two courses before him. Either he can re-indenture himself to an
employer, for not more than twelve months, which as a rule he does;
or he can seek employment where he likes. At the end of a
continuous residence of ten years in all, and at any period after
that, he is entitled to a free passage back to Hindostan; or he may
exchange his right to a free passage for a Government grant of ten
acres of land. He has meanwhile, if he has been thrifty, grown
rich. His wife walks about, at least on high-days, bedizened with
jewels: nay, you may see her, even on work-days, hoeing in the
cane-piece with heavy silver bangles hanging down over her little
brown feet: and what wealth she does not carry on her arms, ankles,
neck, and nostril, her husband has in the savings' bank. The ship
Arima, as an instance,: took back 320 Coolies last year, of whom
seven died on the voyage. These people carried with them 65,585
dollars; and one man, Heerah, handed over 6000 dollars for
transmission through the Treasury, and was known to have about him
4000 more. This man, originally allotted to an estate, had, after
serving out his industrial contract, resided in the neighbouring
village of Savannah Grande as a shopkeeper and money-lender for the
last ten years. Most of this money, doubtless, had been squeezed
out of other Coolies by means not unknown to Europeans, as well as
to Hindoos: but it must have been there to be squeezed out. And
the new 'feeding ordinance' will, it is to be hoped, pare the claws
of Hindoo and Chinese usurers.

The newly offered grant of Government land has, as yet, been
accepted only in a few cases. 'It was not to be expected,' says the
report, 'that the Indian, whose habits have been fixed in special
grooves for tens of centuries, should hurriedly embrace an offer
which must strike at all his prejudices of country, and creed, and