration. Novel food, and sometimes a deficiency of it, continued further to reduce the standard of health ; next, the immigrant Coolies were not hardy men, accustomed to agriculture, but townsmen, the poorest naturally, and least well-to-do of the population of the great cities of India ; consequently unaccustomed to field labour, and many of them sickly, puny, and incapable. Next, the propor- tion of the sexes was two to one in favour of the male, and this cirpumstance was unfavourable to family life, fostered unsettled habits, and tended to lower the standard of morality, and con- sequently of health. The women, moreover, were for the most .n 42 + APPENDIX. P ! •I part individuals got together to supply the statutory quota : not the natural partners of the men who volunteered to emigrate. Few married men cared to come, and there is among the Coolie population in India no class of respectable single women. The proportion of females was accordingly made up " in the bazaars," and results were, few children and many diseases. Of mis- conduct among people so situated it is not worth while to speak ; no doubt the standard of reliance and self-control was lower among them than among the average of their fellow- countrymen. The Madras people in particular suffered from these causes to a degree which created a prejudice against them in the colony, as unfitted to stand the climate. The same thing had been said, under like circumstances, of the Portu- guese. A greater or less degree of care in the recruiting would, in all probability, have accounted for the difference. But, besides these causes, the planters complained that in the absence of a special indenture or contract lasting longer than the statutory hiring of one month, they had no hold on immi- grants allotted to them, were consequently unable to supervise the tedious process of acclimatisation, and were powerless to lessen the existing mortality. Immigrants, it was said, are naturally sanguine. Their disappointment at finding their situation less advantageous than they had pictured to them- selves, led to their leaving their allotted masters so soon as the first monthly hiring expired. As yet inexperienced in the country, unbroken to the labour, and unacclimatised, they took helplessly to a wandering life, and succumbed to the hardships of it without care and without pity. The same causes operated to perhaps a greater extent in Trinidad, whence the Governor, Lord Harris, wrote on 21st February, 184S, that " scarcely a week passes but reports are sent in from different parts of the colony of the skeletons of Coolies being found in the woods and cane pieces r The experience thus gained led to an ordinance, providing medical attendance for immigrants, and confirming the institution of Estates Hospitals by law. Immigrants not bound to labour for at least six months were to work out the cost of medicine and sustenance when well. In 1848 a further iota : not emigrate, le Coolie pn. The bazaars," Of mis- while to ntrol was ir fellow- red from i against ['he same :ie Portu- ig would, lat in the iger than on immi- supervise erless to said, are Ing their to them- on as the 1 in the hey took lardships operated Governor, carcely a •ts of the wods a/id rdinance, )nfirming "ants not k out the a further APPENDIX. 425 step was taken, and the Home Government consented to allow t/ie indenture for three years certain of all immigrants thereafter introduced under this ordinance. But before the Act could come into operation, the immigration from India xvas stopped. No new Indian immigrants were introduced into the colony between the years 1848 and 185 1. To explain this we must recur to the pecuniary side of the question. The vote of ^75,000 in 1844 from the colonial revenues, to provide for the expenses of immigration, was intended as a tem- porary measure, waiting the confirmation of certain Immigration Loan Ordinances, which were passed along with the other Immigration Acts of the year. These, however, were all dis- allowed by the Home Government ; not as objecting to the principle of such a loan, but because of words in the i)reamble which were held to be an encroachment on the royal pre- rogative. This matter being rectified, the immigration loan of ;^5oo,ooo was finally assented to ; and Immigration Loan Commissioners were appointed, with power to raise money at 5 per cent., not exceeding ^100,000 in any one year, on the security of the general revenue of the colony. A sinking fund was established, and the taxes on agricultural produce, then leviable, were declared permanent, and especially set apart to meet the interest and redemption charges of the debt. The credit of the colony declining with the increasing difficulties of the planters, amending Acts became necessary, to authorise a higher rate of interest and the sale of bonds below par. Whatever modification time may have produced in the views with which the English commercial legislation of 1836 — 1846 is regarded in the West Indies, no man can deny that it, at least, brought to a crisis the ruin long pending over many heads, and aggravated the distress which had overtaken the sugar cultivators, ever since the freedmen began to use their freedom to demand higher wages, and to withdraw themselves wholly or in part from field labour. It is unnecessary to the purpose of this sketch to indulge in the vanity of apportioning blame. It is matter of history that the ex-slaveholders, con- verted against their will into employers, failed to retain the 426 APPENDIX. 1 continuous service of their late slaves ; that disasters came far too rapidly for them to adapt themselves to the circumstances of a free labour market ; and that the Negroes, after exacting a higher rate of wages in 1842, from the necessities of their employers, than they could really afford to pay, continued during some years to accumulate wealth, by way of wages out of the sugar cultivation, while the capital which supported it was fast draining away. The planters now paid dearly for the persistence they had shown in standing out against the con- ditions on which immigration might have been obtained ; in clinging so long to the vain hope of an African immigration, and in initiating their system of premiums on importation, both with Portuguese and Indians, without sufficient preparation, and on too vast a scale. They were unfortunate, too, in choosing the old battle-field of the Civil List on which to fulminate their protest against the policy of the mother country ; and still more so in the traditional d'jvice they resorted to, of stopping the supplies by way of coercing the Governor and Colonial Office. The consequent loss to the revenue was enormous ; and in the general collapse of all financial and governmental arrangements, the immigration from India ceased entirely for three years. In return for an expenditure amounting, as we shall show hereafter, to ;!^378,830 ^s., there was now in the colony a body of 7,000 African immigrants, by this time mostly independent, and not contributing greatly to the supply of field labour; another of 8,600 Indians, by whom at this time the greater part of the sugar crop was made ; and another of 8,000 Portu- guese, now fast withdrawing from the estates, but in so doing supplying, as retail shopkeepers and hawkers, an element much needed by the community. But all this was inadequate to fill the gap, and the break-up of the old proprietary ensued. A great portion of the sugar estates came into the market during the crisis, and though purchasers were scarce the majority changed owners. It is a singular fact, well worthy the notice of economists, that this fall of the old proprietary, and the consequent trans- APPENDIX. 4*7 mutation of colonial agriculture into a business entirely com- mercial and speculative, by the loss of the traditional senti- ment which attached to old family estates, was contemporaneous with the first signs of recuperative energy in the sugar industry.. Mr. Kelly dates in 1848 the first pause in its downward career, and in 1851, the two dates just covering the transition period in question, the first symptoms of its revival. One cause of this revival was the timely and judicious assist- ance at this time voted by Parliament to the West India interest. Of the sums permitted to be raised under Parliament on guarantee, ;^25o,ooo was the share apportioned to British Guiana, and it was decided by the Colonial Government to expend ;^5o,ooo of this upon a railway, and the rest in re- viving the East Indian immigration. An interesting record of the colonial history is the Report published at the close of 1849 by a Commission appointed to examine into the state and prospects of the colony, and to decide on the best means of spending the Parliamentary loan. The Commissioners took perhaps an unduly desponding view of troubles in which they had individually borne great part. They certainly ignored the comparatively thriving condition of the great bulk of the peasantry ; and by taking count of all the abandonments of estates since the Dutch epoch, as well during slavery times as afterwards, by erecting squatting into a " vicious practice," freehold tenure into a " crying evil," and the " not contributing to raise the staple of the colony " into an offence against patriotism, if not against morals, they suc- ceeded in producing a picture of demoralization and ruin which has happily been belied by subsequent events. But it must be recorded on the side of the planters, that the best interests of the colony were now bound up with the cultivation of sugar ; that the prospect of making sugar cultivators out of the black population, whether by metairie or any other system, had vanished, and that from this time forward the remedy of immigration, the one chance that remained, was seized on and pursued with rare tenacity and vigour. Even before the Commissioners of 1850 had presented their i 428 APPENDIX. Report, two ordinances were passed by which the loan was appropriated and the interest secured upon certain import duties. The principle of raising import duties upon articles of common consumjjtion, for the sake of defraying among other things the expenses of immigration, had been first con- ceded by Lord Stanley, with respect to the Tax Ordinance of 1842: "Whatever may be thought," he says, " of the ulti- mate prospects of the planters, there can be no question that they are at present suffering severely from the high price and scarcity of labour, and that every possible relief ought to be afforded to their cultivation ; and, on the other hand, there can be as little doubt that the great body of the consumers are well able to pay the taxes on imports." It may be assumed that the application of Customs Revenue, derived from articles of common use, to a purpose which directly benefits only one section of the community, and that the wealthiest and most powerfid, and moreover which ^ in fact, absorbs all the representa- tive element in the Government, is only to be justified by a full demonstration of greater benefit derived indirectly by the other classes a id sections from such expenditure, than could reason- ably be expected from giving any more popular direction to money. The quinquennial increase in the number of Indian immi- grants arriving during each of the four periods, 185 1 — 1855, 1856 — 1860, 1861 — 1865, and 1866 — 1870, is represented by the figures 9,000, 14,000, 18,000, and 24,000. The days are gone by when the system \\ as overtaxed by an immigration of a few thousand more than usual to the extent of producing a ten per cent, mortality. There are no signs as yet of its breaking down under the increase, and there are now resources to fall back upon, if the death-rate is foimd to be increasing. In 1853, besides the Indians, 647 TMnese were added, and in the seven years 1859 — 1866, gent has b n fo at the tr 'ai Gover founc^ .nerati It 12,000 more. This Chinese contin- eful, and great regret is expressed n February, 1867, by the Chinese I back passage, Avhich it was not .0 coiicede. The Chinese have proved, in ^*.. APPENDIX. 429 the hands of those employers who took pains to study their temperament, valuable as field labourers and unmatched as artisans, and the success with which the finer processes of sugar-making by the vacuum-pan method have been conducted in Guiana is in some measure attr'butable to their neat-handed industry. Ten thousand Barbadians and Creoles of the other islands, 12,000 Portuguese, the bulk of them from Madeira, with a contingent from the Cape de Verde Islands, and 2,500 Africans, have been imported under the stimulus of the premium system ; and in the result, the rural labouring population of the colony, which in 1850 was computed by Governor Barkly's Commission at 82,000,* had received from time to time augmentations, which in all considerably exceed that number.! * Note. — Thus, in 1849, there were — Not residing on estates, and contributing little or nothing to their cultivation 42,755 Residing on Estates. Creoles I9,939 Immigrants. Africans 5,820 Portuguese 5,206 Indians 8,410 82,130 t Note. — Introduced since — Indians, 1851 — 1870 ........... 65,338 Chinese, 1853— 1866 12,628 Barbadians (about) 10,000 Portuguese (about) . , 12,000 Africans (about) 2,500 Subtract returned — 102,466 Indians 7,000 Barbadians 3,cxx) ' 10,000 I 92,466 430 APPENDIX, The actual numbers of the rural labouring population of the colony cannot well be ascertained until the result of this year's census is known. That of 1 86 1 would seem to imply that it was not less than 100,000. ^ 'APPENDIX D.* T^R. COOK, who came out in December as medical officer ^^ of the ship Adamant, told us of a half-witted fellow among the passengers by that vessel, who was constantly being asked as a joke by his comrades whether he expected to make his fortune, to which he always replied, " No, but I shall get 19 rupees a month." He rated himself at the minimum rate upon his certificate, but we fear that he will hardly touch more than half the motiey. At the other end of the scale, a very light-coloured, intelli- gent-looking man among the passen^^ers by the Medea attracted our notice, who made the following statement in answer to our questions : — " My name is Mohamed Sheriff. I was a gentle- man's servant in Bombay (Colonel Adams of the 13th Native Infantry). I went to Lucknow, where I was buying flowers for the table in the Bazaar, and was there met by a peon, who asked me if I wanted service. I said yes. He asked me if I could boil sugar. I said yes. He then told me there was plenty of work for me if I would take it — boiling sugar and other work if I liked it. That I should have to go to Demerara, and should get 10 annas to 2 rupees a day, and 19 dollars present. So I went with him to Calcutta, and was approved in the office, stayed there five days, and then embarked. Some of the people were allowed to take their ' lotas ' with them, but all the others had everything taken away by the peons when they embarked, and were served with Government clothing. I got no extract from the register. Nine men came from Lucknow With me ; they were not all cultivators ; some barbers, coachmen, porters, and other foUowings. I have not received 19 dollars, * Report, pp. 59 f^ seq. 432 APPENDIX. 'mH* — vfJ-* 14 and do not expect it, but I shall get 3 dollars, I believe, as I have been a sirdar on board the ship. I went with the 14th Regiment to Abyssinia, and to Magdala with the regiments escorting commissariat stores. I am going to Moor Farm." It is almost a truism to say, but it must be said, emigrants should not be allowed to embark without being informed by the Emigration Agent as accu"'^':ely as possible what they may expect on their arrival in the colony. The copies from the registers kept by the Protector and resi- dent magistrates, which are given to the immigrants, and by them considered as a contract, may not indeed be held binding by the Colonial law, but are none the less direct pledges of the faith of the community. This is another, and, we are sorry to say, a still continuing instance of that carelessness as to the acts of the agents abroad which we have had occa- sion to notice in the case of the Chinese. Were it not that we have a confident expectation that the calling public attention to it will cause the immediate stoppage of this abuse, we could not look forward with any satisfaction to the continuance of immigration from India. The recruiters receive a certain advance to pay the expenses of immigrants to Calcutta, and occasional bribes. It is their object to get as many together (quickly as possible ; and if it cannot be expected that men of this class will be very particular, there is the more need of care on the part of their employers. When a recruiter has collected a sufficient number of people, he conveys them to Calcutta, where they are lodged in the emigration depot on the banks of the Hooghly, and receive a daily allowance of food j here they are examined by the medical inspector and surgeon of the vessel in which they are about to embark. This examination appears to be contlucted much too hastily, if we may judge from the remarkable evi- der.ce given last year by the surgeon-sui)erintendent of the immigrant ships Sliaiui ^xA Sophia Joachin*** The provisions taken on board require the most careful inspection, and some have freijuently to be rejected. I^'r. Crane says, with reference to the case of the Sophia Joachin : " I am of ox)inion that the provisions were of good (quality *^^li ^ :ve, as I ;he 14th ^giments arm." migrants rmed by hey may and resi- , and by [ binding pledges and, we elessness ad occa- t that we ittention ive could nance of expenses is their and if it articular, ployers. mber of odged in .1 receive by the they are inducted able evi- t of the t careful ;d. l\. JoacJiin : I quality APPENDIX. 433 excejDt the fish and tamarinds, both being old : as to the fish, I was informed that it was the best that could be got in the market." But Adhar Chander Doss, of the Shand, says he found some of the dholl was bad. The lime-juice was also bad, and the salt fish was of very inferior quality. As to the fresh water taken on board, there is evidence of a most extraordinary character given by Mr. Stephen Whettem, commander of the St. Kilda. , " The water put on board the St. Kilda was from a tank-boat ordered by the Government. We took on board, I think, about 105 tons. I think the tank-boat is, to the best of my belief, ca})able of containing 80 tons. I noticed the boat at the time of its coming alongside. I could not tell from the ai)pearance of the tank-boat what quantity of water she might have had on board. I did not observe any difference in the api)earance of the tank-boat in her draught after she had dis- charged the quantity of water we took on board. AVe were lying on the inside mooring — we were moored fore and aft — ■ we were next the shore — we were so close that the ship could not have swung. I am ([uite of opinion that the river water was pumjied from the river, where the tank-boat lay, into my ship. While the water was being pumped into the ship some one in authority came on l)oard and tasted the water from alongside. He then told the people in the tank-boat to stop pumi)ing, as the water was a little brackish, till ebb-tide set down. I am of opinion that the place where the ship lay was most unfavourable for taking water on board." Dr. Crane also bears witness : " The water put on board was of a muddy appearance, and deposited much sediment. I noticed the ai)i)earance when it was being pumped on board, and I incjuired of the captain of the tank-boat where the water was obtained. He said from up the river towards Bairackpore. When I observed that this water could never have come from Barrack- pore, he laughed. The water when issued was very dirty." . There is evidently something wrong in the Calcutta arrange- ments; but, in the absence of any statement from the parties who are concerned, we abstain from doing more than recording this evidence. F F APPENDIX E. IT would be well, says the Pioneer of India, if magistrates and the police throughout the country would direct some special attention to the operations of a set of scoundrels who, there is reason to believe, are just now particularly active, who are formidably organized, and the cause of great misery in native households, and of much (not entirely undeserved) odium to Government. Some late judicial proceedings have established the fact that the enrolment of Coolies for service in the West Indies, as pursued in Allahabail, differs in no essential respect, except one, from the old African slave trade. This one exception is that in the present case the victims are British subjects ! Here in India, as formerly in Africa, the slaves are seized by force, and detained against their will, and despite their tears and entreaties. Not the least ugly feature in the system is that it appears that young, good-looking women are the class of Coolies preferred in " Jamaica." The " emigration agents " go about in uniform and wearing the chapprass, to all appearance the immediate servants of Government. It is there- fore no wonder, but we are tempted to think it almost a pity, that such villviiny as is perpetrated with the apparent sanction of Government does not excite a rebellion. A small cmeiite would quicken the governmental conscience amazingly. From a sul)sequent number of the Pioneer it appears that four of the Allahabad kidnappers, alias Jamaica emigration agents, have received a measure of punishment, having beeia sentenced to twelve, nine, and six months' imprisonment respectively for *' unlawful confinement." The discovery of the APPENDIX. 435 slave depot, where some ten or twelve women were kept in durance, came about in this wise : — A fine-looking young woman went out on the morning of the 14th to earn her usual daily wages by grinding corn for a Bunyah. It appeared, however, that the Bunyah had no corn for grinding that morning, and she was consequently returning home, when a man accosted her, and offered her a job in corn- grinding at six pice for the day. She followed him to the serai at Khurdabad in the city, where another man made his appear- ance and demanded her name. She began to suspect some- thing was wrong, and tried to escape, but was hustled into a room in the serai, where a number of other women and a few children were huddled up together guarded by a third peon. Her entreaties for release were answered by blows and cuffs. She was told not to be a fool — that she would be sent to Jamaica, where she would get twelve rupees a month, besides clothes, &c. She replied that she had an infant at home, and did not want to go away ; she was, however, detained, strict watch being maintained over the whole party, day and night. The next day her sister succeeded in tracing her out, and began to weep and beat her breast before the door, until the peon on guard pushed her also inside, saying that she might keep her sister company to Jamaica. Either, however, the arrest of the sister had been too public, or her vociferous howling inside was considered dangerous, for the peon after a time turned her out again. She offered a rupee to the recruiting agent for her sister's release, but he would not take less than five rupees. In despair she went to the Rev. Mr. Evans, where her nephew worked, and appealed to him for aid. That gentleman accord- ingly, in company with the Rev. Mr. Williamson, went to the place indicated, and incjuired of one of the agents what it all meant. I'he scoundrel declared he had orders from Govern- ment to collect people for service in Jamaica, but pretended tliat all the women inside were there with their own consent. This, however, tlie women eagerly denied, and rushed pell- mell into the street — one in such a hurry and terror that she left her infant behind, and had to be called back to take it 436 APPENDIX. away. If it had not been for the humane interference of the Rev. Mr. Evans, it is probable that a batch of some twenty wretched women would shortly have been produced before a magistrate, where, like Oliver Twist before the guardians, they would have been too bewildered and terrified to express their horror at the idea of being expatriated — and then, why then the subaltern kidnappers would, if we are rightly informed, have received from their European em} loyers seven rupees for each poor woman so recruited, as an encouragement to further such good work. We are curious, by-the-bye, to know why the fee for each woman captured is seven rupees, while that for the man is only four — evidently feminine labour is especially appre- ciated " in Jamaica" or elsewhere. Though, as we have said, these particular wonen owe their liberation to Messrs. Evans and Williamson, the arrest of the scoundrelly kidnappers did not take place till some six or seven days later, and was due to the initiative of the police under the sub-inspector of the Colonelgunge station. APPENDIX F. MORTALITY AND ACCLIMATISATION. nPHE plantations in British Guiana on which there are in- -*- dentured immigrants, being for the most part on the sea- coast or banks of rivers, never far distant from the sea, nor rising much above its level, and not extending above two degrees in latitude, prevent there being any marked difference in either the climate or temperature of the country, and we may conclude that, but for local circumstances, the plantations may all be considered equally healthy. The hospital returns for the last four years show an average of I "63 per cent, of deaths to cases treated. Berbice and the River Districts are always below the average ; the Essequebo Islands always above; and the West Coast, Aroabisce Coast, and East Coast, are three times out of the four above the average also. But as these figures, taken from Dr. Shier's reports, are not the percentages of deaths on popu- lation, but on the cases treated in hospital, allow\ances must be made, not only for the difference of climate and situation, but also for the difference of hospital treatment. If these returns could be relied on, we might, in the first place, draw from them the satisfactory conclusion that the last five years, at all events, have witnessed a great diminution in the death-rate. In ([ualification of this we must observe that the death-rate for all the years subsequent to 1865 has been ' calculated for free immigrants as well as indentured. This of itself somewhat reduces the rate, which is highest among new-comers, who are all indentured ; nevertheless, we 438 APPENDIX. have reason to believe that a great diminution has taken place, and that it may be ascribed to the better hos])itals, better . dwellings, and greater care of late bestowed upon the immi- grants. The average, if we may judge from this table, would appear to be, as nearly as possible, 4 per cent, on the popu- lation. This rate of mortality is undoubtedly large ; it is a trifle less on the whole, but larger in three years out of the five, than that shown by Dr. Dalton (" British Guiana," vol. ii. p. 129) as the ratio for black troops here for twenty years (4*06 per 1000), and larger than is shown in Mr. Hadfield's tables, quoted by Dr. Dalton, as the mortality of Georgetown for nine years ending with 1846, 3'54 per cent. But the mortality returns of the Immigration Office are not, at least till within the last three years, to be depended upon as calculations, involving as they do a large element of mere estimate. In the table of returns furnished to us as showing the number of deaths from the commencement of immigration up to the 31st of December, 1866, since the total number of deaths arrived at is obviously too small, an arbitrary addition of 25 per cent, is made, and a number is further guessed at, to account for the immigrants dying in villages, towns, woodcutting places, &c., equal to 10 per cent, upon the whole. The following return for the last three years is obtained by taking the number on the estates on the last day of the pre- ceding year, adding the average of new arrivals at different times during the year, so as to allow for that part of the year during which they were in the colony, and one-third of the births which have occurred during the year, then deducting from the total of these numbers the average of those who have returned to India during the year according to the date they left British Guiana ; then the remainder shows, as nearly as can be ascertained, the average number on estates at any time during the year. The number of deaths given in the return is then reduced by one-half of those who have died in the public institutions, to allow for those who were sent to the hospital n place, 1, better e immi- , would le popu- "ifle less :han that ) as the lOo), and 1 by Dr. 3 ending 5 of the LSt three ; as they number the 31st rrived at ■ cent, is ; for the ces, &c., Dbtained the pre- different the year d of the educting i^ho have ate they ly as can my time return is le public hospital APPENDIX, 439 from on board ship, and for those not under indenture, taken up by the police and sent to the public hospital. The table stands thus : — Indians Population. Deaths. Death-! ate IS67 31.274 1,333 4-3 1868 33.579 9«S 2-9 1869 36,860 1,106 3-0 Chinese . Population. Deaths. Death-rate. 1867 7.30s 367 5-0 1868 6,9CX) 226 3-3 1869 6,553 201 3-0 percentage for these three years to be : — 1867 V 4-41 1868 i-99 1869 3-00 This appears to be a somewhat nearer approximation to the truth, calculated from the same data as the Immigration Office returns. We must notice, however, in these data, one point which has tended constantly to diminish the rate. Among the population are included a number of deserters, some of whom have been absent for several years. The number of deaths among these cannot be ascertained, and probably most of them are omitted in the returns. The census of this year will, we hope, afford means of determining more accurately the mor- tality among the immigrants since that of 186 1 was taken. If the rate has really fallen to three or four per cent, it is certainly not a result with which to rest content, but it affords much ground for satisfaction, when compared with the early history of immigration. The mortality attending the East Indian immigrants from 1845 to 1851 may be proved to have been not less than ten per eeiit. annual/y. The numbers introduced up / to 1850, beginning with the 400 who came in 1838 (of whom, however, 238 returned to India in 1843) 440 APPENDIX. Were in » 1845 1846 1847 1848 Total 816 4.036 3.467 3.54' 11,860 After this, there was no further importation till 185 1. These people were entitled to back passage after five years' service ; and in 1850 one ship had returned carrying 247 people : — ir,86o 247 Adding for the survivors in 1845 of those who came in 1 838, many of whom had died : 11,613 50 11,663 The Census of 1851 gave, as the number of East Indians in the Colony : 7.682 leaving to be accounted for, as the excess of deaths over births in this period of six years, 3,981, or more than one- third of the whole. An estimate of the rate of mortality necessary to produce this result is not difficult to form. It is certain that the addition to the population by births, in the country, of infants, still surviving in 185 1, was insignificant in the extreme. The women were insufficient in number, and in character ill-fitted to rear families ; and among the most thriving part of the. population, those, namely, who afterwards returned to India, the number of infants carried back (that is, of children under two years of age) remained for many years exceedingly small. Omitting, therefore, all considerations of such addi- tions to the population, a calculated mortality of 10 per cent, per annum, worked out by introducing year by year the new comers, and subtracting 10 per cent, of the whole for deaths, will be found to leave in 185 1, 7,698 survivors, or a trifle more APPENDIX. 441 than the number actually found in the colony when the Census of March 31st, 185 1, was taken. Such a state of things, we may hope, has passed away, never to return. Still, from time to time an estate produces so large a figure in the mortality tables for several years in suc- cession, as to show that the very great precautions now taken are by no means too great. It must often become a matter for serious consideration whether allotments to such an estate ought to continue, and we feel bound to urge that it is not the culpability, and still less the interest, of the employer that ought to be considered by the administration. If the indentured immigrants had been successfully brought within reach of the hospital system, the same cannot be said for thi unindentured. The estate's hospital is an absolutely essential feature in the immigration system, but it is more especially for the indentured immigrants in their first term of service that it is needed. But here a very important subject forces itself upon our attention. The immigrants are all foreigners. Is the climate genial to them, or do they rec^uire seasoning ? Is the above mortality etiually distributed over all immigrants ; or do those newly arrived in the country furnish more than their proper quota? On this last subject we have referred to Dr. Shier's reports for information. The figures can be as- certained no further back than the first half of 1863, when the proportion of those who died, not having completed their first year, was found to amount to 55*56 per cent, of the whole number of deaths of indentured immigrants. In the last half year of the next year, the percentage had fiillen to 34'67. From the 1st July, 1865, to 30th June, 1866, it rose again to 37*65 ; for the year 1867 the rate was 32*97. In the last half of that year, yellow fever prevailed ; and out of the eighteen cases which terminated fatally, fourteen were of per- , sons who had not been six months in the country. In 1868 the percentage was 18*95 '> ^'^'^ J^)'"- Shier, writing on the loth May, 1869, remarks, that "at present we 442 APPENDIX. are on the verge of the most sickly season, and fully one-third of the immigrants are not yet arrived." As was to be expected, the percentage rose in the next year to 20*9 1 ; but of the 203 who died to make this average, thirty-nine were children under ten years of age. In the first half of 1870, 158, or 33"20 per cent., had not completed their first year of residence, and of them forty-three were children. This great mortality, of course, attracted Dr. Shier's obser- vation and engaged his attention, and, in his 20th Report, he suggests that the immigrants must have been in enfeebled condition on arrival ; and proposes measures for modifying the conditions favourable to the prevalence of those diseases which proved fatal to them. In his 21st Report, taking ad- vantage of the experience he had gained, that the acclimatisa- tion of immigrants is not effected with ecjual ease in all districts and at all seasons, he proposes so to arrange the allotments that, towards the end of the season, allotments should fall only to those estates possessed of the greatest facilities for acclimatisation. The scheme has been matured and published since we had an opportunity of examining Dr. Shier. We conclude that it is intended so to arrange the allotments, that schedule A, including the u;ihealthy estates of Haarlem^ Peter's Hall, Providence Farm, Diamond, Friends, and Ma Retraite, to which he took exception in his 20th Report, should be supplied earliest, or at all events not latest, in the season. If possible, no relaxation of the rule should be per- mitted by which the agent in India is instructed to take care, as suggested by Dr. Shier, that immigrants should so leave India that they may come into the colony not later than April. It is true that Mr. Russell, of Leonora, gives an instance of a batch of Coolies, the best he ever had, who arrived in the middle of May, went to work the second day after their arrival, and at the end of five years all, except a girl who had died of consumption, answered to their name. This, how- ever, is to be received as an exception, and of an exceptionally APPENDIX. 443 fine set of Coolies, not as controverting the assertion that those Coolies have a better chance who arrive early in the season than those who arrive just before the long wet season sets in, or, that it is better for them not to be put to so severe labour directly on their arrival. * The early arrival of new immigrants is the first measure Dr. Shier suggests in his 20th Report, 4th April. 1H70, as tending to modify the risks to which newly-arrived immigrants are subject. The second is, that they should be supplied with suitable foO(' until they can be trusted to supply themselves. The principle has already been admitted in section 10 of Ordinance 9 of 1868, that, with the approval of the Governor, newly-arrived immigrants may be dieted by their employer for four months ; this subject having, of course, engaged the attention of the Immigration Department and the Government before that ordinance was passed. On the 2nd January, 1867, Mr. Crosby, the Immi- gration Agent-General, sent a circular to the managers of estates suggesting that all immigrants, until acclimatised, should be only moderately and judiciously worked, and for six months and upwards regularly fed l)y the estate, in a manner similar to that which they had been accustomed to during the voyage, the value of such food being a set-off against the wages they earned. The adoption of this suggestion, which certainly was x^r t in accordance with section 103 of Ordinance 4 of 1864, by Mr. Field, of pin. Great Diaviofid, produced a complaint from his immigrants, and a condemnation of the plan by the Lieutenant-Governor on the ground of illegality. It worked well, however, and was shortly afterwards legalized. By the Ordinance 9 of 1868, section 10, it was pro- vided that an employer might supi)ly indentured immigrants with rations during the first four months of their service, accord- ing to a scale of dietary to be approved by the Governor, and that he might deduct the cost of the rations, at a fixed price, from the wages the immigrants earned. Mr. Crosby was, at this time, absent from the office, and, with the exception 2< 444 APPENDIX. of the drawing up of a scale by the acting agent-general, and some correi3pondence with planters, nothing appears to have been done in pursuance of this section, until on the 12th Dec, 1870, the following notice was issued : — * "Government Notice. " The following is the scale of dietary and the prices fixed for the same, which have been approved by his Excellency the Governor, under section 10 of Ordinance No. 9 of 1868, as allowable to employers of immigrants for rations which may be supplied such immigrants during the first four months of their service under indenture. " Guiana Public Buildings, "Georgetown, Demerara, 12th December, 'S70. " By Command, "J. M. GRANT, " Government Secretary." Proposed Scale of Diet u nder Ordinance 90/1868, S. 10. Chaotahaziri. For 25 Adults. Estimated Extreme At 6.30 A.M. lbs. Cost. Biscuit . . . 4 oz. each . . 6i 50 cts. Sugar , . . ^ >> >> • . Ii . 14 .. Breakfast 64 cts. at I ! A.M. Rice . . . *Dholl . . . Ghee or Mus- 'i tard Oil . ) 12 cz. each . 4 >» >' 2 )> )> • . i8| 4 56 cts. 30 ,, 25 M *SaitFish . . Onions . . . _ / Chillies . . PoX Tumeric \ Coriander Seed 2 ,( i» 2 )) i» i „ ,, (s . 3i IS • i ay) i 25 .. . 14 M 8 „ 4 .. 2 .. Salt .... . 4 M ^ » Note.— If no Dholl, then 4 oz. of Salt Fish. $1 68 APPENDIX. 445 ated Extreme Cost. 50 cts. 4 M j4 cts. ;6 cts. 50 „ !5 .. =5 >. 4 .. 8 „ 4 .. 2 „ 4 .. Dinner at As above, only substituting — 4 or 5 P,M. 24 oz. cooked Plantains (without husks). 2 ,, Pork or i oz. Butter. 4 ,, Salt Fish. I ,, Onions 5 or 6 Biscuits. $ I 68 25 at 16 cts. each S 4 O Note. — A little Tobacco should be issued at regular periods to those who use it. Provisions to be invariably issued cooked. We think that this scale of diet miglit be somewhat simphfied with advantage both to the labourer and employer, say : i^ lb. of Rice, 4 ozs. Dholl. 1 „ GLce, ! Chillies. Turmeric. Coriander Seed. 2 „ Sugar, and salt, as much as required for seasoning the rice or dholl. This would be quite sufficient to keep a man in health; and at the same time, would enable him to receive more of his wages in money, as the rations would cost less. As the pro- vision in the Act at j^resent leaves it to the option of the employer whether he will feed his immigrants or not, and this change would no doubt make it acceptable to him, he would be more likely to assist in carrying out the system. The duration as to the length of time for which the dieting should be continued is a point on which there are great differences of opinion. Those managers who have not tried it are anxious to make it short, fearing the trouble it might cause them ; while those who have, are willing to see it extended, having found it beneficial by experience. We under- stand that the home authorities are no longer inclined to press their objections to the plan founded on the abuses peculiar to a truck system ; and, certainly, in this instance, there are cir- ' cumstances to modify the general rule. After giving consiiler- able thought to the subject, we have come to the conclusion 446 APPENDIX. that the four months' term should be increased ; and the scheme we woulJ propose is as follows : — All immigrants, at whatever period of the year arriving, should be dieted up to the end of their first sickly season, say the ist of October. Since none arrive later than June, this would give a minimum of nearly four months ; during that period, they should be mustered at the hospital periodically, at least once in every month, and inspected by the medical prac- titioner to the estate. On or about the ist of October, at the periodical inspection, the employer should produce his pay list, and the doctor should strike off from his muster roll every immigrant who has, every week during the last six weeks, earned enough to pay for his food. The same process should be repeated at subsequent inspections : until at the end of the second sickly season, when all who are then left (with the exception of those who, as at present, unfortunately become chronic pensioners on the estate), should be remitted to the normal condition of labourers earning their living and receiving all their wages in money. , 304 4194 4 tUlMliU liV VIRTUU AND COt, CIIY ROAU, LUNUUM. ^ d the scheme /ear arriving, ly season, say an June, this ; during that eriodically, at nedical prac- ctober, at the duce his pay 5ter roll every St six weeks, ame process until at the are then left unfortunately i be remitted ;ir living and IM.