ON August 6 the Colonial Secretary wrote to the Acting Stipendiary Magistrate, Savusavu asking him if he had taken any steps to address the suggestion by the Acting Stipendiary Magistrate, Macuata, A. E. Bailey that the remaining four lepers were in Savusavu.
He added that if he had not done so, he should begin enquiries and offer a reward for their arrest.
He said that upon arrest arrangements should be made for their segregation pending transfer to Makogai.
He noted that it was advisable for him to charter a cutter for this purpose and that he was authorised to incur any necessary expense in the matter. He concluded by saying that if he was unable to charter a cutter, he should report the issue to him.
The Acting Stipendiary Magistrate, Savusavu replied to the Colonial Secretary on August 19.
He said that upon receipt of the letter and the instructions given, he immediately sent out a circular to all the Bulis of his district informing them of the possibility that four escaped lepers may be in the area.
He added that he had made many enquiries but failed to determine the whereabouts of the escapees.
He received information on June 20 that a man had been stealing food from Mr Cooper’s land at Wailevu and living in the bush in the area.
Being sure it was one of the escaped lepers, he sent an interpreter and a constable to locate him.
However, after two days, it was found that the culprit was only a local Fijian.
He said that he had continually been making enquiries and that constables had been despatched all over the district trying to locate the escapees.
He had also kept the Chief Medical Officer updated on the situation.
He noted that following the instructions given by him to offer rewards, he had posted notices and sent copies of the notices to Europeans and written to all the Bulis of the district. By early August, the authorities had captured four of the Makogai Eight.
On August 7, the Acting Stipendiary Magistrate, Macuata, Mr Bailey sent the Colonial Secretary a telegram that read: “Five lepers despatched by a cutter to Makogai yesterday these included four escaped lepers. Magistrate.”
On the same day, he wrote a letter to the Colonial Secretary describing the capture of two of lepers.
He said that they had great trouble in capturing them but was only able to do so with the assistance of the Buli, Labasa and some natives and after offering a reward of £1 per head.
He described how upon pursuit, the men took to the bush.
They were finally apprehended but with great difficulty. He also said he had enclosed a voucher for £2 in payment of the reward, a voucher for £7 for the charter of the cutter and one for 17 shillings and 4 pence for payment for rations for the lepers during their passage to Makogai.
He also explained that the fifth leper, an Indian man named Barku, should have been transferred to Makogai in May 1912 but had escaped at Malau before embarkation.
On August 12, almost four months after their escape, four of the eight men, Autar, Narunjan, Herai and Gajadhar, arrived at the Makogai Leper Colony under the supervision of an Indian constable.
Medical Superintendent Hall, wrote to the Chief Medical Officer, George William Augustus Lynch on August 20 describing the condition of the men and how they dealt with them upon their return.
He said that Narunjan was in a “wretchedly weak condition” and the only punishment meted out to him was confiscating some of the tobacco he had brought with him.
Gajadhar was also in a bad way but was locked up for three days and given a hospital diet as he had always been more troublesome than the others.
Hall explained that Autar and Herai were “two extremely troublesome men” and were locked up for seven days on a restricted diet.
He said they confiscated all tobacco from the four.
It is not precisely clear when the authorities captured the remaining four escapees, but the records show they eventually caught and sent them back
to Makogai.
It can be said with certainty though that even six months after their escape, the authorities had not located them.
A letter of October 8 sent by Lynch to the Colonial Secretary, expresses frustration over the “difficulty of recapturing the eight men who escaped
this year” adding, “only four of them have been sent back to Makogai.”
The status of the men is also unclear from a telegram sent on November 17 by the Acting Stipendiary Magistrate, Macuata to the Colonial Secretary.
In it, he said that a cutter was waiting to transport two escaped lepers to Makogai and asked if they could send a leper by the name of Bhagwat Singh in anticipation of the Governor’s orders.
There is no indication that the lepers referred to were the Makogai Eight.
So what eventually became of the Makogai Eight?
Using Sections 20 and 21 of the “Leper Ordinance, 1911”, the Governor had all the individuals repatriated to India.
The first to be repatriated was Gujadhur.
He was released from Makogai on May 2, 1915, and sent back to India on May 13 of the same year.
Four of the Makogai Eight – Herai, Hardat, Beni and Etwara – were discharged from Makogai on September 4, 1916, and repatriated on September 6, 1916, on the S. S. Chenab.
Narunjan was discharged from Makogai on May 30, 1920, and repatriated on June 7 of the same year on the S. S. Ganges.
Records show that the authorities released Bigan from Makogai on September 4, 1916, but did not repatriate him until August 30 1920.
Autar left Makogai on August 24 and was sent back to India six days later on August 30, 1920.
One of the outcomes of the Makogai incident was an amendment to the “Leper Ordinance, 1911” – the “Leper Amendment Ordinance, 1913” – that
imposed a fine or term of imprisonment on anyone who knowingly harboured or concealed a person suffering from leprosy.
In his letter of October 8 to the Colonial Secretary, Lynch highlighted the omission of such a provision in the “Leper Ordinance, 1911”.
He said that the Makogai authorities also raised this oversight with the Governor on his visit to the island.
Lynch noted that the difficulty faced in recapturing the eight lepers was due in part to the harbouring of the escapees by members of the public.
In late December 1913, a group of native Fijian lepers from Makogai wrote to the Colonial Secretary informing him that their wives had become wayward in their absence and had entered into relations with other men, pleading with him to intervene in the matter.
This episode lends insight into a possible reason why some of the Makogai Eight chose to escape. Leprosy was not only physically debilitating, but it was also emasculating.
Any married man afflicted with the illness was forced to live away from his wife for a prolonged period.
In his absence, it was perhaps natural for his spouse to seek solace in the arms of other men.
Apart from Bigan’s wife Dukhni, who had died earlier, none of the wives of the other escapees went back to India with their spouses, and it would not be farfetched to assume that they had moved on with their lives and entered into relations with other men.
Perhaps following the example of the Makogai Eight, there was an attempt on January 7, 1914, by five native Fijian lepers to escape from Makogai in two canoes.
However, on this occasion, the authorities acted quickly, arresting the men while they were in their canoes before they could set out to sea.
It is unclear whether these were the same men who had written to the Colonial Secretary complaining about their wives. However, it is entirely possible.
- Dr Anurag Subramani has taught English Literature, History and Creative Writing at USP. He is currently an independent researcher and writer working on “A People’s History Project.” The author would like to thank the staff of the National Archives of Fiji Library, Aisha Azeemah and Christine Liava’a for their assistance. Please email the author on anuragsub121@ gmail.com for feedback.
