Note 395 — Chapter XII

It may, however, be stated that the chief emigration is from the southern parts of China, and, rarely, north of Amoy. This, on the whole, is a well-regulated trade, and generally carried on in British, American, and German ships, specially chartered for the purpose; all of which, while thus engaged, are under the Hong-Kong Passenger Act, which has been adopted by the consuls at the different Treaty ports. The coolie trade from the Portuguese settlement of Macao, with which it is sometimes confounded, is of an entirely different character, and resembles much more the old and iniquitous slave-trade than free emigration. At Macao and in its vicinity, the coolies are collected, often in large numbers, by coolie-brokers, who are, invariably, men of very questionable, if not of the most depraved, character. These scoundrels, for the most part Chinese and Portuguese, stow these poor creatures away in well-guarded barracoons, ready for shipment; many, perhaps, most of them, not knowing for what purpose they have been collected. Some of them have been actually sold by their relatives to the brokers, or decoyed away from home by false representations; indeed, cases might be produced, where fathers have even staked their children and themselves at gambling-tables, and, on losing their stake, have been, summarily, transferred or exchanged for their price in coin to these still more depraved dealers in human beings. The most usual destination of these unfortunate creatures is Peru, where they are employed on the Guano Islands, and from which, alas, they seldom return.