THE HALF-BEEED. IS 



Tlie increase of the Chinese on this continent in spite of all the measures taken 

 for their exclusion, adds still more to the complications of the race problem. The evi- 

 dence elicited by the commission appointed, by the Canadian Government for the purpose 

 of inquiry into and reporting upon the subject of Chinese immigration, is of an extremely 

 conflicting character. As to intermarriage between Mongolians and whites. Dr. Stout of 

 San Francisco said that such unions had already taken place. Where the man and woman 

 were superior individuals of their respective races, he thought the cross a much better one, 

 than between the negro and the white, or between the white and the Indian. Ex-Chief Jus- 

 tice S. Clinton Hastings, on the other hand, regarded intermingling as ruinous, and thought 

 even theEussian serf or the Irishman ( !) superior to the Celestial. Solomon Heydenfeldt, 

 formerly associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, took a middle Adew. He did 

 not think miscegenation would be a success, but he saw more points of similarity between 

 whites and Chinese than between whites and negroes. The Chinese he preferred, as ser- 

 vants, to the general run of immigrants, as being more faithful, reliable and industrioiTs. 

 The fact seems to be that, while experience shows the Chinese to be quick learners and 

 good workers, they ditfer morally among themselves like other nationalities, some of them 

 being intelligent, educated, polite and well-conducted, while others are of indifferent 

 character, and others again are degraded to the lowest level. As to the blending of 

 the Chinese with Aryans or other stocks on this continent, I have not been able 

 to obtain much information. A late census in Victoria, Australia, returned 160 per- 

 sons as lialf-castes — the offspring, in most cases, of Chinese fathers and white mothers. 

 Prejudice would, doubtless, tend to prevent amalgamation in San Francisco, but there, 

 in Portland, Oregon, and other places where the Chinese have resided, as well as in 

 British Columbia, the white and Mongol races must have mingled to some extent. The 

 commissioners have remarked upon the significant contrast discovered between the char- 

 acter and condition of the Chinese in San Francisco, where they are treated as pariahs, 

 and the status and bearing of the same people in Portland, where they and the whites 

 live on terms of amity, their stores, factories and residences standing side by side. In 

 these circumstances they are a thriving and happy portion of the mixed community. In 

 Victoria, B. C, the same contrast was illustrated. 



M. de Quatrefages sets down the proportion of mixed blood in Mexico and South 

 America at one fifth of the whole poiiulation. But the testimony of trustworthy witnesses 

 makes it much larger. In Mexico, with a population of about ten millions, it is calcirla- 

 ted that not more than half a million are of pure European descent, while those classified 

 as Indian number about a half of the whole, or five millions. In Guatemala, Honduras, 

 Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Costa Rica, the A'ast majority of the people are Indians and 

 Mestizos, so that if the scheme of Barrios had succeeded, he would have practically ruled 

 over a federation of half-breeds. In the society of the cities, only a mere sprinkling pre- 

 tends to pure Spanish descent. In South America, the mixed races are still more nu- 

 merous in comparison with the rest of the population. In Brazil, the coloured slave or freed- 

 man element has mixed with both Creoles and Indians. In Hayti and San Domingo, the 

 blacks are the ruling race. In Venezuela, whites and blacks have coalesced with Indians 

 to such an extent that, with the exception of about a thirtieth part of the population made 

 up df savage aborigines, the great bulk of the nation is mixed. In Peru it is expected that 

 before long the country will have reverted to the aboriginal condition, only about two 



