The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-04-26


= We cannot undertake to return rejected Communca
Letters to be addressed 'To TIE DA1Lr ExoH,ra
Baltimore, MARYLAND -
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The Coolie trade is but branch of the slave
traffic disguised under another and less opprobri
Gus name. Men are inveigled or forcibly kid
mapped from their homeS-are carried on board
receiving ships lying off one or other of tn,
Chinese ports-are brutally beaten if they resist
and when their consent TO expatriate themselves
is finally wrung from them, they are thrust under
matches until the vessel sails. Many of theso
wretched creatures, crowded together between
decks, endure all the horrors to which African
slaves were at one time reported TO have beer
subjected, whilst making what was famiarly
known as ''thc middle passage" Numbers o
them die on the voyage round Cape Horn, and
if the survivors, indignant at the decep-
ton practised them, maddened by their
sullerings, attempt, by resistance, to liberate
themselves from the harsh control of those who
have them in charge, they are shot down like
dogs, while the captain of the vessel and his
subordinates are lauded for the heroism they dis
played in quelling what it has become the fashion
to call "a dangerous mutny' But the hard
ships and privations endured by the Coole laborer
do not terminate with the voyage. On the arrival
of the ship at Cuba he is sold to the highest bid
der, and is Immediately sent by his new master
into the interior of the island, TO work side by
side With negro slaves on a plantation. His
new condition is oEtensibly that of an indented
servant his term of service being limited TO eight
years. During that time he is to be fed and
14 tbn If ! =,
receive wages at the rate of four dollars q month
These stipuations if not liberal, certainly imply
some consideration for the Asiatic laborer and
their faithful observance might serve to
qualify the odium which has been cast upon the
system 10y the INSCRIPTIONS means adopted in
procuring him. But when once the Coolie is estab-
lShed on plantation he becomes to all intents and
purposes, slave, and is treated as such. He is
worked to the limit of his powers. He cannot look
forward TO the period of his liberation under
the contract into which he has entered, for long
before that time arrives he is entangled with
debts, and is compelled by similar devices to form
new engagements by which he is kept in perret
uaI bondage. The theory Of voluntary emgra-
ton, upon which the system was originally based
has been perverted almost from its origin, or has
only been carried out, in q few instances in the
British West India colonies, under the pressure
Of the stringent regulations established by the
Government for the protection of this class of ag-
ricultUral lahorcrs. But the chief point TO which
importAons of Chinese Coolies have been directed
Is still, and will continue to be- the Island of
Cuba, so long as the traffic is suffered to 90 on IN
restricted, and the planters are permitted to vic.
late their engagements with inpunity. It is this
license to retain by arfce the Cooe laborer in
bondage, under color of contracts successfully re-
newed, which enables the Cuban planter to pay q
considerable sum per capita for every new hand
imported into the island while it encoura-
ges the ship owners, or their agents who
are engaged in this business, TO resort tc
those acts Of deception and violence which hav,
led the Chinese authorities to prohibit the trafli
under severe penalties, and which still more re
Gently attracted the attention of the English an
French Commanders-n- Chief 1t is essential t
the better understanding of the Joint letter of re
monstrauce, addressed by the latter to the Consu
lar body al Canton, that we should state, first
all, that the supply of Coolies is obtained by til
agents Of the ship owners through Chinese con
emigrant obtained, and it is humiliating in tn
extreme 10 be obliged to admit that this traffic
chiefly carried on by American vessels Report
of numerous outrages committed under cover
this system having been made to the French an
English commanders on that station, an invest
CATION was determined upon, during the progreS
OF which 4 mass of testimony was taken, a
OF which went to substantate the truth of IL
statements that had been made. Tt
dispositions of one hundred and five men VIII
were taken from on board of four receivin
ships at Whampoa, three Of them being America
vessels, established the fact, beyond a doubt thi
the greater portion of the Coolies so detained ha
been kidnapped and then forced by syste
''of torture, into nominal consent to an eg
"years' engagement in Cuba In addressir
the Consular body already referred to, the all
commanders remark
eve doubt not that You will concur with us in thin
ing that it be sufficient defence of the system
say that this violation and deception is in cases
act of the Chinese and not of foreigners engaged in
trade. The latter must long this have become {
quanted both with the true character of the nstrumer
they employ and the abuse which the payment of he
money must lead; and there is, moreover, evidence
show that the i'll treatment of which the Coolies compla
is not unfequeny inflicted board the foreign vesse
and by foreign hands,
Official documents covering the stmony take
upon the subject accompanied the letter fro
which wc have drawn the above extract, and Il
Consuls are assured that every precaution W,
used TO guard against deception in taking IL
'depositions.' All the narratives Of the kiC
mapped Coolies are alike, or differ only in unin
porant rarliculars;-all declare themselves
have been the victims Of artifce and violence
The deposition Of SHUE A-YEuNG will give an ide
Of the mode in which the Chinese contractc
went to work, and the barbarities praetised upo
those who fell into their clutches IT reads {
follows:
"Shue -yeung, Tartar, stat es About twenty day
ago / selling silk in the western suburb Two me
accose1 me, and said they could sell me some bette
goods than mine, and at cheap rate. This silk
board junk in the river. went board with then
and was seized and taken to foreign vessel at Chun
Chow, on board which ship Twas askedifI was willn
to emigrae. refused, and was taken back to the Oh
nesc boat cruelty beaten with thick board recev
ing hundred blows on all parts of my body, and tol
that if did not say was willing the time the fo
eisner asked should be killed and my body thrown int
the river consented then, being afraid and take
to the foreign vessel again. Some time after this TO
eign gentleman came board and asked me some que
tions. explained who was, and that could not be
cooiic After this sent down below and "A foTeig
err Of what country am not aware struck me with h
fist for having refused it no use resisting an
any longer Ny clothes were changed, and was Ike
below My father accompanied by foreign gentlema
came for me 81 years of age. Have wife al
two children"
The above is of course, but a foretaste Of Il
treatment to which the Coolie passengers sui
iected during their voyage across the Pacific ocea
What their condition subsequently become
a. indentured servants on Cuban plantatio
we have already stated. The American Comm
sioner to China, and the Consus residing thel
have repeatedly declared the traffic to be illegi
hut SO long as no penalties enforced, the ImF
rial edict will continue to be violated But VIII
The Chinese authorities are powerlcss to effect, o
own Government should undertake and it is t
duty of Congress TO act promptly in this matte
for the traffic is of itself demoralizinr whilst I
outrages by which it is accompanied are disgra
to the American name. ~.
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No one who visits the new CORN AND FLOUR T
CHANGE at this moment receiving the last toucl
of the builder and furnisher can fail TO he impress