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upon by informers paid with Government money, who would
    first debauch such women and then turn against them, charging them
    before the magistrate under the Ordinance 10, 1867, before the
    Registrar General as keepers of unlicensed brothels in which case
    a heavy fine would be inflicted, to pay which these women used to
    sell their children, or sell themselves into bondage worse than
    ordinary slavery, to the keepers of brothels licensed by the
    Government. Whenever a so-called sly brothel was broken up these
    keepers would crowd the shroff's office [money exchanger's office]
    of the police court or the visiting room of the Government Lock
    Hospital to drive their heartless bargains, _which were
    invariably enforced with the weighty support of the inspectors of
    brothels_,[A] appointed by Government under the Contagious
    Diseases Ordinance. The more this Ordinance was enforced, the more
    this buying and selling of human flesh went on at the very doors
    of Government offices."

[Footnote A: We italicise this to call attention to the active part
officials took in encouraging slavery.]

We can then readily imagine Tai-Yau as sentenced to pay her fine of
one hundred dollars, and nothing to pay with. The money exchanger's
office next the court room was crowded with slave-dealers, waiting to
offer