No. 297.
Mr. Alvin P. Hovey to Mr. Fish.
Sir: On the morning of the 4th instant a serious insurrection of the Chinese laborers or coolies took place on the large cotton estates of Pativilca, about 180 miles north of Lima. The Chinese, numbering nearly two thousand, committed every barbarity possible; murdered nineteen whites and wounded forty. Troops were immediately sent from Lima to the scene of the disturbance, and the insurgents dispersed, flying to the mountains after having lost two hundred in killed and wounded. The damage done to property is very great, and so intense is the popular feeling that a resolution has been introduced into Congress prohibiting the further importation of Chinese, and expelling those already in the country. The bill has many warm upholders. There can be no doubt that in some cases the Chinese are treated with considerable severity, but on the estates which now have been made the scene of their atrocities, the kindness of the masters toward them was notorious.