| Citation |
NHG-P.771.033
28 Jun 1771:23 (767)
London. Extract of a letter from an officer at Bengal,
dated Calcutta, Sept. 4, 1770.
You will undoubtedly receive very shocking accounts of the
famine that has made such terrible ravages in the province
of Bengal, Bahaar, and Orica, nay thro'out all Indostan:
The dearth has been so very great for the last six months,
that in the company's districts alone, (upon a moderate
computation) there have died upwards of three hundred
thousand inhabitants thro' mere want. During the last six
weeks we have lost in Calcutta and its environs, 7600, and
at the cities of Patna and Muxadabad, it is supposed more
than double the number, although there are many publick
charities open, and every method that can be thot' of taken
for their relief. Hunger drives many of them to such
distress, that the strongest frequently in some parts of the
country fall upon the weaker and devour them.
Balls, concerts, and all publick entertainments ought to
subside at this time of general scarcity; but I am sorry to
say they have not; and under the doors and windows of these
places of amusements, lie many dead bodies, and others again
in all the agonies of death, despair and want. But let me
quit this melancholy subject, and inform you that there is a
prospect of a very plentiful harvest, and grain begins to be
cheaper. There has also been a great mortallity among the
Europeans here; upwards of two hundred have died within
these two months, and the sickly season is not yet over.
. . . [18 lines]
|