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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.