NEW CHINESE--COOLIE REBELLION--ZELL’S BRAVERY--CHINESE LABOR
CONTRACT--VICIOUS INSECTS.
In a few days Lamo returned, bringing Zell, whom he summoned to Havana
to interpret from English into Spanish; and Ramon, a Chinese, whose
term of service on the plantation was drawing to a close, to interpret
from Spanish into Chinese; also thirty-five newly imported coolies. The
new crowd presented a grotesque appearance. Beardless, and with long
pig-tails, loose blouses, and baggy breeches, they looked like women.
Stolid, quiet, and undemonstrative as Indians, they tumbled out of the
wagon that had been sent to the depot for them. Having been months on
the voyage, packed in a coolie-ship, and fed on light rations of tea
and rice, they were in no physical condition to work, or to endure the
showers that were already beginning to be of daily occurrence; so some
light occupation in the vicinity of the house was assigned to them, and
when a poor fellow rubbed his stomach, rolled up his eyes, and patted
his head, he was forthwith marched to the infirmary and dosed. From
long privation on ship, with the stimulation of climatic change, they
were so voracious that, if permitted to eat all the food craved, they
would have gorged themselves to death.
A moderate allowance was meted out three times daily, which disappeared
with marvelous rapidity, leaving them muttering and discontented.
Coming as they did from various districts, and speaking different
dialects, they could not always communicate intelligibly with each
other, and it required under the best of circumstances two interpreters
to reach the ear of Lamo.
For many days the Chinese, now giving unmistakable tokens of refractory
discontent, were our chief topic of thought and conversation. We could
not understand their constant complaints, and so worried along, hoping
that time, which heals most things, would adjust matters. Unwilling to
allot them any regular occupation, we dared not allow them to saunter
at their own sweet will under the mango-trees, now laden with unripe
fruit; so, on the whole, life was almost as much of a burden to us,
with this new discontented element, as it was to the Chinese themselves.
Long ago formal application had been made, through the grasping
captain, for the return of our arms from Matanzas, but without any
response. We watched with ever-increasing anxiety the gradual recovery
of strength, coupled with angry insubordination, in the new ranks. The
climax arrived, as is usually the case, in an unguarded moment. One
morning Lamo and Henry, who for weeks had hovered around the house,
rode off to visit a neighbor.
Suddenly our ears were assailed by a low, rumbling noise in the
distance, which rose rapidly to shouts and unearthly yells. Before I
could rise from my seat to make inquiry, Zell rushed in breathless.
“Chinese is riz! Don’t be skeered--I’ll git my gun.” And from under his
own bed he hastily pulled out an old blunderbuss. The doors and windows
of the house were quickly barred, and with a calm self-possession--the
thought of which almost makes me turn pale now--I stood outside the
rear door. The Chinese were in full rebellion: stripped to the middle,
their swarthy bodies glistening in the hot sun, they rushed with savage
impetuosity up the road, leaped the low stone fence that surrounded the
cluster of plantation-buildings, of which the massive dwelling-house
formed the center, brandishing their hoes in a most threatening manner,
and yelling like demons, as with hastily grasped rocks from the fences
they pelted the retreating overseer. Ramon rushed from his bench at the
carpenter-shop, and did his best to stem the tide; but they brushed him
by in their determined assault upon the overseer, who, while issuing
them full rations, would not yield to their demand for an unlimited
supply of food.
When the howling horde had completely invaded the inclosure, and showed
no abatement of their frenzy, I called to Ramon to ring the bell.
Seizing the rope, he gave it a succession of rapid strokes.
The plantation-bell, weighing nine hundred pounds, and mounted on a
high frame, was tolled for all ordinary purposes--calling the hands
from the field, changing the watch during sugar-making, marking the
hours for meals; but a pealing, rapid ring was the signal of danger, to
which not only the district captain but neighbors responded.
Zell headed off the crowd as best he could, but rocky missiles fell
thick about the _mayoral_, frequently striking his frightened horse.
Seeing no sign of cessation of hostilities, I called upon Zell to fire!
Strange to say, they knew nothing about a gun, and were only afraid
of a sword; so the presence of Zell with his blunderbuss had not in
the slightest degree intimidated the furious crowd. At my command, he
fired at random; but one man received the charge in his hip, and with a
wild shriek fell over. This produced some consternation and confusion,
in the midst of which the terrified _mayoral_ made good his escape.
Lamo and Henry, hearing the alarming peals of the bell, put spurs to
their horses and came galloping up. The insurgent rebels, finding the
overseer gone, and one of their number wounded, began to quiet down,
gradually strolling to the veranda of their own barracoon, where they
assembled in groups and fanned themselves, apparently waiting to see
what we were “going to do about it.”
The alarm-signal had been heard at the village, and very soon the
captain and his merry men made their appearance on the scene. Swords
were drawn, and the insurgent army slapped by the glittering blades
into line, in short order. The captain asked their complaint, and it
required a blow or two from his sword to elicit any response; but in
time, through Ramon, they made their grievances known. He then read
their contract to them, Ramon repeating it sentence by sentence in
Chinese. They stood in a double row--thirty-five of them--sullen but
somewhat defiant, straight upright and a bit arrogant. The soldiers
with drawn swords, at the order of _el capitan_, walked up the ranks,
taking each by the long pig-tail and with one blow severing it close
to the head. How quickly they wilted! how cowed they looked! The
captain then prepared to chain them in couples, but Lamo interposed,
begging that no further punishment should be inflicted. That official
reluctantly yielded, protesting that they did not seem at all
submissive, and he was sure he would have to make another visit before
they would be content.
Gradually order was restored. Fortunately, the wounded man was only
slightly injured, for the blunderbuss was loaded with bird-shot. The
valiant _mayoral_ returned and marched the cowed and sullen ranks back
to their work in the field. Martha “calkerlated she’d go and gather up
all dat har, and sell it to some of dese here señoritas.” She collected
a basketful of tightly-braided tails, and hired another darky to clean
them. Black as is the hair of a señorita, that of a Chinaman is many
shades blacker. Chinese hair, besides, was a drug in the market, and so
I think she eventually made a pillow of it.
We commended Zell for his prowess. Lamo, with a sly glance in the
direction of the _mayoral_, said that he felt quite safe to leave
Miss ’Liza in his care, for he was no coward. When asked how he
happened with a gun when we did not know there was one on the place,
he answered: “Soon as dat dar ole captain open his mouf ’bout guns,
I know’d what he was arfter dat time, and I jist run in and hid mine
and little Mars Henry’s fur back under my bed, I never sed nuthin’
’tall ’bout it, nudder; I know’d we warn’t safe here stripped of every
impli_ment_, so I jist hid a couple, but I didn’t say nuthin’, for I
ain’t forgot de trick Mars Jim played on me ’bout dat watch.”
The Chinese were intelligent, and it seems almost incredible that
any people could be reduced to such abject poverty as would lead to
selling themselves or some member of their family into servitude, but
such was the fact. No doubt, however, many of them were felons and
dangerous characters; for we heard that numbers were landed in Cuba
with only one ear, and some without any, and these were perhaps sold
by their own government to the importing company. Even in this low and
depraved class it was rare to find one so ignorant as not to be able
to read in his own language and keep his slender accounts. Each man,
before embarking from China, subscribed to a printed contract, one page
in Spanish and the other in Chinese characters, setting forth that Ah
Sin (Christian name José), province of Macao, is contracted with his
own free-will and consent to--“La Alianza y Co.”--to do field-labor,
to be granted one day in seven for rest, two full suits of clothing,
one blanket and one overcoat annually, twelve ounces of meat and two
and a quarter pounds of vegetables--yams or rice--per day; medical
attendance and medicines; comfortable living quarters, and four dollars
in gold monthly; the privilege also of complaining to the captain of
the _partido_, in case of non-compliance with these terms. The Spanish
law, in regard to the management and treatment of Chinese coolies
by the contractors for their labor, was very explicit and generous
to the laborers. One of their own race only, or a white man, could
oversee their work. No punishment but confinement in the stocks was
permitted. If the planter found them insubordinate, and requiring
severer discipline, they must be reported to the captain. The Chinese,
when once acclimated and accustomed to the routine, were docile and
industrious; they could not stand the same amount of exposure as an
African, but they were intelligent and ingenious; within-doors, in the
sugar factory, in the carpenter-shop, in the cooper-shop, in driving
teams, they were superior to the negro. They were orderly and cleanly;
the poorest, lowest coolie carried his contract on his person, and
never hesitated to assert his rights, but sometimes had to be reminded
that the planter also had rights; and it generally happened that each
new lot arriving on a plantation had to be interviewed by the captain
of the _partido_ two or three times, to reduce them to a proper regard
for the discipline of a well-managed estate. After the first season
they became acclimated and accustomed to their duties, and when their
contract expired their experience rendered them very valuable, and
they readily commanded higher wages, though few chose planting as an
occupation. Before the insurrection in Cuba there was no restraint
placed upon the movements of that class from one domicile to another.
They were allowed to flock into cities and villages, where they became
wonderful peddlers or small shopkeepers, and readily found employment
as brakemen on railroads, or in any occupation other than digging in
the ground.
Nostalgia was frequent among the newly imported. Like all diseases of
a purely mental and emotional nature, its symptoms varied, usually
tending to distressing melancholia, though sometimes to the desperation
of suicide. The superstition of the lower classes of Chinese leads
to the belief that when _felo-de-se_ is committed without mutilating
the body or shedding blood, the spirit is wafted back to the Flowery
Kingdom, and we heard of some shocking instances of suicide by hanging
and plunging into wells, resulting from this irrational faith.
We had one case of nostalgia which deeply touched our sympathies.
Epifanio (they were christened and named _by the cargo_, upon landing
in Cuba, for which the Church received $4.25 for each _convert_), a
tall, well-made, robust Chinaman, gradually faded away to a shadow.
Never speaking, or taking any interest in his surroundings, and
seemingly without any physical ailments, he was pronounced unfit for
active work--daily dragging his reluctant feet and wasted body from
the hospital to the _infermeria_ to be examined, and as he had no
tangible ailment, to be remanded back--he soon lay flat upon his cot,
with the wooden pillow he had brought from home, under his head, unable
apparently to rise, abject misery depicted on his every feature, Lamo
soon saw that Epifanio would die if something was not done speedily
to rouse him. It was during the dull season, when all the hands
were in the fields, and quiet reigned about the premises, that my
tender-hearted husband had the melancholy creature brought daily under
the shed of the sugar-house near the window of our room, and by his
bedside, with books and work, we sat a portion of every day. At first
he took no notice whatever of our movements and voices; mutely he lay
upon the bed, with open eyes and a far-away look upon his pinched face,
that was unutterably painful. Unable to persuade or tempt him, we had
almost to force him, to swallow a few spoonfuls of soup from time to
time. With this patient care, little by little he revived, and by
November was able to undertake some light work about the sugar-house;
in time he mastered the mysteries of sugar-boiling, and could tell “to
a turn” when the bubbling sirup had reached the granulating point and
was ready to be thrown into the coolers. Epifanio voluntarily remained
at Desengaño long after his term of service had expired, though he had
the option of returning to the home for which he had suffered and pined
so long.
We had no further trouble with our laborers, who soon saw that we
treated them with justice and all proper consideration, and they
were intelligent enough to appreciate it. They became expert in the
occupations to which they were assigned, and many remained in our
employ after their contracts were fulfilled.
Some years later, two of their number, after accumulating what they
deemed a competency, returned to their native land, and called on
us in New York, to express their kindly feeling, and receive our
congratulations on their prosperity.
The negroes, direct descendants of imported Africans, were more or less
stupid and stolid, like “dumb-driven cattle.”
The sad experience of our predecessors, the Royos, with small-pox,
when they lost forty of their laborers, one year’s entire sugar-crop,
and suffered months of complete isolation from quarantine, which
precipitated their destruction, already imminent from long years of
prodigality and mismanagement, made us anxious to protect ourselves
as far as possible from the loathsome disease that ravages Cuba,
notwithstanding government precautions. We applied to all the
physicians in the neighborhood, but none were licensed to vaccinate;
then sent to Havana for virus, but our merchant replied that it could
not be procured, as it was in official hands. Not to be baffled in our
humane undertaking, some was obtained through a friend in New York, and
my brother seemed likely to raise another rebellion when he applied the
lancet to every one on the plantation.
Our good-natured doctor was surprised and amused when he called, a
short time after, and was shown the array of swollen and scarred arms
in the hospital. He said he presumed, as we were foreigners, that we
could do as we pleased, but no Cuban would have dared disobey the law.
The patients recovered, however, and nothing was said or done about the
committal of such a flagrant act.
There is an infinitesimal insect in the tropics that bores into the
toe at the very edge of the nail, producing by that action the very
slightest sensation of itching; but if the owner of that toe does not
employ _instanter_ a pair of keen eyes and a fine needle to extract
the vicious insect that is entering the flesh, wo to him! Once under
the skin, all sensation of uneasiness ceases, but in a few days the
toe becomes inflamed and swollen to twice its normal size, and a sac
of matter forms that must be cut open and allowed to discharge. The
poor sufferer hobbles around for days, unable to put the injured
foot to the floor. Sometimes, neglect of warning leads to fearful
results, even lock-jaw supervening. One of our earliest experiences
at Desengaño was to stand helplessly by and see a child, twelve years
old, die of that surpassingly horrible disease tetanus, utterly unable
to account for its cause until a physician’s examination revealed the
condition of her feet. Application of coal-oil was considered the best
preventive, disagreeable as it is. The care of seventy feet belonging
to the Chinese gang, who did not appreciate the danger of neglect,
was a worry. Every morning they were marched to the infirmary,
their feet examined, and then dipped into a pail of coal-oil. The
coal-oil foot-bath is a very simple thing, but, as the oft-referred-to
_contract_ did not include that ceremony, it was always attended with
remonstrances and threats.