Immigrant Ships
Transcribers Guild

SS Colon

I, Geo Makinnon, Master of the SS Colon do solemnly, sincerely, and truly swear that this List or Manifest, subscribed by me, and now delivered by me to the Collector of the Customs of the Collection District of San Francisco, is a full and perfect list of all Chinese passengers taken on board the said vessel at Panama & Way Ports from which place the said vessel has now arrived. (signature) Geo Makinnon

Columns represent: Number, No of Certificate*, Name, Age, Occupation, Last Place of Residence, Height, Complexion*, Color of Eyes*, Physical Marks or Peculiarities and Facts of Identification*, If accredited officers of Chinese Government, state facts*.

 1* Jun     Lue Chun 58  Merchant Salvador  5'5"  Landed "I.T." Transit List 6120                
 2* Row     Lue      40  Merchant Salvador  5'6"  Landed "I.T." Transit List 6121       Grey hair
 3* Yun     Wah      36  Merchant Guatemala 5'7"  Landed "I.T." Transit List 6122       Mole left ear
 4* Cam     Chun     35  Merchant Guayaquil 5'4½" Dep per Coptic, Hong Kong, Jan 16-'97 No ?
 5* Ah      Paw      31  Merchant Guayaquil 5'5"  Dep per Coptic, Hong Kong, Jan 16-'97 Moles on Face
 6* Ah      Woo      34  Merchant Guayaquil 5'5½" Dep per Coptic, Hong Kong, Jan 16-'97 Pits ? forehead
 7* Lee     Lue      38  Merchant Guayaquil 4'11" Dep per Coptic, Hong Kong, Jan 16-'97 Mole left side neck
 8* Chin    Lan      35  Merchant Guayaquil 5'6½" Dep per Coptic, Hong Kong, Jan 16-'97 Scar left temple
 9* Tin     Len      39  Merchant Jamaica   5'7½" Dep per Coptic, Hong Kong, Jan 16-'97 Scar top head
10  Jam     Wong     46  Merchant Mexico    5'4½" Dep per Coptic, Hong Kong, Jan 16-'97 Moles left?
11* Chun    Ben      34  Merchant Salvador  4'11" Landed "I.T." Transit List 6123       Scar left?
12* Charlie Yam      38  Merchant Mexico    5'2"  Landed "I.T." Transit List 6124       Scar left temple

     Eleven (11) In Transit for Hong Kong
     One (1) with Return Certificate for San Francisco


Transcriber's Notes:

* An asterisk indicates an error on the part of the original recorder, not the transcriber,
  or calls attention to additional information in the transcriber notes.

The pages on this film are not numbered so finding a particular ship can be difficult.  
 However, there is a system of numbering the manifests that is a part of the National
 Archives file system on Chinese persons.  These numbers are included in the identification 
 of the film and reel numbers below.

The usual form for listing Chinese passengers was not used here so the Captain has written out
 his statement in longhand.  It differs sligntly from the statment on the form, but not significantly. 

The departure port is listed as simply "Panama."  Research indicates this refers to Panama City.

For passengers bound for San Francisco, passengers' names and ages are followed by a stamp 
 that varies depending on the disposition of the passenger and which is stamped over whatever 
 information has been entered in the columns. 
Passengers allowed to land have the following stamp:
 Landed Collectors order (blank with a month and day date written in) 1897 by  Insp's (blank 
 for a name). 
 
Passengers not allowed to land have one of two different stamps:
 Landing Refused Habeas Corpus U.S.D.C. Case followed by a number.  These passengers were 
  probably allowed to land, but not to freely enter the country.
 Landing Refused Departed Per Steamer ______ (name of ship) _________ (date).

For passengers bound for a further destination there are two possible dispositions:
  Landed "I.T." Transit List followed by a number  These passengers expected to continue travel 
   by some other means to their destinations.
  Departed Per Steamer ______ (name of ship) _________ (date)

The following columns had no entries:
 No of Certificate
 If accredited officers of Chinese Government, state facts

According to the National Archives branch in San Bruno, California it is possible that they have
 some information on any Chinese passenger who arrived in San Francisco after 1886.

1-9,11-12 Departed per Str Coptic, Hong Kong, Jany 16-'97
10        Landed. The remainder of the stamp is written over and illegible.  This is probably the one
           passenger described above as having a return certificate for San Francisco.