LIVING HELLS.

Kumara Times, Issue 1070, 5 March 1880, Page 4

LIVING HELLS.

Not long since there appeared at Canton a book which it is not unnatural to suppose may have influenced the recent decision of the Chinese Government to carry under their own flag Chinese emigrants to foreign countries. This work, which professes to find in the condition of Chinese coolies in Cuba and Peru a justification of its title of “ Living Hells,” consists of a number of instances of cruelty inflicted on coolies in the barracoons at Macao, on board, the emigrant ships, and on the farms and plantations in those countries. Unfortunately there is independent' evidence to show that these statements are not so exaggerated as at first sight their horrible details might lead one to suppose; but even if a tithe of what is stated be true, the recentlyappointed Chinese Commissioners will be tempted to believe that Mencius threw his net too wide when he said that “all men have natural sympathies.” In an introductory chapter the author sketches the condition of his countrymen in Cuba and Peru, which, as he says, is suchjas to wound hearers to the heart and' to distress eye-witnesses beyond measure.” The planters he somewhat sweepingly describes as being idle, dissipated, gamblers, and drunkards, who have for generations been accustomed to have their work done for them, first of all by negro slaves and afterwards by Chinese coolies. - The suppression of negro Slavery, which, with a want of accuracy quite pardonable in an Oriental, he ascribes to the joint action of the British and American Governments, drove,.he considers, the slave dealers from the West Coast of Africa to the shores of China. The congenial seclusion of the Portuguese settlement at Macao afforded a convenient shelter for the traffic, which went on under the euphonious name of emigration. Barracoons were erected and decoys were sent out into the country districts to entrap unwary Chinamen, either by the promise of immediate gratuities or of ultimate profitable employment. Having once been enticed into the barracoon—the entrance to which, we are told, is “like falling into the Ninth Bell”—all disguise is thrown off, and the unhappy Chinaman has to face the alternative of agreeing to a labourcontract in Cuba or Peru, or encountering the pains and penalties inflicted by the dealer for refusing compliance. Short rations, floggings, and the imposition of heavy chains are among the recognised punishments for declining to embark; while, if the author of “ Living Hells ” is to be believed, tortures of such a loathsome description are reserved for those who obstinately resist that even the prospect of slavery in a foreign land is made to appear preferable to remaining in the barracoons. # The tragedies enacted from time to time on board the coolie-ships have made the outer world aware of some of the miseries endured by the emigrants. And on this point the author of “Living Hells” describes nothing worse than was brought to light at the time of the mutinies on board the Nouvelle Penelope and the Dolores Ugarte. The mortality on the voyage has always been acknowledged to be enormous; and if we reckon the losses by wreck, munity, suicide, and fire, the estimate of 60 per cent, will probably not be any great exaggeration. But those who survive the voyage find that its termination brings no alleviation of their Bufferings. Immediately on landing they are marched off to the marts, where they are made to stand stripped, that their “ points” may be inspected by planters, who hire them on lease. Their daily U|? if one of incessant toil. At 4 in the morning they begin their work, and with scarcely a cessation they labor on until 10 at night, when they retreat ot the close, foetid cabins in which they are compelled to sleep. At the caprice of their masters or as punishment for offences they are subjected to cruel tortures. Outrage is. heaped upon them, and the law to which they naturally look for protection gives them no redress Truly it may be said of them that “ they look for judgment? and behold oppression.” Thus bereft of all hope, despair drives them to suicide. Some throw themselves into the boiling sugar-caldrons, others drown themselves in the sea, and the railways furnish yet another way of gaining relief from the tyranny which crushes them. Such are the accusations brought by the author of “ Living Hells” against the crimps at Macao and the coolie-owners in Cuba and Peru. In corroboration of each act of cruelty he gives the name of a sufferer who has endured it, and in some cases the evidence of the men themselves The illustrations with which the volume is thickly studded represent in full detail the sufferings of the emigrants, and lend' an additional interest to a work which derives importance from the influence it is producing on a public opinion in China.