CHOLERA IN CAMP. 135 



Blieeta — camp No. 2 on map — would be a convenient point from wliicli to 

 make a start, it being the last civilised place in the coast district, I ordered 

 the kheddah parties to be assembled there by the 27th December. 



I left Chittagong, a pleasant station notwithstanding all that is said of 

 its unhealthiness, and its sociable little community of Government officials 

 and tea-planters, on 26th December 1875, and reached Baboo Ghat by 

 evening, doing the chief part of the journey in the small steamer before- 

 mentioned, which took me up a tributary of the Kurnafoolie, not marked 

 on map. Elephants met me at the furthest point the steamer, which only 

 drew two feet, could reach, and took me, my servants, and effects, to camp. 

 I found that cholera had unfortunately appeared amongst the attendants 

 of our elephants. Sergeant Carter — the only European who accompanied 

 me on this expedition, and who had marched with the elephants from 

 Dacca, whilst I went by sea — reported that one man out of three attacked 

 had died, and that one of the others was in a critical condition. This 

 intelligence marred in no small degree the pleasure of our start, as I fore- 

 saw that if cholera — which was showing itself here and there in the villages 

 in the coast district — broke out in our j^arty, the whole undertaking might 

 end in failure. I spoke to the native doctor attached to the establishment 

 regarding due care in treating and segregating the suffering men, and ordered 

 Sergeant Carter to march at three in the morning, so as to reach the next 

 camp before the sun was hot, which was advisable for both men and 

 elephants. I followed with my own camp at 6 a.m., and after marching 

 through the level, highly -cultivated country that constitutes the coast 

 district, we reached camp No. 2, seventeen miles, about 11 a.m. 



Eajamaka-Bheeta is a small village on the border of the immense 

 jungle which extends without a break from Chittagong for hundreds of 

 miles north and east through Tipperah and the Looshai country, and south 

 through Arracan and Burmah. I found the two kheddah parties mustered 

 here as agreed upon, each 370 strong. The rest of the day of arrival, and 

 next day, I was occupied in superintending the taking of the names and 

 places of residence of the coolies, for identification in case they deserted, 

 which the jemadars informed me they frequently did. It was necessary 

 to give them two months' pay in hand to leave with their families, and I 

 learned it had become a practice with many, as no one but the jemadars 

 had accompanied them into the jungles hitherto, to remain only until one 

 capture of elephants had been effected, and then to desert. This was an 

 easy method of making from fifteen to twenty rupees, as they were fed the 

 while, and with luck some elephants might be caught almost at the outset. 

 I had the men arranged in lines, and whilst inspecting them a crier pre- 



