d my opinion
of the religious and charitable institutions. I praise the Belen and the
Sisters of Charity, and condemn the prison, and he appears to agree with
me. He appreciates the learning and zeal of the Brothers of Belen;
speaks in the highest terms of the devotedness of the Sisters of
Charity; and admits the great faults of the prison, but says it was
built recently, at an enormous out-lay, and he supposes the government
is reluctant to be at the expense of abandoning it and building another.
He charges me with messages of remembrance and respect to acquaintances
we have in common. As I take my leave, he goes with me to the outer
gate, which is kept locked, and again takes leave, for two leave-takings
are the custom of the country, and returns to the solitude of his house.

Yesterday I drove out to the Cerro, to see the coolie jail, or market,
where the imported coolies are kept for sale. It is a well-known place,
and open to all visitors. The building has a fair-looking front; and
through this I enter, past two porters, into an open yard in the rear,
where, on the gravel ground, are squatting a double line of coolies,
with heads shaved, except a tuft on the crown, dressed in loose Chinese
garments of blue and yellow. The dealer, who is a calm, shrewd,
heartless-looking man, speaking English as well as if it were his native
tongue, comes out with me, calls to the coolies, and they all stand up
in a double line, facing inward, and we pass through them, preceded by a
driver armed with the usual badge of the plantation driver, the short,
limber whip. The dealer does not hesitate to tell me the terms on which
the contracts are made, as the trade is not illegal. His account is
this--The importer receives $340 for each coolie, and the purchaser
agrees to pay the coolie four dollars per month, and to give him food,
and two suits of clothes a year. For this, he has his services for eight
years. The contract is reduced to writing before a magistrate, and two
originals are made, one kept by the coolie and one by the purchaser, and
each in Chinese and Spanish.

This was a strange and striking exhibition of power. Two or three white
men, bringing hundreds of Chinese thousands of miles, to a new climate
and people, holding them prisoners, selling their services to masters
having an unknown tongue and an unknown religion, to work at unknown
trades, for inscrutable purposes!

The coolies did not look unhealthy, though some had