In a letter dated 1st July, signed by himself and
directed to the Minister of Marine, the Emperor of the French announces that negro emigration from Eastern Africa must finally cease. A treaty has been concluded with Great Britain under which the emigration of natives from India to the French colonies is formally sanctioned, while the French possessions in Africa can yield a small supply. The entry of negroes from Eastern Africa into a French colony is, there- fore, formally prohibited. This letter has been received by philan- thropists with an exultation the causes of which are not generally understood. It may be quite true, as the Emperor says, that the negroes, once arrived in a French colony, and having worked out their passage,, are essentially free, but the chiefs who supply them know nothing of that. They are paid for emigrants as they were paid for slaves, and use precisely the same means to obtain them. The slave hunts were reviving all along the coast, and the regular trade suffered proportionally. It is quicker and more profitable to steal a man than to grow and express a ton of palm oil. The con- cession as to Indian labourers inflicts no injury on the people. The precautions taken in India itself to secure freedom of choice to the emigrants are most rigid, all the more so because the majority of the officials wholly disapprove of encouragement to a movement which, they argue, diminishes available labour. The emigrants to La Reunion seem well treated, and frequently return to Bengal well dressed, talk- ing French, with plenty of money and an independence, not to say impudence, of manner which disgusts the native landlords. A regular Bengalee zemindar would rather see anybody on his estate than a Mauritius or Reunion coolie, with his cool talk about rights, and indisposition to be thrashed without a reason.
