Polynesian., 1850-02-09

thousands. At Pontianah, a Dutch settle
ment on the western coast Of Borreo, it
carried off the whole garrison except one
man. Still running northward, Gin 1920, it
reached Canton, ravaged Pekin in.lS2i, and,
after devastating China for several years,
passed the great wall in 1927, and spread
through many parts Of Mongolia. 1t is not
true, therefore, though the assertion is COM
mon, and has been made the basis of a
theory df Choleraic propagation, that this
disease only travels rest,rard.
The western stream travelling about 400
miles IN three months, against the periodical
monsoon, and injecting some. but sparing
others of the towns and villages in its track,
reached, early in November, the British
army encamped on low ground on the banks
of the Scinde. 1t turned the camp into an
hospital. Nine thousand men, about tenth
of whom were English or Sepoy soldiers, the
rest camp followers, perished in a week
The sentinel was often seized at his post
his successor would be smitten too-a third
man, and a fourth, would sometimes succumb
before the two hours duty was performed.
Many fell down in convulsions while carrying
their comrades to the hospitals The neigh
boring ravines were filled with the dead, for
whose burial time ard hands were wanting.
For miles around, the fields and highways
were strewn with the bodies of those who
had vainly sought safety in fight. And when
at length the Commander-in-Chief deter
mined to move in search Of healthy posi-
tion. the line of march presented the ap-
pearance of battlefield Nor was it till
the army reached high position at Erico,
so miles off, on the steep dry banks Of the
Betwah, that the disease among them began
to subside.
Within two months, that is by August,
1918, the western stream Of the Epidemic,
pursuing its course along the Ganges and its
tributary, the Jumna, had reached Delhi,
spreading also to Saharampore and Kotah,
towns situated just within the western limit
of the basin drained by these rivers. Having
ravaged these and many intervening towns,
it stopped abruptly TO. nearly year. arrested
by the mountain range which bounds the
basin in question on the west BY the time
it reached Delhi, however, it had also spread
northward to the high tasble-land of Nepaul,
on the southern slope Of the Himalayah
mountains, which checked for years its far
ther progress towards Central Asia AT the
same time it had made its way southwark to
Bombay, where also it appeared in August,
1919; and whence, six months later, il de-
scended to Trivandrum, and TO the coasts Of
Cape Comorin, the. most southern point Of
India.
Briefly. within lS months from its first out
break, the epidemic had overrun the whole
Indian peninsula, and had proceeded, in its
course toward Europe, to the hills forming
the western boundary of the basin of the
rivers Ganges and Jumna. These hills,
though their eastern slope was devastated by
the epidemic for nearly IL months, checked
its career to the great Joy of the inhabitants
Of Chittore and the other territories lying
westward of the range, who thought them
selves secure from the terrible enemy which
had taken possession Of the opposite plains.
Their fancied immunity was soon, however,
at an end Suddenly, in July, 1919, the
people of Chittore learned, to their conster-
nation, that the Cholera was at Oudeypore,
the metropolis Of the principality; and that,
entering the palace. is had attacked the
Prince himself, and had destroyed his Prime
Minister in few hours. In this city, as also
at Ajneer and many towns adjacent, it COM
mitted dreadful havoc Another pause-this
time of two years-ensued. The mountain
chain and burning deserts which lie we stward
of Hindostan seem for while to have barred
its passage.
In July, 1921, it broke out with tremendous
violence at Muscat, Bushire, and Bussorah,
the three principal ports Of the Persian Gulf
In Muscat alone, 1000 persons persisted.
At Bushire, the houses were abandoned, the
bazars closed, and the streets strewn with
unburied corpses. At Bussorah Is, 900 per-
sons, nearly third Of the population, died
in eleven days While raging thus virulently
round the shores Of the Persian Gulf, the
disease also spread rapidly from Bussorah,
at the mouth Of the Tigris, up to the great
basin Of that river and its continent, the Eu-
pirates. In one month it had reached Ben
gal, then invested by the Persians, and
destroyed thousands, as well Of the besiegers
as Of the besieged. 81
During the winter of this year, (Is2l, its
violence in some degree subsided. Next
summer, however, Is22, it resumed its
march toward Europe, extending along the
Tigris TO Aleppo, and along the Euphrates to
Ezeroum, in Armenia 1t was raging in this
town when the Persian Army (who had the
infection among them) advanced between
30, 900 and 40, 1000 strong, to fight an equa!
body Of Turks. encamped on high table,
land in the vicinity. The Turks were not
only beaten, but they became infected during
the battle; and, indeed, the victors as well
as the vanquished fell by thousands beneath
the stroke Of an invisible enemy, more ter
rible than any human foes. Between 3, 900
and 900 Of the Persians perished; whole
troops deserted panic-smitten; the rear OF
their line of march was strewn with dead
bodies; and by the time they reached Khooc,
scarcely any army remained for the Prince,
their leader, to dismiss. As for the fugitive
Turks, they fled, doubly routed, to Bakou,
on the western shore ofthe Caspian, spread
ing the infection along the road they
traversed.
During the next year, (ls23. the disease
made little further progress. hsPread west
ward from Aleppo to Antioch, and several