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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 beings 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 repre- 

 sentation, corruption, oppression of every and the 

 worst description, were used to swell the number 

 of the Contractors 1 recuits. 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 ol 

 these most degraded of crimps. There was no 

 Government Protector, 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 

 germs 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, that these condemnatory remarks 

 apply only to native contractors, the official report speaking in 

 the hig'hest terms of commendation of Mr. Bauneritz Agency. 



