The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-08-18
Coolies Appeal to the United States

Coolies Appeal to the United States.
A considerable document appears IN tho
northern papers detailing the troubles OF
some 10000 coolies now in Peru, and ap-
pcaling to the United States for protection.
| The disturbances of the civil war in China
in 1851 drove great many laborers and
craftsmen to other countrics-a number OF
them to Peru. From year to year the num-
Der has increased, until it now amounts to
some 10000. These are now complaining
| that they arc treated in Il most cruel man
ncr. In December last they drew up bill
of their grievances, representing that the
pcruvianB regarded their contracts as no
| thing more than so much waste paper, I'M
Justly charged them with thievcry and rob
berry Of every description, punished them
| with ncck-yokcs and other instruments Of
torture, &C., &c. The following is an OK
tract from the document:
'If we 20 in the street the boys use vile
| language to disgrace aud ridiculc us.
Thorns and bricrs meet us whichever way
we turn, and everybody i'll our companies
in this port (of Lima) feels us if they had
fallen into pit, from which there is no de-
/! lverancc, so dreadful arc our sutferings,
and so far of seems our escape. We re-
press our own feelings, for they are unut-
tcrablc."
The appeal was addressed to our Minister
at Lima but no one there being able 10
translate it, it was forwarded to }. Ross
BROWNE at Pekin, by whom it was sent to
Prince KuNG, with an accompanying letter
intimating that the United States would
lend some assistance in securing redress for
his afflicted countrymen. The Prince
thanked Mr.. BROWNE, and begged that he
would ask the American Minister 1T Peru
"to lend helping hand 10 these people"
Mr.. BROWNE, under date Pckin, August
3, sends TO our State Department copies o.!
the correspondence, with request that the
| Government take some action in the matter.
This affair excites much notice in the pa
pcrs. We fear it will give much concern to
the Enquirer. "Thcsc people" are indeed
in pitiable condition, according to their
own statement. Their toll, they say, "has
- ceased not morning nor evening, and
% they have had no rest in cold nor heat
Z" If we cry out from our gricfs' they say
"wc are made to suffer more reproaches
land outrages, SO that at all times VIC hear
''the violence which ends in death, and
everywhere see the grief that drives our
"peoplc to make away with themselves"
Here is cry for you! How the me
lancholy JAQUEs" of the Enquirer will
soliloquize over it ! We nominate him as
the special commissioner to these Borrowing
people, who SO rue their contract with the
Peruyians.
But is not this bit of history rather dis,
cOuraging to the coolie trade? The specll-
lators in their labor want them to work in
morning" and evening"" and in Twin
ter" and - summer" The advocates OF
their importation guarantee that there is nc
such thing as breakdown or exhaustion in
them. Yet here we sec that, because all
this is required Of them in Peru, they want
| to 20 home. We do not know much about
the Pcruyians, but conjecture they are as
kind masters as some in this country and
if the boys here would not laugh at the
coolies, they are not the boys we take them
for.
1t is pretty philanthropic sensation,
and Peru's tgot to catch it.