BY SYDNEY B. J. SKERTCHLY, 17 



First. — When in the 13th century, owing to the conquest 

 ■of China by Kubhii Khan, the Chinese began to invade the 

 islands of the south, numbers of Chinese came to North Borneo, 

 .and settled on the N.W. coast. Here they intermixed with the 

 natives, and the great tribe of Dusuns bear to this day the stamp 

 of their Chinese blood, in feature, customs, and even language. 

 Yet Leprosy is unknown among them. 



Second. — Though Chinese traders have spread all over the 

 Archipelago, they have not taken Leprosy with them. Thus all 

 the islands of the lesser Sunda group, from Bali eastward, and 

 innumerable other islands as far as New Guinea and Australia, 

 are (^uite free from Leprosy. 



Third. — It was not till the coolie class entered Hawaii, that 

 the disease appeared. 



Now contrast this with the eltect of coolie emigration. 

 Wherever the coolie has gone, the land has become infected. 

 The leper map is also the map showing where plantations have 

 been established. Java, Sumatra, South Borneo, Celebes, and 

 ^loluccas, are cases that at once strike us ; and in the Pacific, it 

 is New Caledonia, Fiji and Hawaii — the lands of plantations — 

 that have become infected. In the islands where planting has 

 not yet been introduced, or where it has not attracted the 

 Chinese coolie Leprosy is wanting, though all the physical 

 characters may be similar to those of infected places. 



The Coolie Trade. — If Ave are right in ascribing the spread 

 of Leprosy to the introduction of coolie laboiu', we ought to be 

 able to show that the mass of the coolies come from the infected 

 provinces of Kwantung and Fokien. 



This is almost exclusively the case. At present the ports of 

 Hongkong and Amoy, both in Kwantung, are the source of nine 

 tenths of the coolies, and we can speak from experience that it 

 is a rare thing to find a plantation coolie that comes either from 

 the northern or central provinces. 



This is not the place to describe the coolie trade ; it is 

 still, in spite of all sorts of precautions, only a modified system 

 of slavery. Kidnapping is l)y no means so rare as some would 

 have us imagine. Even the truly voluntary coolies are gathered 

 from the poorest of the poor ; many do not know where they are 



