THUGS. 



819 



release, when, they were imprisoned on a charge of 

 setting a house on fire, in which they had lodged ; 

 and on another occasion his two daughters, of eleven 

 and thirteen years of age, saved them from detec- 

 tion by sitting upon some plundered silk, whilst 

 they were searched by the police. The whole 

 gang hesitated; and one party separated from the 

 main body rather than be present at the murder. 

 But will it be believed svhat was the cause of their 

 demur? Not any dislike to sacrifice people to 

 whom they owed so much, and with whom they 

 had consorted on such friendly terms - that never 

 entered into their minds but the circumstance of 

 Newal Singh having-but one arm. He and all his 

 family were put to death. 



The Thugs also occasionally preserve young 

 children of both sexes, and adopt them as their 

 own ; and sometimes young women of a riper age 

 are saved, to become the wives of the murderers of 

 their parents. 



As the existence of Thuggee has been discov- 

 ered at different times and in different parts of 

 India, efforts have been made for its suppression. 

 Mr Wright, magistrate of Chittoor, formerly made 

 great exertions tor this purpose in the south, and 

 Messrs Halhed and Stockwell in the north of 

 India. A very interesting paper was even pub 

 lished by Dr Sherwood of the Madras establish- 

 ment, in the thirteenth volume of the Asiatic 

 Researches on the subject, of which we have 

 made occasional use. The full extent of the evil, 

 however, was not then known; and whilst our 

 active magistrates flattered themselves that they 

 had put a stop to the practice, it was really only 

 temporarily suspended in their own neighbourhood. 

 A system which embraced the whole of India 

 could not be suppressed by a few partial inroads 

 upon it. The dispersion of the gangs had the 

 usual effect of a persecution which does not go the 

 length of entire eradication. The scattered Thugs 

 formed numerous separate gangs ; and, although 

 the number of raw recruits whom they enlisted 

 contributed in the end to their downfal, yet its 

 immediate effect was greatly to increase the num- 

 ber of victims. 



At last, the disclosures which were made on the 

 occasion of the apprehension of a large gang of 

 Thugs by Major Borthwick, in Malwa, in 1831, 

 attracted lord William Bentinck's attention ; and a 

 system was organised by him for the general sup- 

 pression of this monstrous evil. Jubbulpoor was 

 fixed as the centre of operations. Captain Sleeman 

 was appointed superintendent, with a number of 

 European assistants, and the co-operation of the 

 native states was engaged. The plan of proceeding 

 is founded on an accumulation of evidence given by 

 Thug approvers. Two or three of the members of 

 every gang which is seized, are admitted as king's 

 evidence, and they are immediately called on to 

 dictate a narrative of all the expeditions in which 

 they have ever served, mentioning the indivi- 

 duals with whom they were associated ; and their 

 authentic testimony is then considered as closed. 

 The trials depend upon the concurrence of a num. 

 her of depositions, the originals of which were 

 taken in different parts of India, from different 

 persons, without a possibility of previous inter- 

 communication; upon the recognition of the pri- 

 soner by the witnesses, to each of whom he is 

 shown in a crowd of other people; and upon the 

 confirmation of the evidence by the discovery of 

 the bodies in the places indicated. Each of the 



assistants has a section of India allotted to him, 

 within which he is responsible for the apprehension 

 of these miscreants, with the help of the approvers 

 and of the accumulated evidence ; and as the mass 

 of information is rapidly becoming more and more 

 complete, we may hope that every professional 

 Thug in India will soon be known and secured. 

 Up to October 1835, 1562 persons had been com- 

 mitted on the charge of Thuggee ; of whom 382 

 had been hanged, and 986 transported or impri- 

 soned for life. In the sessions of 1836 held at 

 Jubulpoor, 241 prisoners were convicted of the 

 murder of 474 individuals, of whose corpses 314 

 were disinterred, and inquests held upon them. 



In 1834 these operations were threatened with 

 a severe check, which was happily averted by lord 

 William Bentinck's firmness. Maun Singh, the 

 Rajah of Joudpoor, pleaded the right of granting 

 asylum, and refused to give up the Thugs who had 

 taken refuge in his territory ; but he was informed 

 tluit he could not be permitted to make his coun- 

 try the headquarters, whence these bands of assas- 

 sins might carry on their attacks against all the 

 neighbouring states. On his persisting, an army 

 was assembled against him, and he quietly sub- 

 mitted. The power which put down the Pindaree 

 system was alone equal to the suppression of 

 Thuggee. Occasions like these afford the best 

 illustrations of the advantages of our supremacy in 

 India. Even if the requisite public spirit and in- 

 telligence were not wanting, the native states are 

 incapable, from mutual jealousy and distrust, of 

 combining together for the accomplishment of any 

 object of general interest. At this point, the 

 supreme power steps in ; explains to subordinate 

 allies the extent of the evil, and the nature of the 

 remedies which ought to be applied ; collects for 

 one common effort the resources of the whole of 

 India, and directs that effort by European intelli- 

 gence, energy, and perseverance. 



Notwithstanding the alleged antiquity of the 

 .profession, the Thugs to the north of the Nerbudda 

 cannot trace their own pedigree higher than the 

 eia of the first race of Mahommedan kings of 

 Dehli. Their tradition is, that their ancestors, 

 who were then divided into seven clans, as their 

 descendants still are, used to infest the roads in 

 the neighbourhood of the capital, until they drew 

 upon themselves the anger of an emperor of the 

 house of Choree, by murdering one of his domes- 

 tics, who was in league with them, and who 

 threatened to betray them with a view to extort 

 more money than they thought reasonable. On 

 this, they were expelled from DeVli. The majority 

 of them retired to Agra; and ultimately to the 

 strong country at the junction of the Jumna, the 

 Chumbul and the Kalee Sindee, which continued 

 to be their headquarters until they were driven 

 away by Mr Halhed in the year 1812. These 

 seven clans are the original trunk upon which all 

 the Thug associations to the north of the Ner- 

 budda have been grafted. They were originally 

 all Mahomedans; but for a long time past Mahome- 

 dans and Hindus have been indiscriminately asso- 

 ciated in the gangs; the former class, however, 

 still predominating. Their numbers are kept up 

 by descent (the profession being, as is usual 

 in India, hereditary), by adoption, and occasion 

 ally, but not often, by the admission of qualified 

 adults. 



The Thugs to the south of the Nerbudda boast 

 a purer descent. They can trace back the trade 



