Labour and Colonisation — The Problem. 25 



clean for the benefit of the whole. Neither duty was properly per- 

 formed and the village roads became quagmires and the trenches were 

 no longer drains but cesspools. Some of the villagers went so far as 

 to say that it was nobody else's business if they chose to live in mud and 

 slush. The matter was very simple ; ruin had come to most of the old 

 planters and the Government must retire and let the " people " revert 

 to conditions like those which made Hayti a by-word. 



But the British Government, in spite of the Anti-Slavery Society 

 were not prepared to abandon the " magnificent province," though it 

 hampered the efforts of the planters to keep a remnant of the estates in 

 order. It almost seemed as if hope and confidence had fled from 

 the minds of most people, and that it was only as a last despairing effort 

 that immigration was started. However, a few people still believed in 

 Demerara sugar and they began to agitate for coolie immigration, which at 

 last they got and thus saved the colony. The Government took over 

 the public roads through the villages and the mails could run. 



The first East Indians failed through the ignorance of the planters. 

 Messrs. Gladstone and Moss introduced them under agreements made in 

 Calcutta with shipping agents, who had experience in supplying Mauritius 

 with coolies. Managers knew nothing of their language and had to 

 employ Sirdars or drivers, who were also interpreters. The Anti-Slavery 

 delegate, who came out to see what was being done, found that the coolies 

 were beaten and driven to work by their Sirdars when suffering from the 

 change and depressed by the new conditions. Of course the managers 

 were responsible though they knew nothing of what was done. Coolie 

 immigration was stopped for nearly ten years and the colony retarded in 

 its recuperation. 



There was, however, a strong feeling in the colony, which resulted in 

 a deadlock in the Combined Court and meetings to advocate immigration. 

 For a time there were obstructions everywhere especially when the 

 Madeirans suffered from yellow fever. Free Africans were brought, but 

 the Anti-Slavery party declared that this was a new bondage which might 

 become like what they had struggled to abolish. After several failures 

 it was generally agreed that East Indians and Chinese would be most 

 suitable and these must be had. 



The most difficult problem was the engagement. Mr. Albouy was 

 among the first to engage labourers for several years. The authorities 

 said the law would not sanction such engagements, and Mr. Albouy 

 contended that there was nothing against it, for the Dutch allowed 

 white men to come out as servants under a law similar to those con- 

 cerned with apprenticeship in Europe. It was, however, considered that 

 engagements of labourers could not be enforced, for the Anti-slavery 

 party would have nothing in the nature of a bond. This was one of the 

 greatest drawbacks here and it may be noted that when the slaves were 

 freed in the French and Dutch Colonies they were still bound in various 



