in the years 1812 and 1813. 271 



their putridity must doubtless have affected the atmosphere. As 

 demonstrative that some influence was created by these circum- 

 stances, I beg your attention to the number of deaths, which 

 will presently be specified, at Ahmedabad, where the sickness 

 raged with the greatest violence, observing at the same time, that 

 M Baroda the government had the precaution to bury the dead ; 

 while this act, so necessary for self-preservation and common 

 decency, was not performed elsewhere in the Guicawar districts 

 with uniform attention. The mortality at Ahmedabad is com- 

 puted at a hundred thousand persons, a number nearly equal to 

 one half of its population. The demand for wood to burn the 

 Hindoos, called for the destruction of the houses ; even this was 

 barely sufficient for the performance of the rites required by the 

 Hindoo faith, and the half -consumed bodies on the banks of the 

 Pabeirmuttee evince, at this hour, to what straits the Hindoos 

 were reduced in fulfilling the last duties to their kindred. A 

 description of the fury with which the contagion raged in that 

 unhappy city would scarcely be credible. The disease perva- 

 ded every habitation, entire families fell victims to its unsparing 

 hand ; and, in many instances, the dead body of one person had 

 no sooner been disposed of, than the party returned to repeat 

 the same office to another. It is worthy of remark, that latterly 

 the females were engaged in removing the dead and committing 

 them to the pile ; the urgency must have been extreme, to have 

 induced this departure from usages in rites held in sacred esti- 

 mation. It can be no question, that a part of the mortality is 

 attributable to the peculiar insalubrity of the climate in this pro- 

 vince after the rainy season ; but as the mortality commonly ex- 

 ceeded the proportions of deaths in former years in the rate of 

 ten to one, — to what can such excess be ascribed, but the cause 

 I have ventured to assign ? It is a curious fact, however, that, 

 with the exception of Ahmedabad, the Mahomedan population 

 did not suffer so severely as the Hindoos. The cause assigned 

 among themselves I have heard to be the nature of their diet, and 

 the support which animal food gave to the body. I am not 

 qualified to form a judgment on such a subject, but the reason 

 is certainly not unworthy of attention. At the same time, I 

 am aware that the parallel case of mortality among the Euro- 

 peans at Kaira can be adduced against the solidity of the reason 



