In his early 50s, the ailing “Ragoo” knew that he might not last through the tough journey from British Guiana (BG) to India, yet he optimistically insisted on returning home. The estimated $26 000 in overall savings declared by some 200 of the 1838-indentured labourers on two chartered ships was officially insured “against any accident” on the orders of the Governor and the Court of Policy, but at least four of the aspiring returnees grew apprehensive about risking their lives and finally decided to turn back at the eleventh hour.
According to the Parliamentary Papers for the period, a medical inspection of the 70 individuals from Plantations Bellevue, Wales, and Vriedestein was carried out by the doctor assigned to the “Louisa Baillie” the American-born surgeon Thomas Moore, and BG’s Colonial Surgeon, Daniel Blair.
The medical pair reported in their April 28, 1843 assessment, that repatriation Immigrant Number 60, Ragoo showed, “chronic rheumatism, old age, and debility” and was “not likely to survive the voyage.” Seemingly resigned to his grim fate, the middle-aged man would have suffered from the painful inflammatory disease throughout his five indentured years, initially on the notorious Vreed-en-Hoop plantation owned by the scheme’s mastermind, the wealthy Scotsman, John Gladstone, and later at Wales, where the work force was transferred.
