"In the camp that we visited we saw some poor wretches who were just able to crawl, and some that had been brought in on stretchers, because they were too weak to stand. There was hardly any flesh on their bones, their cheeks were sunken and hollow, and their eyes seemed to be half forced from their sockets. They lay on the ground--some under the tents, and some in the open air--and many of them were so far gone that they had not strength to feed themselves. They did not appear to complain, and one of the officers in charge of the camp told us that they were exceedingly patient, and rarely caused any trouble. Poor creatures! they were too weak to do so, however much they might have had the inclination. "These people had been brought to Madras from the famine districts, and we were told that similar camps were scattered along the line of the railway wherever the crops had failed. It had been found easier to feed them in camps than to distribute food to them in their villages, as there was a great deal of loss by theft, and in other ways, in making the distribution. The natives seem to have very little regard for each other, and, if half that has been told us is true, it is an eternal disgrace to this people. Large sums of money were raised in England for the sufferers by the famine, and the British Government made a heavy contribution for the same purpose. With this money rice was bought in Rangoon and shipped to Madras, and from there it was sent by rail to the famine districts. The boatmen at Madras demanded exorbitant prices for landing it, and two or three times they struck for extra pay because they knew that the Government was anxious to get the rice forward as rapidly as it could. They tore open the sacks and stole a large share of what they took on shore, and when they had done so they did not take the trouble to sew the sacks again, but let the rice spill on the ground. The carters who took it to the railway-station continued the theft, and in some instances fully ten or fifteen per cent. of the rice was lost between the ship and the railway-station, and there were cases where the loss was more than thirty per cent. "Well, that's enough about this unpleasant subject. We'll turn to something else. [Illustration: A MADRAS PALKEE.]