Having
utterly failed in their efforts with the Governor, the coolies
resolved to carry out their religious duty according to prescriptive
forms, accepting, at the same time, the responsibility in the way of
fine or imprisonment which they would thus inevitably incur. A
rumour was also current at the time that, pursuant to this
resolution, the head men of the various plantations had authorized a
general subscription amongst their countrymen, for meeting the
contingency of fines in the police courts. All these things were the
current talk of the population of San Fernando, in which town the
leading immigrants, free as well as indentured, had begun to raise
funds for this purpose.
All that the public, therefore, expected would have resulted from the
intended infringement of the Proclamation was an enormous influx of
money in the shape of fines into the Colonial Treasury; as no one
doubted the extreme facility which existed for ascertaining exactly,
in the case of persons registered and indentured to specific
plantations, the names and abodes of at least the chief offenders
against the proclamation. Accordingly, on the [106] occurrence of
the bloody catastrophe related above, every one felt that the mere
persistence in marching all unarmed towards the town, without
actually attempting to force their way into it, was exorbitantly
visited upon the coolies by a violent death or a life-long
mutilation.
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