WITH THE ORIGINAL POLLARD OPERA COMPANY IN THE EAST.

New Zealand Mail, 3 December 1896, Page 66

WITH THE ORIGINAL POLLARD OPERA COMPANY IN THE EAST.

A CHOLERA SCARE, BY F. W. DUVAL. ('Specially ivritten for the Neiv Zealand Mail.) It was in June, 18S3, that we sailed from Townsville for a tour of the East. We numbered forty-eight all told, thirty ladies and girls, ten boys and eight men. Wei left in the ill-fated Quetta, then commanded by Captain Templeton. We arrived at Batavia after a lovely passage, and transhipped into the NetkerlandsIndia steamer the Koenig Wilhelm, sailing the same day for Singapore.

We had on board one hundred and twenty coolies, who were returning to their homes in Singapore after a long job on a railway contract in Java. They had plenty of money, and had evidently been Laving a good time, as several of them were drunk.

Now these men, we afterwards discovered, had been knocking about the native quarter in Batavia, where cholera and small-pox are always rampant. Well, we sailed from the Batavia roadstead at 10 a.m., and before lunch time it was rumoured that one of the coolies was down with cholera. This proved to be only too true, as he died at 12 o’clock, and before night eighteen others had sickened, died, and were thrown overboard !

The saloon passengers, of which there were several besides the company, were beginning to feel scared, and with good reasons, as the next morning we found that twenty-two had died during the night. It; was the same all through the second day ; every half hour we could hear the sailors with their one, two, three, “splash,” and over went another, so that by bedtime on the second day no fewer than sixty-four coolies had died.

We steamed into the roadstead at Singapore on the third morning with the yellow flag flying, and there we anchored for eight days right under the equator. For the first five days the deaths averaged four daily, and then stopped. We had a number of valuable horses on board belonging to a buyer named Abrahams, who had brought them from Australia ; amongst others was the wellknown steeplechaser Lord Harry. The feed was running short, and the horses

were in a very bad plight. On the sixth day there were no deaths, and the doctor, who used to come out daily to within speaking distance, instructed the captain to fumigate the ship thoroughly, and if there were no more deaths between then and the eighth morning, he would let us go in, otherwise we would have to go on the Quarantine Island for a month. This was not a pleasant outlook, so everyone was anxious as to how the seventh day would turn out.

There was no sickness, and everything seemed to be all right when we sat down to dinner at 7 o’clock that evening. I was at the bottom of the table facing the saloon door. I used to do the carving for the boys, and I had just finished and was about to sit down, when I looked up and saw the chief officer outside the saloon door. He beckoned to me, and as I saw by his face that something was wrong I made some excuse and went out on deck. Following him over to the rail I asked. “ What’s the matter ? ”

“ Matter ! ” said he, “my own cabin boy Abdool has got it, and is just about gone.” “ Where is ho ?” I asked.

“Up in my cabin. Come and see him.” I followed him up, and there was the boy almost gone. I pulled up the flesh on the back of his hand with my finger and thumb, and it stayed where I had stretched it to ; a sure sign this. No doctor that ever lived could save him then.

Well he died a few minutes later, and the chief and I looked at each other. “ What is to be done ? ” he asked. “ Go quickly and tell the captain to came up here,” I replied. He went and shortly returned with the captain, who was a stout, pig-headed, phlegmatic Dutchman. I told the skipper what had occurred, and then I proposed that as no one knew about the death except us three we should keep it quiet, get rid of the body during the night, and get into the wharf in the morning. He got mad, called me every thing, talked about his certificate, &c.

I pleaded with him, drew his attention to the number of white people on board, reminded them of the risk they ran, spoke about two or three Dutch families that were on board. This last argument seemed to carry weight, as he finally consented, with the understanding that he was supposed not to know about the death, and that the chief officer and myself were to take all the risk.

To this we consented, and the chief and I went up on the bridge, as we were afraid to mix with the passengers. About half-past 1 in the morning we sneaked down below, brought up a lump of pig-iron and a sack, dumped the body into it, tied the neck, and stealing softly over to the bulwarks, we dropped poor Abdool over the side. We then stripped ourselves naked, rolled our clothes in a bundle, and sent them after Abdool. We then went down to the bathroom, had a good scrub down, burnt some sulphur, and retired to our berths. The next morning about 10 the doctor came out and hailed us with, “Any more deaths since I was here last ? ” and the captain answered with, “Ho, doctor.” “Anyone showing symptoms of sickness ? ” > “ No, doctor.” “ Have you fumigated the ship thoroughly?” ''' “ Yes, do~otor«r i 1

“ All right then> haul do'wn that yellow flag and go in.” An hour later we were tied up to thd wharf at Tanjang Pagar. I had a parting drink *with my pal the chief officer, and •went my Way smiling. It is twelve years since then,- but I can still hear the splash of Abdool as we dropped him over the side. It was months later when I told my boss what occurred that night, and his hair stood on end as he thought ot what the consequences might have been hadwe bees sent for a month to Quarantine Island.