60 



ally exhibited a scene of the most horrid licentiousness, which few, 

 however necessary it might be, could harden their hears ts suf- 

 ficiently to repel! As to live stock, little was left. Religious 

 boundaries were annihilated, and all castes or sects were seen to 

 devour what their tenets taught them either to respect or to abhor. 

 Many devoured their own children! and thousands perished while 

 attempting to force open pantries, and other places containing 

 victuals, insomuch that it was common to find in the morning the 

 out-offices of our houses half filled with dying objects, who with 

 their ghastly countenances seemed to express hope, while their 

 tongues gave utterance to curses! 



" The good intention of the donors was productive of a very 

 serious evil, which in the first instance was not, perhaps, sufficiently 

 guarded against. The intelligence was rapidly spread throughout 

 the country that the Europeans, at the several military and civil 

 stations, had made provision for supplying the poor with rice. 

 This induced all to bend their course towards the nearest asylum. 

 Thousands perished by the way from absolute hunger, while num- 

 bers fell an easy prey to the wolves, which being bereft of their 

 usual means of subsistence by the general destruction of all eatable 

 animals, were at first compelled, and afterwards found it convenient 

 to attack the wretched wanderers. The little resistance the}' expe- 

 rienced in their depredations on these unfortunate creatures, em- 

 boldened them in an astonishing manner, and taught them to look 

 with contempt and defiance towards a race of whose powers they 

 were heretofore in awe. 



" Such numbers, however, succeeded in finding their way to the 

 cantonments, that we were to all intents in a state of siege. The 



