Weekly Trinity journal., 1872-10-05

! w HO uuIOUS you bul HAS SuuQueTNQ III
| the bare recital Of the barbarties of the
old African slave trade, and who among
you but could shed very tears to know
that in the evening of the nineteenth CEN
tury those barbaritieS are being repro
duced and multiplied, while this great
Republic, the frst-born of liberty and
the special guardian of human freedom
sits idly by and refuses even to stretch
! forth hand to warn the damning traffic
from her own shores ! What incident of
| the old slave trade is more appalling than
! the burning of the cody ship Dolores
/ Ugdrte on the 9th of May last, together
with six hundred and sixty-tive coolies.
As Mr., Bailey says in his dispatch on
the subject :
Truly Providence seems to have set
her apart to shock the nations with a new
horror that shall startle them to their du-
ty in suppressing this infamous slave
trade. On Saturday, the 9th of May,
the ship was discovered to be ON fire in
the hold, where the coolies were kept.
The captain states that, with a view to
save his own and his crews lives, he bat
tened down the matches on the passen-
gers, and took to the boats. The ship
was burned to the waters edge, and with
it over six hundred victims of this afro
cluus traffic in men,"
Chief Justice Smale, in the decision
from which | have read during the course
of these remarks, says that he has en-
deavored to make list Of the cody ships
burnt or sunk with all on board, and that
he finds that in very short time seven
ships with about three thousand coolies
have thus been destroyed.
In the NouUetie Penelope the coolies
L., hn1 81,
sought to free themselves from their cap
tors by death, and two Of them actually
escaped in this way. They sprang over
board and drowned. Epics are written
to commemorate deeds less heroic than
this. Let not these poor coolies die un-
honored and unsung. Enact n law which
will prevent their cOuntrymen from shar-
ing their fate, and you will have erected
to their honor n monument more endur-
ing than the grandest epic ever yet sung.
But we come now to the objection that
the cody is by our laws free as soon as
he lands upon American soil. To those
unacquainted with the Chinese this would
seem to be unanswerable but very
slight reference to their customs and their
religious belief will demonstrate the utter
falsity Of this proposition.
There are three different religions in
China ; but they seem now, although still
having separate temples and a distinct
priesthood, to be far advanced in the
process of amalgamatiOn, at least the
common people seem to believe in the
superstitons and practice the rites of
each. Their worship and alteration ap-
pear to he accorded to the gods Of either
of these religions, with an impartiality
and an indifference that are perfectly hor-
=. l.lf.
God
"The indigenous religion of China -
says Mr.. Lay, in his excellent work on
the moral, social and literary character
of the Chinese
is II system Of polytheism, which, like
the theogonies of Egypt and Greece, is
nothing more than a congeries of canon
lied fables. The regions Of the sky, the
earth, and the sea are parted into differ
ent presidencies, under the tutelago of
some particular deity"
This indigenous religion, as Mr.. Lay
calls it, is represented by, or rather di-
vided into, two sects, called the sect of
TaoW and the Contucians or sect Of the
learned. The former Of these, though
infinitely more interesting to the student,
in the weird mysticsms, OF its rites, and
in the almost eXhaustless number and va
riety of its idols, than the latter, can serve
no purpose in this argument, but among
the superstitions Of Confucianism we find
one OF the irresistible reasons which i'm
pels the poor exiled cody to work out
his slave contract with scrupulous eX-
actions, even in land whose benifcent
laws would strike the self imposed chains
from his limbs and give him all the rights
of a fee man. | allude to the worship
of ancestral tablets. These, after the
proper ceremonies have imbued them
with the spirit OF their departed ancestors,
are set up either in what are called an
cestral halls or in private dwellings, and
woe to the Chinese dGvotee who does not
worship these tablets at stated periods.
The poor cooly's life would indeed be a
hell upon earth if he lost all hope of Of
fering at some time sacrifices to the spir-
its OF his ancestors, which he believes at
stated times are encased in these mystic
rious>tablets, or if he lost all hope that in
case of death his bones would be returned
to his home that tablet might be raised
to his memory, and he in turn become
household god to his prosterity. II his
contract is broken he knows he cannot
return either dead or alive to China.
Nor is this ALL II these mysterious
rites are not performed he is threatened
with an eternity of damnation. And the
Chinese idea Of hell is not very pleasant
place to contemplate as n future residence.
Lakes Of blood into which the wicked are
thrown red hot pillars which the sinner
must embrace devourng and ferociuus
lions, tigers, snakes and other terrible
animals roam at large; moutans stuck
all over with knives, upon the points Of
which the condemned are cast down ;
cutting out of tongues, stangling, and
saving asunder between flaming posts
are very common there the condemned
creeping into the skins Of hideous ami
mails, in the form Of which they are des-
/ tined to appear again on earth; boiling
in caldrons; horned demons, with swords,
spears, hatchets, and hooks wretched
mortas alternately shivering with indie
scrbable cold, and burned to Goals with
fierce fires, give some idea Of the place
the poor cody thinks he will be cast into
should he break his contract, and be pro-
hibited from returning to China.
But before this hell is reached another
punishment after death awaits him. The
doctrine Of metempsychosis, as introduced
into China by the Buddhists, has there
gained universal credunce, and by it the
cody is taught that contract broken in
life must be fulfilled in the most lgnOmin-
ious manner after death that the soul of
the contract-breaker enters into the form
OF dog, horse, an OK, or some other
domestic animal, and is compelled in
that mean guise TO work out The uneX-
pired time tor the person to whom, under
his contract, he owed his labor in life
Thus gentlemen will see that it mat
ters not what country he may be in, or
how many benifcent laws he may invoke
for his protection, the cooy's religious
belief, his supersttions, his hopes OF heav-
en- and his fears OF hell, all combine to
compel strict Observance of his labor
| ha alu ~