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so many sheep or bullocks, the Contractors receiving- 

 a certain sum for those who arrived in the district, 

 and for those who died en route, but none for deser- 

 ters. To those who have been in India, and know 

 what an Indian Contractor is, an explanation of 

 his modus operandi is unnecessary. They know 

 that, as a rule, he is unscrupulous, and that as long- 

 as he puts money in his purse, whether it be human 

 being-s or the beasts of the field he has to deal with, 

 the amount of dishonesty or cruelty he perpetrates, 

 will not sit heavy on his conscience. Nor was it 

 otherwise in this instance. False representation, 

 corruption, oppression of every and the worst de- 

 scription, were used to swell the number of the Con- 

 tractors' recruits. The old and decrepid, the young- 

 and tender, the halt, the maimed, and the blind, 

 nay even the infected, the diseased, and the dying, 

 were pressed into the service of these most degraded 

 of crimps. There was no Government Ag-ent, no 

 Medical Examiner. On arriving" at the depots, 

 these unfortunate creatures were located in places, 

 the pestilential vapours of which, generated by the 

 ordure and filth with which they were filled, were 

 deadly to human life. Many, in these cess-pools, 

 -contracted the g'erms of distemper and disease, and 

 in this state were placed in gangs on board boats to 

 be sent to their final destination.* Here, crowded 



* It is but just to add, thafc these condemnatory remarks 

 apply only to native contractors, the official report speaking in 

 the highest terms of commendation of Mr. Banneritz's Agency. 



