The only two houses belonging to white men are the store and a boarding house kept by an old sea captain. The rest are Indian huts, built of slabs of cedar, and lined with mats. They belong to King George, the Duke of York and their retinue. We met Mr. Hastings, a justice of the peace, his clerk, a Mr. Plummer, and Mr. Pettigrew, a man who has formerly been very rich in Oregon.
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal Presidency (now Bihar), British India into what he described as a “lower-upper-middle class” family.