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the Political Agent, Kolhápur and Southern Marátha Country, No. 492, dated
26th July 1897, on the subject :—
" 6. On 8th February, I went to Miraj and saw the special segregation hospital there-
in which one patient had died and one was still suffering. While at Miraj, I was given to
understand that a large influx of families was expected into Miraj and Sángli as the plague
in Poona was assuming serious dimensions, and I immediately repaired to Sángli, which
(with Miraj) is the gate of the Southern Marátha Country, and arranged for an observation
camp to be erected there, and in the meantime caused notices to be issued in the news-
papers that all persons coming to Sángli or to Miraj or to Kolhápur from the northern
direction would be detained under observation for 8 days in the respective camps.
7. The Sángli camp being ready by daybreak on Thursday the 11th February, all
passengers booked to that station were lodged in it, while all persons arriving at Sángli
by road were also detained in this camp. Meanwhile, the Miraj Chief after some demur
began to collect materials, and on 18th idem his observation camp was ready and all
passengers booked to Miraj from the northern side were detained. In the meantime, the
more elaborate preparations for the Kolhápur camp at Shirol Road Station were being
carried on and the camp was ready for occupation on the 24-th idem. On the afternoon of
that day, however, some Konkanis from Sávantvádi who had been on a pilgrimage to
Narsoba's Wadi were attacked with cholera, practically on the station-platform, and one of
them, having dragged himself to the well which had been built for the plague camp, fell
into it and the well was of course polluted. Fortunately the Hospital Assistant, Nurse,
ward-boys and dressers who were ready on the spot for the plague camp, took these cholera
patients in hand under the directions and personal superintendence of Dr. Sinclair, the
Darbár Surgeon, and saved as many as they could, but 13 died out of the 20 attacked.
The remaining 7, when sufficiently convalescent, were conveyed to the Kolhápur Hospital-
A new well was built and the observation camp was opened at Shirol Road Station on the
2nd March and all passengers passing through to Kolhápur from the north were derailed
and detained there.
8. Simultaneously, another observation camp was established at Amba on the road
from Ratnágiri to Kolhápur and all passengers were kept there for 10 days, while all
the other ghat roads were watched, and in this way the whole of the Kolhápur territory
as well as the Southern Marátha Country was guarded from the north. Although for some
time it was difficult to avoid occasional leakage, yet the above-mentioned restrictions, at
any rate, prevented the large influx of fugitives from the plague-stricken districts which
would otherwise certainly have taken place into the Native State towns of Kolhápur
and the Southern Marátha Country, and more than this, the news of these restrictions
spreading far and wide no doubt prevented people from Bombay and Poona coming south-
wards at all in any numbers, and this no doubt saved Belgaum, Dhárwár, Hubli, &c., from
invasion by fugitives.
P. After a time people began to resort to tricks of all kinds in order to run the
blockade, and it became necessary to detain all passengers from all directions and place
them in the observation camps of the respective stations to which they were booked, while
the roads, bridges, fords and even fields were guarded and only bonâ fide marketers or
persons who could show their villages to be within 5 miles were exempted from detention.
In all the other Southern Marátha Country States, Jamkhandi, Kurundvád, Jath, Mudhol
and Rátrdurg, small camps were erected and all persons arriving from outside the States
were detained under observation for 8 days.
10. Thus by degrees a complete blockade was established and no one could enter
Kolhápur or Southern Marátha Country State territory without a pass, and no passes were
given except to officers travelling on duty, and these were only given on condition that
they travelled 1st class and left their servants in the observation camps for 8 days.
The result of the above restrictions, so far as it is possible to attribute immunity to human,
measures, has been eminently satisfactory. Not a single case of plague has occurred in
Kolhápur or the Southern Marátha Country since the above measures were adopted, except)
in one village Mauerajuri, belonging to the Chief of Ichalkavanji, the situation of which
deprived it of the advantages of our restrictive rules.
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Observation O'amps.
13. During the five months since the first of these camps was established, and although
numbers of persons came to them straight from the infected towns, there has not been a
single case of plague in either of them. The camps have all been built and kept up on the
same principles. In the first place, all persons as soon as they have arrived have been made
to take off all their clothes and get into a hot bath, while their clothes were boiled in
chlorinated lime, and all the rags they may have possessed have been promptly burnt, com-
pensation being given for any real loss, and in cases of persons whose clothes themselves
were rags and unfit even to be washed, they have been provided with other clothes gratis.