injured. In Nasik district, in January 1898,
the native chairman of the plague committee was brutally murdered by a
mob. But on the whole the people submitted with characteristic docility
to the sanitary regulations of the government. Bombay, like the Central
Provinces, suffered from famine twice within three years. The failure of
the monsoon of 1896 caused widespread distress throughout the Deccan,
over an area of 46,000 sq. m., with a population of 7 millions. The
largest number of persons on relief was 301,056 in September 1897; and
the total expenditure on famine relief was Rs. 1,28,000,000. The
measures adopted were signally successful, both in saving life and in
mitigating distress. In 1899 the monsoon again failed in Gujarat, where
famine hitherto had been almost unknown; and the winter rains failed in
the Deccan, so that distress gradually spread over almost the entire
presidency. The worst feature was a virulent outbreak of cholera in
Gujarat, especially in the native states. In April 1900 the total number
of persons in receipt of relief was 1,281,159 in British districts,
566,671 in native states, and 71,734 in Baroda. For 1900-1901 the total
expenditure on famine relief was nearly 3 crores (say, L2,000,000
sterling); and a continuance of drought necessitated an estimate of 1
crore in the budget of the following year. The Bombay government
exhausted its balances in 1897, and was subsequently dependent on grants
from the government of India.

See Sir James Campbell, _Gazetteer of Bombay_ (26 vols., 1896); S.M.
Edwardes, _The Rise of Bombay_ (1902); James Douglas, _Bombay and
Western India_ (1893); and Sir William Lee-Warner, _The Presidency of
Bombay_ (Society of Arts, 1904); _The Imperial Gazetteer of India_
(Oxford, 1908); and for the early history, V.A. Smith, _The Early
History of India_ (2nd ed., Oxford, 1908).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] V.A. Smith, _Early History of India_, p. 295.

BOMBAZINE, or BOMBASINE, a stuff originally made of silk or silk and
wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. Good
bombazine is made with a silk warp and a worsted weft. It is twilled or
corded and used for dress-material. Black bombazine has been used
largely for mourning, but the material has gone out of fashion. The word
is derived from the obsolete French _bombasin_, applied originally to
silk but afterwards to "tree-silk" or cotton. Bombazine is said to have
been made in England in Queen