r $3 a month. At the end of the season
their accounts are made up, being debited with the amount of the
original advance, subsistence money and cost of implements, and credited
with the value of the tobacco brought in and any wages that may be due
for outside work. Each estate possesses a hospital, in which bad cases
are treated by a qualified practitioner, while in trifling cases the
European overseer dispenses drugs, quinine being that in most demand.
If, owing to sickness, or other cause, the cooly has required assistance
in his field, the cost thereof is deducted in his final account.

The men live in well constructed "barracks," erected by the owner of the
estate, and it is one of the duties of the Chinese "tindals," or
overseers acting under the Europeans to see that they are kept in a
cleanly, sanitary condition.

The European overseers are under the orders of the head manager, and an
estate is divided in such a way that each overseer shall have under his
direct control and be responsible for the proper cultivation of about
100 fields. He receives a fixed salary, but his interest in his division
is augmented by the fact that he will receive a commission on the value
of the crop it produces. His work is onerous and, during the season, he
has little time to himself, but should be here, there, and everywhere in
his division, seeing that the coolies come out to work at the stated
times, that no field is allowed to get in a backward state, and that
worms are carefully removed, and, as a large proportion of the men are
probably _sinkehs_, that is, new arrivals who have never been on a
tobacco estate before, he has, with the assistance of the tindals, to
instruct them in their work. When the crop is brought in, he has to
examine each cooly's contribution, carefully inspecting each leaf, and
keeping an account of the value and quantity of each.

Physical strength, intelligence and an innate desire of amassing
dollars, are three essential qualifications for a good tobacco cooly,
and, so far, they have only been found united in the Chinaman, the
European being out of the question as a field-labourer in the tropics.

The coolies are, as a rule, procured through Chinese cooly brokers in
Penang or Singapore, but as regards North Borneo, the charges for
commission, transport and the advances--many of which, owing to death,
sickness and desertion, are never repaid--have become so heavy as to be
almost prohibitive, and my ene