Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-01 00:00:00

THE COOLIE HORRORS.

R. The China papers contain further me
Vole facts,
elicited during the investigation of " c.rl4 coolie horrors."
The acting ‘s Harbour Maste.,-,.
nun L migration Officer,"
Mr. E. Mitchell, on hie ()elimination, yielded information
'Which proves him to have teen at least a consenting party
to the villanies of the tystem. The inquiries which have
been instituted pr"jve, moreover, with sufficient clearness,
the direct fiai.3:c of tho European Coolie Agents, for corn_
plicity •sreith their ruffianly Chinese servants in the base
and Brutal trade of kidnapping hitherto carried on with
impunity there. The Emigration officer admitted that,
when he went on board one of the coolie prisons, called
emigrant passenger ships, he was supplied with false
translations of a bond which the men had been compelled
to sign. It purported to be an agreement of service for
five years, at a certain rate, whereas it was in reality a
bond to serve for eight years on the same aggregate rate.
There was no serious notice taken of this ; the fact was
spoken of quite incidentally; and it passed off as if it
were quite a trivial and pardonable piece of stratagem,
It turned out too that the pork, of which a large quantity
had been put on board for these poor wretches, had been
on two former occasions. oondemned, being "rotten and
full of maggots," and that the Fame trash had been for the
third time shipped, doctored up by means of strong pickle
Which would for the time being destroy the maggots. This
brutal rascality does not appear to have much shocked
People there, even after confessed by the perpetrator of
it; till at length the China Mail exposed it, and denounced
the business, in terms sufficiently strong. On this the
honest pork doctor stepped forward, and proclaiming
himself to be a very ill used individual, threatened a pro
secution—candidly admitting the damning, fact charged
against him, but protesting against any imputation of
baseness thereupon founded. There cannot surely be
conceived a more telling comment upon the nature of the
coolie trade than the following scene, reported by an eye
witness of the whole :

Yesterday, about ten o'clock a.m., I heard a fearful
Yell, and running to my windows, 1 found that 300 to 400
coolies had absconded from their keepers in old Duran's
Premises, and were running in all directions.
I am told one of the (slave ?) keepers had punished
801110 of them, and a fight commenced, when four coolies
ran away ; the keepers followed them immediately leaving
the gate without protection, and, of course, as this seems
to have been their plan, all the remaining coolies bolted.
I saw the keepers knock down half-a-dozen with large
bamboos outside my window, but they only succeeded in
stopping a few.
A few weeks ago several hundreds escaped in the same
way from Mr. L. Barretto's premises.

And this is sappNed to be the conduct of emigrants,
voluntarily proceeding from their native country, in
Bangaine anticipation of conditions of prosperity and
happiness not afforded them at home?
The China Mail supplies another instance of the escape
of a gang of these men from slavery. The other day."
he writes, " we received information of a stampede of
these unfortunates from a barracoon where they had been
kept in readiness to be sent on board ship. About two
hundred of them broke out, and made in a mass for the
Santo Antonio gate, prepared to resist any attempt at
recapture; and very few of them were retaken, though
two were found dead from their wounds the following
lin°rlgag- They had all been supplied with new clothes,
Which they threw off hurriedly as they ran ; and the road_
side was plentifully strewed with jackets. Their coun-
trymen, as they hurried along, encouraged them, and
pointed out the straight road to the gate."
The atrocities of this vile trade, carried on in a British
e°l°nY, are a blot upon our national honour. It is de-
elareflthat the Danish, Portuguese, and Swedish subjects
resident in China, have made forcible appeals to their
governments to have a stop put, if possible, to this in-
famous trade in human flesh." The French Legation,
too, have issued warnings to their merchant vessels not
to engage in the trade. After the full exposures that have
been made, we cannot believe that the British authorities
Will longer tolerate' ts continuance.
It might to well that at this juncture some efficient in-
vestigatiouhe made into emigration matters as they are
among us in India.—Phoenix, May 6.