towns, breeding pestilence for the miserable remnant that survived.
An epidemic in some form or other invariably followed at the heels of a famine, and was more dreaded by the Europeans than the famine itself. In 1630 a letter from the council at the Company's settlement at Surat pathetically relates that the President and eleven of the factors had died of the pestilence. Having more than decimated the Company's servants, it attacked the soldiers and other subordinates, and the letter further informs the Honourable Board that 'divers inferiors are now taken into Abraham's bosom.'
In 1781-2 there was a severe famine lasting two years. The English colony at Madras, who pitied the natives for their sufferings, resolved to extend their charity to them as well as to the poor Europeans and Eurasians. The churchwardens of St. Mary's Church opened a subscription list and collected a large sum of money. The native merchants were invited to contribute to it, but they did not respond with the same liberality as was shown by the English. The fund was known as the Native Poor Fund, and it was administered by the St. Mary's vestry until 1809, when it was developed into a standing relief fund under other trustees for the permanent benefit of the natives. Part of the money was employed in the purchase of the Monegar Choultry, the present poorhouse for the natives of Madras.
Again, in 1807, a severe famine afflicted the Madras Presidency. The report of the endeavours made by the charitable and compassionate English to assist the people penetrated to the distant villages, and the inhabitants forsook their homes in a body in the vain hope of reaching those benevolent 'Fathers of the Poor.' The result was sad, and was thus described by a contemporary writer : 'Not a tree near the sides of the roads leading to Madras
