The Coolie Trade; or, the Excomienda System of the Nineteenth Century [pp. 296-321]

THE COOLIE TRADE.
"This class of persons are for the most part in a most neglected condition.
It is almost literally true that no man careth for their souls. They are
brought here friendless and unable to befriend themselves or each other. In
some cases the nearest relations are separated without any knowledge whatso ever of each other's abode or destination. This is one of the worst features of
the old system of slavery. By far the greater number of them were landed here
in a very unhealthy state, and apparently half starved to death. The conse quenlce has been that numbers have died, and in some cases on the highway,
before reaching their destination, while many more have been rendered useless
to themselves or their employers for months after their first location In many
instances they are crowded together in a single room, for some time after their
arrival, not larger than a laborer's house, without the slightest attention being
paid to their comfort or cleanliness, and, what is still worse, without any regard
to the decencies of common life."
The Bishop of Barbadoes also calls attention to this subject
in his letter, to Lord Harris, dated August 26, 1850.
The charges made by the Rev. Air. Gilbert were afterward
the subject of a long investigation, and though not fully sus tained, yet the counter evidence given on the trial woutl alone
be sufficient to show the misery of these people as well as their
utter degradation. On one occasion of dividing a cargo, it is
said that fifteen grown-up women all stood up together, laying
hold of one another, and declaring themselves sisters; they did
not know their own husbands, having changed two or three
times on the voyage, &c., &c. But from the very nature of
things, it would be impossible fully to prove charges like those
made by Mr. Gilbert. The barbarous savages themselves, whose
evidence would be of the utmost importance, speaking a
strange language, not comprehending the nature of the case,
and scattered over distant plantations, could be of little service,
and it would be the interest of few others, in a colony like Trini dad, to do anything to jeopard the continuance of the annual
accessions to the labor of the island; on the other hand, it is very
improbable that the resident pastor of a Southern cengregation
would bring such grave charges to the notice of the highest
authorities, without there being the most urgent cause for it.
Therefore, while we are willing to allow that Mr. Gilbert's
statements may be somewhat exaggerated, it is impossible to
believe themn without foundation.
Next we have the Spaniards, who, while the English are supplying their colonies with laborers from India, from China, and
from Africa, in unlimited quantities, are, in the same manner,
casting about their eyes over the whole world for laborers.
First, they have their slave trade, which furnishes them annually with large numbers of negro slaves, but which is now declining because they find the Coolie tribe more profitable; then
their Coolie importations, now increasing to an alarming exteint,
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