have frequently left bodies entirely exposed, without running any risk; for no one takes the trouble of making any enquiry.

The division of spoil does not usually take place immediately after the perpetration of a murder; but every person secures a portion of the property on the spot; and when a convenient opportunity arrives, each person produces his part of the plunder, and a division is then made by the Jemadar, whose share is in the first instance deducted. Then the Buttoats, the Sumsooats, and the Bhugdurrahs, claim their extra reward for each murder at which they have assisted. The Tillace also receives his share for inveigling a traveller into their snares. The Suggaee takes his recompense for the trouble he had in digging the grave; the residue is divided share and share alike, among the whole gang. It may be supposed that the cupidity of individual Thugs will occasionally induce them to attempt to defraud their comrades, by secreting some article of value, at the time the murdered bodies are plundered. But they say the whole class are bound by inviolable oath to produce for the common stock every thing that may fall into their hands, while engaged with any party.

As it may be imagined, the division of plunder often leads to violent disputes, which, it is astonishing, never terminate in bloodshed. It might be supposed that the Thugs had a prejudice against spilling blood, for when pursued, they never make use of the weapons they usually bear; not even in defence of their own persons. The most wanton prodigality occurs when plunder is divided; and should any difference of opinion arise as to the appropriation of their spoil, the most valuable shawls and brocades are often torn into strips and distributed among the gang. The Thugs say, this is done that every person may run the same risk; for such articles could not be shared equally among them unless converted into money, and some danger is attendant on the transaction. They appear to make it a rule to destroy all Hondees (letters of credit) that fall into their hands, as well as many other articles that are likely to lead to detection. Ready money is what they chiefly desire, and when they have a choice of victims, the possessors of gold and silver would certainly be fixed upon in preference to others: consequently it seems to have been a general practice among the Bundelkund Thugs to waylay the parties of Sepoys of the Bombay and Nizam's army, when going upon leave to Hindoostaun, for the sake of the specie they usually have; and they remark that of the numerous Sepoys who are supposed by their officers to have abandoned the service, and by their friends and relatives to be still with their regiments, they alone can tell the fate, the whole number having been strangled by their bands. The immense wealth that has at various times fallen into the hands of these miscreants, is expended in the grossest extravagance and debauchery; so these their ill gotten gains remain but a short time in their possession.

The Thugs have not exactly a language of their own, but slang terms and phrases which give them the means of holding a con

versation with persons of their own class without any chance of being understood by the uninitiated. Their term of salutation whereby also they recognise each other, if they casually meet without being personally acquainted, is "Ali Khan Bhan Sulaum." What appears most extraordinary is the manner in which the Thugs recollect the names of their comrades, as well as their persons, and they declare that though the name of any one of a gang may have escaped their recollection, they never forget the person of a Thug, who assisted with them in the perpetration of a murder. The Thugs indeed seem to know each other almost intuitively; and the quickness with which recognition between individuals takes place is surprising, so as to warrant the supposition that a sort of Freemasonry system of signs has been established among them.

To facilitate their plan of operations, the Thugs have established a regular system of intelligence and communication throughout the countries they have been in the practice of frequenting, and they become acquainted with astonishing celerity with the proceedings of their comrades in all directions. They omit no opportunity of making enquiries respecting other gangs; and are equally particular in supplying the requisite information concerning their own movements. For this purpose they have connected themselves with several persons residing in the Nizam's dominions, as Patails and cultivators of villages, many of the latter of whom follow the profession of Thugee in conjunction with their agricultural pursuits. The Marwaries, and other petty bankers, are also frequently the channels of communication between Thugs, and there is no doubt of their being the purchasers of the property of the murdered. The religious mendicants throughout the country occasionally assist by taking messages from bands of Thugs, to be delivered to the next party that may come in their way. With this view also they have adopted the practice of forming Choolahs or fire places of a particular construction, to serve as marks of their progress through the country. When a party of Thugs come to a road that branches off in two directions, they make a mark for the guidance of their associates who may come after them, in the following manner. The soil in a convenient spot is carefully smoothed, and the print of a foot is distinctly stamped upon it. A Thug, on seeing this mark, which he searches for, knows by the direction which it points, what track has been followed by those who preceded him.

The peculiar designation by which they are known is a point on which the Thugs are particularly tenacious, and they attach to it a great importance, and even claim a degree of respectability for their profession, that they say no other class of delinquents is entitled to. The denomination of thief is one that is peculiarly offensive to them, and they always solicit the erasure of this term, and the substitution of that of Thug, whenever it may occur in a paper regarding them; declaring that so far from following the disgraceful practices of a thief, they scorn the name, and can prove themselves to be honest and trust worthy, when occasion requires it.

It seems their ambition is to be considered respectable persons,

and with this view they expend much of their gain on personal decoration. Even those who have been seized, and admitted as informers, are more solicitous about their dress and decent appearance, than any thing else. They mostly seem to be men of mild and unobtrusive manners, possessing cheerfulness of disposition entirely different from the violent passionate character and the ferocious demeanour usually attributed to hardened murderers.

Such is the extent to which this dreadful system has been carried, that no calculation can be made of the numbers who have fallen victims to it: when it is taken into consideration, that many of the Thugs who have been seized confess, having for the last twenty-five or thirty years annually made circuits with parties of more than a hundred men, with no other object than that of murder and rapine, and boast of having daily put ten or twenty persons to death, and that they say an enumeration of all the persons they have each individually assisted to destroy, would swell the catalogue to hundreds, and as some declare to thousands, some notion of this horrid destruction of life may be formed, and of the amount of the property thus taken; for independent of the thousands in ready money, jewels, and bullion, the loads of valuable cloths, and every description of merchandise, that continually fall into their hands, the hoondies that they invariably destroy must amount to a considerable sum.

The impunity with which the Thugs have heretofore carried on their merciless proceedings, the ease with which they recruit their numbers, which are restricted to no particular caste or sect, and the facility with which they have purchased their release, when seized by the officers of the weak native Governments, in whose dominions they have usually committed their greatest depredations, have altogether tended to confirm the system, and spread it to such a fearful extent, that the life of no traveller in this country has been safe; and it seemed only by some happy chance that even large parties have ever escaped the fangs of these blood thirsty demons.

DERVISHES.

The distinguished Fakeers, Dervishes, and holy men in Persia, Cashmeer, and Hindoostaun, received from the Mussulmans the title of Shah, "King." The holy man, to whom Abraham brought the tenth, had the title of prs (Melchi Kedek), King of justice. The Princes of Persia, and of Hindoostaun, give their Dervishes the Nazr, i. e. the Vowed Present: and as Melchi Zedek brought forth bread and wine, so also the old Dervishes bring the traveller of distinction Bread and Rose-water.

JOURNEY FROM HYDERABAD TO MADRAS.

June 27.-After having taken leave of my friends at Hyderabad, I left the family of Colonel Stewart, and set out for Madras, which is 380 miles from Hyderabad; travelling mostly at night (for the heat was so great, that the palanquin was like an oven) I arrived, after a journey of two days, at Ramahpatam. Scarcely had I entered the bungalow belonging to Mr. Bruce, the Collector of Nel

lore (who had given previous orders to his native servants to receive me), when I was violently attacked with that dire disease, the cholera morbus; it began with a most violent vomiting, accompanied with cramp and dysentery. No English person, or any European, was near me; I had just strength enough to make known in three lines my state to Mr. Bruce, requesting him (as I did not expect to live half an hour longer), to give notice of my death to my wife at Malta, and to send her my journals. I then lay down upon the sofa, continuing to vomit for two hours. I recommended my soul to God; my hands and feet became convulsed; but through the whole of my sufferings, I felt perfect peace in our Lord Jesus Christ; I prayed to him that he would be pleased to send me some relief, when suddenly I heard a voice, exclaiming in English, “I see, you have the cholera morbus, my husband died of that disorder, two months ago." The person who spoke, was the wife of a sergeant of Vellore of the name of Gilespie, who was going from Vellore to Madras, with the intention of proceeding from thence to her daughter at Onore; arriving the same day with me at Ramahpatam, she learned from the natives that I had been taken ill, and she hastened to my assistance. She gave me first a whole bottle of brandy with 200 drops of laudanum, and other remedies, which only stopt the vomiting at intervals. The next morning Dr. Cooper arrived, being sent from Nellore by Mr. Bruce; he prayed with me, gave me warm water with salt, and twice forty grains of calomel, which stopt the vomiting for two hours; but when I had a third relapse in the evening, he told me that I should inform him what might be my last will; he sent off, at the same time, two notes to Nellore, saying that he had but little hopes of my recovery, and he confessed to me that he did not think I should be alive next morning. He asked me whether I would submit to his putting a hot iron upon my stomach; I said "yes;" he branded me consequently three times upon my stomach, which, God be praised, stopt the cholera morbus entirely; he then thought it adviseable, after a stay of four days in the inn of Ramahpatam, to have me carried in a palanquin to Nellore, to the house of Mr. Bruce, the Collector, where I was for twenty days in a very critical state, on account of a bilious fever which followed; however, after one month's stay I recovered so far, that I attempted to proceed in a palanquin on my way to Madras. When I was as far as forty miles distant from Nellore, I was attacked with a violent spasm, which obliged the palanquin bearers to carry me upon their shoulders back to a native bungalow. Most fortunately Mr. Prendergast, the sub-Collector, was only four miles distant living in a tent; he came, carried me to his tent, and sent immediately a horseman to Nellore, and dear Dr. Cooper came a second time to assist me. I staid there four days in the tent, and set out for Madras, still very ill. I was there most kindly received in the house of Colonel Cadell, where I was soon surrounded by dear Christians, as Messrs. Dobbs, Brown, Shaw, Clulow, Bannister; and after a quiet stay of fourteen days, I was enabled to preach in the dissenting chapel, invited by the

zealous Missionaries Smith, Drew, and Taylor. "Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for all His goodness, and declare the wonders that he does unto the children of men."

I lectured here at different times, and twice at a spot seven miles distant from Madras, at the station upon St. Thomas' Mount, where it is believed that St. Thomas, one of our Lord's Apostles, suffered martyrdom. It is testified by tradition, in the East, and by Fathers of the Church. My friends at Madras however did not allow me to go much about, as my health was still in a precarious state, so that I was not able to visit the native Catholic Christians, and Hindoo Protestants. I confess that I have no confidence in either of them. The converts to the protestant religion under the direction of Mr. Irion, the Missionary of the society for the propagation of the Gospel, lately insulted their pastor in the church, on account of his opposition to their observing caste.

Having had a letter from Mr. La Croix for Dr. Rotler, I called on him; he was a fellow labourer of the famous Missionary Schwarz; he is 85 years of age, and is now retired and receives a pension from his society.

There are no Jews permanently residing at Madras, some however come occasionally from Cochin to Madras.

GOVERNOR OF MADRAS.

Sir Frederick Adams, Governor of Madras, is not only a weak and most consummate Jack in office, but a real follower and imitator of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, for he orders the British soldiers to present arms in honour of the Hindoo Idols at their festivals, and hypocritically orders money to be distributed among the Brahmins, that they should pray to their Idols for rain.

There is not a more ungodly Governor on the face of the earth, and one more unfit for his situation, than Sir Frederick Adams. His whole political science and skill, consists in proving to the Hindoos that he is afraid of them, and therefore would be ready in order that they may do him no harm, to countenance idolatry, and even make idolaters of the English themselves. Sir Frederick Adams has all the wicked dispositions of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, without having the talents of Jeroboam! for Sir Frederick Adams never could have made himself King! not only not in Israel, but even not in Liliput!

DEPARTURE FROM MADRAS.

August 31.-My dear friends Mr. Clulow, the Rev. Mr. Tucker, and Mr. Dobbs came to Mr. Conolly, the brother of the traveller, to take leave of me; we for the last time prayed together, and I then set out for Cochin, in a palanquin. Colonel Cadell and Clulow, and Mr. M'Clean had kindly paid the expenses of the dack as far as Cochin;* and had given me letters for the active Missionaries Rhenius, Schaffter, Winkler, and Mueller.

* A man who has neither silver nor gold of his own, is not attached to any society, and has solemnly vowed that of his wife's porion he will not appropriate a single farthing for his own use and