This much my friend told me, but he said that they had quite a talk on the subject, in which he did not butter his words in denouncing such an unjust social custom and the crime that produced it. He said it was own brother to the deeds of the slave owners of the southern states of America, begetting children by their slave women, and then selling their own offspring as slaves. He remarked that one evening in a hotel at Calcutta, a planter told him that many of the planters led the freest kind of a life; that few of them were married, as they did not care to be bothered with families of their own. He mentioned a number of prominent planters by name, all of them connected with well known families in England. The planter said there were a number of titled men among them, living the most riotous, lustful lives; that nearly all these men had children by coolie women employed on their plantations; that it was customary for these planters as they went about during the day to make their selections and then order their peons to bring the women selected to their bungalows at night. He said this was so common that nothing more was thought of it, than if a man had ordered some grain for his horse. One of them, of a very aristocratic family in England, who would blush with shame if they knew his manner of life, when asked if he was married, replied, “Married! No. What the devil do I want with a wife?” Yet he had a number of children by his coolie women. When asked what would become of his children, he carelessly answered, “I have nothing to do with them. When I leave I shall give the mothers a few rupees and let them scratch for themselves.” Continued my friend: “A man is a hardened wretch who will treat his own flesh and blood in that way. And probably all these planters call themselves gentlemen and Christians. The Turkish or oriental harems are places of virtue and honor compared with such a system of lust and injustice carried on, not by heathens, but by educated Englishmen.” It appeared from this and other remarks, that my American friend had not traveled through India with blinkers on his eyes or cotton in his ears; yet who has not heard of such things? I could have told him the story of my own life, that, alas! I knew too well; but self respect or prudence or something restrained me.