79
the departure, during the end of January and the first two weeks in February, of the "Utradhis,"
or the class who have nearly all the reta 1 grain and provision shops (some 4.00 to 500) in their
hands. The result was a great dearth of provisions and an abnormal rise in prices, which caused us
considerable anxiety, even the General Commanding writing and asking me to aid in procuring
supplies. Fortunately, however, I was able, with the assistance of Khan Sáheb Framroze, the
Mukhtyárkar, to obtan gran from Larkhána and Hyderabad, and to enlist the services of some
of the native gentlemen, notably Seth Vishindas, and persuade them to open shops and bring
in supplies.
7 1. On the 9th of February a second large camp was commenced across the Lyari, the
huts being erected by the people themselves from material supplied by the municipality. The
people came from a very dirty squa'id corner, where their huts were crowded up and so small
that each person had on an average only 30 square feet to exist in, and where plague and small-
pox were both raging.
72. They were first induced to move by Mr. Strachan, the Municipal Secretary, but
differences subsequently arose, which the assistance of the Sardar alone enabled me to settle.
Two 'kings' appeared in this little 'Brentford,' i.e., two persons claimed to be their spiritual
and temporal leaders.
73. Plague having, as stated in paragraph 7, reached Keamari on the 7th of February, that
place was made a separate charge under Mr. Coghlan, the Collector of Customs, and Mr. Morris,
the Port Engineer. Mr. Coghlan subsequently withdrew at my request, as Mr. Morris resided
nearer and a second officer was not necessary. Manora and the villages of Baba and Bhit were
also in Mr. Morri's charge.
74. The plague was brought to Keamari from Karáchi by a Police Constable, who arrived
on the night of the 7th with the disease on him and died the following day. The second case
reported on the 16th was also brought from Karachi by a discharged Policeman, who was found
lying in the Port Trust godown, and having been removed to the Isolation Hospital, died the
same day, 21 st February, the first local case being reported on the 22nd, although the person
had been id from the 10th.
75. Prior to the middle of February the removal of the healthy members of an infected
house to regular segregation camps was not carried out. Rigid segregation, as well as universal
removal of the sick, were measures of gradual growth.
76. The first step taken was the attempt to isolate the sick in their houses, the healthy,
with the exception of the attendants on the sick, being removed to any place deemed suitable ;
but in my report for the week ending February the 20th, municipal segregation camps are
mentioned for the first time, and it is stated that removal to them of the healthy is now almost
universal.
77. In this matter, as in others, however, the Trans-Lyari people led the way, the head-
men having been induced by the Sardar to consent to the measure, so that after segregation
camps had been constructed near each village, they voluntarily sent the relatives of any plague-
stricken man to them, with the result that within five days from the date of his becoming
Superintendent there were 31 families, within twelve days 123, and before the l3th of March
226 families segregated.
78. The construction of camps of reed and mat huts was at this time continually being
carried on by the municipality, so that in my report for the week ending the 27th of February
the number of such camps is shown as 18 and of their inhabitants 3,933, while eventually in
the middle of May they had increased to 30, with a maximum population of 6,475.
79. In the same report is the following paragraph : ' The people continue to become more
amenable in every way, and to understand that all that is done is intended to benefit and not
injure them.'
80. With this satisfactory change, clearly manifest in the attitude of the people, did the
month of February end, the total number of cases having risen on the 28th idem to 1,997, and of
deaths tu 1,797, the worst day having been the first of the month, when the numbers were 59
and 51 respectively, 59 being the largest number of cases ever reported on one day in Karachi,
and 52 (on the 6th) the largest number of deaths.
81. It may also be noticed as interesting that during the week ending the 27th of
February there was not a single case in the 'Old Town,' the quarter which at the end of
January claimed more than two-thirds of the plague victims. The disease was then, in fact,
declining throughout the city and showing a tendency to advance further eastwards—the
direction in which it always travelled - a feature which was specially referred to in the
press, and may account for the remarkable fact that, so far as we knew, no case ever
occurred in Baluchistan, or on the Mekran Coast, or up the Persian Gulf.
82. On the 2nd of March, owing to the people beginning to return to the city, and
especially to the Nasarpuris clamouring to return, a meeting was held by me at the Max
Denso Hall, at which the Civil Surgeon, the Municipal President, Secretary, Health Officer
and Plague Superintendents were present, when it was decided to allow the Nasarpuris, pro-
vided they had had no recent disease in their families, to return with the permission of the