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40. On the same day, at Alagamowa, the next station, an immigrant cooly was brought into
hospital from a distance of two miles. He recovered, and proceeded to Kandy. On the 11th
instant, at the same station, a cooly coming from the coast was attacked and recovered, and pro-
ceeded to Kandy.
41. At Kombensange Colom, nineteen miles from Mannar, on the 27th July, a cooly coming
from the coast was found dead on the road. He belonged to a gang of fifty coolies, who had slept in
the shed the previous night. From the deceased's appearance there was no doubt that he had died
of cholera.
42. From the above statement of facts, elicited during the course of my inquiry, it appears,
beyond the shadow of a doubt, that cholera had not existed on the Mannar and central roads previ-
ous to the third day of June last, when the disease first appeared, having been introduced by the
immigrant coolies, who had come from India from a place called Pudoocotta, successive gangs as
they moved along propagating the infection in the several stations above-mentioned.
43. It appears, also, from the records kept at the port of Pesalle by the Health Officer, that
the arrivals during June were very numerous, no less than 8,755 immigrants having arrived in that
month, who, travelling in detached parties, became the means of introducing the disease along the
whole line of road leading to the Central Province.
44. It is also a fact that the coolies, on their arrival at the port, quickly move on to the stations
provided for them ; and, from what I have ascertained, I find that some of them have been able to
reach Matakachchee, a distance of fifty-two miles, on the third day. They arrive at the port appa-
rently in good health, but with the disease in a state of incubation ; and, as they proceed on their
journey, performed very often by hasty stages, the cold and damp of a jungle country, sleeping on
the road side at night, without protection against malarious influences, unwholesome food and water,
absence of all cleanliness, these and such like causes tend to develope the germs of the disease with
which they are already impregnated, and which breaks out generally at periods varying from two
to five days of their arrival in Ceylon.
45, The immigrant coolies who suffer from cholera, dux-ing their journey, infect not only the
passengers and cartmen whom they meet on their way, but the bazaar people also at the different
stations at which they arrive, whereby they create, as it were, so many centres from which the disease
»spreads from the central road, by successive outbreaks, into the province.
46. I find that, of coolies returning from Kandy, a very small proportion, amounting to only
four in number, were affected with the disease (out of an aggregate of sixty-three attacked), having
become infected on their journey by intercourse with the in-coming immigrants, among whom the
first outbreak on the Mannar and central roads occurred so early as on the 3rd June, in which month
the largest arrivals from India took place, as already stated.
47. I would farther observe that coolies returning from Kandy, receiving the infection from
their in-coming fellow-countrymen, whom they meet with on the road, and with whom they freely
mix, are not unlikely to carry with them the seeds of the disease to their native land, which may
account for the fact of the cholera having appeared at Davipatam among the passengers from
Pesalle, the disease not existing at the time at Davipatam.
48. From inquiries I made at Mannar, from the oldest inhabitants of the place, it appears
that cholera was introduced among them originally by natives of India crossing over to Talaman-
nar, whence the tappal formerly passed over to Tinnycuddy, in Ramisseram and India. Passengers
to Ceylon came by the tappal boats by the same route, as also pilgrims from India, by whom the
disease was brought into Talamannar, whence it spread to Pesalle and to the town of Mannar, pas-
sing on to Vengala and other places on the mainland. Mr. Burner, who was Sub-Collector at Tala-
mannar from 1849 to 1859, informs me that it was the general belief that the Indian coolies and
pilgrims were instrurnental in importing this fatal disease. Gangs of coolies first commenced to
come over to Ceylon in 1837. Mr. Bulner recollects that in 1848 cholera first made its appearance
it Talamannar with the immigrant coolies proceeding to Kandy, and that it prevailed subsequently
in an epidemic form. Coolies had been passing backwards and forwards through Mannar for
upwards of thirty years, but no measures were adopted for their protection till 1862, when the
immigration service was organized by Government.
49. In consequence of the introduction of cholera, the population in several villages in the
vicinity of Mannar has been considerably reduced in number, as testified to by the Assistant Govern-
ment Agent of Mannar in a communication addressed to the Jaffna Cholera Commissioners, dated
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