I know that I will sound like a cynic, but here goes: Before the revolution in
'74, it was not at all unusual for some official to state that there was
something irregular about our papers, or our situation. If you knew the system
you knew that was code for "we can straighten all this out and make your
problem go away. A token of your gratitude would go a long way in making this
problem go away." And we discreetly slipped some bills into the flunky's hands
and we were waved through.
And then there was always the example of the local cop who always seemed able
to build a house and live in a style requiring 10 times more than he made in a
lifetime. People nodded knowingly and shook their heads.
Things have changed for the better. But those of us of a certain age, remember
how things were done before the revolution and what things were like and can
well understand the "difficulties" that the contracted workers would have to
make go away.
I am sorry if I offend. But I am old enough to remember and too old to forget.
John Miranda Raposo
On Thursday, November 17, 2016 11:25 PM, IslandRoutes
<islandrou...@gmail.com> wrote:
I was doing some research for an article for my blog and came upon a really
interesting article in an old Hawaiian newspaper. It made me realize that
after all these years I didn't fully understand the route that the Azorean and
Madeiran sugar plantation contract laborers took to Hawaii.
The article pertains to the voyage of the SS Vapor Hansa in 1882. It's a
letter written by a British Agent who was in charge of overseeing that the
Azoreans boarded ship and were treated correctly.
What I learned is the ships were first inspected in England. After inspection,
they went to the Azores. They picked up the contract laborers and were taken
to Lisboa to be processed, to make sure their contracts were in order by the
laws of Portugal, and they fully understood their contracts.
They then went back to the Azores where cargo was dropped off, then on their
way to Hawaii.
But, something went wrong when the Vapor Hansa got to port in Lisboa. First the
contracts were not in order, but that was easily resolved. Then, the chief of
police decided to mount a formal protest against allowing the Azoreans to leave.
I've summarized it on my blog. There's a link to the original newspaper
article at the end of the blog post:
http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2016/11/why-did-the-s-s-hansa-carrying-azorean-contract-laborers-heading-for-hawaii-run-into-1882-run-into-problems-in-portugal/
The voyage was delayed for over two weeks as officials wrangled over their
fate. This brings me to my question. Why? Why was this chief of police so
bent on forbidding the passengers from going to Hawaii? I know that their was
a lot of diplomatic back and forth as the Kingdom of Hawaii and Portugal
hammered out the rules that allowed the Azoreans to sign those contracts and
leave the country.
But, were their people/factions within Portugal who opposed it?
It was a wonderful find! My gr gr grandmother, Anna Jacinta (de Mello)
Pacheco, and her 6 children were on the Hansa in 1882. It was neat to find
such explicit details about their voyage.
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