The case of Mauritius was more serious. It had long been suspected that the colony had been indulging in a course of legislation, the tendency of which, says Mr Geoghegan, the under-secretary to the department of agriculture in the Government of India, was "towards reducing the Indian labourer to a more complete state of dependence upon the planter, and towards driving him into indentures, a free labour market being both directly and indirectly discouraged." In 1871, acting on a petition presented by M. Adolph de Plevitz, a resident in the colony, who loudly denounced this injustice, the governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, appointed a police inquiry commission to investigate the matter ; and thereafter a royal commission was appointed at the request of the planters, and its report was presented to the Imperial Parliament in 1875. The investigation showed that the treatment experienced by the coolies was extremely unsatisfactory, and that in many respects they were too much in the power of the planters.
With reference to the treatment of the coolie in foreign colonies it is more difficult to obtain the necessary informa tion. In Cuba the Chinese labourers were subjected to such scandalous ill-usage that the Spanish Government was forced to interfere, especially when it was found the Chinese were beginning to take part with the insurgents. In 1871 a royal decree was issued suspending the importation of coolies to the colony, and giving power to the Government to give return passages to all who had finished their contracts and were not willing to re-engage. The decree, however, has been ignored. It is well known that rather than enter into another contract the Chinaman will leave the island. But then the Cubans desire him to remain so that a permanent labouring class may be created.
In many of the French colonies Indian labourers are im ported, there being a convention between the Governments of France and India which admits of this being done. There, it is feared, the coolie is the victim of abuses and oppression which, happening as they do in foreign dominions, are not easily redressed. In Cayenne there is reason to believe the mortality amongst the coolies who labour in the gold mines is abnormally high ; it is said that more than half the Indians imported " cannot be accounted for." In Reunion, Guadaloupe, and Martinique they are said to be systematically over-worked ; and ac cording to Mr Geoghegan there seems to be a disposi tion in Reunion to prevent their having free access to the British consul when they have occasion to claim his protection.
(e. wi.)
COOMASSIE, or Kumassi, the capital of Ashantee, in Guinea, West Africa, in 6 34 50" N. lat. and 2 12 W. long., and 130 miles jST.N.W. of Cape Coast Castle, is situ ated on a low rocky eminence, from which it extends across a valley to the hill opposite, and occupies an area of about 1^ miles in length and over 3^ miles in circum ference. It lies in the midst of a thick and jungly forest, and is nearly surrounded by a pestilential swamp. The town was founded in the middle of the 18th century by Sy Tutu. At the time of its capture by the British (February 4, 1874) it consisted of numerous streets, some of which were broad and regular ; the main avenue was 70 yards in length. The houses were painted red and white, and had alcoves and stuccoed facades. The king s palace, a hand some building, was blown up on the destruction and evacuation of the town by Wolseley s forces (February G). About 300 yards from the site of the palace is the grove into which the bodies of some thousand criminals and victims of the rites of Ashantee superstitions were yearly cast. Coomassie has a considerable trade with Central Africa. Bo wdich estimated its population at 18j 000. See Ashantee, vol. ii. p. 681.
COOPER, Abraham (1787-1868), an animal and battle painter, was the son of a tobacconist, and was born in London, in 1787. At the age of thirteen he became an employe at Astley s amphitheatre, and was afterwards groom in the service of Sir Henry Meux. When he was twenty-two, wishing to possess a portrait of a favourite horse under his care, he bought a manual of painting, learned something of the use of oil-colours, and painted the picture on a canvas hung against the stable wall. His master bought it and encouraged him to continue in his efforts. He accordingly began to copy prints of horses, and was introduced by Davis, the equestrian, to Benjamin Marshall, the animal painter, who took him into his studio, and seems to have introduced him to the Sporting Maga zine, an illustrated periodical to which he was himself a contributor. In 1814 he exhibited his Tarn O Shanter, and in 1816 he won a prize of 100 for his Battle of Ligny. In 1817 he exhibited his Battle of Marston Moor and was made Associate of the Academy, and in 1820 he was elected Academician. He died in 1808. Cooper although ill educated, was a clever and conscientious artist ; his colouring was somewhat flat and dead, but he was a skilful draughtsman and a master of equine portraiture and anatomy, and had some antiquarian knowledge. He had a special fondness for Cavalier and Roundhead work, and his best pictures are those in which he has reproduced the subjects of that period.
COOPER, Anthony Ashley. See Shaftesbury.
celebrated surgeon, was born at the village of Brooke, in Norfolk, August 23, 1768. His father, Dr Cooper, was a clergyman of the Church of England ; his mother was the author of several novels. At the age of sixteen he was sent to London and placed under Mr Cline, surgeon to St Thomas s Hospital. From the first he devoted him self to the study of anatomy, and had the privilege of attending the lectures of John Hunter. In 1787 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at St Thomas s Hospital. In 1791 he delivered part of the course of lectures on anatomy and surgery at St Thomas s Hospital. In this year he married ; and in the spring of 1792 he visited Paris. In the latter year he was also appointed professor of anatomy to Surgeon s Hall, a situation which he again filled in 1794 and 1795. In 1800 he was appointed surgeon to Guy s Hospital, on the death of his uncle, William Cooper. In 1802 he received the Copley medal for two papers read before the Royal Society of London on the destruction of the membrana tympani ; and in 1 805 he was elected a fellow of that society. Having taken an active part in the formation of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, he published in the first volume of its Transactions an account of an unsuccessful attempt to tie the carotid artery. Another of his remarkable attempts was to tie the aorta. In 1804 he brought out the first, and in 1807 the second, part of his great work on Hernia the operation for which, on account of the defective knowledge of the local anatomy, was then frequently unsuccessful. So greatly did this work add to his reputation, that in 1813 his annual professional income rose to 21,000 sterling. He was soon after appointed professor of comparative anatomy to the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1820, he removed a steatomatous tumour from the head of George IV. About six months afterwards he accepted a baronetcy, which, as he had no son, was to descend to his nephew and adopted son, Astley Cooper; in 1827 he was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons; and in 1830 vice-president of the Royal Society. He was also chosen member of the French Institute ; the degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him by Oxford, and that of LL.T).
by Edinburgh ; and he was appointed sergeant-surgeon to