Summary

Chapter 4 opens with Deeti and her daughter riding in Kalua’s cart to retrieve Deeti’s husband when they come upon a group of girmitiyas, Indians who have been sold for money into indentured servitude. Deeti observes that these people have been on a long, weary journey. A guard of the processor asks Kalua to stop to transport one of their leaders and Deeti is able to ask this man where the girmitiyas are headed. He says they will board a boat for Patna, then Calcutta, then Mareech, an island. (Mareech is the Indian name for Mauritius in the book.) This reminds Deeti of the apparition she saw at the beginning of the novel.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Burnham, the new owner of the Ibis, boards her and asks Zachary for a tour. Ghosh offers Burnham’s backstory here, in the voice of Mr. Doughty, his...