BETWEEN 1846 AND 1874, OVER 290, 000 CHINESE WERE EMBARKED AS INDENTURED LABOURERS destined mainly for Peru, Cuba and the British, French and Dutch West Indies. Of these, 15.13% did not reach their destination. John Asome provides data on 732 voyages and commentary on a good number of these. As Walton Look Lai says, in doing so John Asome has filled, "an enormous gap in our knowledge of the Chinese coolie trade….He has enabled readers and future scholars to distinguish fact from myth, reality from exaggeration, in the understanding of this vast and complex experience."