Robert Traill Hall,[240] a month after
Captain Caffin's letter was published, says, "the distress was nothing
in Captain Caffin's time compared with what it is now." On reading
Captain Caffin's letter, one would suppose, that destitution could not
reach a higher point than the one at which he saw it. That letter fixed
the attention of the Government upon Skull, and yet, strange result,
after a month of such attention, the Famine is intensified there,
instead of being alleviated.
Mr. Commissary Bishop had charge of the most famine-visited portion of
the Co. Cork (Skibbereen always excepted), including West Carbery,
Bantry and Bere. He seems to have been an active, intelligent officer,
and a kind-hearted man; yet his communications, somehow, must have
misled the Government, for Mr. Trevelyan starts at Captain Caffin's
letter, as if suddenly awakened from a dream. Its contents appeared to
be quite new, and almost incredible to him. No wonder, perhaps. On the
29th of January, a fortnight before the publication of Captain Caffin's
letter, Mr. Bishop writes to Mr. Trevelyan: "The floating depot for
Skull arrived yesterday, and has commenced issues; _this removes all
anxiety for that quarter_.
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