No. 44.
Mr. Bailey to Mr.
Davis.
No. 36.]
United States Consulate, Hong
Kong,
May
12, 1871. (Received June 20.)
Sir: I transmit herewith a copy of correspondence
between myself and the colonial governor of Macao, concerning the cooly-ship
Dolores Ugarte.
I also inclose a circular containing an account of her passage last year from
Macao to Callao with coolies, reciting the horrors of that voyage.
It is now my painful duty to state that, notwithstanding my earnest protest
against her being permitted to reload with coolies at Macao, the governor of
that colony, contrary to the spirit of his letter tome of April 24, allowed
the ship to resort to the subterfuge of changing her name to that of the Don
Juan, and her flag to that of Peru, and thereupon to load 665 coolies for
Callao. She sailed from the Roads of Macao with her cargo of human beings on
the 4th instant. But a dreadful catastrophe awaited her. Providence seems to
have set her apart to shock the nations with a new horror that shall startle
them to their duty in suppressing this infamous slave trade. On Saturday,
the 6th, the ship was discovered to be on fire in the hold, where the
coolies were kept. The captain states “that, with a view to save his own and
his crews’ lives, he battened down the hatches on the passengers, and took
to the boats.” The ship was burned to the water’s edge, and with it over 600
victims of this atrocious traffic in men.
I inclose the reports of the daily press here up to closing of the mail.
There is a conflict of evidence as to whether the ship was set on fire, or
whether it was accidental. I express no positive opinion now on that point,
but incline to the belief that the coolies in desperation fired the ship. I
will forward at the earliest moment such other correspondence as I may have
with the Governor de Souza on the subject.
I have the honor, &c.,
No. 18.
United States Consulate,
Hong-Kong
,
April 21,
1871.
Sir: I have not the honor of an acquaintance
with your excellency, but knowing the high character you hear as a lover
of fair dealing and a defender of the right, I make free to address you
upon a subject that must obtain considerable notoriety, and concerning
which your excellency has very great authority.
I allude to the fact that the Dolores Ugarte, now notorious throughout
the civilized world for her atrocities in the coolie-trade, is reputed
to be at this moment on the roads of Macao, preparing to load with
coolies for Callao.
May I be so bold as to ask that your excellency will permit me to
officially inform my government that you will interpose your authority
to prevent that infamous ship having an opportunity to repeat the
horrors of her last passage to Callao, and again flout her crimes in the
face of the world, to the scandal of Christian civilization.
[Page 211]
I am charged by my government with surveillance of the coolie-trade, and
there being no United States consul at Macao, I have taken the liberty
to address you in this grave matter, which will not be hid from public
gaze nor shut out from the high tribunal of the nations.
But I have no doubt that your excellency has already taken the necessary
steps to prevent a recurrence of the terrible scenes on that ship.
My apology for this hasty note is that I write it in the interest of
humanity, a cause I know your excellency will protect.
With sentiments of high regard and consideration, I have the honor to be,
sir, your most obedient servant,
DAVID H. BAILEY, United States
Consul.
His Excellency Antonio Sergio de Souza, Governor
of Macao.
[Untitled]
Office of the Secretary of the
Governor of Macoa,
April 24, 1871.
Most Illustrious Sir: I am directed by his
excellency the governor to acknowledge the receipt of your official
letter No. 18 of 21st instant, and to state that notwithstanding you
have not an exequatur to represent you to the government of this colony,
yet, taking into most serious consideration the object mentioned in your
correspondence, his excellency has forwarded to the competent authority
a copy of your official letter and the certificates of the Portuguese
consul in Peru in reference to the last voyages of the ship Dolores
Ugarte, for the purpose of an inquiry to ascertain the veracity of the
fact you allude to, so as to proceed as it should be.
Although it is not now permitted, according to orders of this government,
from this port to ship emigrants in vessels under the republican flag of
San Salvador, or of other nations that have no treaty with China, or not
being countries to which coolies emigrate, it would be very desirable if
you will be so good as to furnish me with any document or declaration
that may serve as a legal basis to warrant an inquiry which his
excellency has ordered to be instituted, the result of which may enable
preventive measures to be taken with respect to the late captain of the
aforesaid ship.
It is the rigorous duty of his excellency, according to orders from the
government of Portugal, to avoid as much as possible the abuses which
are committed upon the Chinese emigrants at this port. His excellency
thinks he has done all that has been possible, as far as the authority
of this government extends, to put down the abuses in such a trade,
complying in this way not only with the orders of his faithful Majesty’s
government, but also with the obligations imposed by civilization and
humanity.
The manner in which this Chinese emigration is conducted in this city is
not generally appreciated, and his excellency would have much pleasure
if you in your private character, or any other gentleman of
respectability in Hong-Kong, would come and verify with your own eyes
how the acts of emigration take place. You would certainly be convinced
that in no part of China is this proceeded with more exemplary and so
much regularity in objects of such high human interest.
God guard you, sir.
HENRIQUE de CASTRO, Colonial Secretary.
No. 23.
United States Consulate,
Hong-Kong,
May 1, 1871.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 24th ultimo, in reference to the Dolores
Ugarte. I should have responded to it immediately, but serious
indisposition entirely prevented my doing so.
You will please convey my thanks to his excellency the governor for
accepting my letter No. 18 as official, notwithstanding I have not an
exequatur to the colonial government of Macao and Timor. I had
anticipated this courtesy, considering the cordial relations happily
subsisting between Portugal and the United States.
You inform me that his excellency has been pleased to call a syndicancia
to make inquiry as to the facts charged against the Dolores Ugarte, and
you ask me to furnish you with “documents or declarations” to serve as a
“legal basis” to warrant inquiry. His excellency is aware that acts of
state, on international questions, are not conducted as proceedings in
courts of judicature, but acting on the broader and simpler principle of
common repute, one nation, through its agents, may notify another of a
breach of international law without thereby assuming to produce evidence
in detail to sustain [Page 212] its
allegations. His excellency must well know that the crimes on board the
Dolores Ugarte having come to light at Honolulu, I could not have
“documents or declarations” in my possession at present, but if the man
who was then captain of the ship will give competent hail to answer for
his acts, I will forward, his excellency’s request to the State
Department of my Government, and I doubt not that in the interest of
humanity our consul at Honolulu will be directed to obtain and forward
such evidence as may, at this distance of time, he procurable.
If I am not misinformed, his excellency has received from Portugal a
remonstrance on the cooly trade addressed to her by a power entitled to
the highest consideration. I have reason to know that it was the
atrocities on board the Dolores Ugarte, as discovered at Honolulu and
detailed in the Advertiser, reprinted in the Overland China Mail,
November 15, 1870, a copy of which I inclose, that occasioned that
remonstrance.
The purpose of my official No. 18 was not to ask for the legal trial,
conviction, and judicial punishment of the criminals. My object was
internationally to ask his excellency the governor and council, as the
executive at Macao, as an act of state, to adhere to the spirit of
treaties, and (not now insisting that the coolie traffic as conducted
from every port in China is always in breach of treaties abolishing the
slave trade) to submit that when coolies are taken from Macao, as
elsewhere, under such circumstances as are judicially proved on behalf
of the French consul in the Hong-Kong courts to have existed in the case
of the Nouvelle Penelope, and also where such cruelties as were
perpetrated on board the Dolores Ugarte are shown to exist by the only
evidence immediately available, i e., the
newspaper reports, that then treaty obligations arise internationally,
and that in such cases his excellency, in his own jurisdiction, unless
on his own responsibility he denies the facts, is, under treaty
stipulations, bound to prevent the possibility of the recurrence of the
breach of treaty obligations on board such ships, unless he is
restrained by positive law in force in Macao, obliging him to allow any
and all ships to take in a cargo of coolies.
The atrocities on board the Frederic gave rise to a law in Hong-Kong,
giving the entire uncontrolled discretion to the governor, to allow or
disallow coolie emigration on board every ship.
This has been, as I understand, always the law at Macao, under which, as
I learn, his excellency at one time prohibited all coolie emigration
from that colony.
In your letter you state that, under the orders of your government, ships
under the San Salvador flag are prohibited from carrying coolies. If I
rightly understand that letter, the Dolores Ugarte being under that
flag, will not be permitted to carry coolies. You notice two other
grounds for such prohibition, viz, that San Salvador has no treaty with
China, and that she is not a country to which coolies emigrate. I shall
feel obliged, therefore, by your informing me that his excellency has
the power, by local law, to prohibit the Dolores Ugarte from loading
coolies at Macao, and that, in fact, on the two other grounds she comes
within the prohibition.
Assuming that I shall receive such assurance, I will make no further
remarks on this subject.
Concerning the system of Chinese emigration as conducted at Macao, I am
free to say the evidence given in the Nouvelle Penelope case compels me
to regard it with very great distrust; but inasmuch as I am to make a
report on Chinese coolie emigration to my Government, and having a
desire only for the truth, I cordially accept the invitation of his
excellency, and, in my private character, I will visit Macao and
carefully inspect the proceedings.
I purpose forwarding my official No. 18, together with your answer and
this letter, to my Government by the American mail that will leave this
port on the 12th instant. I shall be glad to forward at the same time
such an assurance as I have herein asked for concerning the Dolores
Ugarte.
With sentiments of high regard and consideration, I have the honor to be,
sir, your most obedient servant,
DAVID H. BAILEY, United States
Consul.
