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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Drug Smuggling and Taking in India and Burma, by 
-Roy K. Anderson
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Drug Smuggling and Taking in India and Burma
-
-Author: Roy K. Anderson
-
-Release Date: February 9, 2020 [EBook #61362]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DRUG SMUGGLING AND TAKING ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-generously made available by The Internet Archive)
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-[Illustration: GROUP OF OPIUM SMOKERS]
-
-
-
-
-                                  DRUG
-                          SMUGGLING AND TAKING
-                           IN INDIA AND BURMA
-
-                                   BY
-                       ROY. K. ANDERSON, F.R.S.A.
-                _Superintendent, Burma Excise Department_
-
-        “_So deep the power of these ingredients pierced_
-        _Even to the inmost seat of mental sight_”—PARADISE LOST
-
-                              _ILLUSTRATED_
-
-                           CALCUTTA AND SIMLA
-                          THACKER, SPINK & CO.
-                                  1922
-
-                               PRINTED BY
-                          THACKER, SPINK & CO.
-                                CALCUTTA
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-At a time when the drug-evil, as it is called, is attracting so much
-attention all over the world, it does not seem out of place to tell the
-public something about how conditions in regard to it obtain in India and
-Burma. As far as I have been able to ascertain there is no literature on
-this subject outside “blue books,” and those admirable compilations are
-notoriously dry reading. A novel called “_Dope_” by Sax Rohmer professes
-to deal with the drug-evil and the traffic in drugs in the West; but
-it is a novel; has a hero, a heroine, a forbidding type of detective,
-and some degenerates, and a few impossible Chinamen in it, to give
-verisimilitude to the title and all that it implies.
-
-I do not profess to write as an authority on the subjects I have taken
-up. I realise that there are scores of others more experienced, and
-infinitely better able to make a book on these subjects than I am; but
-there seems to be little hope of their ever getting the better of their
-modesty and appearing in print. I write of what I have seen for myself,
-and ventilate opinions I have formed which I expect no one to subscribe
-to who differs from them. My readers may rest assured, however, that
-what I relate is true. I have not consciously exaggerated, nor have I
-suppressed facts. I write on a subject in which I am interested; and,
-if the attention that has at different times been given to my verbal
-accounts is an indication of something more than the polite toleration
-of the raconteur, then there are others also who are interested, and I
-need offer no apologies for my attempt to supply a deficiency in the
-bookshelves of those who want more information.
-
-A preface often affords the writer an opportunity of performing a
-pleasant duty. That which I have to perform is to record my thanks to
-Mr. F. W. Dillon, Barrister, and author of “_From an Indian Bar Room_,”
-for the trouble he took in reading the manuscript, and his many helpful
-suggestions.
-
-                                                          R. K. ANDERSON.
-
-REDFERN, _26th March, 1921_.
-
-
-
-
-TABLE OF CONTENTS.
-
-
-                                                        PAGE
-
-             PREFACE                                     iii
-
-    CHAPTER
-
-          I. Smuggling and Smugglers                       1
-
-         II. Bribery and Corruption                        9
-
-        III. Informers and Information                    14
-
-         IV. Some Anecdotes of Smugglers and Smuggling    20
-
-          V. More Anecdotes                               28
-
-         VI. Observations on Smugglers and Smuggling      33
-
-        VII. Opium                                        35
-
-       VIII. Opium Smoking and Opium Eating               44
-
-         IX. Some Observations on the Opium Habit         51
-
-          X. Morphia                                      57
-
-         XI. Cocaine                                      65
-
-        XII. Hemp Drugs                                   75
-
-   APPENDIX. An Historical Note on Opium in India and
-               Burma                                      82
-
-
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
-
-    Group of Opium Smokers      Frontispiece
-                                 Facing page
-    An Excessive Opium Smoker             40
-    Opium Smokers’ Appliances             46
-    Preparing to Smoke Opium              48
-    Chinaman Smoking Opium                50
-    Group of Morphia Injectors            58
-    An Indian Morphinist                  62
-    A Burman Cocaine Eater                72
-
-
-
-
-SMUGGLING.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-SMUGGLING AND SMUGGLERS.
-
-
-Everybody is a smuggler at heart!
-
-Our innate free-trade instincts and love of liberty revolt against what
-we look upon as uncalled for interference with our rights when we are
-called upon to declare and pay duty on a box of cigars or a bottle of
-whisky when we disembark at a Customs port; and we look upon evasions of
-these obligations, not as evidences of moral obliquity, but as a very
-proper exercise of the exemption which we claim as our right. On the
-whole, this point of view is to be sympathized with, and in the case
-of such innocuous articles as laces, scent, and feathers, it is to be
-excused; the mysteries of the revenue law, and the underlying principles
-of taxation, are unfamiliar to most of us. But a greater degree of
-culpability must be attached to those who seek to evade the law by the
-illicit importation of articles whose unrestricted use produces nothing
-but harm; and while the former class of delicts may be classed as mere
-revenue offences, the latter must be treated as crimes and severely
-punished as such.
-
-It is in the nature of things that articles which have come to be looked
-upon as necessaries of life, such as tea, tobacco, wine and spirits,
-should be taxed moderately; and indeed, were any attempt made to
-render them less easily obtained by raising the taxes on them, unless
-this course was vital in the interests of the country, there would be
-just reasons for profound popular dissatisfaction and disgust; but in
-the matter of noxious intoxicating drugs the case is reversed, and
-authoritative opinion inclines to the highest taxation, or even to total
-prohibition. Opium is taxed to a point little short of prohibition;
-morphia and cocaine are entirely prohibited to the public except for
-medical purposes; and hemp drugs are highly taxed in India, and totally
-prohibited in Burma. Those who quarrel with this state of things are such
-as have become habituated to these drugs, and of this class there is,
-unhappily, a large number, so large a number indeed, that their demand
-for a regular and sufficient supply constitutes a rich market, a market
-which is supplied by the smuggler who reaps abundant profits.
-
-As in the case of other articles of commerce—and smuggling is as much
-a branch of commerce as the traffic in rice or jute—the scarcity or
-abundance of supply of drugs is what regulates their price in the illicit
-market. Normally, opium is sold from Government Opium Shops at from
-Rs. 100 to Rs. 123 a seer. Illicitly, it costs from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300
-a seer, and when scarce, from Rs. 350 to Rs. 400 a seer. Illicitly,
-cocaine and morphia are sold at from five to six times the chemist’s
-price. It is true that the smuggler has to pay and maintain a large staff
-of assistants, and has to bear other heavy expenses, but the net profit
-he eventually gets is a very substantial one.
-
-It is impossible to entirely prevent smuggling: the interested motives of
-mankind will always prompt them to attempt it. All that the Government
-can do is to compromise with an offence which, whatever the criminal law
-on the subject may say, appears to the mind of the smuggler, and of the
-drug habitué he supplies, as not at all equalling in turpitude those acts
-which are clear breaches of the elementary principles of ethics.
-
-To the generality of people the smuggler is a bold, bad man with a
-fierce, heavily-whiskered face, and armed to the teeth with knives,
-pistols, and other lethal accoutrements. His surroundings are a rugged
-cliff, with a roaring surf at its feet; while a dimly lit cave, stocked
-with barrels of spirit and bales of tobacco, completes the mental
-picture. In reality the smuggler—the Indian smuggler at any rate—is
-nothing of the sort. To all appearances he is a respectable, well-to-do,
-easy-going merchant with a flourishing business in piece-goods, rice,
-or timber. But he is a thorough-paced smuggler for all that, and
-his business is merely a blind to his real occupation which is the
-importation and traffic in opium, cocaine, morphia, and hemp-drugs. It
-is this business which is the real source of his wealth; it is his mind
-that directs and accomplishes great ventures in smuggling.
-
-To be successful as a smuggler, a man needs to have more than ordinary
-ability. His powers of organization, and the ability to rapidly
-appreciate a situation, must be of the first order, and in addition,
-he must be endowed with an unusually large measure of low cunning and
-deceit. It is true that the smuggler’s plans sometimes miscarry, but
-this is usually owing to treachery on the part of one of his assistants.
-The possibility of such treachery exemplifies the need the smuggler has
-for a strong personality and ability to judge character, and appraise
-men at their true worth; its infrequency testifies to the possession by
-smugglers of these qualities in an unusual degree.
-
-It must not be supposed that the smuggler takes a very active part in his
-nefarious traffic; it is doubtful whether he ever sees the drugs for the
-importation of which he is responsible. His assistants look to all minor
-details, he only supplying the necessary money, and directing operations
-as a general directs an army in the field. His host of underlings realise
-only too well how relentless would be the fate that would overtake them
-were they to “give away” their employer, for those who have proved
-faithless to their trust have not survived long enough to enjoy the
-fruits of their perfidy! The faithful ones know they have nothing to lose
-or fear. Fines are paid by their employer, and jail has no terrors for
-them, because their families are provided for by the smuggler while they
-are away, and they return to their employment and the society of their
-companions after release from a course of hard, healthful, muscle-forming
-labour.
-
-So far I have dealt exclusively with the man who smuggles in a large
-and extended way. He might be likened to the big importer of ordinary
-business. But, as in ordinary business, there are the retailers: those
-who take the goods to the consumer. These men operate up-country, in the
-sense that they work in the interior of the country. They may be agents
-of the big men, or they may be merely his customers; but except that
-their activities are confined, sometimes within the limits of a single
-district, they are otherwise similar to the big men who live in the
-cities. More often than not these men take an active and personal part in
-disseminating drugs, and consequently coming frequently into contact with
-the authorities, are more often brought to book for their misdemeanours.
-But they do not have much at stake, and rarely risk more than they can
-afford to lose if plans go wrong. Of course, there are these men in big
-cities also; as a matter of fact there are a host of them in every big
-city. To the square mile, there are many more consumers in a city than in
-the interior, and as the big smuggler cannot be troubled with retailing
-minute quantities of drugs, there is plenty to do for the lesser lights.
-
-Why is it that these importers are never brought to book, is a question
-that might reasonably be asked. The answer is simple. It is because they
-never by chance handle the goods; they never allow it into their houses.
-That a certain man is a smuggler is well known to the authorities. In
-fact, the suspect will cheerfully admit it; he will even go as far as
-telling them how it was that they failed to seize his last consignment
-of contraband, and defy them to seize the next one he expects to import!
-But he is perfectly acquainted with the law, and he knows that he cannot
-be touched unless the contraband is found in his actual possession,
-or, under such circumstances, within his house or its precincts, that
-possession of it cannot be ascribed to anyone but himself. The law
-prescribes a punishment for any person who, according to general repute,
-earns his living, wholly or in part, by opium or morphia trafficking. The
-smuggler evades the first part of this provision by keeping a mercantile
-business going; and relies upon his personality, and the dread he
-inspires in those who might otherwise seek to interfere with him, for
-avoiding the second. The instinctive reluctance of respectable people to
-make themselves party to judicial proceedings, and a very understandable
-fear of extremely unpleasant consequences to themselves, deters them
-from coming forward to give evidence against the smuggler, and this is
-a great handicap to this very excellent piece of legislation. All that
-the executive can hope to do is to seize as much of his contraband as
-possible, and so, gradually, deprive him of the means to carry on his
-trade.
-
-Smugglers have been reduced to impotence in this way, by repeated seizure
-of their wares, but their number is not numerous. The weak link in the
-chain that can be wound round the smuggler is, indubitably, the corrupt
-preventive officer. It is regrettable, but nevertheless true, that a
-proportion of the preventive staff is corrupt and amenable to bribes. The
-smuggler pays them handsomely to keep their eyes closed, and their mouths
-shut, and being poorly paid by Government the temptation to bribery,
-which swells their monthly incomes to four or five times what they
-legitimately earn, is too great to resist. Besides this, many of the men
-recruited are not of the type most suitable. Their ideals of honesty are
-nebulous, self-respect to them consists merely in wearing clean clothes.
-It is a fact that a certain official once appointed his man-servant to
-the subordinate grade of a preventive department. Rumour had it that
-this servant was brother to the woman this official was keeping as his
-mistress, but that was mere scandal, and probably untrue. At the same
-time, one cannot expect much from a staff which can be recruited in
-so haphazard a manner. In other walks of life, the need for cautious
-recruitment is not so vital, and the need to pay for honesty is not so
-great as in departments whose duty it is to safeguard the revenue, and
-ensure the moral welfare of the people. It should be made a principle
-that for every ten rupees paid for actual work, fifty rupees will be
-paid for its honest performance. The need for this is accentuated in
-departments in which cupidity, which exists to a greater or less extent
-in every man, is excited and tempted to the utmost.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION.
-
-
-No matter how powerful and reckless of consequences a smuggler may be,
-there is, nevertheless, a lurking respect in his bosom for the myrmidons
-of the Law. It is to his interest to have the authorities on his side,
-and, as he cannot have them on other terms, he must pay them handsomely.
-An excise or police officer, especially if he be of the lower ranks, can
-make it uncommonly uncomfortable for a smuggler; and it may be taken
-for granted that a smuggler is not completely satisfied until he has a
-large proportion of the preventive staff in his pay. To some, however,
-he will pay nothing because he has nothing to fear from incapables; some
-who occasionally come in his way he will tip with the economy of the
-uncle who tips his nephew; but to the able ones, the ones that can make
-it very warm for him, he will pay handsome monthly salaries, and he will
-look upon the outlay as money well invested. It is in this way that the
-smuggler keeps his traffic going; it is thus that he makes it possible to
-smuggle with profit.
-
-Now, the preventive can only prevent by seizing contraband articles; so
-that it stands to reason that its efficiency, and the ability of the
-individuals who compose it, must be judged largely by results; by the
-number of arrests made, and the quantity of contraband seized. An able
-officer who makes no hauls may be not unjustly put down as a bribe-taker,
-and a chief who knows that there is lots of contraband to be seized for
-the trying, will come down heavily on such a subordinate.
-
-What does the smuggler do when the well-paid watchdog of the Law comes
-to him and tells him that he will be obliged to seize some, if not all,
-of the smuggler’s next consignment of opium, because the game is, to all
-intents and purposes, up? Does he wring his hands and roundly curse his
-ill luck? No; he merely smiles and advises the watchdog to stand at the
-corner of such-and-such a street, near so-and-so’s shop between certain
-hours next morning, and search the man who passes him with a spotted
-bandanna round his neck, and a bundle under his right arm. The watchdog
-acts on the advice, searches the man with the spotted bandanna, finds two
-cakes of opium, and walks the culprit off to the police station. For this
-he is commended and paid a reward; the smuggler gets off with the loss
-of two cakes of opium instead of the hundred he stood to lose; and the
-man with the spotted bandanna who is ultimately sent to prison for six
-months, merely fulfils the duty for which he is paid a regular monthly
-salary.
-
-The foregoing is an example of the methods of smugglers, and of the
-cupidity of some of the staff employed by Government to guard its
-revenues. But it is only one. It would weary the reader to be told of
-the scores of other means employed. The smuggler, knowing that a certain
-officer is financially embarrassed, will approach him with the offer of
-a loan, and accept a note of hand for the accommodation. That note of
-hand releases the smuggler from all further obligation to pay the officer
-in question. He is well aware that certain dismissal of the latter must
-result if he shows the scrap of paper in the proper quarter. He has the
-unfortunate man completely in his hands. But it is obvious that there can
-be little to fear from a man who provides such damning evidence against
-himself.
-
-People might well ask how it is that so much corruption can go on and
-yet no one be caught and punished. Now, it is a well-known principle
-of evidence that one man’s word is as good as another’s, and in law,
-no matter how convincing the truth of a man’s story might be, it
-must usually be corroborated before a magistrate will convict. The
-giving and receiving of bribes are, by their very nature, secret
-transactions—transactions to which there are no independent witnesses,
-so that it is very rarely that the charge can be brought home; and it is
-usually only those cases in which a confirmed bribe-taker has been lured
-into a trap, skilfully laid with the aid of marked notes or coins, which
-have a satisfactory conclusion. It must, moreover, be borne in mind that
-the giver or offerer of a bribe is just as much liable in law as the
-receiver or solicitor of it; so that it is seldom that a complaint to a
-magistrate is made.
-
-The two anecdotes I give here will afford the reader food for thought:
-
-X was a responsible officer. He had the control of a district, and was
-widely respected. One afternoon, when at office, he had occasion to
-leave his room, and on his return to it, found ten one-hundred rupee
-notes under a paperweight on his table. He well knew who had placed them
-there. He took three of these notes to his superior officer, and with
-much apparent indignation, handed them to him, and asked that the sum
-be credited to Government. The guileless superior, ever after thought
-highly of X’s honesty, and reported on him in flattering terms. X became
-a richer man by seven hundred rupees!
-
-Now for the second story:
-
-Y was one night visited by a smuggler who produced a bag containing five
-hundred rupees, and offered the money as a bribe. Y stormed at him, and
-calling in his men, had the smuggler arrested, and sent up for trial on a
-charge of offering a bribe. The money was produced and counted in court.
-“How many rupees are there there?” enquired the smuggler. “Five hundred
-rupees,” replied the magistrate. “Oh!” said the rascal, “The bag had a
-thousand rupees in it when I gave it to the sahib!” And Y was generally
-regarded as a taker of bribes for the rest of his official life. So does
-fate sometimes serve the virtuous!
-
-I have given the seamy side of things here. There are, however, many
-excellent and deserving men in preventive departments—men who would
-rather stay poor than sell their honour.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-INFORMERS AND INFORMATION.
-
-
-Of all those who threaten the smuggler with arrest and loss, the informer
-is the one he fears most, and accordingly regards with bitter hatred as
-his greatest foe.
-
-Without information, the hands of the executive are tied; without
-informers, they would be wholly ineffective; and except for a chance
-seizure now and then, there would be little for them to do. As things
-are, the organization of a detective department is so linked up with
-informers and information that one finds it difficult to conceive of
-its existing with these eliminated. Detectives of the Sherlock Holmes
-type exist only in fiction, and although it goes without saying that
-powers of observation above the ordinary, and an intimate knowledge of
-men are indispensable in a detective, it is equally indispensable that
-a detective, as things are, must rely upon information if he wishes
-successfully to solve any problem of crime.
-
-In writing about informers, I deal mainly with the professional
-blackguards who make a regular living out of giving information. I do not
-include those who, to work off a grudge, or who, having seen a crime
-committed, lodge information in the proper quarter.—I do not look upon
-these as _informers_. The first is a mean-minded person; the second, one
-who has a very proper conception of his duty towards society. But the man
-I deal with is essentially a blackguard, and a very despicable blackguard
-at that. He has only one object in view when he gives information, and
-that object is money. He is not burdened with notions of his duty as a
-citizen. If there was no money to be made out of giving information,
-he would be the last to go a step out of his way to give any; but he
-recognizes his value as an important factor in detection, places a price
-on it, and is paid generously.
-
-I have often been asked by magistrates whether my informers were
-respectable men. I have felt no hesitation in answering the question
-emphatically in the negative, and I have no doubt I often set them
-wondering. But one has only to give the matter a moment’s consideration
-to see how diametrically opposed to all one’s notions of fair-play and
-honour must be the nature and calling of an informer. He must for a time
-pose as the friend and confidant of his victim, and then turn traitor;
-and he must bribe, coerce, and wheedle from their allegiance scores of
-subordinates who would otherwise serve their masters with unswerving
-loyalty. He is the tempter _in excelsis_; he is unscrupulous in the
-extreme; he is utterly bad. But for all this, he is, as I have already
-said, a very necessary link in the chain of detection, and we may, like
-the pharisee, take comfort in the thought that we are not as other men
-are—even as these informers! The “_unco gude_” would find a monotonous
-sameness in their existence if there were none to set-off their unco
-gudeness!
-
-Nowhere is the need for sharp-witted informers so keenly felt as in
-departments whose duty it is to prevent smuggling, and it may be taken
-for granted that the greater the blackguard the fellow is, the more
-useful he will be, and the more useful an informer is to the executive,
-the greater danger he goes in of losing his life (because the smuggler
-does not hesitate as to the means he employs in removing obstacles from
-his path). The authorities have therefore to consider these things when
-they come to pay the informer. The legislature also protects him by
-providing that no officer shall be compelled in a law court to disclose
-the name of his informer. That advantage is duly taken of this provision
-there need be no doubt. The officer who gives up the name of his informer
-has little further information to expect, as the informer very naturally
-values his life, and will give no information to an indiscreet and
-injudicious officer.
-
-That the authorities are often imposed upon by informers is a matter of
-course. There are lots of men in this world who would like to pay off
-an old score against another, and an easy way to do this is to lodge
-an information against him. A search of the premises occupied by the
-suspect results, and although nothing may be found, the attention of the
-neighbourhood is attracted, and for some time the search is a topic of
-conversation, which is by no means pleasant for the man whose house is
-searched. The disgrace attending such an occurrence is intensified if the
-householder happens to be a man who is respected as upright and honest.
-Severe punishment is provided by the law for givers of false information,
-but such cases are happily not numerous.
-
-To take action against an informer for giving false information usually
-results in deterring genuine informers from giving genuine information;
-for there are factors which operate against the success of the genuine
-informer. For instance, the object searched for may be removed just
-before the search is made, or even during the search, and a blank is
-drawn. To prosecute the informer for giving false information in such
-circumstances would be manifestly unjust. If he were prosecuted, other
-informers would not run the risk of giving information and work would
-come to a standstill. Where, then, is the line to run? This is a question
-which confronts the executive with ever-increasing perplexity. It seems
-to be better to disregard the stray cases of false informing, than to
-jeopardise the entire preventive department’s being. A certain officer,
-suspecting that a search had been made on false information, issued an
-order, _ex cathedra_, that all informations should be verified before
-search was made. As the only way in which information can be verified
-is by making a search, it is not clear to what extent this order was
-conceived in a spirit of bumptiousness, and how much of it in ignorance.
-
-“Planting,” or the fabrication of false evidence, is a favourite and
-much practised trick of the informer. By means best known to himself he
-introduces something incriminating into the house of a person against
-whom he has a spite, and lays an information. A search is made, the
-stuff is found, and very often an innocent man is fined or sent to
-jail. Against this there seems to be no remedy, except the employment
-of well-known, reliable informers, and also a sort of intuition which
-develops with experience in officers themselves.
-
-In olden days, when coastguards did not exist, Cornwall was a hot-bed
-of smuggling, and the temper of the Cornishmen towards informers can be
-gauged by the following story which has much in it that is apropos:—
-
-The Rev. R. S. Hawker, of the parish of Morwenstowe, relates how on one
-occasion a predecessor of his presided, as the custom was, at a parish
-feast, in cassock and bands, and presented, with his white hair and
-venerable countenance, quite an apostolic aspect and mien. On a sudden,
-a busy whisper among the farmers at the lower end of the table attracted
-his notice, interspersed as it was with sundry nods and glances towards
-himself. At last one bolder than the rest addressed him, and said that
-they had a great wish to ask his reverence a question, if he would kindly
-grant them a reply; it was on a religious subject that they had dispute,
-he said. The bland old gentleman assured them of his readiness to yield
-them any information in his power, but what was the point in dispute?
-“Why, sir, we wish to be informed if there are not sins which God
-Almighty will never forgive?” Surprised, and somewhat shocked, he told
-them that he trusted there were no transgressions common to themselves,
-but if repented of and abjured, they might clearly hope to be forgiven.
-But with natural curiosity, he inquired what sorts of iniquities they
-contemplated as too vile for pardon. “Why, sir,” replied the spokesman,
-“we thought that if a man should find out where run-goods was deposited,
-and should inform the Gauger, that such a villain was too bad for mercy!”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-SOME ANECDOTES OF SMUGGLERS AND SMUGGLING.
-
-
-As an inducement to seize contraband, Government pays its preventive
-staff money-rewards which bear a ratio to the value of the stuff seized,
-and the ability displayed in seizing it; and an officer who is active and
-conscientious very often can earn in this way from three to four times
-the amount of his monthly salary. But the seizing of contraband is by no
-means easy, as the smuggler has brought concealment to a fine art, and
-there seems to be no end to the ingenuity which may be exercised by him
-in getting his consignments through safely to their destination. A few
-examples will serve to demonstrate this.
-
-Vigorous search had failed to bring to light the cocaine which was
-reported to be on board the S.S. “_Contrebandier_” from Marseilles,
-and the search party were about to reluctantly abandon their quest
-when attention was directed to a pile of bundles of planks, each
-bundle consisting of from four to six half-inch planks, bound together
-at each end with iron bands. More from curiosity than with any idea
-of discovering cocaine, one of these bundles was pulled apart. The
-top plank was found to be intact, and so was the bottom one, but the
-intervening planks had had spaces cut through them which were packed with
-one-ounce packets of cocaine. A large quantity of the alkaloid, valued
-at several thousands of rupees, was found. An illustration to make the
-method clear is shown.
-
-[Illustration: Top plank removed.
-
-Bundle of planks.]
-
-Another example: The weekly steamer from India had come into a Burma
-port, and the deck-passengers had been lined up on the pier for
-inspection by the Customs officers. An excise officer on the pier was
-made curious by four natives of India, whose only effects consisted of
-earthen pots of water containing small fishes. Knowing that the place to
-which these men had come abounded with fish of the best kinds, he was
-not convinced when they explained that they had brought these small fry
-to stock the local tanks with. A closer scrutiny disclosed the fact
-that whereas by percolation the outsides of the pots ought to have been
-wet, these were quite dry. Measurements taken with his walking stick
-inside a pot and outside it disagreed too greatly to leave any doubt of
-the existence of a false bottom, and on breaking a pot, he found that it
-not only had a false bottom, but that the inter-space was packed with
-segments of opium. The remaining pots, needless to say, were treated in
-the same way, and a rich haul was made. An illustration of this method,
-also, is given. Considering there was no seam, the workmanship of these
-pots was uncommonly clever.
-
-[Illustration: Space packed with opium.
-
-Section]
-
-There are doubtless hundreds of other methods as yet undiscovered by
-which smugglers get their goods through safely. There is the heavy
-wooden bedstead, whose every leg is hollowed out to receive stuff, whose
-frame is but a shell to receive morphia phials. It is likely that the
-Chinaman who walks in front of you wearing a pith hat has cut-out spaces
-under the padded cover, in the pith, which are occupied by segments of
-opium; there is the Holy Bible that comes by post, with a square cut
-in the pages, containing opium or some other drug. The ways in which
-concealment is practised are legion. The wonder is that so many of these
-tricks are discovered!
-
-But there are a number of cases in which the methods come to light only
-after the coup has been completed. A European, Hobson by name, ostensibly
-a coffee planter, whose plantation was on the frontier which separates an
-opium-producing country from British India, took to smuggling opium down
-to city smugglers, and in time accumulated great wealth. His methods were
-simple, but on one occasion a consignment he had sent down in charge of
-an assistant of his very nearly fell into the hands of the authorities,
-and he became more cautious. On one occasion after this, he ordered a
-consignment of fifty one-pound tins of tea from an oilmanstore merchant
-in the city, and on its arrival, took delivery. Next day, the same
-package was returned by rail to the address of the grocer. On arrival of
-the package in the city, a European, purporting to be an assistant of
-the grocer firm, called at the railway booking office, and producing the
-railway receipt, took delivery of the case; the grocer being duly paid,
-never knew that the package had ever been returned to his address. The
-explanation is that Mr. Hobson had emptied the tea tins when he got them,
-refilled them with opium, and sent them back; but the railway receipt was
-sent to his assistant who, on arrival of the package, took delivery of
-it, and handed it over to the local smuggler in exchange for hard cash!
-
-How this same Mr. Hobson once played a trick on a prominent detective
-will bear relating, even as inadequately as I am able to do it. Hobson
-was once travelling down to the city by train, when our sleuth, who
-happened to be on tour, entered the same compartment at a small wayside
-station. Having already seen Mr. Hobson’s descriptive roll, he had
-no difficulty in identifying him as the smuggler whom he had often
-dreamt about catching; and having the strongest reason to believe that
-H could not possibly know who _he_ was, introduced himself as Mr.
-Jackson, travelling for a firm of leather merchants. The two got into
-conversation, and our sleuth, being an adept in the art of worming out
-details of other people’s affairs, soon got Hobson to open his heart
-to him. Facts and figures were eagerly noted whenever Hobson was not
-observant of it, and our sleuth was very pleased indeed with himself.
-Next morning, however, as he parted from his late companion at the city
-railway station, Hobson said, “Good-bye, Mr. ——” addressing him by his
-real name, “I am very pleased indeed to have made your acquaintance.
-Here,” producing it from his pocket book, “is your latest photograph! Let
-me advise you to represent anything but leather another time. You don’t
-know a thing about it.” And then, as an afterthought, “Better tear up
-those notes you took. I’ve told you nothing that isn’t a damned lie!”
-
-An Indian smuggler once took a rise out of a certain high police
-official, whom I shall call Duncan, and thereby made a mortal enemy for
-life. F. was the chief smuggler in this city, and his transactions in
-illicit drugs ran into lakhs of rupees. It was most desirable that this
-prince of smugglers should be brought to book. He was also by way of
-being a desperate character; for although it could not be proved, it was
-morally certain that more than one of the mysterious murders that had
-taken place in recent years had been committed or instigated by him.
-One day Duncan got information that F. had a large quantity of drugs,
-arms, and ammunition in his house, and that if search were made at once,
-F. would, to a certainty, be caught red-handed. This was luck indeed,
-and Duncan decided to make the search personally. Collecting a party of
-constables, he set out at once, but meeting the Black Maria (prison van)
-on its way back to the prison from the Courts, a brilliant idea came
-to him, and halting this grim conveyance, he and his party entered it,
-giving instructions to the driver to stop opposite F.’s house. Arriving
-there, some of the party soon surrounded the house, while Duncan and
-the rest of them entered the place. F. was in his “Office,” to all
-appearances deeply immersed in piece-goods transactions.
-
-“F.,” said Duncan, “I am going to search your house on information
-received. I believe you have contraband drugs, arms, and ammunition
-concealed somewhere on these premises, and I mean to find them. If you
-wish to search me and my party before we begin, do so at once.”
-
-“I am a humble, law-abiding merchant, Sahib, and have no concern with
-drugs and firearms. You are quite at liberty to search anywhere you
-please.”
-
-The search began. Duncan, although by no means a young man, worked with
-the rest. The place was ransacked from cellar to attic, but not a trace
-of what was sought was to be found. Duncan, covered from head to foot in
-grime and cob-web, at last reluctantly decided to give it up, and slowly
-descended the stairs to the lower room, where he was struck speechless
-with indignation. There was a table covered with the whitest of linen
-cloths, and groaning under an assortment of fruit and sweetmeats, crowned
-by a bottle of Pommery and Greno; while F., with a snowy towel over his
-arm, and a silver bowl of water in his hands, greeted Duncan with an
-invitation to wash and partake of refreshment “as your honour looks tired
-and dusty.”
-
-“Damn you! I shall have you yet,” said the infuriated Duncan when he
-found his tongue; and strode out of the house with rage and hatred in
-his heart!
-
-It was discovered later that F., in a mischievous mood, had himself
-forwarded the information on which Duncan acted!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-MORE ANECDOTES.
-
-
-Bloody encounters with smugglers are rare, but they do happen sometimes,
-and as it is always on the cards that active opposition may be
-encountered when a party sets off to intercept a smuggler on his way to
-“market,” the work of an exciseman is not entirely free from danger. Very
-often when a smuggler goes on a journey, he travels armed with sword or
-spear; sometimes with a musket; sometimes even with a modern revolver
-or shot-gun. He is prepared to use these, and unless the intercepting
-party gets the “drop” on him, he will put up a good fight. Unfortunately,
-the officer, as a rule, though acquainted to some extent with the law
-governing the right of private defence of public servants acting in an
-official capacity, does not take full advantage of it; he has not been
-bred to kill; and it is probable that there is a lurking fear in him
-that the magistrate, who will hold the enquiry, will not see quite eye
-to eye with him, and that he may, perhaps, be convicted of a rash and
-negligent act, or grievous hurt, if he merely wounds his man, or even,
-perhaps, of culpable homicide. To some extent he probably is justified in
-so thinking. Not long ago, an officer fired off his pistol in a melee
-following on a seizure, and wounded one of his assailants in the arm.
-A complaint was made, and the unfortunate young officer was convicted
-of grievous hurt, and sentenced to three months rigorous imprisonment
-and a fine. It is true he was afterwards retried and acquitted, but he
-was in no way compensated for the agony of mind he suffered, or for the
-degradation he had undergone in being tried as an ordinary criminal. This
-is chiefly to show that there is justification for an officer thinking
-twice or oftener before he proceeds to take risks. But the general run of
-magistrates are broad-minded men; men who combine with a sound knowledge
-of law, worldly wisdom, and a knowledge of the special conditions, and it
-is extremely rare for a conscientious officer to be “let down.” I shall
-now tell a story based on fact.
-
-Information was brought to the inspector of ... that a certain well-known
-smuggler was on his way to ... and that he had a large quantity
-of illicit opium with him. Report had it that he was armed, and,
-accordingly, the inspector, providing himself with a revolver of small
-calibre—really nothing more than a toy—and his peon, with a shot-gun
-loaded with slugs in both barrels, set off with a small party to a
-certain pass in the hills near by, through which the smuggler would have
-to pass. In due time the smuggler, with a load on his shoulders, and a
-Tower musket in his hand, came along.
-
-“Halt,” called the inspector, jumping from his place of concealment, and
-covering the smuggler with his toy revolver.
-
-The only reply was a flash and bang from the smuggler’s musket, and for
-a moment, the air was thick with smoke and nasty whining sounds, as
-missiles of all kinds flew past the inspector’s head.
-
-“Now I will shoot you,” said the inspector, and he fired a shot over the
-smuggler. The smuggler poured some powder down his musket barrel.
-
-“Put down that gun!” ordered the inspector, and he fired another shot
-over the smuggler’s head. Now a piece of wadding clanged down under the
-smuggler’s ramrod.
-
-“I shall certainly shoot you now,” threatened the inspector, and another
-tiny bullet whistled harmlessly past the smuggler. This time a handful of
-slugs went rattling down the long barrel.
-
-“Can my master be bewitched?” thought the peon, who had the loaded
-shot-gun in his hands. “It must be so; but matters are getting too
-serious for further argument,” and levelling the gun at the smuggler he
-fired off both barrels at once, almost cutting the fellow in halves.
-A large quantity of opium was found in the smuggler’s bundle and the
-judicial officer who held the inquiry, a man who had risen from the
-bottom of the ladder, and whose experience was wide, while admiring the
-inspector’s humanity, considered that he had no right to expose himself
-and his party in the way he did. He wanted it to be widely known that
-smugglers who went armed with the idea of terrorising the executive did
-so at the risk of being shot at sight, and he undertook to see that
-officers who did this did not suffer. The peon was handsomely rewarded
-and promoted for his presence of mind and opportune action.
-
-Here is another story.
-
-I had received information that a certain smuggler of repute expected
-a big consignment of opium, and that it would reach his house sometime
-during the night and be concealed there. It was about nine o’clock in the
-evening when I set out, clad in an old grey suit, cap, and muffler, for
-the smuggler’s house, intending to conceal myself somewhere near, and
-watch proceedings. As I entered the quarter where the smuggler lived, I
-was accosted by two beat constables who suggested that I was a member
-of the crew of one of the tramp steamers then lying in the harbour.
-After apparently satisfying them of my identity, I continued on my way,
-and was soon ensconced under a large tree, with the smuggler’s house
-and compound in full view. I had not been there an hour, when I heard
-the sound of approaching footsteps, and looking round, was not a little
-annoyed to find the beat constables again on my track. They had spotted
-me in the gloom of the tree, and being suspicious, had come to see who
-I was. To me it seemed that there was nothing to be gained after this
-by continuing the watch, and so, roundly abusing the two inquisitive
-myrmidons of the law, I went home. I was later to regret my unkindness
-to my two preservers, for that, indeed, they proved to be. Next morning I
-was called upon by one of my spies, who handed me a wicked looking dagger
-with a blade at least five inches long.
-
-“What might this be?” I asked.
-
-“Sahib,” he replied, “if it had not been for the two policemen that
-disturbed your watch last night, that dagger would have taken your life.
-While you watched, there was one who watched you with this dagger. When
-the two policemen came along, he dropped the weapon and made off.”
-
-No name was given, and it would have done no good to have taken
-proceedings against my would-be assailant, even if I had known his
-name. Such things are all in the day’s work. But I had the satisfaction
-the same day of going down to the smuggler’s house and unearthing
-over a maund of his opium. It is true that he got off at the trial on
-a technical point, but he lost a great deal of money, actually and
-potentially, and I felt I had called quits to the person who was the
-instigator of my attempted murder.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-OBSERVATIONS ON SMUGGLERS AND SMUGGLING.
-
-
-Taken all round, I think it must be admitted that the smuggler is a
-sportsman, in the sense that he plays a hazardous game at great personal
-risk, at the risk of his fortune, and against great odds. It is true
-that he takes all the care he can to minimize risks, but he can never
-hope entirely to eliminate the element of danger; and if his game be
-divested of all its peccancy, and most of its immorality, we discover in
-it the essentials of what goes to make horse-racing so popular a “sport”
-all over the civilized world. What is it that attracts millions to a
-race-course? Money! The desire to get money coupled with the excitement
-of the game. Out of every thousand persons who go to a race-meeting,
-nine hundred and ninety-nine go to gain money under feverishly exciting
-conditions, and _one_ to see the horses run. Spanish bull-fighting
-however it may please the Spaniard, can never be otherwise than
-disgusting to an Englishman. But however shocked an Englishman might be
-at the ruin the smuggler causes to thousands of his fellow-men, he can
-never feel for the smuggler the contempt which he feels for the gaudy
-and bespangled Toreador. He recognizes that the smuggler is playing a
-dangerous game, sustained by the arts of a subtle intellect, and that he
-also possesses the qualities which go to make a good fighter.
-
-It may be that the smuggler has little notion of the havoc he spreads.
-It may be that he argues thus: “There is a demand for drugs, and people
-will be supplied by some means or other. They are willing to pay almost
-any price for the drugs they want; they are grown up people and well able
-to judge for themselves; why should I not make a fortune by supplying
-them with their wants at my own price?” This is a form of reasoning which
-contains no fallacy for a man unacquainted with the principles of ethics,
-and it is certain that the smuggler has not burdened his mind with such
-learning, admirable as it may be.
-
-His offence against the revenue laws provides the smuggler with a
-never-ending source of pure delight. Every fresh triumph in this
-direction he looks upon as another feather in his already innumerably
-be-feathered cap.
-
-But there can be no question about the dreadful misery for which the
-smuggler is directly responsible, and in succeeding chapters I shall
-endeavour to give as realistic a picture as I can of the awful results of
-this damnable traffic in drugs.
-
-
-
-
-THE DRUG HABIT.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-OPIUM.[1]
-
-
-It may be taken for granted that most people are in some degree
-acquainted with the use of opium, having had it at some time or other
-administered to them as a medicine. Dover’s powder, so useful a remedy
-for a cold, contains opium; Laudanum is a preparation of it which is
-familiar to everybody; and there are scores of other remedies and
-proprietary preparations which contain opium to a greater or less extent.
-But useful as opium may be, it must be used with discretion, and must not
-be allowed to change its character of a faithful servant for that of a
-master. It can become an exacting and dominating master, and the habit
-once formed is well nigh ineradicable.
-
-For the information of those who have not seen the pure drug, I may
-mention that opium is a dark brown, putty-like substance with an
-agreeable, sweetish, odour. It is the dried resin obtained by incising
-the unripe capsules of a certain variety of poppy, and is prepared in
-large, well-equipped factories, from which it is issued in cakes and
-balls weighing eighty tolas.[2]
-
-The opium industry is a Government monopoly. The poppy crops are grown
-under Government supervision, and the factories where it is prepared
-belong to Government and are staffed by Government servants. The prepared
-product is sold from Government opium shops from which consumers who are
-so privileged can get their requirements at a certain fixed price.[3] But
-as is the case with all monopolized commodities, opium may assume a money
-value far in excess of its intrinsic worth and be sold for its weight in
-silver. In fixing the price of opium, Government is confronted with a
-choice between two courses: either to sell opium cheap, and so extinguish
-the smuggler; or to prohibit it entirely and thereby convert India into
-a happy hunting ground for the avaricious and rapacious fortune hunter.
-It takes a middle course, therefore, and sells opium at such a rate that
-facilities for obtaining it are reasonable, without, on the one hand,
-rendering it cheap and easily obtainable, or, on the other, making it
-prohibitive. The policy pursued is one of eventual suppression; the
-discouragement of recruits to the opium habit being the means employed
-as best adapted to bring about its realization.
-
-The opium habit was an established thing in India centuries before the
-British first set foot in the country, and it is surmised that it was
-the Arab conquerors, who invaded India in the 11th century who first
-introduced it. The cultivation of the poppy, and the preparation of
-opium, were live industries in India in the 16th century, as Portuguese
-chroniclers tell us, and when the British East India Company took over
-the administration of Bengal after Clive’s victory at Plassey in 1757,
-all that they found themselves able to do was to adopt a policy of
-regulation leading to ultimate suppression. This policy has been followed
-ever since.
-
-It is a fundamental weakness of human nature that we desire most that
-which it is most difficult to obtain. It is a perpetuation of the
-genesiac myth of the forbidden fruit; and no matter how optimistic some
-may be that the opium habit will eventually be stamped out, it is to be
-feared that this cannot come about until human nature ceases to be what
-it always has been. This contention applies with special cogency to the
-opium habit whose insistence in our midst is not only owing to the fact
-that it satisfies the sensuousness and voluptuousness which forms a part
-of every man’s nature, but that it establishes a dominance over its
-victims which requires almost super-human power of will to overthrow.
-In a letter to his friend and medical attendant Mr. Gilman, Coleridge,
-who was for twenty-five years a victim to the opium habit, writes about
-the giving up of it as a “trivial task” and as requiring no more than
-seven days to accomplish; yet elsewhere he describes it pathetically,
-and sometimes with almost frantic pathos, as the scourge, the curse,
-the one almighty blight which had desolated his life. De Quincey very
-justly calls this a “very shocking contradiction,” and asks, “Is, indeed,
-Leviathan _so_ tamed?”
-
-It has been more than once suggested that the dissemination of a healthy
-propaganda would be the best means of deterring recruits to the opium
-habit, and that reliance upon the efforts of a strong preventive staff
-can result only in a diminution of the vice, and not its extinction. On
-some, such propaganda might have the desired effect; but with others,
-it may have just that effect which we seek to avoid. There is always a
-desire to experience new and strange sensations; there are always some
-who want an unfailing panacea for pain of body or mind; there are always
-some who long for oblivion. All these things are to be got from opium—the
-sovereign panacea for pain, grief, “for all human woes”; a weaver of
-dreams and ecstasies! And so, with the personal equation always solving
-itself, the problem remains to all intents and purposes unsolvable.
-
-Let us see what the effects of opium are. A writer on the subject says,
-“A small dose not unfrequently acts as a stimulant: there is a feeling
-of vigour, a capability of severe exertion, and an endurance of labour
-without fatigue. A large dose often exerts a calming influence with a
-dreamy state in which images and ideas pass rapidly before the mind
-without fatigue, and often in disorder, and without apparent sequence.
-Time seems to be shortened as one state of consciousness quickly succeeds
-another, and there is a pleasant feeling of grateful rest. This is
-succeeded by sleep which, according to the strength of the dose, and
-the idiosyncrasy of the person, may be light and dreamy, or like normal
-profound sleep, or deep and heavy, passing into stupor or coma. From
-this a person may awaken with a feeling of depression, or langour, or
-wretchedness, often associated with sickness, headache, or vomiting.”
-I have verified these statements by questioning numerous consumers of
-opium, and, in substance, their descriptions tallied exactly with that I
-have quoted.
-
-How the opium habit is first contracted is a matter which deserves
-investigation, but it would seem that the most fertile cause is its
-injudicious administration in its character of an anodyne. De Quincey,
-in his “_Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_” tells us that he first
-took opium for a severe toothache. The poet Coleridge, who, like De
-Quincey, was a confirmed opium-eater, “began in rheumatic pains”; and
-if a census of consumers was taken, it would not be surprising to find
-that eighty _per cent._ of them were first introduced to this “dread
-agent of unimaginable pleasure and pain” by its being given them for a
-stomachache, toothache, or some such wrecker of the peace of their mind.
-The other twenty _per cent._ are the victims of curiosity. The Burman is
-said to get the taste for opium when he is drugged with it while young,
-when he is, according to Burmese custom, tattoed from the waist to above
-his knees.
-
-Nobody needs to be told that a habit is formed by the frequent repetition
-of acts or indulgences, and that some habits are more difficult to break
-ourselves of than others. The opium habit falls in this category. It
-is formed, of course, in the same way as other habits, but there are
-peculiarities connected with it on which those who are ready to condemn
-opium-eaters as degenerates might well ponder. The physiological effects
-of opium are such, that the wearing off of the effects of a dose are
-attended with the keenest mental and physical distress. No one who
-has not been an opium-eater can describe these adequately. The need,
-therefore, for a corrective of this condition becomes what seems an
-urgent necessity, and the only immediate corrective is “a hair from the
-dog.” A succession of these “hairs”—and a not very long succession—forms
-the habit. Unlike other habits, it is a habit that cannot be cured
-without immense strength of will, and a readiness to undergo great
-suffering: pains in the body, diarrhœa, and a general upset of the mental
-equilibrium. We see, therefore, that the cause of the habit lies here:
-_the need for opium to alleviate the pangs caused by opium_.
-
-[Illustration: AN EXCESSIVE OPIUM SMOKER]
-
-Amongst unromantically inclined people of the type who form the bulk of
-consumers—cultivators, coolies, artisans of all kinds, humble folk whose
-creed is “pice and rice”—it would be difficult (and ludicrous) to suppose
-that their object in taking opium is to go in their dreams to:
-
-  “Woods that wave o’er Delphi steep
-  Isles, that crown the Aegian deep,
-  Fields that cool Ilissus’ laves
-  Or where meander’s amber waves
-  In lingering lab’rinths creep.”
-
-Possibly, they do have pleasant dreams; but the exertion and hard
-exercise they must undergo to earn their daily bread is known to
-counteract the sedative effects of opium; and as they take small
-quantities only, its effect is to stimulate them rather than to make
-them dreamy and sensuous; and I contend that, _primâ facie_, it is not
-to evoke sensuous imaginings that these people take opium. They take it
-because they cannot get away from it, once the pain to ease which it
-was given has passed. What strength of will do we expect to find in an
-unlettered cooly?
-
-Without any apology I reproduce here some verses which appeared in 1894,
-about the time when the Royal Opium Commission came to India:
-
-  THE OPIUM-EATER’S SOLILOQUY.
-
-  They began by mourning over my degraded moral state,
-  Then my physical decadence they would anxiously debate.
-  Then they raised a pious eye,
-  And they heaved a pitying sigh,
-  And they shuddered as they pondered on my melancholy fate.
-
-  Now, I never had reflected on the matter thus, at all,
-  For my luxuries were few, and my expenditure was small.
-  I was happy as the day,
-  In my own abandoned way,
-  Till they said they must release me from the bonds that held me
-    thrall.
-
-  I’d been cheered up at my _Chandoo_[4] shop, for years at least
-    two score,
-  To perform my daily labour, and was never sick or sore;
-  But they said this must not be;
-  So they passed a stern decree,
-  And they made my _Chandoo_ seller shut his hospitable door.
-
-  Now they’re sending out Commissions with the philanthropic view
-  Of inducing us to part with sev’ral crores of revenue;
-  For all opium traffic’s sin,
-  And, although it brings in tin,
-  Our nefarious trade papaverous, they say we must eschew.
-
-  Who’d have thought that my redemption would have cost so many lakhs
-  (For they saddle their expenses on my fellow-subjects’ backs).
-  What with deficits to square,
-  And Commissions everywhere,
-  On the “hoarded wealth of India” I shall prove a heavy tax.
-
-  If I’d only cultivated, now, a taste for beer or gin,
-  Or had learnt at Pool or Baccarat my neighbour’s coin to win,
-  I could roam abroad o’ nights,
-  And indulge in these delights,
-  And my soul would not be stigmatized as being steeped in sin!
-
-  But as mine’s a heathen weakness for a creature-comfort, far
-  Less pernicious than their alcohol, more clean than their cigar,
-  They have sent their howlings forth,
-  From their platform in the North,
-  And ’twixt me and my poor pleasures have imposed a righteous bar!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-OPIUM SMOKING AND OPIUM-EATING.
-
-
-There are two modes of taking opium. It is either eaten in its crude
-form, or it is clarified with water and smoked in a pipe of peculiar
-construction.
-
-It is generally conceded that opium smoking is less injurious than opium
-eating, bulk for bulk, of the amount consumed, and that the intemperate
-or immoderate opium smoker is less liable to the toxic effects of opium
-than the man who eats it raw. Why this is will be clear when it is
-explained that as a result of the process of preparation for smoking it,
-which consists in boiling opium with water, filtering several times,
-and boiling it down again to a treacly consistency, a considerable
-portion of the narcotine, caoutchouc, resin, and other deleterious
-elements are removed, and this prolonged boiling and evaporation have
-the effect of lessening the amount of alkaloids in the finished product.
-The only alkaloids likely to remain in the prepared opium, and capable
-of producing marked physiological effects, are morphia, codeia, and
-narceia. Morphia in its unmixed state can be sublimed; but codeia and
-narceia are said not to give a sublimate. But even if not sublimed in the
-process, morphia would, in the opinion of Mr. Hugh M’Callum (Government
-Analyst at Hong Kong), be deposited in the bowl of the pipe before the
-smoke reached the mouth of the smoker. The bitter taste of morphia is
-not noticeable when smoking opium, and it is therefore possible that the
-pleasure derived from smoking opium is due to some product formed during
-combustion. This supposition is rendered probable by the fact that the
-opium most prized by smokers is not that containing the most morphia.
-
-But what constitutes moderation or the reverse? The answer is
-idiosyncrasy, or the degree of toleration. This is a factor which is
-lost sight of by most of those who declaim against the occasional glass
-or pipe. They wish to push temperance to the point of total abstinence,
-and condemn the man who takes a peg of whisky without evil results,
-with the man who becomes maudlin after taking a single glass of white
-wine, for it is only by outward appearances they are able to judge. But
-leaving them to rage in their ignorance, we must recognise the fact that
-opium is one of those drugs the effects of which depend largely upon
-personal idiosyncrasy and toleration. Dr. Chapman, in his _Elements of
-Therapeutics_, gives two instances of remarkable cases of toleration of
-opium. In one, a wineglassful of laudanum was taken by a patient several
-times in the twenty-four hours; and in another, a case of cancer, the
-quantity of laudanum was gradually increased to three pints daily, a
-considerable quantity of crude opium being also taken in the same period!
-
-The usual dose, as a medicine, is from one to three grains of opium,
-but a consumer can take from ten to twenty, while I have met many
-able to take from sixty to eighty grains. The degree of tolerance is
-increased by usage and habit, and the tendency is to increase the dose
-with habituation. With smokers, it is not uncommon to find Chinamen,
-the heaviest consumers of opium in the world, who can dispose of three
-tolas[5] of opium in the day; but they smoke it, and so can stand far
-more of it than if they ate it in the crude state.
-
-The reader who has troubled to come so far with me will not unreasonably
-be curious to know how opium is smoked; so, if he will accompany me
-farther, I will take him into a den and satisfy his curiosity. It is a
-Chinese den. From the street it has nothing to proclaim its character;
-it is like any other entrance in the street. Ah! Here comes a smoker.
-Observe his deathly pallor, his appearance of emaciation, his dazed
-expression. He must be a heavy smoker, soaked in the vice. Let us go in
-with him! We enter. For a moment the dimness of the room flanked on three
-sides with raised wooden platforms waist-high, and covered with mats,
-is accentuated by our sudden entrance from the sunlit street. We become
-aware of a peculiar odour in the atmosphere of the room, not unpleasant,
-but peculiar. It is like nothing that we have ever sniffed before. It is
-the odour of smoked opium. When our eyes, having got used to the light,
-or rather darkness, of the room, we look round and see on the platforms,
-sleeping forms sprawled round trays containing their smoking utensils.
-Let us examine these: First there is the pipe. It is made of a single
-joint of bamboo about a foot and a half long, hollow, and closed at one
-end, and about an inch in diameter. About a quarter of its length up
-from the closed end, there is an earthenware protuberance, not unlike a
-door-knob in appearance, firmly fixed into the stem; on its top, and in
-the centre, is a small orifice. This is the pipe-bowl.
-
-[Illustration: OPIUM SMOKERS’ APPLIANCES]
-
-Next we notice a lamp. This has a base of wood, and consists of a glass
-reservoir of oil, with a string wick leading from it through a small
-brass cap. Over this is a glass chimney.
-
-Then we see the wire, like an ordinary fine knitting needle; and several
-horn phials, each containing prepared opium.
-
-[Illustration: PREPARING TO SMOKE OPIUM
-
-(The opium on the end of the dipper being roasted over the lamp.)]
-
-But here is the new-comer whom we followed in. He has paid the den-keeper
-the small fee which makes him the temporary owner of a tray of smoking
-utensils, and with these he passes us, and getting on to the platform
-between two sleepers, he puts his tray down, and assumes a recumbent
-attitude beside it. Lying on his left side, with his head on a hard
-lacquered pillow, he draws the tray towards him and takes the pipe in his
-left hand. With the other hand he takes the piece of wire, and plunges
-one end of it into the horn phial containing treacly prepared opium,
-withdrawing it immediately with a drop of the fluid adhering to the
-point. This he maintains on the point by rapidly twirling the instrument
-between two fingers, and carrying it over the flame of the lamp, he
-proceeds to roast the opium. This is a delicate operation, and requires
-practice. The needle is dipped into the phial again and again, and the
-opium adhering to the end roasted over the flame until an appreciable
-quantity of the drug has accumulated on the end of the wire. He rolls
-this accumulation, still on the end of the dipper, on the flattened top
-of the pipe bowl, until it has acquired the desired shape, and then
-thrusts the end into the orifice in the centre of the bowl, and twirling
-the wire sharply round, withdraws it, leaving the opium in the orifice.
-Now, taking the lower end of the pipe in his right hand, and the mouth
-end of the pipe in his left, he applies the open end to his lips and
-holding the bowl almost inverted over the top of the lamp begins to take
-long inhalations, the smoke escaping through his nostrils. The little
-plug of opium in the orifice crackles and burns in the heat of the flame,
-and we notice that the smoker now and then scrapes towards the orifice
-in the bowl, all the particles of opium which remain unburnt. He finally
-clears the orifice by thrusting the wire into it several times, and
-disconnects the bowl from the stem. We notice it contains an appreciable
-quantity of black, evil-smelling opium residue. This is the “dross,”
-carefully preserved by smokers, and later on boiled with raw opium to
-which it is believed to add strength. We watch him smoke a few more
-pipes, and eventually the pipe falls from his nerveless hands, and he
-lies still. What are the dreams which flock through his mind? We do not
-know, but Bayard Taylor in his book _India, China and Japan_ tells us of
-his personal experience of the effects of opium smoking. It was his first
-and last attempt, and his record is interesting. He says:—“To my surprise
-I found the taste of the drug as delicious as its smell is disagreeable.
-It leaves a sweet, rich, flavour, like the finest liquorice, upon the
-palate, and the gentle stimulus it conveys to the blood in the lungs
-fills the whole body with a sensation of warmth and strength. The fumes
-of the opium are no more irritating to the windpipe or bronchial tubes
-than common air, while they seem imbued with a richness of vitality far
-beyond our diluted oxygen.
-
-“Beyond the feeling of warmth, vigour, and increased vitality, softened
-by a happy consciousness of repose, there was no effect until after
-finishing the sixth pipe. My spirits then became joyously excited with
-a constant disposition to laugh; brilliant colours floated before my
-eyes, but in a confused and cloudy way, sometimes converging into
-spots like the eyes in a peacock’s tail, but oftenest melting into and
-through each other, like the hues of changeable silk. Had the physical
-excitement been greater, they would have taken form and substance, but
-after smoking _nine_ pipes I desisted, through fear of subjecting myself
-to some unpleasant after-effects. Our Chinese host informed me that he
-was obliged to take twenty pipes in order to elevate his mind to the
-pitch of perfect happiness. I went home feeling rather giddy, and became
-so drowsy, with slight qualms at the stomach, that I went to bed at an
-early hour—after a deep and refreshing sleep, I arose at sunrise, feeling
-stronger and brighter than I had done for weeks past.”
-
-[Illustration: CHINAMAN SMOKING OPIUM]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE OPIUM HABIT.
-
-
-It is now proper that we should ask the question “Is opium the very
-dreadful thing it is made out to be?” My answer is, yes and no. Anything
-immoderately indulged in is bad for one. Over-eating, excess in smoking
-and drinking, are all bad. There is such a thing as too much of even
-a good thing. I am prepared to admit that excess in opium is worse
-than most things; but as a choice between opium and drink, I consider
-drunkenness to be the greater evil. It may be that it is more common,
-and therefore responsible for more distress in the world than opium; but
-opium does not, and can never, degrade as drink does, and a man does not
-make a beast of himself with opium. It does not make a nuisance of a
-man; it does not lead to violence and to murder as drink does. I do not
-ask reformers to subscribe to this view. I express it as my own opinion,
-founded as it is upon close acquaintance with numerous opium consumers,
-and many drunkards.
-
-What is it that reformers have to urge against opium? They will not admit
-that opium in moderation does no great harm; they will not agree that the
-degree of toleration varies in people. Let us take their contentions
-_seriatim_, and see how they will stand against logical and informed
-discussion:
-
-They say: (1) That opium in any degree induces physical degeneration.
-
-I say, I have met men of wretched physique who are opium consumers, and
-men of wretched physique who are not opium consumers. Also, I have met
-giants in strength who are not opium consumers, and giants in strength
-who are confirmed opium consumers. I will also say this, that among the
-hard-working class of Indians and Burmans, such as coolies and porters,
-the proportion of consumers to non-consumers is about equal, but I have
-been able to observe no inferiority in capacity in the consumers, and
-very often have found them superior. Those who wish to learn what the
-powers of bodily endurance of an opium consumer may be are recommended to
-read that very readable book “_An Australian in China_.”
-
-(2) That the consumer is mentally inferior to his non-consuming brother.
-
-This I qualify. It depends on the degree of indulgence, and unless this
-is considered, it is not possible to argue. It is a proved fact that
-the effect of opium is to quicken the perceptions, and stimulate the
-imagination. Too often this is taken to be evanescent; and it is assumed
-that the intellect weakens, and that, eventually, it is enfeebled beyond
-chance of recovery. But if opium were not taken; in such a case, would
-not advancing years bring about a like condition? Charles Lamb, who
-drank more than was good for him, and Coleridge, who was an opium-eater,
-complained that the effect of their particular “poisons” was to deprive
-them of their capacity for singing when they awoke in the morning! Lamb
-complained of this when he was forty-five, and Coleridge at the age of
-sixty-three. Does anyone imagine they would have been able to “revive the
-vivacities of thirty-five” if they had been always temperate men?
-
-There is no doubt that, taken in large quantities, opium induces a
-sluggishness, a lethargy, a stupor; but does not an unusually heavy meal
-induce a torpor which is incompatible with any sort of intellectual
-labour? I hold only with moderation.
-
-(3) That indulgence in opium weakens the character and morals.
-
-This applies with equal force to immoderation in most things. It does
-not hold good of opium taken in moderation. To affirm this is a clear
-indication of ignorance of the subject. Why, in the name of all that is
-extraordinary, should a moderate dose of opium make a man a thief, or
-a criminal, or a moral imbecile? Indians and Burmans, whose religion
-forbids all manner of intoxicants, condemn their opium-eating brothers
-to a sort of social ostracism, and when asked for a reason, say, “It is
-against our religious tenets; and it is very bad in every way.” Such
-uninformed statements are excusable in the unenlightened, but what of
-those who ought to know, and who pride themselves upon their education
-and reasoning faculties? They are as clamorous against opium and other
-things in a more censurable ignorance of facts. Some who will not clear
-their minds of cant, declaim against a glass of wine with all the fervour
-and denunciation of fanatics, without rhyme, reason, or apprehension of
-what they are talking about. In their more fluent and exuberant way,
-when pressed for a reason, they tell us in effect that indulgence in
-opium is “Against our religious tenets, and it is very bad in every
-way.” It is time reformers recognised that opium is not such a dreadful
-thing after all, and confined their attention, and devoted some of their
-ample leisure, to winning back those who have gone over the limit of
-moderation, instead of anathematizing them.
-
-It is a pity that reformers do not pursue their propaganda along
-reasonable and obvious lines, because they would have more supporters
-and helpers if they did. To publish fulminatory pamphlets against the
-opium evil, without having any experience of it at first hand beyond an
-occasional hurried visit to an opium den, is worse than futile; and they
-cannot hope to convince those who are really in a position, and qualified
-to help them in their efforts. This is due to a profound ignorance of
-facts, and a lot of people in India are responsible for the dissemination
-of a lot of ill-digested nonsense. An enthusiast visits an opium den and
-finds half a dozen Chinamen sprawled around, with as many opium pipes.
-He does not know that these men have come in from a ten-hour day’s work.
-He throws up his hands in pious consternation, and writes home about the
-dreadful place he has visited, and of the horrors of intoxication he
-witnessed there. The vividness of his description is modified only by the
-amount of rhetoric at his command, and no one who has come into contact
-with this sort of person will deny that he always has a vast store!
-
-I once met a missionary, and in the course of conversation, we happened
-upon the opium evil. He was eloquent, his views on the subject were
-decided. In fact he was so decided in his views that I found it
-impossible to convince him that what he described as the effects of opium
-were really those symptomatic of an overdose of _bhang_. And yet, I have
-little doubt that this person must have written home lurid accounts of
-the opium evil, and the ruin and havoc it was causing. What reformers
-ought to do is to cease memorializing Government to totally prohibit the
-traffic, and try to help them more by taking an active part in checking
-immoderation. Moderate indulgence in opium is less harmful in every way
-than the habit of passing public resolutions and submitting memorials.
-
-By the foregoing, I do not wish it to be surmised that I hold a brief
-for the opium habit, or that I consider it a desirable thing. To be
-a slave in any degree to anything is bad; the tobacco habit is bad;
-the over-eating habit is bad. But opium comes in for too much of the
-attention of religious propagandists, and the Government is taxed with
-the charge of reaping revenue at the expense of the bodies and souls
-of the people. This is a view it is the duty of anyone who knows the
-subject intimately to correct. The Royal Commission on Opium in India,
-which sat under the chairmanship of Lord Brassey, some thirty years ago,
-collected a mass of evidence for and against opium which is unrivalled
-in its extent and value. The conclusion come to by a majority of the
-Commissioners was that opium in moderation did no great harm; and to
-ensure moderation, they recommended a policy of close control. In
-deference to popular opinion, and the religious scruples of the bulk of
-Indians, they thought it desirable that the opium habit should eventually
-be suppressed, and trusted that close control would, by attrition, bring
-about this result.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-MORPHIA.
-
-
-Morphia, which is the active principle of opium, is interesting in its
-being the first “alkaloid” to be discovered. Its basic nature was first
-noticed by Serturner in 1816.
-
-As a medicine, principally as an anodyne, morphia is to pharmacy what
-chloroform is to surgery, and, as a “boon and blessing” to man in that
-character, it is second to none. But like all good things in this world,
-it has become the object of the grossest abuse at the hand of man; and
-its devotees, in an euphonic sense, number hundreds of thousands.
-
-Morphia is a narcotic; that is, it “has the power to produce lethargy or
-stupor which may pass into a state of profound coma or unconsciousness,
-along with complete paralysis, terminating in death.” The degree of
-insensibility depends upon the strength of the dose; one-sixth of a
-grain for an adult man, and one-tenth of a grain for an adult woman,
-being the largest safe dose given hypodermically. Two or three grains
-given by the stomach is dangerous. But, as with opium, the dose varies
-with idiosyncrasy, and some can tolerate larger doses than others.
-With habituation, some persons can take with impunity an amount of
-morphia which would prove fatal to five or six healthy, full-grown
-men. To have its full effect as an hypnotic or anodyne—and its power
-as the one depends upon its potency as the other—morphia must be given
-hypodermically.
-
-The possession of morphia by people other than medical men and chemists
-is prohibited by law; and the rules governing its sale by chemists are
-rigid and exact. They must account for every grain sold, and all entries
-in their sales registers must be supported by prescriptions signed by
-qualified medical men. Yet morphia injecting is more prevalent in cities
-than the public is aware of; and it does not require a very penetrating
-mind to discover that the morphia used by its unfortunate victims
-comes from illicit sources—from the smuggler. There are, of course,
-unscrupulous physicians, dentists, and quacks, who pander to the cravings
-of some of their “patients” by administering regular injections; but we
-are dealing here with the type of persons who do not call in doctors,
-accommodating or otherwise. The ones I write about are catered for by an
-organization which, in spite of the greatest efforts, has been found to
-be unrepressible.
-
-[Illustration: GROUP OF MORPHIA-INJECTORS]
-
-How do these people get their supplies? Let us go into a morphia den
-unofficially, and take a glance at it in all its sordidity. We draw
-aside a filthy sheet of cloth which does service as a curtain, and
-enter a room about twenty feet square. It is dim almost to darkness;
-but at the farther end, opposite the entrance door, we notice a wooden
-partition which has a locked door in it, and near it a hole not unlike
-the window of a box or ticket office. Through this hole a light is
-seen, so we presume that there is someone behind the locked door in the
-partitioned-off portion of the room. Looking round us, we see a row of
-human figures, clad in the foulest rags, lying along the two sides of
-the room, near the walls. Some are apparently asleep; actually, they are
-drugged, overcome by the last injection of morphia. Others are about to
-make themselves comfortable for a sleep, having just had an injection;
-while some, too poor to afford the cost of another dose, are groaning and
-whimpering with the combined agonies of some painful disease, and the
-wearing off of the effects of the last injection. These accost everybody
-that enters the den for the price of “just one little injection.”
-They appeal to those who have endured the same pangs with which these
-unfortunates are wracked. The appeal is to a real, live sympathy; and if
-it can be spared, the required money is handed over.
-
-One of these beings has not appealed in vain to a fellow votary who has
-just entered the den in company with two companions, and the four make
-their way to the hole in the partition, and in exchange for the coppers
-handed in, a skinny hand passes out four little paper packets, each one
-containing a dose of morphia powder. Let us peep through the hole, and
-look at the owner of the skinny hand before following the four to the
-place to which they have retired. It is a Chinaman, characteristically
-lean, sitting at a rough table on which is a cigar box filled with paper
-packets similar to those we saw being handed to the late purchasers. The
-red and green ones contain morphia, the white cocaine (for he caters
-for both classes, the injecters of morphia, and eaters of cocaine).
-Looking up at the hole, he sees us, and thinking we are either excise
-or police officers, he hastily gathers up his wares, and rushing to the
-sanitary arrangement in the corner of his cubicle, empties them into
-the receptacle, and pulling the chain, flushes away the incriminating
-evidences of his occupation. Being assured that they are well on their
-way to the sea through the sewer, he turns towards us with a “smile that
-is child-like and bland,” and explains that he has “got nothing—all
-gone—you can’t do nothing.” We explain that we had no intention of doing
-anything, and were merely curious. Recollecting that he had heard no call
-from his ever watchful colleague who stands by to give timely warning in
-the event of a raiding party coming in sight, he admits that he has been
-precipitate; but in no way disconcerted, he sends his colleague off to
-some place best known to themselves, for a fresh supply of packets.
-
-We now return to the four men who provided themselves with morphia two or
-three minutes ago. We find them sitting in a ring round another fellow
-who we learn is the operator. He possesses a hypodermic syringe. Let
-us take and examine it. It is not the sort of thing one would expect to
-find in a chemist’s show-case or a medical man’s pocket-case. This is a
-weird instrument; the barrel a length of glass tubing; the plunger a bit
-of knitting needle, whose plunging head consists of tightly wound rag,
-and whose other end is topped with a conglomerate of sealing wax and
-sewing thimble. Both joints are lumps of sealing wax, through the lower
-of which an inch and a half of hollow needle projects. Handing back this
-septic instrument to the operator, who, by the way, tells us that he gets
-a copper for every injection he gives, he proceeds to empty the contents
-of the packets into a small china egg-cup. Adding a modicum of water,
-and stirring the mixture until a clear solution is formed, he takes up
-some in the syringe, and one of the expectant waiters draws nearer him.
-A search is made by the operator for a clear spot on the body of the
-man, where a dirty needle has not already penetrated and caused a foul
-sore, and after some search such a spot is found, _on the palm of the
-hand_, and here the needle is introduced, and the contents of the syringe
-discharged, after which the man operated on limps away to his place, and
-lying down, is soon asleep. The next draws near, and having received his
-share of the dose with the same needle, unsterilized and unwashed, he in
-turn limps off; and so with the others.
-
-Let us hope that the fell, loathesome, unnameable disease, from which
-one at any rate of the four was too apparently suffering, has not been
-introduced into the blood of the others by that death-dealing needle! But
-it is a hope that we cannot think is justified; the means of propagation
-employed are too certain to admit of any hope!
-
-The foul and fetid atmosphere of the crowded room is almost overpowering,
-in spite of the strong tobacco we smoke in our well-lit pipes, but we
-will linger a little longer and take a glance at those who are lying
-around like so many logs. Look at this one of them. What an object
-lesson he is to impetuous youth! Thin to emaciation; his hair fallen off
-in tufts; his nose almost eaten away; his body covered with sores and
-ulcers. There is nothing to wonder at in this being taking morphia to
-ease his pain of mind and body. Since death will not come, let him have
-oblivion. It is better so.
-
-Here we find a woman; she is a slattern if ever there was one.
-Clean-limbed, in the sense that she has no sores on visible parts of her
-body, she is nevertheless almost as certain a disseminator of disease and
-misery as the foul needle. She wakes as we watch her, and in a drowsy
-way, smiles; probably in a way she means to be fascinating, but we are
-not under the effects of the delusive narcotic, so cannot be expected to
-know! Suddenly a look of intelligence comes into her eyes, and realising
-who we are, she gets up, and stumbles towards the door, and out on to the
-street—on her way to _another_ den in all probability!
-
-[Illustration: AN INDIAN MORPHINIST]
-
-Here is another. An old, or rather, an old-looking man, shrivelled and
-feeble. He is just awaking from his stupor. We ask him to get up, but he
-is unable to do more than humbly indicate the reason for his inability
-to do so. A glance, as the sheet which covers him is withdrawn from his
-body, sends a thrill of horror through us, and we turn away sickened at
-the sight; and the man—is he a man?—draws his cloth over his tattered
-body, and tries to woo sleep again. This last sight is enough to send us
-headlong into the fresh air and sunlight. If these are the results of
-morphia, then God have mercy upon its votaries, for they stand sorely in
-need of it!
-
-Morphia is imported into the country in large quantities by smugglers,
-the drug being brought from the British Isles, Japan, and the Continent
-by members of the crews of steamers plying from these countries. As many
-as 500 ounces of morphia have been seized in one consignment, and, as
-it is generally admitted by those who are in position to know that for
-every ounce seized, a pound passes through undetected, it only requires a
-simple calculation to arrive at the approximate total quantity which is
-hawked about unrestricted.
-
-Morphia, being more portable and concentrated, is more easily concealed
-than opium, which is comparatively bulky. Of the aggregate seizures
-in any one year, seventy-five per cent. is made up of numerous small
-seizures. To seize four or five ounces of the drug in one lot is rather
-the exception than the rule; and seizure in larger quantities is a
-comparatively rare event.
-
-But it is comforting, in a way, to know that morphia, by the time it
-reaches the consumer, is very often freely adulterated, starch being the
-adulterant used; and when it is considered that morphia sold illicitly
-fetches from five to six times its price when sold licitly, the increase
-in its bulk which results after adulteration represents a handsome
-additional profit to the vendor. The big smuggler imports the drug; his
-lesser brother buys some from him and adulterates it; the den-owner buys
-the mixture from the lesser light and he in turn adds a little more
-starch to it; and finally “the man in the cubicle” retails the mixture to
-the consumer.
-
-There is little to be said in defence of the morphia habit. It is bad,
-utterly bad, in itself, while it is a fertile disseminator of disease
-when injected as it is. Morphia ruins a man, body and soul. As is the
-case with opium, pain is a frequent originator of the habit, but its hold
-upon the individual is, if anything, stronger than that exerted by opium,
-and fatal consequences ensue with great certainty and rapidity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-COCAINE.
-
-
-In writing about cocaine, we find that interest lies not so much in
-itself as in the plant of which it is the alkaloid, the “_erythroxylon
-coca_.”
-
-The coca plant is indigenous to Peru, and from the most ancient times,
-Peruvian Indians have chewed the leaves as a habit, as Indians in this
-country chew the betel leaf and tobacco. “The local consumption of coca
-is immense,” says Dr. Hartwig, “as the Peruvian Indian reckons its
-habitual use among the prime necessaries of life, and is never seen
-without a leathern pouch filled with a provision of the leaves, and
-containing besides a small box of powdered, unslaked lime. At least
-three times a day he rests from his work to chew his indispensable coca.
-Carefully taking a few leaves out of the bag, and removing their midribs,
-he first masticates them in the shape of a small ball, which is called an
-acullico; then repeatedly inserting a thin piece of moistened wood like a
-tooth-pick into the box of unslaked lime, he introduces the powder which
-remains attached to it into the acullico until the latter has acquired
-the requisite flavour. The saliva, which is abundantly secreted while
-chewing the pungent mixture, is mostly swallowed along with the green
-juice of the plant.
-
-“When the acullico is exhausted, another is immediately prepared, for one
-seldom suffices. The corrosive sharpness of the unslaked lime requires
-some caution, and an unskilled coca chewer runs the risk of burning
-his lips, as, for instance, the celebrated traveller Tschudi, who, by
-the advice of his muleteer, while crossing the high mountain-passes of
-the Andes, attempted to make an acullico, and instead of strengthening
-himself as he expected, merely added excruciating pain to the fatigues of
-the journey.”
-
-The poet Cowley succinctly describes the physical effects of coca in the
-following lines:
-
-  “Our Varicocha first this coca sent,
-  “Endow’d with leaves of wondrous nourishment,
-  “Whose juice succ’d in, and to the stomach tak’n
-  “Long hunger and long labour can sustain
-  “From which our faint and weary bodies find
-  “More succour, more they clear the drooping mind,
-  “Than can your _Bacchus_ and your _Ceres_ join’d.
-  “Three leaves supply for six days’ march afford
-  “The Quitoita with this provision stor’d
-  “Can pass the vast and cloudy Andes o’er.”
-
-“It is a remarkable fact,” Dr. Hartwig tells us, “that the Indians,
-who regularly use coca, require but little food, and when the dose is
-augmented, are able to undergo the greatest fatigues without tasting
-almost anything else.” Professor Pöppig ascribes this astonishing
-endurance to a momentary excitement which must necessarily be succeeded
-by a corresponding collapse, and therefore considers the use of coca
-absolutely hurtful. Tschudi, however, is of opinion that its moderate
-consumption, far from being injurious, is, on the contrary, extremely
-wholesome, and cites the examples of several Indians who, never allowing
-a day to pass without chewing their coca, “attained the truly patriarchal
-age of one hundred and thirty years.”
-
-The effects of excess in coca chewing are given by Hill in his _Travels
-in Peru and Mexico_. “The worst that can be said of the coca is its
-effects upon the health of such of the Indians as use it in excess. It
-then affects the breath, pales the lips and gums, and leaves a black mark
-on either side of the mouth. Moreover, after some time, the nerves of the
-consumer become affected, and a general langour is said to give plain
-evidence of the sad consequences of excess.”
-
-Another writer gives a more depressing picture of the excessive consumer:
-“The confirmed coca chewer, or Coquero, is known at once by his uncertain
-step, his sallow complexion, his hollow, lack-lustre black-rimmed eyes,
-deeply sunk in the head, his trembling lips, his incoherent speech, and
-his stolid apathy. His character is irresolute, suspicious, and false; in
-the prime of life he has all the appearances of senility, and in later
-years sinks into complete idiocy. Avoiding the society of man, he seeks
-the dark forest, or some solitary ruin, and there, for days together,
-indulges in his pernicious habit. While under the influence of coca, his
-excited fancy riots in the strangest visions, now revelling in pictures
-of ideal beauty, and then haunted by dreadful apparitions. Secure from
-intrusion he crouches in an obscure corner, his eyes immovably fixed
-upon one spot; and the almost automatic motion of the hand raising the
-coca to the mouth, and its mechanical chewing, are the only signs of
-consciousness which he exhibits. Sometimes a deep groan escapes from
-his breast, most likely when the dismal solitude around him inspires
-his imagination with some terrific vision, which he is as little able
-to banish, as voluntarily to dismiss his dreams of ideal felicity. How
-the Coquero finally awakens from his trance, Tschudi was never able to
-ascertain, though most likely the complete exhaustion of his supply at
-length forces him to return to his miserable hut.”
-
-The coca plant has from ancient times been the object of religious
-veneration by the Peruvian Indians, and although we have no historical
-record to tell us when the use of coca was introduced, or who first
-discovered its peculiar properties, we learn that when Pizarro destroyed
-Athualpa’s Empire, he found that the Incas employed coca in their
-religious ceremonies and sacrifices “either for fumigation, or as an
-offering to the gods. The priests chewed coca while performing their
-rites, and the favour of the invisible powers was only to be obtained by
-a present of these highly valued leaves. No work begun without coca could
-come to a happy termination, and divine honours were paid to the shrub
-itself.”
-
-“After a period of more than three centuries, Christianity has not yet
-been able to eradicate these deeply-rooted superstitious feelings, and
-everywhere the traveller still meets with traces of the ancient belief in
-its mysterious powers. To the present day the miners of Cerro de Pasco
-throw chewed coca against the hard veins of the ore, and affirm that they
-can then be more easily worked—a custom transmitted to them from their
-forefathers who were fully persuaded that the Coyas, or subterranean
-divinities, rendered the mountains impenetrable, unless previously
-propitiated by an offering of coca. Even now the Indians put coca into
-the mouths of their dead, to ensure them a welcome on their passage to
-another world; and whenever they find one of their ancestral mummies,
-they never fail to offer it some of the leaves.”
-
-It is believed that the superstitions regarding coca were looked upon
-with great disgust by the Spaniards, and that their efforts to stamp them
-out did more to keep alive the enmity borne them by the Indians than
-anything else.
-
-The coca plant was first grown in Ceylon in 1870 when it was introduced
-from Kew. It was grown there as a result of a suggestion made by Mr.
-Joseph Stevenson who pointed out the commercial importance of the plant
-in view of the separation of the alkaloid cocaine by Nieman in 1859; but
-owing to the liability of the coca leaves to rapid deterioration after
-picking in unfavourable climatic conditions, this branch of commerce
-has not developed, and as yet no attempt has been made to extract the
-alkaloid in India, in commercial quantities at any rate.
-
-But no matter what might be said about coca-chewing, there can be no two
-opinions about the dire and destructive effects of cocaine the alkaloid,
-and the results of indulgence in this drug are truly deplorable. It may
-be owing to something else in the coca leaves which ameliorates the full
-effect of the alkaloid; in fact it must be so, because I doubt whether
-even a confirmed cocaine consumer could find anything to say in its
-favour.
-
-The first notice of cocaine consuming appears to be that of Col. J.
-Watson, who wrote in the _New York Tribune_ about cocaine-sniffing. He
-writes: “I have visited some of the Negro bar-rooms in Atlanta, and
-the proprietors told me that the cocaine-habit which had been acquired
-by the Negroes, was simply driving them out of business. When the
-cocaine-habit fixes itself on a person, the desire for liquor is gone,
-the victim finding entire satisfaction in sniffing cocaine. By sniffing
-cocaine up the nostrils it reaches the brain quicker, and the effect is
-more lasting than if swallowed or administered by hypodermic injection.
-Persons addicted to the habit say they have tried the two latter ways,
-and that the effects are not the same, nor do they afford the same degree
-of satisfaction and pleasure as when sniffed. Unquestionably the drug
-rapidly affects the brain, and the result has been that, in the south,
-the asylums for the insane are overflowing with the unfortunate victims.
-After a person has habitually used the poison for a certain length of
-time, he becomes mentally irresponsible. No man can use it long and
-retain his normal mental condition. It is a brain-wrecker of the worst
-kind.”
-
-Cocaine is a highly poisonous narcotic, and when rubbed on the skin,
-or injected under it, deadens the surrounding parts, and renders them
-insensible to pain. It is therefore much used in minor surgery, and in
-ophthalmic and dental operations. As such, it replaces chloroform to some
-extent. But, unfortunately, its highly stimulating effects, and its power
-to allay hunger, have been taken advantage of by many thousands of people
-who have made a habit of taking it, and Col. Watson’s description of the
-dire results of cocaine-sniffing apply with equal force to those which
-supervene on cocaine-injecting and cocaine-eating, vices that have spread
-with alarming rapidity all over the civilized world.
-
-The cocaine-habit is an unmixed vice. There is no excuse for it; not even
-the excuse that the opium and morphia habits have, _viz._, accident; and
-the person who takes to it, does so wilfully and deliberately. Cocaine
-has a greater power over its votaries than either opium or morphia; the
-after distress is keener; and a slave to it is a slave indeed. And the
-harm it does, and the certainty with which it eventually kills, is truly
-appalling.
-
-[Illustration: A BURMAN COCAINE EATER]
-
-Extreme poverty is frequently a cause of the habit. The abject wretch
-who becomes possessed of a few coppers, realizing that the amount will
-be insufficient for a square meal, buys an innocent looking packet of
-cocaine, and mixing it with a small quantity of the lime-paste used
-by betel-chewers in their quids, smears the mixture on his gums, and
-slowly swallows the saliva. Gone are the cravings for food; a feeling of
-pleasant warmth suffuses his wasted body; he feels equal to any exertion.
-Images are distorted to immense proportions; the stick he holds becomes a
-club of huge dimensions, and he takes great pride in his ability to wield
-it so easily; an empty jam-tin lying near assumes the proportions of a
-five-gallon milk-can; and he takes great pleasure in showing his agility
-in jumping high over the threshold of the door! In all, he considers
-himself to be a very fine, powerful, prepossessing fellow indeed—until
-the effects wear off, and he once more sets off to beg or steal the price
-of another dose of this elevating narcotic.
-
-I once knew a European who was addicted to this drug—he injected it—and a
-more pitiable object it would be difficult to conceive. He was a dentist
-by profession, and the last I heard of him was that he had died by his
-own hand, a frequent termination of this habit, which produces in its
-last stages, a sort of morbid, gloomy, mania or insanity in its victims.
-This individual was the victim of all kinds of hallucinations, and under
-the influence of the drug, was a fluent, and often convincing, liar.
-He invested himself with numerous medical degrees; he went in terror of
-imaginary assailants; and he had a fixed idea that his meagre belongings
-were the envy of murderous burglars. So much so, that on more than one
-occasion he fired off the revolver he carried by day, and placed under
-his pillow by night, at imaginary intruders, to the no small risk of
-other occupants of the house he lived in. The tales of personal adventure
-he related, the accounts he gave of deadly combats with men twice his
-puny size, his stories of his property and wealth at home, were the
-wonder of all to whom he told them, and who were unable to discover in
-him the characteristic effects of the fell drug cocaine.
-
-We are unfortunately without complete information about cocaine, but we
-know enough about it to realize that the habit is spreading with the
-rapidity and devastating effects of a conflagration over the world. As
-far as India and Burma are concerned, the law is stringent and severe,
-and the Dangerous Drugs Bill, which was lately occupying the attention of
-the Home Government, goes far on the road to bringing things at home into
-line with India and Burma.
-
-The Germans discovered a method by which cocaine can be manufactured
-synthetically; and bogey hunters will discover a deep plot to undermine
-the physique and morals of Indians when they are told that the synthetic
-manufacture of cocaine is, to all intents and purposes, a state-aided
-industry. It is classed as an industry, and as such receives the spirit
-used in the preparation of the synthetic drug, duty-free. Ninety per
-cent. of the cocaine imported into this country before the war came from
-Germany.
-
-It would probably surprise the Darmstadt firm, which purveyed almost all
-the cocaine that came to Burma, if they knew that their drachm-phials,
-neatly capsuled, and labelled “Cocaine Hydrochloride,” ought really
-sometimes to have been labelled “Antefebrin,” for that indeed is what
-a great number that were seized by the authorities contained. In
-appearance, cocaine and antefebrin are hard to distinguish from one
-another; and for a long time the results of analyses led the authorities
-to suppose that the manufacturers were defrauding their eastern
-constituents; but the discovery of a complete plant consisting of phials,
-labels, capsules, and a large quantity of antefebrin, eventually cleared
-the name of the doubtless reputable manufacturers, and fastened the guilt
-upon local swindling smugglers.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-HEMP DRUGS.
-
-
-Like the poppy which is cultivated for opium, the hemp plant, _cannabis
-sativa_, is grown for _ganja_, _bhang_, and _churrus_, all highly
-intoxicating drugs; and for its bast fibre which makes such excellent
-rope.
-
-The history of the plant is interesting, but no more than a very brief
-allusion to it is necessary here. The first mention of hemp occurs in
-Chinese literature, about the twenty-eighth century, B.C., when the
-hemp-seed is mentioned as one of the five or nine kinds of grain. It
-is mentioned merely as a “sacred grass” in the _Athavaveda_ about 1400
-B.C. But the narcotic properties of the plant, with which we are chiefly
-concerned, do not seem to have been known until the beginning of the
-fourteenth century A.D. In a Hindu play written about the sixteenth
-century A.D., Siva brings down the _bhang_ plant from the Himalaya, and
-gives it to the worshippers of himself. Of more recent evidence, we have
-the statement of the Emperor Baber, who tells in his _Memoirs_ (1519
-A.D.) of the number of times he had taken _Maajun_. John Lindsay, in his
-_Journal of Captivity in Mysore_ (1781), relates how his soldiers were
-made to eat _Majum_; and lastly, De Quincey, in his _Confessions of an
-English Opium-Eater_, speaks of _Madjoon_, which he inaccurately states
-is a Turkish name for opium.
-
-The hemp plant belongs to the diœcious order of plants, of which the Hop
-is another member. That is to say, the flowers, male and female, are
-borne on separate shrubs. The male hemp plants die early, or are removed
-by hand, an operation which requires expert knowledge of the two plants;
-but the female is tended and looked after until the flowering tops are
-developed. These are then collected and dried, and are called _ganja_.
-The leaves, stalks and trash are collected, and this is called _bhang_;
-while the resin (which is collected by hand, like opium, or sometimes,
-made to adhere to the clothes, or special leather garments, or even the
-skins of men who walk up and down among the growing plants and is then
-scraped off and worked up into a mass by rolling and pressing) is called
-_churrus_. This is really the active principle of the hemp. Its presence
-in the flowering tops, leaves and stalks giving _ganja_ and _bhang_
-their narcotic properties; and _churrus_ is therefore more potent in its
-intoxicating effects than either _ganja_ or _bhang_.
-
-_Ganja_ is a greenish-brown conglomeration of what looks like half-dried,
-tightly pressed grass; _bhang_ is somewhat similar in appearance, but
-looser in form; and _churrus_, the resin itself, is a greenish-brown,
-moist mass. When it has been kept some time, it becomes hard, friable,
-and of a brownish-grey colour. When it assumes this condition and
-colour, it is inert. All have a characteristic, faintly pungent, odour,
-and but slight taste. It is interesting to note that the word _churrus_
-means a “bag” or “skin.” It is believed that the name was applied to the
-drug from the skins or bags in which it used to be imported in olden
-times, from Central Asia.
-
-Indulgence in hemp in India is as common as betel-chewing and tobacco
-smoking. It is, in one or other of its forms, either smoked, or eaten.
-(The sweetmeat _Majum_, is compounded from _bhang_, honey, sugar, and
-spices. Sometimes it is infused in cold water to which butter is added.
-The butter in time takes up the active principle of the drug, and is
-eaten.) And it is computed that the votaries of hemp, in one or other
-of its many forms, number three millions! There is great diversity of
-opinion as to whether hemp is gravely harmful to its consumers, or
-whether it is merely an undesirable form of indulgence without any evil
-permanent effects. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, which examined the
-whole question in detail, was of opinion that it was harmless if indulged
-in moderately, but that the gravest results must follow upon intemperance
-in its use. As regards its being a fruitful cause of insanity, the
-evidence of alienists was taken, and the statistics of all the large
-asylums for the insane in India were examined; but “only 7·3 per cent. of
-lunatics admitted to asylums were those in which hemp could reasonably
-be regarded as having been a factor of importance. Moreover, the form
-of insanity produced yields readily to treatment,” and as hemp has not
-got the same hold that opium has upon individuals, its discontinuance is
-easily effected and immediate restoration of the mental faculties comes
-about.
-
-The moderate use of _ganja_ increases the appetite, and produces a
-condition of cheerfulness. In excess, hallucinations, and a sort of
-delirium is excited, and it is in this aggravated state that a man may
-“run amok.” This is the outstanding evil of the drug: to temporarily
-madden a man. But, for the fatal consequences which often ensue from
-running amok, people are apt to put the whole blame on the drug. May
-it not, however, be that a man whose desire it is to become reckless
-purposely resorts to the drug to hearten himself? I think it is very
-likely. It is often discovered, after a man has run amok, that he has
-for some time been broody or sulky, and suffering under some real or
-imagined wrong. That he should get desperate, and take in excess what he
-well knows to be is an excitant infinitely more powerful than alcohol, in
-order to carry through what he has been longing for some time to do, is
-not altogether unreasonable.
-
-To digress from the subject immediately under discussion; it is common
-in discussing crime and its connection with drink, to hear the view
-expressed that drink is the cause of crime _primâ facie_; whereas it
-often happens that a person intent on revenge cannot bring himself to
-do his neighbour a mischief in cold blood and requires a little “Dutch
-courage” to tune himself up to the pitch of not caring for consequences.
-Too often the crime committed is the result of impetuosity; impetuosity
-exacerbated by drink. We never hear of offences against property being
-attributed to drunkenness; and yet, from the moral standpoint, the
-deliberate commission of theft or robbery is evidential of greater
-obliquity than the passionate striking of one’s enemy with whatever comes
-to hand at the moment.
-
-Medical Jurisprudence is crowded with instances in which hemp has been
-employed in the commission of crimes. A single instance, which came
-within the writer’s personal experience, will however suffice. The Civil
-Surgeon of ... had gone out on tour leaving behind his wife and family
-of three small boys. The bedroom occupied by Mrs. Blank adjoined that
-usually occupied by the doctor, which contained a large, heavy iron
-safe in which was Mrs. Blank’s jewellery and a large sum of money. That
-night, Mrs. Blank and the children retired to bed at the usual hour;
-but upon waking in the morning, she felt unrefreshed and languid. The
-children complained of a like feeling. Going into her husband’s room,
-Mrs. Blank was shocked to find that the safe had disappeared, one of its
-heavy massive handles lay wrenched off upon the floor, and a twisted gun
-barrel near by had too apparently been used ineffectually as a lever. An
-alarm was raised, and the police called in. Mrs. Blank averred that the
-safe was too large and heavy for fewer than six powerful men to carry
-down stairs. That she had been drugged there could be no doubt; she had
-slept and the children had slept through the night undisturbed, and it
-was impossible to conceive how they could otherwise have done so, with
-evidences of such noisy activities abundant in the next room. The safe
-was never found, and the culprits were never brought to book; but the
-discovery of a small patch of cultivated hemp, on some land belonging to
-a man servant who was in the Civil Surgeon’s employ at the time of the
-burglary, made the case clear, and the servant’s complicity morally, if
-not judicially, certain.
-
-
-
-
-L’ENVOI.
-
-A PERSIAN ALLEGORY.
-
-
-Three men, one under the effects of alcohol, one under the effects of
-opium, and the last under the effects of hemp, arrived one night at the
-closed gates of a city. “Let us break down the gates,” said the alcohol
-drinker in a fury of rage, “I can do it with my sword!” “Nay,” said the
-opium eater, “We can rest here outside in comfort till the morning, when
-the gates will be opened, and we may enter.” “Why all this foolish talk?”
-whined the one under the effects of hemp. “Let us creep in through the
-key-hole. We can make ourselves small enough!”
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-AN HISTORICAL NOTE ON OPIUM IN INDIA AND BURMA.
-
-
-It is doubtful whether there is a more valuable drug in the Materia
-Medica than opium. Fundamentally, it is the dried juice of the _Papaver
-Somniferum_ or white poppy, and although all varieties of poppy are
-capable of producing opium, the best comes from the white, and it is this
-variety that is systematically cultivated for the world’s supply of opium.
-
-Opium has been the cause of at least one war, namely, the war between
-England and China, and a perusal of the accounts of piracy in the eastern
-seas during the sixteenth century affords numerous instances of pitched
-battles between traders and pirates whose one object seems to have been
-to get possession of valuable cargoes of opium.
-
-The cultivation of the poppy, as a garden flower at any rate, was
-certainly practised as far back as eight hundred years before Christ.
-Homer, who lived between 800 B.C. and 700 B.C.[6] mentions it in his
-Iliad.[7] Cornelius Nepos also mentions the poppy in Italy; when Tarquin
-indicated to the envoy sent to him by his son Sextus Tarquinius, what he
-wanted done to the chief inhabitants of Etruria, by striking down all the
-tallest poppies in his garden.[8]
-
-Hippocrates, who lived in the fifth century before Christ, and who is
-famous as the founder of Greek medical literature, is the first to
-mention poppy juice, and the virtues of the poppy were undoubtedly known
-to him; but the physical effects of opium were not definitely mentioned
-until the first century before Christ, when Vergil, who lived from 70
-B.C. to 19 B.C., writes of the “Poppy pervaded with Lethean sleep,”[9]
-and the “Sleep-giving poppy.”[10] It may be mentioned in passing, that in
-Greek mythology Lethe is a river that flows through the regions of the
-dead, the waters of which, if drunk by anyone, cause oblivion in regard
-to their past existence.
-
-In the first century after Christ, opium was known as a medicine.
-Opium is mentioned by this name by Pliny[11] and by Dioscorides[12]
-both of whom lived in this century and its soporific effect was well
-known. The poppy was cultivated for opium on the eastern shores of the
-Mediterranean, and as the bulk of the trade between Europe and the Indies
-passed through these countries, it is certain that this drug, whose value
-was known, must have formed a part of the trade, though not, perhaps, to
-such a great extent as to attract attention.
-
-Early in the seventh century after Christ, the religion of Islam was
-established in Arabia. By the commandments of this new religion the
-use of alcohol was absolutely forbidden, and it is supposed that those
-who had been used to alcohol began to use opium and hemp drugs as
-substitutes, the fact that these two drugs were not explicitly mentioned
-being sufficient sanction, apparently, for their use. It seems certain
-that with the spread of Islamism, the use of opium as a stimulant became
-more widely diffused. The Arabs were at that time, to all intents and
-purposes, masters of the eastern seas. They made long voyages, and
-carried on a trade with India and China, and from contemporary literature
-it has been definitely established that it was the Arabs that introduced
-the poppy, and a knowledge of its properties, into China. It is probable
-that opium was used as a stimulant in India also, at this time, but
-nothing is definitely known about this, and the history of the production
-and use of the drug before the sixteenth century is obscure. There are
-many indications, however, that the opium habit came into India in the
-eighth century, when the Arabs invaded and conquered Sind; and as the
-habit spread with the wanderings of the Arabs, there is much in the
-surmise. From this time, up to the end of the eleventh century, the
-Mahomedan invaders brought the greater part of India under their rule
-or influence, and in Portuguese Chronicles, written in the sixteenth
-century, the cultivation of the poppy, the opium habit, the production of
-opium, and its export are talked of as established things. Authorities
-on India conclude, from the inherent reluctance of the Indian to rapidly
-adopt new habits or crops, that the opium habit, and the cultivation of
-the poppy for opium, must have taken at least three hundred years or so
-to develop over such large areas.
-
-The Portuguese discovered the Cape route to India in 1488, but it was
-not till ten years later that they first crossed the Indian Ocean and
-appeared on the west coast of India. They visited all important places
-on the coasts, and the great Islands of the Malay Archipelago, and
-established themselves in many places. They were not welcome, however,
-and were treated as intruders by Oriental traders. Many and fierce were
-the encounters between the Moors, and Arabs, and the intruders, who were,
-in the greater number, buccaneers and pirates rather than merchants.
-Numerous references to opium occur in the literature of those times.
-Vespucci mentions “opium, aloes, and many other drugs too numerous to
-detail” in a list of the cargo carried by Cabral’s fleet from India to
-Lisbon in 1501. In 1511 Giovanni da Empoli mentions the capture of
-eight Gujarat ships laden with opium and other merchandize; and in a
-letter written in 1513 by Albuquerque to the King of Portugal, he says
-“I also send you a man of Aden who knows how to work afyam (opium) and
-the manner of collecting it. If Your Highness would believe me, I would
-order poppies of the Açores to be sown in all the fields of Portugal and
-command afyam to be made, which is the best merchandize that obtains in
-these places, and by which much money is made; owing to the thrashing
-which we gave Aden no afyam has come to India, and where it once was
-worth 12 pardoes a faracolla, there is none to be had at 80. Afyam is
-nothing else, Senhor, but the milk of the poppy; from Cayro (_sic_)
-whence it used to come, none comes now from Aden; therefore, Senhor, I
-would have you order them to be sown and cultivated, because a shipload
-would be used yearly in India, and the labourers would gain much also,
-and the people of India are lost without it, if they do not eat it;
-and set this fact in order, for I do not write to Your Highness an
-insignificant thing.”
-
-Duarte Barbosa[13] (1516) makes several references to opium:—
-
-    Duy (Diu): “They load at this port of the return voyage cotton
-    ... and opium, both that which comes from Aden, and that which
-    is made in the kingdom of Cambay, which is not so fine as that
-    of Aden.”
-
-    Peigu (Burma): “Many Moorish ships assemble at these ports of
-    Peigu, and bring thither much cloth of Cambay and Palecate,
-    coloured cottons and silks, which the Indians call patola,
-    which are worth a great deal here; they also bring opium,
-    copper ... and a few drugs from Cambay.”
-
-    Ava: “The merchants bring here for sale quicksilver, vermilion,
-    coral, copper ... opium, scarlet cloth and many other things
-    from the kingdom of Cambay.” D’Orta described Cambay opium
-    as yellowish, while the Aden variety was black and hard, and
-    apparently the better liked kind.[14]
-
-A Dutchman named Linschoten,[15] in an account of his travels and
-voyages, in 1596, gives an exaggerated account of the effects of opium.
-He says: “Amfion, so called by the Portingales, is by the Arabians, Mores
-(Moors) and Indians called affion, in Latin, opio or opium. It cometh out
-of Cairo in Egypt, and out of Aden upon the coast of Arabia, which is the
-point of the land entering into the Red Sea, sometimes belonging to the
-Portingales, but most part out of Cambaia, and from Deccan; that of Cairo
-is whitish and is called Mecerii; that of Aden and the places bordering
-upon the mouth of the Red Sea is blackish and hard; that which come from
-Cambaia and Deccan is softer and reddish. Amfion is made of sleepeballs,
-or poppie, and is the gumme which cometh forth of the same, to ye
-which end it is cut up and opened. The Indians use much to eat Amfion,
-specially the Malabares, and thither it is brought by those of Cambaia
-and other places in great abundance. He that useth to eate it must eate
-it daylie, otherwise he dieth and consumeth himself. When they begin to
-eate it, and are used unto it, they eate at the least twenty or thirty
-grains in weight everie day, sometimes more; but if for four or five days
-he chanceth to leave it, he dieth without fail. Likewise he that hath
-never eaten it, and will venture at the first to eate as much as those
-that daylie use it, it will surely kill him, for I certainly believe it
-is a kind of poyson. Such as use it goe alwaise as if they were half
-asleepe. They eate much of it because they would not feel any great
-labour or unquietness when they are at work, but they use it most for
-lecherie ... although such as eate much thereof, are in time altogether
-unable to company with a woman and whollie dried up, for it drieth and
-whollie cooleth man’s nature that use it, as the Indians themselves do
-witness. Wherefore it is not much used by the nobilitie, but only for the
-cause aforesaid.”
-
-Cæsar Fredericke,[16] a Venetian merchant, who travelled extensively in
-the East, writes, about 1581, an account of his voyages and some of his
-ventures: “And for because that at my departure from Pegu opium was in
-great request, I went then to Cambay, to employ a good round summe of
-money in opium, and there I bought sixty parcels of opium which cost me
-2,000 and 100 duckets, every ducket at 4 shillings 2 pence....” It is
-interesting to note that one Ralph Fitch,[17] who travelled in the East
-from 1583 to 1591, visited Burma, or Pegu as it was called by voyagers
-then, writes that opium from Cambay and Mecca was in great demand. These
-references, and a great many more could be given, go to show that by the
-sixteenth Century opium was not only well known, but formed an important
-item of maritime trade in the East.
-
-By 1612, the English and Dutch East India Companies had been formed.
-The Dutch had established a trading post or factory at Surat, from
-which they were afterwards expelled by the English Company, and both
-Companies had factories on the Hughli in Bengal. They were not friends,
-and often fought, but they combined against the Portuguese and Spaniards
-who had appeared on the scene a hundred years before, and who looked
-upon all trade from India round the Cape as their monopoly. By the
-beginning of the seventeenth century the Portuguese had lost almost all
-their possessions in India to the Dutch, and their trade had weakened
-and diminished to a point which rendered them almost negligible as
-competitors in trade. At this time, several European nations granted
-monopolies of trade to the Indies, and the French and the Danes now came
-on the scene. It was found impossible, however, to keep out private
-individuals who sought to set up trading factories on their own account,
-despite monopolies, and swarms of these adventurers came in to trade
-in all the valuable articles of merchandize, including opium. They
-looked upon force as their only law, and their depredations on the seas
-perpetrated against the Indian sailors brought about the speedy decay of
-the old native sea-trade.
-
-Although the English Company established a predominance over the Dutch
-in general trade, the latter maintained a lead in the trade in opium.
-They exported it to Ceylon, Malacca and the Straits, and it has been
-ascertained from contemporary chronicles that the Dutch had attempted to
-arrange with Indian Princes to monopolize the export trade of opium to
-China. In this, however, they failed, for the Portuguese, who had always
-had a monopoly of the export of Malwa opium, still held possession of
-their ports on the Cambay Gulf, and so were in a favourable situation for
-this trade.
-
-In those days, as in these, Europeans did not come out to the East for
-the sake of their health. They came out with only one object, and
-that was to make money. Times have not changed since then. It was not
-unnatural therefore that they should look about for as speedy a means
-of amassing a fortune as possible, and found opium. Opium was to be got
-cheap in exchange for the merchandize with which trading ships came laden
-to the East. It was portable and durable, and as it was in great demand
-in the countries east of India it constituted an excellent substitute for
-money with which were purchased silks, tea, spices and pepper for which
-there was a great demand in Europe. It is probable that this demand for
-opium stimulated production and increased the output of opium in India,
-specially since the entry of the Europeans into the field of commerce
-in Eastern waters killed the native sea-trade which used to bring opium
-from Turkey. This increase in the output of opium must not be held to
-indicate an increase in consumption, as has been made out by some. On
-the contrary, it may be inferred that a decrease was brought about by
-the introduction of tobacco in the seventeenth century. When tobacco was
-unknown and the use of alcohol prohibited to Mahomedans, and looked upon
-as disgraceful by Hindoos, it is likely that the opium habit was more
-widely prevalent.
-
-There was little change in the condition of affairs during the greater
-part of the eighteenth century, but a gradual increase in the demand from
-China about the middle of this century came about from the substitution
-of opium smoking for the smoking of tobacco.
-
-The next stage in the history of the subject begins with the occupation
-of Bengal by the British East Indies Company in 1758, but it is first
-necessary to briefly outline how matters stood prior to it in connection
-with the production and sale of opium under Moghul administration.
-
-No restrictions were imposed upon the cultivation of the poppy, and
-the agriculturist was as free to cultivate it as any other crop. He
-could sell his opium to whom he pleased, though generally he sold it
-to the money-lender who advanced him the money with which to begin
-cultivation ... a practice which obtains to this day in places to which
-the co-operative movement has not as yet spread. The opium produced was
-made over to the money-lender at a fixed price, but the rate at which
-the money-lender disposed of this opium was regulated only by the demand
-by European traders, and high prices were obtained. It is very natural
-that the native rulers of the day should have wished to participate to
-some extent in the huge profits made by these private traders, and a
-system was introduced by which a certain part of the profits on opium
-was paid into the State treasuries. This was willingly paid, as the
-burden was borne by the cultivator. As soon as the system came into
-force, the money-lenders formed a ring, and regulated the price paid by
-them for opium to cultivators, and took care to fix it at such a rate
-that the State demand did not deplete their own purses too much. As time
-went on, the confusion of the Moghul Empire, which began and ended, in
-the quarrels of Suraj-ud-Dowlah, did away to some extent with these
-rings, but custom and tradition are so strong in India, particularly
-when supported by men of substance, that when we occupied Bihar, a ring
-of wealthy opium dealers were found to be exercising an unauthorised
-monopoly in Patna opium which we were in too insecure a position to break.
-
-This is how matters stood. But for some time before, the general
-confusion of the Moghul Empire, and its weakened authority, brought about
-a state of turmoil and disorder which obliged European merchants to raise
-troops, and convert their factories into garrisoned fortresses. Clive’s
-victory over Suraj-ud-Dowlah at Plassey in 1757, however, brought things
-to a head, and established the British Company as military masters in
-Bengal. Suraj-ud-Dowlah was dethroned, and Mir Jaffer was set up in his
-place, the administration being confided to him under the general control
-of the Company. But this form of dual government resulted only in the
-oppression of the people, and general maladministration. The servants of
-the Company had always been allowed the privilege of private trade, and
-in this state of affairs they had unique opportunities for trading with
-the greatest advantage to themselves. Opium was, of course, exploited to
-the full, and when, what was known as the Patna Council, a number of the
-Company’s servants, whose business it was to look after the Company’s
-interests in Patna, discovered the existence of the opium ring, they were
-not long in appropriating its functions, and the very solid financial
-advantages it possessed. It is, perhaps, as well to explain that all this
-was done for the benefit of the several members of the Patna Council,
-and not on behalf of their employer. But the Council found that to avoid
-trouble it was necessary to admit the Dutch and French Company’s servants
-who were naturally anxious to share in this unauthorized trade, and they
-very wisely admitted them, but to a minor share only.
-
-In 1773, Warren Hastings was made the first Governor-General, and one
-of the first reforms he undertook was the suppression of private trade
-among the Company’s servants, and of all irregular and unauthorised
-monopolies. When the Patna opium monopoly came to be examined, it was
-found to involve important considerations, and, after a full discussion
-in Council, it was decided not to set it free, but to make it a source of
-revenue to the State. It is to be expected that there were many against
-this, and various arguments were offered against the measure, but these
-were met satisfactorily; the Moghul monopolies had existed for years,
-and there was nothing novel in the creation of one properly regulated.
-Besides, the cultivators would be better treated, and would be less at
-the mercy of private traders and interlopers. The argument that if left
-free, more opium would be produced, was answered by Warren Hastings
-holding that increase was undesirable in the case of a pernicious luxury.
-Strangely enough, a strong line of opposition was taken by Francis, who
-was against all monopolies on general principles, and by the Board of
-Directors of the British East India Company, on the score of its being a
-form of oppression. They suggested leaving the trade free, subject to a
-Customs duty. His non-compliance with these instructions was one of the
-articles of Warren Hastings’ impeachment later: “That this monopoly was
-a despotic interference with the liberty of the ryot, and that he should
-have complied with the Directors’ suggestion.”
-
-The working of this new monopoly did not differ in essentials from the
-old form. The opium was collected from the cultivators by a contractor,
-but instead of its being handed over to the Patna Council, it was taken
-to Calcutta, where the bulk of it was sold by auction to the highest
-bidder. The balance was divided between the Dutch, French, and the
-commercial side of the British East Indies Companies at average auction
-prices.
-
-The revised conditions under which this new State monopoly worked ensured
-the best opium coming into the Company’s hands. It also did away with
-“middle-men,” and all the profits which would have gone to cultivators
-if they had been allowed free trade. It is not unnatural, therefore,
-that some one should conceive the idea of securing the profits made
-by the sea-traders as well. In 1775, the revenue officers of Patna
-estimated that if the Dutch and French were kept out of the trade, 33,000
-chests of Bengal and Bihar opium would be available for export, and
-suggested that the Company should export this to China, where it could
-be sold at an immense profit. The letter was considered in Council,
-but the suggestion was dropped by common consent without discussion.
-Warren Hastings, however, suggested an alternative of direct official
-agency, to the exclusion of the contractor, but this motion was lost by
-a majority, and the matter was closed. But in 1781 a state of affairs
-arose in which the Company found itself sadly short of money. We were
-at war with the French, Dutch, and Spaniards, at sea, and with Hyder
-Ali and the Maharattas on land. In consequence our ports were closed
-to foreign trade, the seas were not safe for ships flying the British
-flag, and all available merchant ships were employed in carrying grain
-and other supplies to Madras. Opium was unsaleable at Calcutta. It was
-under such conditions that it was decided to export opium to China,
-and, accordingly, the ‘_Nonsuch_’ with 2,000 chests, was sent to the
-supercargoes at Canton, and the ‘_Betsey_’ with 1,450 chests to the
-Straits of Malacca. A loan of 10 lakhs of rupees was raised on the cargo
-of the ‘_Betsey_,’ to be repaid by bills of exchange on the Company from
-the Canton supercargoes. Another loan of 10 lakhs was raised from the
-public on the cargo of the ‘_Nonsuch_’ on similar terms. The ‘_Betsey_,’
-after disposing of part of her cargo to advantage, was captured by the
-French and Dutch. The cargo of the ‘_Nonsuch_’ was disposed of at a
-loss after much difficulty on account of the prohibition of the import
-of opium by the Chinese, and on account of the “immense quantities” of
-opium brought to Macao by Portuguese ships before the arrival of the
-‘_Nonsuch_.’ The loss on this venture was 69,973 dollars.
-
-The Board of Directors, on hearing of this venture, which was undoubtedly
-an exception to the course of policy pursued by the East India Company
-in regard to the trade, while holding that there was no objection to the
-sale of opium in the Straits of Malacca, condemned the action of its
-representatives in exporting opium to China, where the import of opium
-was prohibited, as being beneath the dignity of the Company.
-
-No more opium was exported to China, and the working of the monopoly
-remained unchanged until it was reformed, and the system of direct
-official agency was introduced by Lord Cornwallis. This system has
-remained in force up to the present.
-
-_Malwa Opium._—The first factory established by the British East Indies
-Company on the West Coast of India was at Surat in 1613. The Portuguese
-and Dutch had already established themselves here, and all of them
-participated in the opium trade to some extent. The Dutch were eventually
-expelled by the British who, as the Moghul power diminished, and the
-Maharattas became the rulers, assumed a commanding political position.
-But owing to their having a minor share in the territories along the
-coast, the major portion belonging to native princes and the Portuguese,
-although they could participate in the trade in Malwa opium, they were
-unable to assume a monopoly.
-
-By the end of the eighteenth century, the State monopoly in Bengal had
-been firmly established, and good prices were being got for export opium.
-It was with a certain amount of apprehension therefore that they looked
-upon the trade in Malwa opium from the West Coast, and in 1803, this
-apprehension developing into something stronger, an order was issued
-prohibiting the export of Malwa opium from the Bombay ports. In 1805,
-the Bombay Government was asked to prohibit the cultivation of the poppy
-within the territories, some of which were newly acquired; but this
-order was demurred to, and the Directors concurred, holding that the
-cultivation was for opium for local consumption only, and not for export,
-and therefore unobjectionable.
-
-At this time smuggling was rife. There were many routes, some very
-circuitous, by which the opium could be got to the sea-coast without
-trespassing upon the territories of the Company, but after 1818, when
-the third Maharatta war resulted in our getting possession of the whole
-of the Bombay sea-coast except Sind, how to get to the sea was a problem
-which confronted smugglers with increased complexity. But even so, the
-authorities were always faced with the danger of smuggled opium competing
-with Bengal opium and lowering its price. Treaties were therefore entered
-into with some of the States which had most reason to be grateful to us,
-by which they undertook to prohibit the export of the opium produced in
-their possessions, to check the cultivation of the poppy, and to sell
-what opium was produced to the agents of the Company at a certain fixed
-price. The arrangement did not differ materially from the system adopted
-in Bengal. But there were other States, such as Scindia and Jeypore,
-which refused to enter into alliances on these terms, and a time came
-when those who had signed treaties began to look upon the conditions they
-had agreed to as repressive. Merchants, who had been dispossessed of
-their profits by this system, were greatly in its disfavour, and there
-was no doubt about the disapproval of these measures by cultivators who
-were deprived of all the advantages of a competitive trade. In 1829 it
-was therefore decided to abandon this system in lieu of another, which
-required that a certain transit duty be paid on all opium passing through
-British territory to Bombay for export to China. This transit or pass
-duty was fixed at Rs. 175 a chest, but it varied, rising as it did in
-1892 to Rs. 600 a chest. This system still exists in regard to Malwa
-opium.
-
-All the details of legislation and regulation which concern this subject
-certainly come within the scope of this note, but their sketchy
-treatment is made necessary by considerations of space. A relation of
-the Chinese aspect would fill a volume, and no attempt is made here to
-describe it. But I feel that this note would not be complete without some
-reference to Burma.
-
-That the use of opium was known in Burma long before British rule was
-introduced is evident from the records of Fitch and of Cæsar Fredricke,
-who visited Burma in the latter half of the sixteenth century. From the
-records of the Dutch East India Company also, Burma, it is seen, was
-looked upon as a good market for opium. It is very probable, therefore,
-that the luxury use of opium was practised by the Burmese people. The
-Buddhist religion prohibits the use of all intoxicants, and the edicts,
-issued by the State from time to time against their use, and later on,
-against opium in particular, appear to have been inspired by the Buddhist
-hierarchy. But it does not appear that the import of opium into Burma
-was prohibited by any measure of State prior to its annexation by the
-British. In the enquiry of 1891, Mr. Norton, Commissioner of Irrawaddy,
-wrote that, before the annexation of Pegu in 1852, although capital
-punishment was prescribed for Burmans found with opium, yet opium was
-plentiful and easy to get at a cheaper rate than when he was writing.
-Several respectable Burmese gentlemen who were consulted during 1878
-admitted that opium was freely used always.
-
-Arakan and Tenasserim were annexed in 1826 after the first Burmese
-war and were attached to the Bengal Presidency for the purposes of
-administration under the Deputy Governor of Bengal, and it was not until
-1862 that they, along with Pegu, were formed into the province of British
-Burma under the Chief Commissioner, Sir Arthur Phayre.
-
-In 1826, the retail sale of opium in Bengal was conducted under the
-farming system. By this system certain tracts were farmed out to selected
-persons either by tender or by auction. These farmers were obliged to
-purchase Excise opium from the Government opium factories at a fixed
-price, which included the cost price and duty. This system was extended
-to Arakan and Tenasserim. As time went on, this system of opium farms
-was found to be bad and was replaced by the issue of free licenses
-to respectable persons. As Arakan was in a favourable position for
-smuggling, this system of free licenses was introduced there also, but
-Tenasserim, which did not afford the same facilities for smuggling, was
-allowed to retain the old system. That the system was unsatisfactory,
-chiefly on account of its tendency to cheapen opium, is apparent from a
-statement made by an old inhabitant of Akyab to Colonel Strover during
-the inquiry of 1891 that he had seen Government opium hawked about for
-sale in the streets during the early days of British rule. In 1864 Sir
-Arthur Phayre strongly condemned this new system, and in 1865 he drew
-up a set of rules which were brought into effect in 1866. The spirit
-of these rules is observed up to the present day in regard to the limit
-placed upon the quantity of opium which may be purchased by a licensee
-during a year for sale at his shop.
-
-How things stood in Upper Burma at this time can be inferred from a
-report made to the Government of India by Sir Charles Crosthwaite under
-date 20th March, 1888. “On our taking over the country, stringent rules
-were enacted and somewhat rigorously enforced against the sale of
-opium. Many Chinese were flogged and otherwise punished for engaging in
-a traffic which, although it may have been nominally prohibited, was
-allowed to go on under the Burmese Government.” From the statement of
-an official of the Burmese Government it would appear that the Burmese
-Government never openly recognized the opium traffic in Upper Burma;
-those persons only were punished who sold opium to Burmans. The Burmese
-Government admitted the existence of the traffic by levying customs dues
-on all opium imported into Upper Burma. In 1872, the British Political
-Agent reported that large quantities of Shan and Yünnan opium were being
-imported into Upper Burma and also smuggled. A Mr. Adams, of the American
-Baptist Mission, who was at Mandalay from 1874 to 1879, states that
-the _pôngyis_ took great pains to suppress the consumption of opium by
-Burmans, with the hearty support of King Mindon, who was a great zealot
-in religion, much under the influence of the priesthood, and active in
-supporting every endeavour to enforce the law of prohibition. But this
-law was personal to the Burmans, and not a territorial law. Other races
-were under no restrictions in the matter of opium or liquor, and when
-our troops took Mandalay in 1885, enormous stores of opium were found
-secreted in the houses of Chinese merchants who said that they sold it
-regularly to Burmans. It is true that under King Thebaw’s rule most of
-King Mindon’s edicts became dead letters, and even _pôngyis_ became
-addicted to opium.
-
-The opium question attracted much interest, both locally and in England.
-The Anti-Opium Society took it up and much correspondence took place,
-which resulted in the total prohibition of opium to Burmans in Upper
-Burma and the rigid restriction of issues to them in Lower Burma. The
-reason for this is concisely put by Sir A. Mackenzie, Chief Commissioner
-of Burma, in a Minute: “I do not believe that opium in India or China
-does any great harm to the majority of those who use it, _i.e._, to
-moderate smokers and eaters. But here, in Burma, we are brought face to
-face with the fact that the religion of the people specifically denounces
-the use of the drug; that their native kings treated its use as a heinous
-offence; that these ideas are so deeply rooted in the minds of the
-people that every consumer feels himself to be, and is, regarded by his
-neighbours as a sinner and a criminal; that the people are by temperament
-pleasure-loving and idle and easily led away by vicious indulgences;
-that they have little self-restraint and are always prone to rush into
-extremes. When a Burman takes to drink or opium he wants to get drunk or
-drugged as fast as he can, or as often as he can. All this seems to me to
-point to the necessity of special treatment.”
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES
-
-
-[1] For a full account of the history of opium, see the Appendix at the
-end of the book.
-
-[2] One tola is equivalent to 180 grains. Eighty tolas equal one _seer_.
-
-[3] Government does not vend opium directly to the people. A selected
-“licensee” undertakes this under the supervision of a Government officer,
-usually an Excise Inspector.
-
-[4] _Chandoo_, the Indian name for prepared or clarified opium used in
-smoking. The Burmese name for it is _Beinsi_.
-
-[5] Three tolas is 540 grains, or 1½ oz.
-
-[6] Mahaffy, “History of Classical Greek Literature,” 1-81.
-
-[7]
-
-    “Down sank his head, as in a garden sinks
-    A ripened poppy charg’d with vernal rains;
-    So sank his head beneath his helmet’s weight.”
-
-Iliad. (Lord Derby’s translation, VIII.)
-
-[8] “Huic, nuntio, quia, credo, dubiæ fidei videbatur, nihil voce
-responsum est, Rex, velut deliberabundus, in hortum ædium transit,
-sequente nuntio filii: ibi inambulans tacitus, sum apapaverum capita
-dicitur baculo decussisse.” Livy i., 54.
-
-[9] “Lethæo perfusa papavera somno.” Georg.: i, 78.
-
-[10] “Soporiferumque papaver.” Aeneid: iv, 486.
-
-[11] “Natural History.”
-
-[12] “Materia Medica.”
-
-[13] “The Coasts of East Africa and Malabar,” by Duarte Barbosa.
-Translated from the Spanish and edited for the Haklvyt Society by the
-Hon’ble H. E. J. Stanley in 1866.
-
-[14] Paper by Dr da Cunha in the transactions of the Medical and Physical
-Society of Bombay, 1882.
-
-[15] “Discourse of voyages unto ye Easte and West Indies.”
-
-[16] “Haklvyt’s voyages,” Volume IX, Asia, Part II.
-
-[17] “Haklvyt’s voyages,” Volume X, Asia, Part III.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Drug Smuggling and Taking in India and
-Burma, by Roy K. Anderson
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