Emigration from Ind%a. 51 



A Peon will also be in waiting there, to render any assistance and 

 subsequently show the way to Howard Station. 



By midnight the bulk of the 900 souls that returned are journeying 

 by rail to the various parts of India they hailed from ; the majority firmly 

 convinced that they will pick up the threads of the old lives they lived 

 when they emigrated — some of them forty years previously: 



Three weeks have passed, when the agent one morning sees a group 

 of people sitting under the tree in his Compound. He goes out to rind 

 they comprise au aged couple with a son, (creole) the son's wife (creole), 

 and the latter's children (also Creoles). They had returned by this steamer 

 and been duly despatched to the old man's native village. 



Their visit to-day is to say that arriving there, they had found none 

 of the old friends or relations the grandfather had counted on meeting ; 

 that they were very miserable, and, had returned to Calcutta to try and 

 get back to the colony. 



But, says the agent, have you money enough left to pay for your 

 grandfather's and grandmother's passages, as they cannot be sent back 

 under indenture. They have reluctantly to confess they have only a few 

 dollars remaining. In the colony they declare they will repay the amount. 



But the agent cannot accept this proposal, and they will not be sepa- 

 rated. So perforce they depart, the old \ eople in their dotage, the young 

 people hardly able to speak or understand their native language — to go 

 and live where, or how, they have not the remotest idea. 



Most likely the younger folk will, when they have all got through 

 the savings they brought with them, procure work amongst the thousands 

 of coolies coaling ships at the Kidderpore Docks. Probably, too, they 

 will in time get accustomed to the life, the excessive heat, the hard work, 

 the small wage, and the never varying dhal -bhat and chupatties for food. 



But before this state of resignation is attained they will brood on 

 the life they lived at " Kothi," the morning cofi'ee, the Creole vegetables 

 with which they varied their diet ; and the small boys will take a long 

 time to forget how they used to " knack ball a pasta." 



Indentured Emigration from India is now a thing of the past and, 

 for the time being at any rate, no emigration of any sort from India to 

 the Colonies is permitted. 



Looking to the fact, however, that the opponents of Indentured Emi- 

 gration clamoured as much for the right of entry of Indians into British 

 Colonies and Dependencies, on equal terms with Britishers and foreigners 

 as for the discontinuance of a system which they said was degrading to 

 Indian National sentiment — one is encouraged to hope the ban is not for 

 all time. 



