Sea of Poppies

As Deeti, Kabutri, and Kalua enter Ghasipur, they encounter a large group of girmitiyas, or indentured servants being herded to be transported, first to Calcutta, then to Mauritius. Deeti is filled with wonder and pity for the migrants: “How was it possible that the marchers could stay on their feet, knowing what lay ahead? […] And to know also that for the rest of [their] days [they] would eke out a living on some wild, demon-plagued island?” (71). When a guard describes the ship they’ll travel on, though, Deeti reacts with shock, as it describes the ship in her vision; “a tremor of dread” runs through her as she grows fearful that the ship is her destiny (71).

On the Ibis, Benjamin Burnham arrives to inspect his new ship. Burnham carries “that special kind of authority that suggests an upbringing of wealth and privilege,” but this is misleading, as Burnham is famously self-made (72). As a child, Burnham was constantly in trouble, so his parents shipped him out on an East India Company tea-wagon in order to teach him discipline. This proved to be unsuccessful, and he was sent off to the British penal colony of Port Blair, where he found employment with the prison chaplain, whose methods of reform were extremely harsh.