Even the crows were silent.

But everywhere on the ground lay sleeping natives-hundreds and hundreds.
They lay stretched at full length and tightly wrapped in blankets, beads and all.

Their attitude and their rigidity counterfeited death.

The plague was not in Bombay then, but it is devastating the city now.

The shops are deserted, now, half of the people have fled, and of the remainder the smitten perish by shoals every day.