Directly up come the men, with a foreman of their own, with whom alone I have to deal.
I tell only him what I want done; I settle with him alone; I complain to him, and hold him alone responsible.

He understands English; and this system simplifies things amazingly.

If I employed white men I should have to instruct, reprove, watch, and pay each one separately; and of a hundred, a quarter, at least, would be dropping out day after day for one cause or another.

Moreover, with my Chinese comes up a cook for every twenty men, whom I pay, and provisions of their own which they buy.

Thus I have nobody to feed and care for.