Photo credit: British Library
“It has been my misfortune to be attacked with small-pox while en route for India. This circumstance will necessitate a twenty-one days’ quarantine at Malta, at the expiration of which time I shall continue my journey by the first ship I can get.” It’s a salary claim, signed by J. Broughton, Esq, chemist to the Indian Chinchona Plantation, and addressed to the Revenue Department at Fort Saint George, the first English fortress in the country, founded in 1644. The letter is dated 4th January, 1867. Broughton had submitted a claim for arrears of pay on the grounds he was delayed in taking up his duties as chemist because he contracted smallpox and was in quarantine.
