194 PIN'DARKE WAR. 



the dead. In the European patient death usually followed 

 in from six to twelve hours after the attack, while the sepoy 

 was carried off in about half that interval. The malady 

 raged with its utmost fury from the 15th to the 23d Novem- 

 ber, when it ceased almost at once ; so that the army, hav- 

 ing reached a more salubrious camp, at Erich on the Betwa, 

 became rapidly convalescent, and by the commencement of 

 December were prepared to enter on the duties of the 

 campaign. 



The loss sustained during this most gloomy period has 

 been very greatly exaggerated. It has been represented 

 even by good authorities as amounting to three, five, or 

 even eight thousand,* out of the whole number of ten 

 thousand. More precise statements by Mr. Prinsep and 

 Mr. Kennedy, derived from personal and official knowledge, 

 prove this inaccuracy to have arisen from the not taking 

 into account the vast crowd of camp-followers, who, in an 

 Indian army, always greatly outnumber the fighting men. 

 When the proper distinction is made, it appears that the 

 deaths among the 10,000 troops amounted only to 764 ; 

 while the loss among the camp-followers was about 8000, 

 which did not, however, exceed a tenth of their entire 

 number. 



We cannot here follow in detail the progress of this se- 

 vere malady, which made its way in every direction. After 

 having spared in its first progress the provinces of Oude 

 and Rohilcund, it reached them in April and May, 1818, 

 and in the following months penetrated to Catmandoo, 

 Almora, and other very elevated positions on the chain of 

 Himmaleh. 



The march of armies into the centre of India, and the 

 despatches sent through every province of that country, 

 were supposed to dtfiuM more and more widely its fatal 

 influence. The natives, instead of using any rational 

 means of cure or prevention, sought to avert it only by 

 pompous and crowded visits to the temples, which increased 

 the danger of communication ; or by sanguinary proceed- 

 ings against certain persons who were suspected of produc- 

 ing it by witchcraft. In the course of the year 1818 it 

 spread through every p:irt of India. The report of the 



* Bissot Hawkins's Hislory of Cholera, p. 1C9. 



