None of the members of either of these bodies are allowed to go beyond the precincts of the city without a pass—the authorities being extremely fearful of desertion; and with reason, too, as, although these men are induced to enter by the prospect of easy times, (and they are easy, indeed, duty only being required of them for four hours out of the twenty-four, after which time they are at liberty to dress and act as citizens, only they are not permitted to engage in any other business,) yet their very inactivity disgusts them with their billets. Men, like sailors, who have been accustomed to a stirring, active life, ever on the alert to anticipate the storm king’s movements, cannot at once divest themselves of their sea-going habits; hence their uneasiness and determination to desert. When we left Mauritius, two of them, who had been part of the force for several months, were snugly stowed away aboard our ship, preferring life in a whaler’s forecastle, to ease and comfort ashore.
The boatmen comprise two distinct classes: the white and the native. The whites are generally seamen, and in this avocation I saw manual labor performed by them only. The principal and most business-like of these aquatic carriers was a man who had fled the city of New Bedford for no less a crime than manslaughter, and thereby escaped punishment by the laws of his country; but being now doomed to perpetual exile from home and kindred, he could feelingly say, “Verily, the way of the transgressor is hard!”
And now that we have pretty thoroughly analyzed the city and its suburbs, it is quite time that we should speak of the tawny inhabitants of Port Louis. Having mentioned the whites, we will first glance at those who most nearly resemble them in color and form: the Arabs—a fine-looking, large and symmetrically built race of men, who wear the turban, a white robe, and sandals, of the same form as did their ancestors in time immemorial. They are a very intelligent-looking people, with perfectly regular features, grave in deportment, respected, and reputed wealthy. Most of them are merchants.
The next class we will notice is, the Chinese. These, without being in great numbers, wield considerable influence. Their strict attention to business, and speedy method of amassing money, by sobriety and regularity in living, soon render them independent through their own exertions. They are mostly engaged in the grocery and dry-goods businesses. They adhere to their native costume, sporting their pigtails, wide trowsers, conical hats, and satin slippers, alongside the turban and sandals of the Arab.
Next comes the Malay, with his dusky features. They are few in number, and partake in some degree of the peculiarities of both the former nations. Like the Arabs, they are strict Mahometans, turning their faces towards Mecca whilst at their devotions. These people are employed both in humble avocations and in the higher walks of life.
Next, we notice the people known as Malabars. Under this patronymic, not only the natives of the Malabar coast, but those from the shores of the Bay of Bengal, are known; and consequently, coming from so extended a line of country, there is a vast difference in their appearance: those from one part of the country being small in person, with scarcely any muscular strength; whilst those from the Ghaut mountains are a tall, muscular race, capable, for Asiatics, of great bodily exertion. All are subdued, and appeared to me as the most abject of any servile people. They are, emphatically, “hewers of wood and drawers of water.” Few of them are employed in trade, except as segar makers and sellers. All the manual labor peculiar to shipping is performed by them—caulking, loading, and discharging; and the way they work is a source of pain to an enterprising spirit. For instance, four or six of them will arrange themselves around a bag of guano, or other package of merchandise, and at a signal from their overseer (who wields a bamboo, with which he very often administers hearty thwacks on the heads of his employees; and, as they are closely shaven, their crowns possess no protection from the blows), commence a monotonous melody, which they continue for several minutes, before touching the bag; then, as many seizing it as can get hold, they swing it on the cart or scales arranged for its reception: during which operation they consume more time in handling one bag than one-third their number of our men would do in disposing of a dozen bags on the wharves at home.
Besides this, they are the barbers, coopers, and stone-cutters of the port. I saw boys, of ten years and upwards, and possessing the most effeminate bodies, with mallet and chisel, working away at the last-named business like good fellows.
In coopering they pursue a novel mode of operation: one getting on top of the cask and holding the driver on the hoops, whilst the other uses the hammer. This is done, of course, after the head has been adjusted; previously to which the helper stands in the center, and arranges the staves.
Barberizing, from the universal practice of shaving the head, seems to be a thriving trade. The person undergoing the operation squats cross-legged, whilst the barber works around him, removing his hair in a very short time. I think this a most excellent custom in this hot climate, so conducive to the fostering and increase of vermin.
From this class servants are selected, who perform all the various functions of waiters, footmen, runners, &c. There are few women and children imported, in comparison with the number of adult males: possibly, owing to the greater usefulness of the latter. Their costume varies—some wearing the turban; but generally a plush cap is worn, ornamented with gilded or silvered braid, arranged in fanciful forms. All wear the breech-cloth—the upper and lower portions of the body remaining bare. They live any and every where—the ground-floors of the dwellings throughout the city being crowded with them; and ten or a dozen will occupy one apartment, with scarcely moving or breathing room—sleeping on the bosom of mother earth, and covered only with their breech-cloth, which is of the lightest texture. They receive very trifling wages; but as they live principally upon rice and curry, which cost scarcely anything, they are able in the course of their apprenticeship to save what is, to them, a considerable sum of money.