Indentured labourers
THE ship Leonidas arrived at Levuka, bringing the first batch of indentured labourers to Fiji on Wednesday, May 14, 1879.
She was anchored outside Waitovu Village, Ovalau while waiting for clearance by authorities.
It was later found that the Leonidas had passengers suffering from cholera, dysentery and smallpox.
Seventeen passengers were reported dead, 11 because of cholera and six because of dysentery so government officials took all precautions necessary.
The ship’s medical officer was Dr Welsh.
A cordon of four police boats were arranged at suitable distances around the Leonidas while the schooner Elizabeth sailed from Nasova and anchored in Waitovu waters as a relieving and guard ship.
Dr McGregor, the chief medical officer of the colony at the time, devised a very ingenious method of preventing any ship contagion from reaching ashore during the process of sending stores and letters to the ship.
A stage was erected on the reef with a moving platform. Stores for the ship were placed on the platform at low tide and taken off by the ship’s boat.
The stage was then demolished until the next low tide, when it was re-erected. All letters were placed in a carbonic acid bottle and were fumigated before delivery.
The Leonidas had on board 373 males, 149 female passengers from Calcutta. Two buffaloes were also on the ship.
The Fiji Times of May 17, 1879 read: “It is sincerely hoped that all officers of the Government will be at their post and duty and that every assistance will be rendered to prevent any contagion reaching these shores”.
Between 1879 and 1916, a total of 42 ships made 87 voyages, carrying Indian indentured labourers to Fiji.
Initially the ships brought labourers from Calcutta, but from 1903 all ships except two also brought labourers from Madras. A total of 60,965 passengers left India but 60,553 (including births at sea) arrived in Fiji.
A total of 45,439 boarded ships in Calcutta and 15,114 in Madras.
Sailing ships took, on average, seventy-three days for the trip while steamers took 30 days.
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