will be obliged, notwithstanding, to name a consignee with the above-mentioned qualities, even although the Havana may be the place of residence of the said companies.

III. The consignee mentioned in the preceding Articles, is directly responsible for any failure in carrying out the orders of the present regulation, as far as concerns the undertaking which he represents, but without affecting the responsibility belonging to the captain and officers of the ship.

IV. The authorized consignee in every Immigration Company must inform the Governor Captain-General of the island of Cuba, of the name, size, roll, and captain of every ship freighted for importation, and of the approximate number of Chinese which it is proposed to carry in her. The Governor Captain-General will immediately publish these declarations in the " Havana Gazette,” and will communicate them by the first mail to my Government.

V. The intervention and authorization of the Spanish Consul in China, or of his agents or delegates according to the place of the contract or the embarkation, are requisites absolutely indispensable for enabling the Chinese to be received on the island of Cuba. The Consul and his agents are directly responsible for the said embarkations and contracts being arranged according to what is prescribed in these regulations.

VI. Every contract must contain the following particulars:

1stly. The age, sex, and place of origin of the Chinaman contracted for.

2ndly. The time that the contract has to last.

3rdly. The salary, and the kind, quantity, and quality of the nourishment and clothing he is to receive.

4thly. The obligation to give him medical assistance during illness.

5thly. Whether the salary ceases when the labourer falls ill from some cause, not emanating from his labour, or independent of the will of the master.

6thly. The number of hours during which the Chinaman engages to work every day, stating whether the master has the power of increasing them some days, provided he compensates for this increase by the analogous diminution on others.

7thly. The engagement of the hired labourer to indemnify the master for the hours of work lost through his own fault.

8thly. The engagement of the labourer himself to subject himself to the discipline of the estate, workship, or establishment to which he is destined.

9thly. A clause drawn up in these terms, "I, N. N., agree to the stipulated salary, although I know, and am fully aware that that which the free day labourers and the slaves earn on the island of

Cuba is much larger, because I consider that this difference is compensated for by the other advantages which my master affords me, which are those that this contract provides."

10thly. The signatures of the Contracting Parties, or that of two witnesses in default of that of the labourer.

VII. It is an essential condition and must be an express clause in every contract with Chinese, besides those prescribed in the former Article, that the time of his engagement being completed, he cannot remain in the island of Cuba as a labourer without having made another contract of the same kind, as apprentice or workman under the responsibility of a master, or as being engaged in agriculture, or as a domestic servant guaranteed by his master, in every other case he will have to leave the island at his own expense, being obliged to do so 3 months after the termination of the contract.

VIII. Four copies shall be made of the contracts with the Chinese, and the Consular Interpreter shall make 3 copies in translation. The Consul or his agent shall legalize the 4 copies, he shall give one back to the representative of the company, and he shall transmit the 3 remaining, each with its respective translation, one to my Government, and two to the Governor Captain-General of the island of Cuba, who will keep one copy with its translation, and will give the other to the Chinaman, in order that he may keep it in his power as soon as his introduction has been declared legal.

IX. The person who transmits the Chinese must make a list in quadruple of those embarked on each ship, stating their sex, age, and other personal features, which he will sign and deliver to the Spanish Consul or his agent, who shall legalize the 4 copies, and will return one to the person that sent them, he will keep one, and will transmit the other two directly to my Government, and the Governor Captain-General of the island of Cuba respectively.

X. Should the labourers be minors, the importers will not be able to make contracts with them without the consent of the person on whom they depend.

XI. The importers of labourers will not embark on each ship more than one person for every two tons, it being understood that this space or room must be calculated on the whole space that remains for lodging after the stowal of the cargo.

XII. The importers will also be bound:

1stly. To provide the ships with an amount of water and healthy food, proportioned to the number of persons they carry, and the distance they have to travel over.

2ndly. To adopt the necessary precautions in order to preserve in the said ships the cleanliness and ventilation indispensable for the health of the passengers.

3rdly. To take a physician and medicine chest on board, when the number of persons embarked exceeds 40.

4thly. To subject themselves on their arrival at any port in the island to the sanitary and police regulations in force there.

XIII. In order to insure the observation of this rule, the labourers cannot be introduced at any port but that of the Havana, except in case of shipwreck or any inevitable accident which may render their arrival and landing at another port imperative.

XIV. The Spanish Consul in China will give my Government and the Governor Captain-General of the island of Cuba detailed information directly and by the shortest route of every ship which, with this destination, leaves those ports carrying Chinese.

XV. Within 24 hours after the anchoring of every ship importing Chinese, her agent will make or will be forced to make a deposit in the Spanish bank in the Havana of 50 dollars for every one of the Chinese embarked, without prejudice to what is established in Article III as a general rule. In default of the Company, that sum remains directly and specially destined to the speedy carrying out of the sanitary measures which the state of the Chinese may require; to their immediate and suitable accommodation and assistance in the case of the company not affording them these; to the pecuniary reparations which may be due to the Chinese for acts that may have happened during the embarkation, or the passage, or at their arrival, and after covering these expenses, to the payment of the fines incurred by the company.

This deposit, or the remainder of it, shall be returned to the company as soon as these preceding responsibilities have been declared wholly or partially satisfied.

XVI. When, from the first examination of the ship's papers, it results that the mortality of the Chinese during the passage has exceeded 6 per cent. a special inquiry shall be instituted as to the reason, and, according to the result of this inquiry, the Governor Captain-General shall impose a corresponding fine, after having heard the Higher Board of Health and that of Public Works, or he will pass it on to the tribunals in order to bring on a trial, if he prosecutes.

XVII. Within 24 hours after the arrival of a ship, or on admission to free pratique, the consignee shall present a list of the labourers on board, mentioning those who may have died during the passage, and the causes which led to their death. The Governor Captain-General, in view of the document presented, and after making the inquiries he may think necessary for avoiding all fraud, will allow the landing to take place.

XVIII. Two months after the termination of the contract, the Chinaman must either renew it, taking service as an apprentice or [1860-61. LI.] 3 X

workman of some known master, or being employed in agriculture, or as a servant, or he must have left the island as is prescribed by Article VII, and so successively in proportion as they fulfil their engagements, in case of his not doing this he will be employed as a workman on public works, but only for such time that, after covering his personal expenses, enough may remain over to place him on board ship, with the destination of his own choice, or in failure of that, one chosen by the Governor Captain-General.

XIX. The repetition of serious abuses on the part of the company, or the manifest insolvency of the consignee, or of his representative, will cause the loss of the authorization to continue carrying on this traffic. In the case of insolvency, the Governor Captain-General will direct the company to name another acceptable consignee within the term of two months, and if this is not effected, the notices of freights made by the same will be rejected, and the shipments which arrive will be considered as sent without the formalities required by these regulations.

XX. In the fault of a consignation or of a previous declaration of the freight of a ship, and the probable number of Chinese which it is intended to embark in her, the non-intervention of the Spanish Consul or his agents in the contract and embarkation of the Chinese, and in the fitting out of the ship, and the sentence of the tribunals in serious cases which demand the formalities of a trial, will bring about the loss of all the rights of the company over the Chinese.

XXI. In the case of the previous Article, the Governor Captain-General will dispose of the landing and lodging of the Chinese at the expense of the consignee, and will leave them at liberty to make contracts as artisans, labourers, or servants, adopting those measures which will most effectually protect them against the disadvantages of their position.

XXII. If, at the expiration of two months after the landing, the Chinese shall not have succeeded in obtaining the situations of which the previous Article treats, or shall have at any time manifested the wish not to hire themselves out in the island, the Governor Captain-General shall extract from the company the sum necessary for the re-exportation of all of them, and shall dispose of it freely with the greatest possible guarantees, consulting the wishes of the Chinese as far as he is able.

XXIII. The introducers of Chinese labourers will be able to give them up to other speculators, or to proprietors and private people, with the conditions they think advisable, provided the latter bind themselves to fulfil the contracts entered into with the said labourers, and subject themselves to the prescriptions of these regulations.

Those who give up the Chinese will have a similar power under

the same conditions. Any cessions which may be made, changing the conditions of the primitive contracts, will be invalid.

XXIV. As well as those who import, as those who make over, will inform the Governor Captain-General of the number of labourers they receive or make over within the 24 hours following the conclusion of the contract, stating their number, sex, and age, the name of the ship in which they arrived, and the spot where they are going to reside.

XXV. Note will be taken in the books kept in the political office of the cessions which are made of Chinese labourers.

XXVI. The residence of the labourers cannot be changed from one spot in the island to another without previously informing the Government.

XXVII. The ships arriving with Chinese women on board will be exempt from the payment of tonnage dues for the space which these may occupy.

XXVIII. The company or its consignee, when failing in the fulfilment of the orders of these regulations, which are not comprised in the foregoing rules, will be punished by the Governor Captain-General, attention being paid to the royal agreement, by fines of 1,000 to 5,000 dollars, and if they do not pay attention to the security and good treatment of the Chinese, by fines of from 2,000 to 10,000 dollars in this latter case.

XXIX. The fines of which the foregoing Article treats, and the resolutions which the Governor Captain-General may adopt by applying these regulations to individual cases can be appealed against legally before my Government.

XXX. Without affecting the cases stated in these regulations and in all those in which the Governor Captain-General imposes the fines established, this authority will forward the proceeding to my fiscal in that tribunal, in order that if he thinks it his duty, he may give the necessary instructions to the Promoter Fiscal, in order that he may demand, in the name of the Chinese, for bringing on the actions against the undertaking.

CHAP. II. Of the obligations and rights which the Workmen and their Masters owe each other reciprocally.

XXXI. The Governor Captain-General of Cuba shall be the natural protector of the Chinese workmen, and shall perform this charge in the districts by means of his delegates, the Governors or Lieutenant-Governors respectively, who in their turn shall be assisted, without the necessity of a previous demand by the chiefs of districts. These functionaries shall in all cases act under the orders and guidance of the Governors or Lieutenant-Governors.