American railway contractors had found that Chinese were more willing than Occidental navvies to submit to the hardship of construction conditions in mountainous stretches. Consequently Canadian contractors turned to China when labour shortages developed on the Pacific railway. Between 1881 and 1884 some 16,000 Chinese Iaboured on the project. When chief contractor Andrew Onderdonk announced his intention to import workers from China, rumours spread that he had hired 25,000 men. In reality only 2,000 men had been engaged. Their lot was unenviable: locked below decks, 200 of them developed scurvy, and many died soon after arrival. no concern was shown for men so callously treated: instead the inhabitants of Yale, fearful of an outbreak of small pox, agitated for their removal. So long as their presence was required, the Chinese navvies were protected by the federal government. But when the last spike was driven in 1885 at Craigellachie, they were unneeded and unwanted.
Courtesy: Notman Photographic Archives. McCord Museum, Montreal
