NEWSPAPER ACCOUNT 263 



when I say that in cantonments alone, but a short time 

 back, from twenty to thirty died daily. The river, 

 owing to the sluggishness of the stream, became 

 studded with dead bodies, and we have ceased to eat 

 of its fish or drink of its waters. At last it became 

 requisite to hire establishments, not merely for the 

 purpose of taking the starved-to-death wretches to the 

 ghats for their being flung into the Ganges, but also 

 to have a river establishment in constant play in order 

 to push down the corpses below Gajmow. The Relief 

 Society feeds about 1,500 daily ; but then, owing to the 

 villainy of those who have to serve out the food, in 

 spite of the most energetic exertions on the part of the 

 superintendent, the attah (flour) was so adulterated 

 with chunam (lime) and sand, that heaps upon heaps 

 have died from eating it, and now there is great diffi- 

 culty in getting the poor to go to the almshouse. 

 Kungla guards patrol the station all day long, not 

 merely to give notice where the dead bodies are lying, 

 but to drive the living to the refuge. A great number 

 of poor have lately left the station to get in the scanty 

 harvest. They will never return. Starvation will be 

 their lot. Of grain there is abundance in the province, 

 but there is no labour for the poor, and consequently 

 they have no money to buy food. The Calcutta 

 people seem to be in earnest, but let them keep in 

 mind that the famine in and about Cawnpore has been, 

 is, and must continue, and that every rupee that can 

 be raised should be sent up as soon as possible. 

 Between Calpee and Agra it is perfectly dreadful. 

 The dead are seen lying together by fifties. To add 

 to the misery of the poor starving population, the 

 small-pox is becoming rife at Cawnpore.' 



It is useless to multiply accounts of the misery of 

 the people. The story everywhere is the same. 

 Society was entirely disorganized, and horrors of 

 every kind pervaded the land. The people abandoned 

 their homes, and for years afterwards evidence of 



