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These terras were adhered to with only one slight exception, where a Mahome-
dan bullook cart-driver, whose wife was suffering from the plague, said that sooner
than allow her to be removed to hospital, he would cut his wife's throat and his own:
and probably he would have attempted the same with me had Police not been at
hand. The Hindu bigaries gave, in the first instance, a considerable amount of
trouble. A man was attacked with the plague on the 17th March, and immediately
placed in a segregation hut, as the hospital was not ready, but he was forcibly
removed by his relations and others to his own house. On the morning of the
18th he was again placed in the segregation hut, while the other bigaries were
in Bombay with the meat-vans, but on their return they immediately carried him
home again. The bigaries were at once paraded and remonstrated with, but it was
quite evident they had no intention of yielding and that there were two ringleaders
who were urging them on to open defiance. They went the length of laying down
their coats and whips, and refused to drive the meat-vans to Bombay, if they were
not allowed to do as they pleased with their sick. Matters looked so serious that
I at once communicated with the Deputy Commissioner of the Municipality, Mr.
DuBoulay, who immediately came to Bandora and made preparations for any emer-
gency. Drivers were procured from the Commissariat Department and held in readi-
ness at the railway station. Arrangements were made both with the Bombay and
Bandora Police in case of a disturbance, and at 10 p.m. the following gentlemen
assembled at the slaughter-houses to await the issue of events :—Mr. DuBoulay,
Dr. D'Monte, medical officer in charge; Mr. Dubois, District Superintendent of Police,
Thana; Captain Clowes, Chief Commissariat Officer; Inspector Hack, Bombay Police ;
and myself. The bigaries were again, interviewed but were still defiant, and they had
under the cover of darkness again removed the sick man to the village on the right of
the railway line. We proceeded there in a body and with the aid of the police
had him brought back to the segregation hut, and a guard placed over him. The
ringleaders were brought before Mr. DuBoulay, the Deputy Commissioner, dismiss-
ed on the spot, and removed with their families under an escort across the causeway
to the Bombay side. These prompt measures had a most wonderful effect. The drivers
at once resumed work and the meat was seen safely off to Bombay, but, in case of any
disturbance on the road, it was deemed advisable to place the vans in charge of the
police. Here all further trouble was at an end, and from this date the plague opera-
tions worked smoothly and well. In fact, instead of the people obstructing me, they
gave every assistance.
The most urgent requirements that faced me were the erection of temporary
huts, so as to get the people at once away from the seat of infection; the building of
a hospital and its accessories, and the disinfection of the houses and drains. Before
I assumed charge, a temporary chawl containing 10 rooms was built by the
Municipality in an isolated part of the compound. This chawl, however, very
soon acquired an unenviable reputation, as four cases of plague took place in it
shortly after it was occupied, and all proved fatal; many were the bitter imprecations
hurled at this tenement as the people left it en masse. No earthly power would
persuade them to return, as they said an evil spirit dwelt therein and that it was
a house of witchcraft and nothing would satisfy them until it was razed to the ground.
With commendable promptitude the Municipality, in a little over a week, had
9 chawls erected, containing 64 rooms for the Mahomedans to move into and 2
chawls containing 10 rooms each for Hindus. There was a slight delay in getting
the hospital up, as the site selected was on a piece of a land on the Bandora side
of the causeway, and the permission of that Municipality had to be obtained to be
allowed to build thereon, besides an encampment of Native Christians was there,
and they were unwilling to move unless they received some compensation. This
was arranged, when building operations were at once commenced. The hospital