PLAGUE, FAMINE AND EXTORTION 



plentiful and the country being open they afforded good 

 sport. 



My next station was Nasik, a most interesting, healthy 

 station, and the second most sacred city in India, Trimbak, 

 the source of the river Godavery, being eighteen miles only 

 from Nasik city. 



There are particularly good golf links too, and now, I 

 believe, quite a large residential Golf Club. .Bombay being 

 about four hours by rail only, and Nasik having a more 

 temperate climate, forms a pleasant retreat for hard- 

 working Bombay men at most times of the year. 



I came in, however, for a full share of plague and famine 

 troubles, and the whole district was dotted about with 

 segregation camps. At one time, on account of plague, 

 the whole city had to be evacuated, and it was a melancholy 

 sight to see rows upon rows of empty houses and shops 

 marked, as in the famous plague of London, but with a red 

 Government mark instead of a cross. 



Notwithstanding the tremendous efforts made by the 

 numerous civilian and military officers on special plague 

 duty, there is no doubt that a great deal of high-handed- 

 ness and extortion was exercised by their understrappers in 

 their official dealings with the people. 



These official parasites being mostly recruited from the 

 high -caste Brahmins, of whom there are many in Nasik, doubt- 

 less made full use of their high social position to aid, as well 

 as cover, their extortionate proceedings, and while acting 

 ostensibly as Government officials, were in fact feathering 

 their own nests. The harvest reaped by some of them was, 

 I know, enormous. 



There was also great and grave dissatisfaction at many 

 of the orders issued by Government, some of which were 

 much abused. This discontent, in fact, gave rise to local 

 disturbances, culminating in a serious riot, in which the 

 camp of the plague doctor was burnt and his assistant 

 and several others killed. 



Plague, like cholera and enteric, is now generally 

 accepted as one of the ills of India, but I doubt if the world 

 at large realizes for a moment how many millions of deaths 

 it is accountable for. Some are of opinion that if when the 

 pestilence first started the whole infected area had been 



111 



