fTO Some Accmint cifthe Famine in Guzerat, 



ment, and the objects of the institution were obtained by pro- 

 per regulations, devised for that purpose. I cannot say what 

 numbers were relieved, but the monthly expense of feeding the 

 poor in this town amounted to some thousands of rupees. It 

 was a cruel sight to those possessed of sensibility, to witness the 

 struggles when the doors were opened to apportion the victuals. 

 Every sentiment of humanity appeared to have been absorbed by 

 the crowds collected around ; and it was no unusual thing to be 

 informed, that such and such a number had fallen a sacrifice to 

 their precipitate voracity. Many also whose wants had been sup- 

 plied, continued to devour until the means intended for their re- 

 lief proved in the end their destruction in a few hours. Children 

 were often crushed to death, when attending for their pittance 

 of food, under the feet of their own parents. The establish- 

 ment of which I have been speaking was imitated in most of the 

 principal towns in Guzerat, and added a few months of life to a 

 class of beings reserved for greater miseries ; indeed, subsequent 

 events would seem to show that these people were marked for 

 total annihilation, and that in their destruction the inhabitants 

 of this country were to be deeply involved. 



I have observed, in a former part of this letter, that the Mar- 

 warees had resorted to Guzerat covered by disease, the conse- 

 quence of limited and unwholesome food. I shall not dwell on 

 the spectacles which were furnished in this particular respect ; 

 but the object of adverting to it is to mention, that this misery 

 was heightened by the confluent small-pox, which committed in- 

 calculable ravages ; add to this, that the women, to obtain food 

 on their entry into the country, had prostituted themselves, and 

 contracted diseases only inferior in malignancy to the one above 

 stated. 



The carelessness of the Indian in all matters which do not 

 affect his immediate interests or his religion is well known to us ; 

 his conduct would hardly be supposed to be governed by ra- 

 tional principles. Of his indifference to the dying we have had 

 abundance of evidence; but he is yet more callous to the dead. 

 It was this kind of apathy which appeared to me to have chiefly 

 occasioned the contagion experienced in 1812, and the conse- 

 quent mortality. The bodies of the Marwarees during the fa- 

 mine were left unheeded on the spot where life expired, and 



