their contents in the books which for that purpose will be kept in the Political Secretary's office.

XI. Whenever the colonists are to be transferred from one place to another, it shall be necessary to obtain the permission of the Government.

XII. The colonists can be made over by those who first received them, and by their successors, for the term of the contract, under the conditions that may be agreed upon with the person making them over; but such persons shall be liable to the same obligations as the original holders were under, as well with regard to the colonists themselves as to the Government.

CHAP. II. Rights of the Colonists, and those reciprocal between them and their Employers.

XIII. The superior Governor of the island is the original protector of the colonists, and his deputies the Governors and Lientenant-Governors in their respective districts; and the Syndics of the first class, and the Fiscals of Her Majesty of the second class, are their defenders in judicial affairs in which their employers may

not be able to act.

XIV. The deputed protectors will resolve questions that may arise between the colonists and their employers, recurring in doubtful and serious cases to the original protectors.

XV. The colonists being obliged to labour a definite number of years for the advantage of their employers, and in conformity with the stipulated conditions, they cannot be granted other rights than those, the exercise of which may not be incompatible with their affording the labour which they are engaged to perform. But they shall be empowered to dispose in lifetime, or at their death, during the term of the contract, of all that they may acquire by honourable and profitable title. They shall be empowered to contract matrimony in conformity with the civil and canon laws, provided that their employer do not make opposition, considering it incompatible with the labour which he may command or with the discipline of his estate, workshops, or establishment. They shall be empowered to apply to the authorities, through the protector or his deputies, whenever they may consider they have a right, in opposition to their employer, arising from interests or personal offences. If the right which they might wish to exercise should be in opposition to any other person, either belonging to the estate or establishment in which they may be working, or out of any such, they shall avail themselves of their employer in order to do so, who as their defender, and in a certain degree natural guardian, shall be obliged to take upon himself the legal satisfaction for the injury, or that

justice be done them in the civil questions in which they may be interested.

XVI. On days of rest, and on other days during the hours in which they do not labour, they shall be allowed to employ themselves in innocent amusements which may not interfere with the discipline of the estate, or employ themselves in labour, the products of which belong to them over and above their wages; but they shall not be entitled to go away from the estate or establishment in which they may be without permission from their employer or his overseer. Neither can they enter into engagements with persons in or out of the estate or establishment without such permission.

XVII. At the conclusion of the contract they can establish themselves in the country, provided they subject themselves to the conditions which the laws require from strangers wishing to fix their residence in it, or they can freely return to their own; but neither their former employer, nor the Government, nor those who imported them, shall be obliged to indemnify them in the expenses of the return voyage, unless it might have been thus stipulated in the contract.

XVIII. Once established here, they shall enjoy the same rights, and shall be liable to the same obligations as domiciled strangers, being able to pass over to the class of naturalized Spaniards as soon as they comply with all the conditions which the laws require for that object.

XIX. They are empowered, for the same reason, to contract freely for their labour, employ their time in the manner they may think advantageous, acquire chattel property and real estate, alienate the same, pass from one place to another under the control of the police laws, and finally, to be free agents, like white people, in which class they are to be considered, as far as it may not be in opposition to the laws.

XX. The colonists have a right to receive, and the employers are obliged to give, punctually, the salary, food, clothing, and hospital attendance stated in the contracts entered into by them in their country.

XXI. Consequently all transfers of colonists made by those who may have introduced them into the island, or by others, under which the quantity may be diminished or the quality deteriorated, of these articles, shall be void.

XXII. It shall be allowable to make an alteration or change in the articles of food, and the make and material of the clothing, but it shall be done with the knowledge of the colonists; and in case they should raise objections from caprice, or if it should not be possible without serious prejudice to the interests of the employer to

provide them with the same as specified in the contract, it shall be permitted to substitute others alike in quantity and quality, but the alteration shall be effected with the cognizance of the Government authorities.

XXIII. They have the right to be assisted in sickness by doctors, medicines, and food, which during such sickness and their convalescence may be prescribed for them.

XXIV. It shall not be permitted to oblige them to labour during sickness and convalesence, unless the medical men should deem it advisable in certain cases.

XXV. They have no right to wages from the time at which they may cease to labour, until they may return to their occupations, although occasioned by sickness, unless it should have been otherwise stipulated in the contract, which shall be punctually carried

out.

XXVI. The colonists who by contract may have the right to receive their wages for a certain number of days during sickness, shall forfeit the same if the sickness be their own fault; and the only sickness that will entitle them to attendance in any case, even with wages, shall be that which the medical men of the estate or establishment in which they may be shall designate as such; and in case of there not being such medical men, they shall be amenable to the professional opinion of 1 or 2 doctors whom the employer may name: but if the decision should not appear to them just, they shall be empowered to have recourse to the protector or to his deputy, in order that a new examination may be made by the professional person whom he and the employer may determine upon, which decision shall be binding on both parties.

XXVII. Notwithstanding, in cases either where nothing is stipu lated in the contract, or in those in which express provision is made as to stoppage of wages during sickness, whether short or long, the colonists who may have fallen sick, or been incapacitated from labour, in consequence of the employment to which they are devoted for the benefit of the employer, shall be entitled to the payment of their

wages.

XXVIII. It shall be obligatory on the colonists to labour for their employers 12 hours daily, on an average, except Sundays, which shall be for rest.

XXIX. The employers have the right to arrange these 12 hours of labour as best may suit their interests.

XXX. In virtue of this right, they shall be empowered to employ their colonists for a lesser number of hours on the days which they may think fit, or make good to themselves on others that diminution, adding to the 12 those which were wanting to complete that number on the other days.

XXXI. In the last case, they shall not have the right to require from the colonists more than 15 hours of labour in 1 day, but they can divide them as best may answer their purpose, provided that they leave them at least 6 consecutive hours for rest, either by day or by night.

XXXII. The colonists are under the obligation to perform any description of labour in which they may be employed, provided it does not exceed the number of hours fixed.

XXXIII. The employers have the right to indemnification from their colonists for the days and hours during which, from negligence, they abandoned their labour, by prolonging the contract for the time necessary to make such indemnification.

XXXIV. In order that this may be carried out without detriment to any of the parties concerned, the owners or managers of the estates or establishments in which they may work shall keep books containing an account and explanation of the daily labour which the colonists may perform, so that at the end of each month may be known the number of days and hours that each colonist laboured; and accordingly, at the conclusion of the contract, it may be known whether the contract ought or ought not to be extended, and for what period. This account and explanation shall comprehend the payments which may have been made to them.

XXXV. Each month the account shall be closed relative to the labour and payment, and the colonists shall be put in possession of the results; if they should have any objections to make, they shall state them, and the employers shall clear them up without prejudice to the rights possessed by the former; in case of their not being satisfied with the decision, to complain of it to the protector or deputy.

XXXVI. The days lost on account of sickness, although, as has been stated, they do not give title to wages, if it be not thus stated in the contract, or if the sickness be occasioned by the labour itself, are not to be deducted from the time of the contract; but those which the colonists may lose through their own fault, either by running away from the estate, or by refusing to labour, give the right to the employer to indemnify himself for them, by prolonging the duration of its fulfilment for a like number of days, besides the loss of the wages for those days, and by other penalties which he may inflict on them, according to the seriousness of the offence committed.

XXXVII. The colonists are under the obligation to be submissive to the discipline of the estate or establishment, as well as to the orders which the employers or their overseers may give them when at work.

XXXVIII. These persons can employ them on their own

estates or establishments, or in those of other persons with whom they may contract for their labour.

XXXIX. No colonist shall be enabled to annul the obligation which he contracted, although he make good to his employer what he had cost him, unless with the consent of the said employer.

XL. The colonists have a right to be protected and defended by their employers, who likewise are under the obligation to do so, having recourse to the authorities in case of necessity.

XLI. The colonists can employ the days of rest in working on their own account.

XLII. The employers have a right, on paying for it, to contract for such labour for themselves. They can grant land or not to the colonists, to cultivate for themselves during the days and hours of rest, although they are recommended to do so as a means of interesting them in the labours of agriculture, of inspiring them with an attachment to the estate, and as a distraction from amusements and diversions of a dangerous character.

XLIII. The produce of these small portions of land cultivated by the colonists during the days and hours of rest, as well as the animals which they may rear, are exclusively their own property; but the employers shall have the right to acquire them for himself at the price which may be agreed upon. If on this matter there should be a disagreement, it shall be arranged by means of the arbitrator or arbitrators whom the employer and the deputy of the original protector may name.

XLIV. If a colonist should run away from the estate or establishment in which he may be, the employer shall give notice to the local authority, who will take the same steps for his capture and restitution to the estate as are taken with slaves that run away.

XLV. The expenses which may be incurred in the capture and restitution shall be paid by the employer, but he has a right to indemnify himself in same by a monthly deduction of one-half of the wages becoming due to the runaway colonist.

XLVI. On the days lost during the flight he has no right to any wages whatever, and those days shall, as already said, not count as part of the term of the contract, it being lengthened for just as many days as they may be.

XLVII. The employers and their overseers are under the obligation to instil into the colonists the tenets of the Catholic religion. and the maxims of its sound morality, but they shall abstain from employing any other means than those of persuasion and conviction.

XLVIII. If any one or more of them should manifest desire to embrace the Catholic religion, they shall make it known to the parish priest, with a view to measures being taken accordingly.

XLIX. The employers must also make them understand the