A GANG OF DACOITS 



though he was seen once or twice, and fired at by the 

 police, he always managed to escape. 



The failure of the rains for two consecutive seasons caus- 

 ing famine, had produced great distress which, added to the 

 presence and rapacity of the professional money-lenders, 

 was the primary cause of these dacoities ; hence there was 

 something to be said in favour of the robbers, many of 

 whom having been ruined by these men, had become 

 criminals by necessity rather than of their own free will. 



But be this as it may, their depredations soon assumed 

 very serious proportions, for within a very few weeks no 

 less than one hundred and sixty dacoities, accompanied 

 with murder, had been committed by this gang, who, armed 

 with swords and bows, were too powerful to be resisted by 

 the villagers. They generally mutilated their victims, 

 especially if they happened to be money-lenders, by 

 cutting off their ears and noses or otherwise disfiguring 

 them , beyond recognition. 



At length, not content with plundering villages, 

 Chimanya and his followers now attacked a police post 

 on the frontier, and seizing the rifles and ammunition 

 they found there, made off with them. Thoroughly 

 acquainted with all the hill paths and rocky chasms of 

 the border, they easily evaded subsequent pursuit by the 

 police, who, moreover, were considerably handicapped by 

 heavy rain. 



I well remember the occasion and the discomforts I 

 experienced during this pursuit, being frequently washed 

 out of my tents ; also the exhilaration of my assistant on 

 finding our dining-table just long enough to sleep under, 

 and so protect him from the stream that poured through 

 the roof of the shanty in which we once took shelter. The 

 chase on this occasion ended in failure, for many of the 

 patels or headmen of the villages we passed, fearing 

 reprisals, would give no information of the movements 

 of the absconders, though, as we learnt later, they had 

 supplied them with food and drink. 



Moreover, to guard against arrest, the gang kept con- 

 tinuously on the move, changing their encampment every 

 day, and were perpetually on the alert, mounting regular 

 sentries wherever they encamped ; so that, on the whole, 



I 113 



