By Tota C. Mangar
CHINESE missionary, O’ Tye Kim began his project of an exclusive Chinese settlement with a party of 25 Chinese immigrants. He commenced land clearing and the construction of huts. By the end of March 1865, the area had 70 settlers, and this was increased to 150, including 21 Chinese women, five months later.  Governor Hincks was impressed with the progress, and he described the venture, “A most interesting experiment; I have formed very great expectations of a satisfactory result.”

In October 1865, Sir James Hope, Vice-Admiral of the British Navy visited the colony, and, while here, he accompanied Governor Hincks to the settlement. It was in honour of such a distinguished visitor that the settlement was named Hopetown.

By the end of December 1865, Hopetown had attracted 170 immigrants. O’ Tye Kim encouraged occupations of different kinds, including charcoal production, shingle manufacture, and poultry and pig rearing. A store was also opened to cater for village supplies. Over fifty acres of heavily timbered forest were cleared, and rice and cash crops were introduced.

The settlers had to initially overcome difficulties, including excessive rainfall and a flooded creek. By the end of the year, Governor Hincks was describing Hopetown as an “acknowledged success”.  Charcoal production quickly emerged as the most significant aspect of the settlement’s economy. By early 1866, Hopetown was averaging 1,700 barrels of charcoal monthly. Instead of pit digging, as was traditionally employed by Portuguese and Creoles, the Chinese built clay ovens, with walls three to five feet in thickness. As a consequence, a better quality of charcoal was produced. Of added significance was the breaking of the Portuguese monopoly of the trade, especially in the populated towns of Georgetown and New Amsterdam, and the reduction of the charcoal price by about thirty per cent.

It was this real threat that caused the Portuguese producers and traders to complain about the effects of Chinese competition. Within two years of its establishment, Hopetown had 40 charcoal ovens. O’ Tye Kim’s original plan of establishing a settlement to primarily spread Christianity was overshadowed by the pursuit of economic prosperity. While the population continued to increase, less than half were Christians. Even so, O’ Tye Kim’s missionary role received official recognition from the local clergy. In August 1866, the Court of Policy approved a salary of 200 pounds per annum, in addition to 100 pounds as travelling expenses for him. This was seemingly a clear testimony of the high esteem in which the missionary was held. In any event, he had laid the foundation for the subsequent large-scale conversion of Chinese immigrants in the colony.

When everything at Hopetown seemed to be progressing satisfactorily, the missionary and architect of Hopetown was involved in a scandal that shocked his acquaintances, including the Governor and other leading officials in the colony. The first hint of controversy  surfaced in February 1866, when Revenue Officer, T.G. Wright reported that complaints were made by Chinese settlers that O’ Tye Kim was demanding a quarter of all charcoal production from them, and he was surcharging settlers four cents per barrel for transportation of the charcoal.  Official Tubman also revealed that based on his investigation, no proper accounts were being kept in relation to charcoal production and its corresponding sale to Chinese shops in Georgetown and other areas.  Further, it was disclosed that the missionary was renting out lands on the banks of the Kamuni Creek, and he was not issuing receipts for the rents collected.

Wright, for his part, recommended an investigation into the operation of the entire settlement, and O’ Tye Kim’s role in its fiscal management. The investigation was very slow in getting off the ground, since Governor Hincks was by this time embroiled in a bitter controversy with both his Chief Justice, Charles Beumont, and his Immigration Agent-General, James Crosby.

As if there was no end to O’ Tye Kim’s problems, charges of immorality were also leveled against him. He was accused of having an intimate relationship with a coloured woman, who was by then pregnant. The latter charge shocked church officials.

Publicly disgraced, O’ Tye Kim was so embarrassed, that he made a secret departure from the very settlement he previously founded. With the help of three settlers, he left, by boat, for the Essequibo Coast and Moruka, and then through the Orinoco to Trinidad.  Police were sent on his trail, but found no trace of him.

A public inquiry was subsequently ordered into the alleged financial mismanagement of Hopetown under O’ Tye Kim. The investigation was hampered by the lack of tangible evidence, due to non-existent records keeping, and the non-issuance of receipts. Moreover, settlers themselves were reluctant to come forward with evidence.

The public scandal along with the sudden departure of O’ Tye Kim placed a damper on the experiment of an exclusive Chinese settlement. As so often happens in history, other problems increasingly surfaced.  There was the exhaustion of wood supplies for charcoal production in the immediate environment. Settlers were frustrated at not receiving titles to land despite numerous assurances. The settlement continued to suffer from periodic flooding due to excessive rainfall, and the overflow of creek water.  Birds and wild animals created havoc among cash crops. Rice suffered from a lack of drying facilities, and transportation and communication networks were poor.

Governor Hincks, who was initially impressed with O’ Tye Kim’s missionary zeal and ability, ended up being a very disappointed administrator. The Board of Trustees was grossly incompetent and ineffective. It neglected the settlement, and it left administrative matters solely in the hands of the missionary. Following the end of Hincks’ tenure in office, Hopetown went into a slow and continuous decline.

CONCLUSION
The founding of the settlement of Hopetown could be regarded as an important landmark in the history of the Chinese in Guyana. It was born out of the missionary zeal and concern for the moral and spiritual upliftment of Chinese immigrants by O’ Tye Kim, with full support from Governor Hincks. As a surveyor himself, O’ Tye Kim ought to have recognised the likely difficulties to be posed by such a site development. The Board of Trustees, for its part, shirked its responsibilities, and, instead, allowed the missionary the luxury of administrative and fiscal management; expertise that was sadly lacking in this individual.

In the end, scandal and controversy engulfed the settlement and O’ Tye Kim. Hopetown, which initially flourished, could no longer answer to its name, and settlers were forced to leave for urban and coastal centres where they pursued other business avenues.

Despite its eventual failure, the Hopetown Experiment aided succeeding administrators in formulating policies relating to immigrant village development. A mere decade-and-a-half later, an innovative village development scheme on the Essequibo Coast was promoted in the form of the Huist D’ieren Experiment, which paved the way for the emergence of several predominately East Indian coastal villages before the turn of the century.

Hopetown could also be seen as a pioneering attempt at establishing riverine or interior settlements in the face of a dominant coastal sugar industry, monoculture and considerable planter-class economic, social and political power.