The Portland daily press., 1895-07-27

ness as a garment.
This group of people that we have met
coming into Port Antonio from the
country ara the coolies from India, who
live and labor on the great banana plan
tations up in the valleys among the
mountains. 1t is worth while to visit
one of these inland valleys. From the
harbor of Port Antonio there is apparent
ly no level land anywhere, except the
narrow strip along the shore, which is
occupied by the one main street OF the
town and across which one could al
most throw stone from tho waters edge to
the steep mountain side. But if you follow
the smooth, white limestone highway by
which the coolies entered the town, it will
their steep slopes, covered thick
ly with tropical verdure, rise up in fornt
and behind you, and now on this and
now on that are sloping downward Or
upward, yet they always seem to recede
before that smooth white roadway that
is too steep for bicycle to climb it or
for horses to draw your carriage at an
easy trot. And almost before you know
it the mountains take flight from before
this fascinating victorious roadway, as if
they had abandoned their attempt to stop
its progress and were put to utter rout,
and there spreads out before your de-
lighted vision a glorious little tropical
valley with brawling, rushing river
passing through it's half dozen square
miles of level interval
Well, is it named the Golden Vale
plantation, for from the river banks to
the mountain slopes on every side there
stretches wonderful garden of what, to
our Northern eyes, appears to be the
waving, rustling foliage of curious
giant corn. But the white roadway soon
takes you down to the river and through
the plantation and you see that the
myriad banana palms are twice as high
and twice as big as the biggest corn that
ever grew upon Iowa's prairies. The
road leads to little eminence on the
other side of the valley and here are old
stone ruins covered with ivy, a modern
wooden dwelling and rows of white
washed sheds, with numbers on the doors
like so many bath houses. The ruins are
those of the old sugar mill and rum dis
tillery of the days of long ago, when this
Golden Vale plantation was prosperous
sugar estate. The modern dwelling is
the home of the "busha' or mulatto
superintendent of the present banana
plantation, and the rows of whitewashed
sheds are the homes of the coolie laborers.
AS we sit down upon the piazza of the
"busha's'' house we learn that COM
pany Of 20 or 80 coolies have just arrived
at the Plantation from India. Soon a
group of the graceful, handsome black
men comes up to the house. They stand
there smiling and chattering, while an
official, by the aid OF an interpreter,
writes down their names in his book and
announces to them the work that they
must do and the penalties by way of fine
and imprisonment that will follow any
infringement of the rules
These coolies are indentured by the ma
tional government to labor in Jamaica
for the term of five years, undsr certain
conditions. During those five years they
are practically slaves to the provisions of
the contract, but they have their rights
They come from India of their own free
will, and they are free to go home again
at the end of the five years. Also they
are protected by regulation from cruel
treatment. The men receive one shilling
Cor 25 cents) day and the women nine
pence Cor IS cts Besides, each man re-
ceives per day pound and a half of rice,
quarter of pound of fish and a quarter
of a pound of peas, and per week a pound
of salt and pint of cocoanut oil This
is of course much better than they could
possibly do in their own country.
AS they stood there, listening to the in
terpreter their docile natures were ap-
parent from their eager acquiescence with
the conditions that the official announced
to them. They are on this account and
because of their industry prefe1rel to the
negroes as regular employees upon the
plantations, though they are not SO
strong physically as the negro, and can
not accomplish SO much if the latter is
willing to exert himself.
Sometimes after the five years is over
the coolie has saved enough money to go
into business for himself in small way
as travelling peddler, sometimes he re-
turns home to India with his little saw
ings and lives and dies in his own
country rich man, and sometimes he
contracts to labor for another five years
The writer has seen several coolies who
were aged men, as was evident from
their wrinkles and long boards. streaked
with grey, though their figures were as
erect as those of their companions He
also met and had some conversation with
one of these coolies who had served his
time as laborer, who had married an
intelligent Creole woman. She kept a
small lodging house and supported her
handsome husband as a gentleman of
leisure, dressed in salmon colored suit,
which apparently gave him so much de-
light that he was never weary of simply
wearing it and doing nothing else.
The coolie women, especially the older
L IL I