When the British took over the Bombay Island from Portuguese, they quickly realised it to be a very unhealthy place. Its air and water affected them badly. Sickness and mortality were high among the European residents as the following extracts from letters, written by council in 1671, show: “Is a very sickly time with us, there being at least 45 soldiers sick and both Dr. Powell and Dr. Boicet given over; We have a very sickly time of it here, not one of us enjoy our healths hardly a week together. Dr. Powell is dead; We have still many of our men desperately ill and some dye (die) almost daily; We find no abatement … which carry off daily one or other away – not two of us in the Fort well, but some dangerously ill.”

It was not without reason that someone called Bombay “in which two monsoons were the age of a man”.

in which two monsoons were the age of a man

Continued unhealthy conditions caused great despair. Nicholas Waite, the Deputy Governor of Bombay, in 1706 described Bombay as “this beggarly, ruined but fertile island” and stated:  “most of us (are) often sick in this unhealthful depopulated and ruined island”. Next year, in January 1707, he wrote to the Company: “My continued indisposition …. till I leave this place or the world.”

till I leave this place or the world

The medical treatment  available was far from satisfactory. The conditions can be surmised from John Burnell’s description of the Hospital (1710) – “It is seldom empty from the unhealthiness of the place.  It is enough to make a man die with the thoughts of going into it, for it stands hardly fifty yards off of the high grave.  …. so many have gone in ill and have come out so well that they never ailed anything after.” 

come out so well that they never ailed anything after

The unhealthy climate of Bombay was attributed to the exhalations from the putrid fish or kuta with which the lands were manured, which it was felt, polluted both the air as well as water of the island. John Burnell wrote: “The buckshe (buckshaw) is a confused mixture of small fish and fry, as samall, pomplits, prous, shrimps and pieces of bombalos. These are bought by the great and the way of preparing them is by digging a square pit in the ground, according to the quantity of your fish, six or eight feet deep, which being put in and covered, lie rotting in the ground a month or two till it is turned all to a slimy mud. Then it is taken out and applied to the roots of coco trees. The moisture of the dung soaking into the tree causeth great fruitfulness. This was generally used all over the Island, till by order it was prohibited, sending forth noxious vapours, which poisoned the air with its contagious fumes and was judged to be one great cause of the unhealthiness of the Island.”

that affects both the brains and lungs of Europeans

Captain Alexander Hamilton, in 1727, thus introduced the island of Bombay to his readers:   “Its ground is steril (sterile), and not to be improved. It has but little good water on it, and the air is somewhat unhealthful, which is chiefly imputed to them dunging their cocoa-nut trees with Buckshoe (Buckshaw), a sort of small fishes which their sea abounds in. They being laid to the roots of the trees, putrify, and cause a most unsavoury smell; and in the mornings there is generally seen a thick fog among those trees, that affects both the brains and lungs of Europeans, and breed consumptions, fevers, and fluxes.”

(Note: Buckshaw is believed to be bombil or Bombay Duck, though Burnell mentions both buckshe and bombalos – “The fish mostly taken are carvenas and buckshe, besides pomplits and bombalos”. In the above description Burnell, however, made it out to be the process of manuring a mix of the various small fish caught. Dr. John Fryer indicates ‘bubsho’ to mean rotten fish. Lateron, the term ‘Buckshawing’ seems to have become a common term to denote the applying of fish manure to the trees and the ground.)

Recognising the need to stop this practice of manuring with putrid fish,  a prohibition was placed on this practice. However, over the next decades, the practice was repeatedly prohibited and again permitted. Therefore:

In 1672: “As this practice is beneficial to the natives, and not so offensive to the people as to prejudice their healths, we think it may continue.”

In 1674:  “dunging the palmeiras and batty grounds with babaxim (small fish) shall be still permitted, reserving (excluding) the ground which is comprehended within the line of the city.”

In 1708, the Court writes to the Bombay Government: “The buckshawing or dunging the toddy trees with fish, occasions in a great measure the unwholesomeness of the Bombay air. Of this the venomous and putrid Buckshaw fly which swarm in such abundance as to be very nauseous to the inhabitants is a plain proof. If the trees were not buckshawed, the loss of their fruitfulness would be repaid by the general benefit of rendering the place healthy.”

In 1724, the landowners and tillers continued to protest against the ban “since the prohibition of fish …. some of their trees decay away suddenly in their full strength.” And the Board “agreed for the present to tolerate the use of dried fish, so far as the Portuguese church in a direct line to the sea”. In fact Company’s oarts at Bombay and Mahim were let out with the specific condition: “All plants that are or shall be planted in those oarts …. are to be manured with fish at the charge of the Honourable Company …. putting to each tree a sufficient quantity and to take care the same be mixed with earth and buried according to the proclamation to prevent any offensive smell; otherwise to be liable to the penalty.”

since the prohibition of the manure, the island has been healthier than heretofore

In 1736 another appeal: “four years past, the manure of kuta or small dry fish for the said oarts and batty grounds has been prohibited, and that the trees cannot produce fruit”. The Board observed: “since the prohibition of the manure, the island has been healthier than heretofore. …. Therefore it is agreed that for the present the prohibition thereof now in force be confirmed”. Then a modified appeal: “…. confining the prohibition of this manure only to Bombay and places more immediately in the neighbourhood of any considerable number of English inhabitants; and permitting the same … in the district of Mahim” and the Board observed: “we are inclined to believe that though the use of kuta in the parts about Mahim would not affect the water at Bombay, yet that it would so far infect the air as to create a nauseous scent that would be prejudicial to the healths of the inhabitants, the English in particular”.

In 1765, on an appeal from Kunbis to use of dry buckshaw for the manure of their batty grounds it was agreed: “notwithstanding the publication against it, to permit of the Kunbis using dry buckshaw for manure, but not wet upon any account”.

In 1770, “Notwithstanding the strictest prohibition against using kuta or buckshaw, whether wet or dry, as manure, information has lately been given to the President of six persons who have been detected guilty of this very pernicious practice. … it is agreed to levy a fine of Rs. 50 for the first offence and Rs. 100 for every other-half to the Honourable Company and half to the informers. A publication to this effect is to be issued accordingly.”

However, in spite of this penalty the practice did not cease. In 1786 it was declared: “As it appears a bad use has been made of the indulgence granted to the inhabitants in August 1765 of manuring their grounds with buckshaw, resolved that a publication be issued prohibiting in the most peremptory terms the use of this manure whether wet or dry; and that none be made on the island but on the places expressly allotted for that purpose.”

And so it continued. Meantime, with the construction of bunds across all the breaches, over almost a century all the wastelands within the island became available for productive use. As the city continued to grow the trees and the batty fields all disappeared.

And the stench of the fish was overtaken by another stench.

Post Script:

I have come across the following explanation for ‘Buckshaw’ in Materials Towards Statistical Account of the Town and Island of Bombay Vol.I, 1893: Colonel Yule (Hobson-Jobson, 89) under the word Buckshaw gives the Konkani ‘boussa’ little fish of all kinds. He doubts whether boussa is the correct form and also whether it is correctly applied to more than one kind of fish. Enquiry in Bombay and in Karwar support the correctness of Col. Yule’s authority. The word is ‘baushe’ or ‘baushem’ a Konkan term for fry (juvenile fish) still in use in Goa and Kanara (Dr. G. Da Cunha; Mr. J. Davidson, I.C.S.).

Bibliography:

1. Bombay in the Days of Queen Anne – John Burnell, 1710
2. A New Account of the East Indies – being Observations and Remarks of Capt. Alexander Hamilton, Vol 1, 1727
3. Materials Towards Statistical Account of The Town and Island of Bombay Vol. III By J M Campbell, Collector Of Bombay, 1894