364 



country, he had carefully examined the reports 

 regarding Cooly labor, inserted monthly in the 

 Commercial Gazette published at St. Denis. He 

 gatheerd from those reports some importanft acts. It 

 appeared that the mortality among the Coolies receiv- 

 ed from Calcutta was of the very serious character 

 which he had already noticed, that this mortality 

 was continuous during a great part of the year, 

 and also that the Coolies received from Calcutta 

 were physically ill-suited for the labors assigned 

 to them on the sugar-cane plantations and in the 

 sugar factories. It was added, and he thought 

 this a very significant remark, that the demand 

 for labor in the Island was so great, that in spite 

 of the large numbers already sent, the planters 

 and manufacturers were eager to obtain these 

 Coolies, although it was admitted that their physi- 

 cal condition was unsuited for this labor. When 

 it was remembered that the Island of Re-union 

 did not admit of much extention of cultivation, 

 and that the climate, though favorable to Euro- 

 peans, is considered fatal to Africans, and hostile 

 to Asiatics he very much feared, from the facts 

 he had mentioned, that it had been found, as 

 was the case with imported slave labor in America, 

 that it paid to employ at excessive labor an 

 Indian Cooly, even for a limited period, and that 

 a large proportion of those employed succumbed to 

 this labor. " 



