CHAPTER ONE

SLAVES, CONVICTS, FIELD WORKERS AND ARTISANS: THE CHINESE IN THE COLONIAL LABOUR DIASPORAS

Th e island of Mauritius in the southwest Indian Ocean was populated by European colonisers who brought labourers, companions and fellow- settlers from territories, principally elsewhere in the region, which they had occupied or where they traded. Th e Chinese presence in Mauritius probably dates from the 17th century when Dutch settlers brought con- vict labour from their South East Asian settlements to the island, but few details are available. More concrete evidence of Chinese settlement is available for the 18th century, when the French colonised the island. Th eir corsairs captured Chinese traders and artisans, enslaving some of them, and brought them to their Isle of France. Most were repatri- ated, but a few settled. Following the British take-over of the island in 1810, Mauritius—reverting to its Dutch name—was caught up in the great labour diasporas of the 19th century which defi nitively shaped the colonial Indian Ocean world. In this chapter the experiences of the Chinese as slaves, plantation workers and artisans are described and their place alongside the importation of servile and indentured African and Indian labour is discussed.

A Note on Nomenclature

Discovering the early presence of persons of a Chinese origin in Mauri- tius is complicated by the vague defi nitions of birthplace and ethnicity which were current in the 17th and 18th centuries. Th e Chinese taken to the Mascarenes in this period were mostly brought from Indonesia, and hence might also be confused with another category of immi- grants known as ‘malais’ [malays]. Dutch records tend to designate immigrants with reference to the place from which they had been transported, rather than according to an ethnic origin. Conversely, in the 18th century French records, immigrants of Asiatic origin were oft en indiscriminately labelled as Indians, and in several cases the cat- egory of ‘chinois’ [Chinese] is subsumed within a broader defi nition of ‘indien’ [Indian]. For example, the anonymous Isle of France based 20 chapter one author of a memoir about the colony in the mid 18th century opined that “the Indians, notably the Chinese” would make good settlers, being hard working. Similarly, Gratia Vigoureux, whom we know from other sources to have been Chinese, is described variously and confusingly in the archival record—sometimes as of ‘caste indienne’ and at other times as a ‘chinoise’.1 Even in the British 19th century records, the nomenclature of arriving Chinese was generally too abbreviated to denote a clear ethnic origin, but the proliferation of documents attest- ing to birthplace and other bio data of individuals, as they acquired property and settled on the island has enabled historians to trace three phases of Chinese settlement in Mauritius, involving, fi rstly Fukienese, secondly Cantonese, and thirdly Hakka immigrants.2

Dutch Settlements in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean trade networks of the 17th century were dominated by the Dutch and the Portuguese. Fortifi ed trading posts were set up, followed by the acquisition of colonial territories: the Portuguese established themselves at Malacca and Macao, while the Dutch East India Com- pany (known as the VOC) was headquartered at Batavia (present day Djakarta) in Java, Indonesia. Migration to South East Asia by Chinese had predated European conquest of those islands, and, under Dutch hegemony from 1619, the Chinese population of Batavia increased to around 3,000. As well as the invited traders, some Chinese were invol- untary residents, having been taken in kidnapping forays or seized from junks. In the 1680s a second wave of migration considerably increased the number of ethnic Chinese on the island. Th e Huguenot refugee, Francois Leguat, who visited Batavia in 1697 has left an account of his year-long sojourn. Leguat was surprised by his fi rst encounter with Chinese people there whom he described as being ‘as white as French- men’, hard working, and talented in commerce.3

1 Archives Nationales d’Outre Mer [ANOM] Depot des Fortifi cations des Colonies [DFC] Carton 10 Memoire no. 61 c. 1750; ANOM Etat Civil [EC] Pamplemousses, 1776. 2 Fukien or Fujian is a coastal eastern province; Canton (Guangzhou) is in South China; Hakka or ‘guest people’ are believed to originate in north China. Most Hakka Chinese in Mauritius trace their origins to Moiyean (Meixian) in the district of Kwangtung. 3 Oliver, P., Th e Voyage of Francois Leguat of Bresse to Rodriguez, Mauritius, Java and the Cape of Good Hope, London. Th e Hakluyt Society, 1891, 2 volumes.