Page:John Russell Colvin.djvu/203

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FORT PROVISIONED
195

military command of the town and of tho bridge of boats over the Jumna was adequate. So were the accommodation for servants, the sanitary arrangements, the accommodation for cattle, the water supply. 'Four months' provision for 2,500 Europeans and 1,500 natives will be completed in two days.' The number in the Fort, at a census taken on July 27, was 3,531 Europeans and Eurasians, and 2,314 natives. For the next fortnight the provisioning went on; and when, after the fight at Sháhganj on July 5, the whole community had entered the Fort, at least six months' provisions had been laid in.

A Committee was nominated somewhere about June 20, consisting of Colonel Glasford, R.E., Captain Campbell, R.E., and Mr. Drummond, to regulate, among other points, the terms of the admission of private property, to accompany persons entering the Fort. Orders issued in accordance with these recommendations, which, from obvious considerations of space and sanitation, were framed with stringency. On June 26 these orders were relaxed, and discretion was left to Colonel Glasford. Overcrowding in the hot, damp season was apprehended; space was limited. The Agra residents wished to bring all that they valued with them into the Fort; this to the Committee and to the Lieutenant-Governor seemed inadmissible. Afterwards, when cholera broke out among the crowded refugees, the wisdom of the order became evident. But public records and private property were left behind and looted, and discontent deepened.