The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-11
THE "HEATHEN CHINEE."

The "HEATHEN CHINEE,"
THE CooIIE TRADE-wHo THE COOLIES ARE
WHERE THEY COME FRoM-How THEY ARE
IDAs OF AMERICA, ETC.
From long and elaborate abstract in the
New York Herald of new work on China
and the coolie system by Colonel Russell H.
Conwell, of Boston, which is about to be
issued in that city, we make the following
extracts. AS the coolie question is begin
ming to be one of the greatest interest, the
facts and figures and opinions which Colonel
Conwell offers as the result of several years
residence in China, from which country he
has just returned, are we'll worthy of the at
tention of our readers. We quote from the
article in the Herald those portions that par
particularly relate to the coolie trade:-
BEGINNING OF THE oooI1E TRADE.
The way the coolie trade began is interest
ing. In the spring of 1S47 Spanard who
entered the port of Macaow was surprised
with the cheapness of labor in China, and in
cidentally wished that he had a thousand
Chinese in Peru. This led to the discussion
of the expediency of taking the Chinese to
Peru, and finally to an attempt on their part
to load his vessel with coolies This they did
under the pretense of shipping them for
Java; but whether any contracts were made
with these men is not at present known.
They obtained three hundred coolies, for
whose passage the Spaniard became RESPONSE
BILE. Near the 1st day of June the vessel
sailed out of the port of Macaow with
three hundred as happy men as ever trod
the planks of a ship. Believing the false
hoods that had been told them, and
expecting soon to return to their homes
wealthier men, they looked back upon
fha cio Gov
time when they should see them again. 1t is
doubtful if any one of them has yet seen his
native land, and as doubtful that any of them
ever will do so. After one hundred days of
storm, exposed to cold and heat, with half
rations and but little water, 175 were landed
at port near Callao, to be treated even
worse on land than they had been on the sea-
The Spaniard swore to his own story, and no
one could understand the. Chinamans COM
plant if he had any to make. They were put
on plantation in the interior where they
could not run away, and the experiment of
cooie labor tried for the first time in that
State. 1t was satisfactory to the contractor,
and another cargo was sent for. Coming to
the ears of planters in Cuba, who knew
that in a few months they must part
with their slaves, they also sent ships
to bring over the Chinese. The story of the
successful coolie traffic soon spread over the
Spanish and Portuguese dominions, and
Peru, Australia, Surinam, and the Indian Ar
chipelago We'd withCuba in the traffic of human
labor. But it was not to be expected that
many cargoes of voluntary emigrants could
be procured when it was found that the time
for the return of the first shpload had passed,
with no news from the husbands and fathers
who had left Besides this rumors began to
be afoat that the coolies were taken to ''the
other side of the world to be enslaved for a
series of years, and finally murdered. When
the ships which followed the Don Pedro on
her second visit arrived at Macaow the Chi
nese were too much alarmed to be induced
by any offers to go on board. Then began
that system of
KIDNAPPING COOLIES,
purchasing, claiming, starving, and, as it may
appropriately be called, numbering, which fol
twenty years shocked the feelings of all hui
name persons and cast a dark blot upon the
Portuguese and Spanish escutcheons that Car
never be expuDged. Fathers and mothers
sold their sons, fugitives bargained away
themselves, banditti brought in their male
and female prisoners, and sold them in lots tc
the traders, for which sums never exceeding
ten dollars per person were thankfully re
ceived. The market being i'll supplied witt
purchasable human beings, the traders
organized bands of night thieves, whose
business it was to steal into the cabins
of the laborers and carry on boart
the ship the father and sons, and sometime
the whole family Although these band
were numerous, and coolies were captured b,
the thousand, still the demand increased be
yond their kidnapping capacity. Then ship
called 'Lorchas" were manned and armed al
if for war, and sent up the bays and rivers II
fall suddenly upon the unsuspecting inhabi
tants of some rurul district. This was grea
success. In the face of the navies of tht
civilized world these pirate vessels carryin
the Portuguese flag would enter some tow
unperceived and capture whole cargoes at
single swoop. Old men were seized in tn
rice fields, boys in the schoolroom, youn
men in the shops, and carried by force to tn
suffocating holds of the vessels at Macaow.
THE PRESENT CooLIE TRADE.
Yet this dreadful traffic in coolies still goe
on. The action of civilized nations ha.
however, confined it to a single port (Ma
caow), and even there they are making som
effort to Regulate" it. The present traffic q
Macaow consists of prisoners taken in tn
clan fights, which are of constant occurrenc
in the western districts of the province @
Quantung, and who are sold by their captoI
to Chinese or Portuguese man buyers upo
the interior waters, of villagers or fisherme
kidnapped along the coast by the lorcha
still kept in the traders employ, and c
Cinnamon who, after having been entice
into the gambling houses, sell themselves
as in honor bound" to.pay their losse,
There are established coolie brokers In tn
city, who have depot or private Jail in whic
they put each eoolie as they get him unit
they have full cargo, when they sell theI