letter vni.] A SUGAR PLANTATION. 



IS 



plantation employs 185 hands, native and Chinese, and turns 

 out 600 tons of sugar a year. The natives are much liked as 

 labourers, being docile and on the whole willing ; but native 

 labour is hard to get, as the natives do not like to work for a 

 term unless obliged, and a pernicious system of "advances" 

 is practised. The labourers hire themselves to the planters, 

 in the case of natives usually for a year, by a contract which 

 has to be signed before a notary public. The wages are about 

 eight dollars a month with food, or eleven dollars without 

 food, and the planters supply houses and medical attendance. 

 The Chinese are imported as coolies, and usually contract to 

 work for five years. As a matter of policy no less than of 

 humanity the " hands " are well treated ; for if a single in- 

 stance of injustice were perpetrated on a plantation the factory 

 might stand still the next year, for hardly a native would 

 contract to serve again. 



The Chinese are quiet and industrious, but smoke opium, 

 and are much addicted to gaming. Many of them save 

 money, and, when their term of service is over, set up stores, 

 or grow vegetables for money. Each man employed has his 

 horse, and on Saturday the hands form quite a cavalcade. 

 Great tact, firmness, and knowledge of human nature are 

 required in the manager of a plantation. The natives are at 

 times disposed to shirk work without sufficient cause ; the 

 native hmas, or overseers, are not always reasonable, the 

 Chinamen and natives do not always agree, and quarrels and 

 entanglements arise, and everything is referred to the decision 

 of the manager, who, besides all things else, must know the 

 exact amount of work which ought to be performed, both in 

 the fields and factory, and see that it is done. Mr. A. is a 

 keen, shrewd man of business, kind without being weak, and 

 with an eye on every detail of his plantations. The require- 

 ments are endless. It reminds me very much of plantation 

 ' life in Georgia in the old days of slavery. I never elsewhere 

 heard of so many headaches, sore hands, and other trifling 

 ailments. It is very amusing to see the attempts which the 

 would-be invalids make to lengthen their brief, smiling faces 

 into lugubriousness, and the sudden relaxation into naturalness 

 when they are allowed a holiday. Mr. A. comes into the house 

 constantly to consult his wife regarding the treatment of 

 different ailments. 



I have made a second tour through the factory, and am 

 rather disgusted with sugar making. "All's well that ends 



