Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-08-25
HORRORs or AN INDIAN FAMINE
Parents DeVOurIng their Dead Child.
ren-Deafh of I,5OO. 900 PersOns


Parents DeVOuFIng their Dead Child
ren-Death OF 800, 900 Persons.
The Calcutta correspondent Of The Lon
don Times thus gathers up the result Of the
terrible famine which visited Behar. Ben
gal and CANAAN, as well as Orissa, ia 1866:
For Behar we have Mr. r. V. Cocker
ellis report, which is very severe on the
officials. For Canaan We have a report By
a young civilian in the district, admirably
drawn up. Ia these two provinces the
famine ragged only for four months, being
worst in Behar in August and in CANAAN
in July. InOrissa itreached its maximum
Of intensity, judged Of by the number fed.
IN October, 1866, or one year after the first
deaths from starvation, and after Mr.. Bar
low had inFain called for the importation
Of rice into Peoree Taking, then, the re-
suits Of these three reports, we find that
the great famine of 1866 affected an area
of n, ALB square miles-neariy as large as
Great Britain-and a population of
20,000,000. The deaths were i 100000 |
have added 10000 for the hill district of
Orissa, of which Mr.. CampbelPs commits
sion processes total ignorance, bat which
must have suffered more terribly than the
plains, for there was no relief there. and
hundreds poured into Balasore from the
hills only to die. The area and population
severely and intensely visited by famine
were not quite half the above. In Orissa.
ChOta, Nagpore and Midnapore, for in
stance the commission represent the famine
as severe" among population of 1.848,-
GAG and over an area of IVA square miles,
and as Intense" among 2062. 725 and over
aa1d Of l > 1O- "A. L I
tricls we know nothing, and in Behar the
famine was intense" over $3.50 square
miles, in population about as dense as that
Of England. The Orissa commission ac-
ceptthe estimate of one-fourth ofthe popu
lation dead as not too high, and of one
eighth in Chota Nagpore. OF all other
districts the statement continually appears
that the number of deaths given refers to
only those recorded that it is much too
low, etc. On The whole, if we add the I'M
avoidable deaths this year as the result of
the starvation of last year, and allow even
for ordinary mortality, fear that we must
estimate the number of victims in all East.
ern India, in the tract of land going north
from the coast between the mouth of the
Hoogly and CANAAN to the Nepaul border,
at not less than 1900, 000-half the popl-
lation of London, or of all Scotland. Fancy
if Paris was depopulated But the famine
was as intense as il was extensive. All
the evidence shows this, and the native
evidence is peculiarly Interesting. The
pictures drawn by DR.. Jackson aud Judge
WauehOpe, of Balasore, of the crowds of
staryelings, the 300 bodies a day in the
streets, the peslilential stencil, the filth of
the hospitals, the starving falling into the
water when they went to drink, from sheer
debility, and the skeletons which the Com
missioners themselves saw even at that late
date, combine to make this Orissa famine
more horrible than all of which we have
record.
Nor is the last element Of horror want
REORGANIZATION, The hasty allusions in
the evidence Of this are irresistible We
find Mr.. Commissioner RavenshaW telling
a subordinate in letter ayowedly written
to prevent alarm, that one man had been
eating dead body, but he was said to
be" an idiot. The native deputy magis.
trate of Pooree had 4 case reported to him
by his subordinates in July-a Hindoo had
cooked the body of a child he had found in
the river. A Guttack deputy magistrate
repeats Mr.. Ravenshaw's story of the idiot
cannibal. Most important of all, however,
Is the testimony of the Rev. Mr.. Miller,
missionary of Balasore He says
Nothing that i have ever read has ena-
bled me to conceive anything equal to this
famine. have known no instance of the
Hindoos eating dogs, or cats, or COWS, bat
they did eat their own children when they
were dead. / heard a well authenticated
instance in which a mother and son we're
found eating a dead child. | know of
nothing to surpass this famine either as to
extent or severity" nH
The largest number relieved daily was
1864, taking the worst month in each
case; of these 120, 305 were fed daily in
Orissa in October, 81 1923 in Behar in Au-
gust and 5000 il Canaan in July. Gov
eminent in 1866 spent in relief and public
works, or RENTED of land tax, e3l6,S84
while the Anglo-Indian public subscribed
in cash, including the old relief fund, apart
from the extensive daily charity in Cal
eutta and the afflicted districts, el20,S26.
In the present year, government will not
escape under half a million sterling, and
the public have already subscribed to the
net fund e47 900. | may report in passing,
the establishment which has been expressed
in India that Lord Derby should be asked
by an influential deputation to send the
balance of the Lancashire fund TO the
freedmen of the Southern States, when Or
issa is an such a condition. England has
done nothing for it, and India subscribed
to the fund e54, 400. If that were sent
back, il would suffice for the permanent
maintenance of the orphans.