Perhaps a better idea than has yet been given of the nature and extent of Thuggee, may be derived from Captain Sleeman's Official Report of an Expedition into Malwa, Guzerat, Kandeish, and Berar, by gangs from Gwalior, Bundlecund, and the Saugor districts, in 1827-28. The leader was our old friend Feringeea, who started from Gorha with twenty-five Thugs and proceeded to Moghul ka Serai, where he fell in with two Mahrattas. These were put to death about three miles further on. Arriving at Tuppa, in Indore, the gang was then joined by eleven more Thugs, who all went on together to Raghooghur, where they met two Mahrattas and a Marwaree on their way from Saugor to Indore. Here Soper Sing and fifteen Thugs came up with them, escorting a bird-catcher and two shopkeepers journeying from Indore to Patna. All six were strangled in the night and buried in one grave. Next morning Feringeea's party, with five of Soper Sing's crossed the Nerbudda at the Puglana Ghaut, and at Samneer murdered three Sipahees, in search of service, at mid-day, and left their bodies by the road side. The next stage was Kurajgow Kuringee, whence they accompanied a traveller, who was going towards the south, for sixteen miles, where they killed him and buried his corpse beneath the walls of a small Hindoo temple. Thence they passed through Omrowtee to Larun Kurnajee, and in their camp in a grove killed a traveller whom they had brought on with them from Bam; and also a thief found skulking among some tombs, who had one hundred and ten pounds worth of stolen goods in his possession. At Busum their numbers were swelled by a reinforcement of fifty Thugs under four leaders. Going on together in one body they encamped near Nandair, and there murdered five travellers. Some of the new arrivals having again left them, the others held on to Rovegow, where they overtook nine persons, whom they accompanied about three miles and strangled just before daybreak. At Hyderabad they lodged near the bridge over the Hoosa Nuddee, where they killed and buried a Brahman and two Rajpoots with whom they had scraped an acquaintance in the Bhegan Bazar. Wandering on to Gungakhera they fell in with three Marwarees, whom they escorted a stage on the Holwa road. One of the travellers being accidentally thrown from his horse, was instantly strangled, and his companions of course shared the same fate. As they had not reached the appointed Beyl, they left the bodies upon the ground, a prey to jackals and carnivorous birds. Their next encampment was at Purureea, in Holwa, where they murdered a Soobahdar (native commissioned officer), five sepoys, and a woman. At Doregow they met three Pundits and with them a Byragee (Hindoo ascetic), mounted on a pony, plastered over with sugar and covered with flies. Driving away the mendicant, they killed and buried the Pundits. On leaving Doregow the Byragee again joined them and went on in their company to Raojana, where they overtook six cloth-merchants travelling from Bombay to Nagpore. As the mendicant was much in their way, they pelted him with stones, and having thus got rid of him they killed the merchants, burying their bodies in the grove. The next day the Byragee again joined them and proceeded with them to Mana, where they fell in with two bearers and a sepoy. Shaking off their troublesome companion, they hastened on to the spot selected for the contemplated murder, where the mendicant once more came up with them. Their patience being exhausted, they offered one of the gang ten shillings extra to kill him and take the sin upon himself. All four were then strangled, and, to their astonishment, the Byragee proved the most valuable prize of all; for upon him and his pony they found many pounds weight of coral, 350 strings of small pearls, fifteen strings of large pearls, and a gilded necklace. Soon after they arrived at Omrowtee, between which and Nadgow they got hold of two men, whom they murdered at their encampment. They were treasure bearers and had with them £400 worth of silver. These are a peculiar class of men, excessively poor, but famed for their honesty. They were never known to betray their trust, and would rather yield their life than surrender their charge. They bore no weapons, chiefly relying on the poverty of their garb and external appearance. The Bombay and Surat merchants used to employ them in conveying specie through Kandeish and Surat to Indore and Rajpootana, and they generally succeeded in escaping the notice of mere marauders; but it was a different thing with the Thugs who took life officially and professionally, content with a farthing but oftener reaping a fruitful harvest.
From Nadgow the band proceeded to Kuragow, and soon afterwards in passing through a small dry ravine fell in with four men driving two bullocks laden with copper pice. The men were instantly put to death, and their bodies slightly covered with stones and rubbish. After this affair two of their leaders with their respective followers returned home, while the others strolled onwards through Burhanpore to Indore, where they received an accession of strength by the junction of three leaders with sixty Thugs.
Three Marwarees being here inveigled into a house occupied by a part of the gang, never again went forth into the road. They remained at Indore a whole day, but were not idle, for Feringeea prevailed upon four more Marwarees to accompany him to the encampment of the remainder of the gang, and they likewise were dismissed to Hades. Soon after leaving Indore they fell in with four travellers, whom they murdered in camp that evening. Feringeea's party then diverged from the main body and passed through Saugor to Chutterpore, where intelligence was received that a body of armed men were in pursuit of them. They, therefore, doubled back and came to Kondee, a short distance from which they murdered two travellers. At Raghooghur they were reinforced by twelve of their fraternity, and on the following day by thirty more under Sheikh Inaent: and at Dubohee, near Bhilsa, they were joined by two more leaders with twenty Thugs. Here they murdered two sepoys. After this affair fifty of them under Sheik Inaent went on to Baroda, where they all fell sick and were glad to return to Bheelpore. Their convalescence was celebrated by the murder of two Bearers. Encouraged by this success they journeyed to Oodeypore in the Dhar Pergunnah. Three sepoys and another man were strangled next morning about two miles from the town. A little further on they overtook an elephant driver, in the service of the Oodeypore Rajah, and him they murdered at night at a village called Amjhera. Passing through Mhow, to a village on the side of Raghooghur, they fell in with three Bearers, whom they strangled next morning. They then held on through Ashta till they encountered a Havildar (non-commissioned native officer), a sepoy, and another, of whom they disposed the following morning. Shortly afterwards a large portion of this gang returned home, whereon the Sheikh went off and rejoined Feringeea. Their junction had scarcely been effected before it was announced that the police were close upon their track. Many more of the Thugs then started off homewards, and others retreated to a stream near Peepala, where, notwithstanding their fears, they made away with two sepoys, another man, and a woman.
A village called Jhundawala was the scene of their next exploit—a Bearer their next victim. After that they came to Tuppa, and, as they were setting out next morning, were joined by a Havildar, a sepoy, and two women, whom they murdered on the following day. Arriving at Kenjarra they strangled two more sepoys, and four more a few days afterwards. The gang then broke up, and Feringeea returned to his home in Tehree. Since he last parted from his wife, unconscious of his crimes, he had been an accomplice in the murder of one hundred men and five women. Let not this appalling number appear incredible. In the kingdom of Oude, a fair sample of native government, there were 1406 miles of road infested by Thugs, and no fewer than two hundred and seventy-four Beyls, or sites of murder; that is, one in every five miles and a half. Twenty Thugs, admitted as Approvers, acknowledged that they were present, respectively, at 508, 931, 350, 377, 604, 119, 42, 103, 264, 203, 195, 294, 117, 322, 340, 28, 65, 81, 153, and twenty-four murders, the least experienced having witnessed twenty-four murders, and the most 931—thus giving an average of 256 murders to each of the twenty. The same Beyl was not unfrequently the scene of several murders. Captain Sleeman mentions a striking instance of this. When Feringeea was first brought before him a prisoner, in December 1830, he offered, if his life were spared, to give information that would lead to the arrest of some large gangs who had appointed to rendezvous at Jyepore in the following February. Some incredulity as to his power to do so having been expressed, he begged to be allowed to accompany the "Sahib" a short distance on his official tour of inspection, when he would afford ample evidence as to his knowledge of Thuggee. He promised no more than he was able to perform. Two stages from Saugor on the road to Seronge, Captain Sleeman encamped for the night in a small mango grove near the village of Selohda. At an early hour of the next morning Feringeea desired to see him, and pointing to three different spots declared they were so many graves. "A Pundit and six attendants, murdered in 1818, lay among the ropes of my sleeping tent, a Havildar and four Sipahees murdered in 1824, lay under my horses, and four Brahman carriers of Ganges-water and a woman, murdered soon after the Pundit, lay within my sleeping-tent. The sward had grown over the whole, and not the slightest sign of its ever having been broken was to be seen." All night long Mrs. Sleeman had tossed about in her sleep, tormented by horrible dreams, probably engendered by the foul air arising from so many graves—certainly not caused by the spirits of the departed, and, perhaps, many a ghost story may owe its origin to some similar cause. Still doubting, Captain Sleeman sent for the police and a posse of villagers, who after digging down about five feet came upon the skeletons of the Havildar and his comrades, and afterwards the others were discovered in succession. Feringeea then proposed to discover other graves in the neighbouring groves, but Captain Sleeman could stand no more of such horrors for that morning. It transpired that the Pundit's horse had been presented to the proprietor of the village, in which some of the gang actually resided, and that the others came thither every year and stopped some time "feasting, carousing and murdering," and yet neither the police nor the inhabitants appeared to have the slightest suspicion of the real nature of their pursuits. It must be remembered that they never murdered any but strangers and wayfarers, and that the villagers and their property would be perfectly secure. It would be an excess of charity, however, to suppose that the Zemindar had not a shrewd guess as to the means by which his horse was obtained. During the three years, 1822 to 1824, both inclusive, that Captain Sleeman was magistrate of the Nursingpore district in the Nerbuddah valley, and—as he imagined—cognizant of every crime and every bad character within its limits, he was perfectly unconscious that there was a Thug village only 400 yards from the Court-house, and that only a few miles distant the groves of Mundaisur contained fully one hundred dead bodies. These groves were a favourite place of rendezvous for gangs coming from Upper India and from the Deccan, with the connivance and under the protection of two respectable landholders, descendants of the pious individuals who had planted those trees to shelter the unhoused wanderer.
The destruction of life and property since the commencement even of the present century must have been enormous. It is known that in 1826-27, two hundred and five men and six women were murdered by different gangs in Malwah and Rajpootana. In 1827-28, three hundred and sixty-four males and twenty-one females were strangled in Kandeish, Berar, and Guzerat. In 1828-29, two hundred and twenty-six men and six women were thus disposed of in Malwah and Kandeish. In 1829-30, ninety-four men, four women, and a child perished in Baroda and Bundlecund. In 1830-31 the Bundlecund gangs destroyed fifty-seven males and one female. In 1830-31-32, one hundred and seventy males and five females were murdered in Rajpootana and Guzerat. And in 1832-33, forty-one males were strangled in the Gwalior district alone. It has been estimated that on an average more than ten distinct cases of murder occurred in every expedition, and that every Thug went upon at least ten expeditions, which would assign to each a guilty complicity in fully one hundred murders. The amount of property of which they despoiled the public must also have been very great, and occasionally individual prizes were of no trivial value. Thus in 1826 a party of fourteen were murdered by a gang of one hundred and fifty Thugs, and a booty secured worth £2,500. In 1827, seven men were murdered by three hundred and fifty Thugs, and robbed of £2,200. In 1828, the murder of nine persons by a gang of one hundred and twenty-five yielded £4,000; and in 1829, that of six persons produced £8,200, to be divided between one hundred and fifty Thugs.
It must seem incredible, but it is nevertheless the simple fact, that this terrible system of murder flourished for nearly two centuries under those native governments of whose excellence so much has been said in certain quarters. The division of the vast peninsula into many separate, independent, and jealous states, no doubt, encouraged the perpetration of crime by facilitating escape and rendering detection and apprehension almost impossible. So long as their own subjects or tenants were not molested, neither princes nor landed proprietors considered themselves bound to interfere with an institution of which they entertained a mysterious dread, and whence they derived goodly gifts and a handsome revenue. Superstition and cupidity were powerful allies in favour of the Thugs, who, besides, in their palmy days, exhibited admirable prudence and tact in avoiding whatever might be offensive to their patrons and injurious to themselves. They were especially careful not to touch any European, for they well knew that from such they were more likely to receive lead than gold, and that search would be made for the missing man; nor, indeed, was the like facility afforded for familiarity, owing, in a great measure, as Fuseli would say, to "de d—d ignorance of de language." All tell-tale property they quickly destroyed, and never committed a murder near home, or where they were known; nor after a murder did they ever proceed in the direction whence their victims had come, lest they should be betrayed by a horse, a bullock, or an ass, being anywhere recognised. The native custom of sending remittances in the form of jewels and precious metals without any armed escort, and of carrying considerable sums upon the person, increased the temptation of doing honour to Bhowanee. The vast population, too, was always in motion. Parties of travellers, or lonely wanderers, on foot, or on horseback, streamed along the roads and bye-paths, reposing in the intense heat of the day or during the moonless hours of the night beneath the hospitable shade of a grove of mangoes and other stately trees, or around the well that owed its origin to pious vanity. And the very terror felt for their unknown enemies made the travellers an easier prey, for in seeking to avoid the danger, they frequently ran into it by inviting the company of the mild, cheerful and intelligent companions, who were ever ready to converse with them, to walk with them, and—to murder them. Their existence was first known to the English in 1799, after the fall of Seringapatam, when a hundred Phanseegars, or Thugs, were taken prisoners at Bangalore, though even then they were not suspected of pursuing an hereditary profession. The first regular information concerning their habits was not obtained until 1807, when a gang of them was arrested between Chittore and Arcot. It had frequently been remarked, indeed, that very many sepoys never returned to their regiments on the expiration of their leave of absence, and they were struck off the rolls as deserters. But when the true cause of their absence was discovered, the Commander-in-Chief, Major-General St. Leger, issued a general order in 1810, warning the native troops against associating with chance companions on the road, and advising them to send their money to their homes by means of hoondees, or bills, and not to travel by night. The evil, however, was of too monstrous a growth to be thus easily checked. And there was likewise great difficulty experienced in bringing home any particular crime, even when the perpetrators happened to be in custody. The merchants and bankers whose property had been stolen were reluctant to appear in court to give evidence: it was looked upon as somewhat of an indignity, and the cautious delays of English jurisprudence caused a waste of time they could ill endure. Their money was gone, and there was an end of it. It was predestined that it should go in that manner. The thieves were merely instruments working out the will of Providence. Against them they bore no malice or vindictive feeling. Even the relatives of murdered men refused to come forward until they obtained a promise that they should not be summoned to appear in a distant court. And in the majority of cases it was impossible to ascertain who were the murdered persons, or whence they came. A few isolated cases of conviction did, indeed, occur, as in 1823, when Mr. Molony arrested a gang of 115 in the valley of the Nerbudda, and convicted the whole of them; and again in 1826, when a large gang was arrested in the same valley by Major Wardlaw, and their guilt proven. But these exceptions rather tended to make the Thugs more cautious than to induce them to relinquish their ancestral vocation. It was not until 1829-30 that the task of suppression was fairly commenced. The honour of the initiative was reserved for Lord William Bentinck, who passed certain acts rendering Thuggee the object of a special judicature, and giving a wider discretion to the officers employed in its suppression. His lordship was fortunate in his selection of the special officers. It is needless to do more than mention the names of the late Major General, then Captain, Sleeman, Major, now Colonel, Borthwick, Colonel Stewart, Captain Patton, Captain Malcolm, Captain G. Hollings, and Mr. F. C. Smith. The best proof of the ability and energy displayed by these gentlemen is the fact that by the year 1840 the committals amounted to 3,689. Of this number, 466 were hanged, 1,504 transported, 933 imprisoned for life, 81 confined for different periods, 86 called upon to give ample security for their future good conduct, 97 acquitted, and 56 admitted as approvers: 12 effected their escape, and 208 died a natural death before sentence was passed. The approvers were not absolutely pardoned, or even released from custody. Sentence was passed upon them in the usual manner, but respited as long as they showed signs of repentance and reformation. The utmost caution was used in sifting their evidence and in confronting them with the accused, but their testimony was so clear and so thoroughly substantiated that no reasonable man could entertain the slightest doubt as to their veracity. So complete was the success of the measures now adopted that on the 17th of August, 1840, Hoossain Dost Khan, a powerful Talooqdar (baronial lord) in the Nizam's dominions, previously an avowed opponent of the British, wrote a letter to Captain Malcolm, from which the following is an extract:—"Seeing that the best arrangements have been made in this matter, the whole of the inhabitants of the country, and travellers, have been emancipated from the fear of Thugs; day and night they raise their hands in prayer to state that in the days of kings bygone no such peace and comfort existed. Thanks to Almighty God, the power of conferring this great boon, a source of great renown has been reserved for you from the beginning of the world, in order that this matter should be so arranged. Where are the murdered men? How can there be any, when you do not even hear the slightest allusion to Thugs? The whole world are giving thanks for this." It must be confessed, however, that there was some slight exaggeration in the worthy Talooqdar's congratulations, for in the course of the next seven years 531 more Thugs were apprehended and committed for trial. Of these, 33 were hanged, 174 transported, 267 imprisoned for life and 27 for shorter periods, 5 called upon to put in bail, 125 acquitted, and 46 admitted as approvers: besides 11 who died, and 2 who made their escape. It was no easy matter to prevent the last contingency, so great was their patience and ingenuity. Towards the close of 1834, twenty-seven prisoners escaped from the Jubbulpore gaol, by cutting through their irons and the bars of their windows, with thread smeared with oil and then incrusted with finely-powdered stone. In 1848 also there were 120 committed, of whom 5 were hanged, 24 transported, 11 imprisoned for life and 31 for a limited period, 7 required to find substantial bail, 12 acquitted, and 9 admitted as approvers: 2 died, and 10 remained under trial. Since that year Thuggee appears to have quite died out. In 1853, indeed, some cases occurred in the Punjaub, but vigorous measures being at once adopted, under the superintendence of Captain Sleeman, whose happy lot it was to complete the good work inaugurated by his distinguished father, its final suppression was almost coincident with its revival.
The question that next presented itself for the anxious consideration of the Government was the means of providing for the families of the approvers. If left to their own devices, or the suggestions of want, there was too much reason to apprehend that the elder members, who had already witnessed the taking of human life, might be tempted to revert to the practices of their forefathers. Accordingly, in the year 1838, on the recommendation of Captain Charles Brown, a School of Industry was founded at Jubbulpore, for the purpose of teaching the sons of the approvers a trade or craft by which they might earn an honest livelihood. At first their parents were opposed to the idea, but soon joyfully acquiesced when they came to understand the benevolent motives of the Government. For a time the old Thugs continued to speak with animation of their past achievements, but, gradually weaned from their former habits and associations, they learned to look back with shame upon their antecedents and studiously avoided any further allusion to them. By the end of 1847 the school possessed 850 inmates, of whom 307 were employed as guards, brickmakers, builders, cleaners, &c., &c.; while the remaining 543 applied their superior ingenuity to the manufacture of lac dye, sealing-wax, blankets, satringees (a sort of strong drugget), fine cloth for trousers, dhotees, or body cloths, newar tape of sorts, cotton wicks, stockings, gloves, towels, tents, and carpeting. In that year the product of their labour amounted to 131 tents, 3324 yards of Kidderminster carpeting, forty-six woollen carpets, and a vast quantity of towels, tablecloths, plaids, checks, &c., which realised upwards of £3,500. Of this sum £500 were given to the Thugs as an encouragement, and to form a capital for such as were allowed after a time to establish themselves in Jubbulpore on their own account. And nearly £300 were paid to their wives for spinning thread for the factory. Much of the success of this institution has no doubt been due to the excellent and judicious superintendence of Mr. Williams, formerly a patrol of the Delhi Customs.
Let British supremacy in India cease when it will, the suppression of Thuggee will ever remain a glorious monument to the zeal, energy, and judgment of the civil and military servants of the East India Company. It is easy to direct epigram and innuendo against the idea of a body of merchants ruling a vast empire with enlightened and disinterested beneficence. But the impartial student of Anglo-Indian history can readily adduce many such examples as the preceding—for instance, the suppression of Suttee, human sacrifices, and infanticide; the repression of torture, gang robberies, and voluntary mutilation—in order to prove that these merchants were truly princes, these traffickers the honourable of the earth.