Year: 1876

MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN 4 BOTTLE.


"Brig 'vishnu,' Adrift in the Chinese Sea-


July1o, 1928.


His association with them had shown
him much of their ordinary habits and
some Of their beliefs. I gathered from
what he said that the basis of the Thuggee
society is the worship of Bowhani, fright
full demon, whose highest joy is the sight
Of death or dead bodies. Those who are
her disciples must offer up human victims
killed without the shedding Of blood, and
the more he can kill the more OF saint ne
becomes. The motive for this is never gain
for they rarely plunder, but purely relig-
ious zeal. The reward is an Immortality
of bliss hereafter, which Bowhani will Sc
cure them, a life like that Of the Moham-
medap Paradise, where there are material
joys to be possessed forever without safety


Destruction, which begins as kind of
duty. becomes also at last, and naturally
perhaps, an absorbing passion. AS the
hunter in pursuing his prey is carried away
by excitement and the enthusiasm of the
chase, or, in hunting the tiger, feels the de-
light of Drawing danger and displaying
courage SO here that same passion is felt to
an extraordinary degree, for it is man that
must be pursued and destroyed. Here, in
addition to courage, the hunter Of man
must call into exercise cunning, foresight,
eloouence, intrigue. All this afterward
brought to the attention of the Govern.
ment with very good results.


"Potts declared that night and day he
had been on the watch for chance to es-
cape. but so internal was the cunning Of
these wretches, and SO quick their Senses
sharpened as they had been by long prac-
tice, that success became hopeless. He
had fallen into deep detection, and conclu-
ded that his only hope lay in the efforts Of
the Government to put down these assas-
sins. Our appearance had at last saved
him.


"Neither i, nor any ofmy men. nor any
Englishman who heard this story. doubted
fer an instant the truth ofevery word. All
the newspapers mentioned with delight the
fact that an Englishman and his son had
been rescued. Pity was felt for that far
ther who for his sons sake, had consented
to dwell amidst scenes of terror, and SYM
pathy for the anguish that he must have
endured during that terrific captivity. A
thrill Of horror passed through all our
Anglo-Indian society at the revelation
which he made about Thuggee; and so
great was the feeling in his favor that a
handsome subscription was made up for
him by the offers at Agra.


"For my part 1 believed in him most
implicitly, and, as l saw him to be un-
usually clever, l engaged him at once to be
my servant. He staid with me, and every
month won more and more Of my conf
dence. He had good head for business.
Matters of considerable delicacy which /
instrusted 70 him were we'll performed; and
at last thought it the most fortunate cir
cumstance in my Indian life that l had
found such man.


"After about three years he expressed a
wish to 90 to England tor the sake Of his
son. He thought India a bad pace for a
boy, and wished to try and start in some
business in his native land for his sons
sake.


"That boy had always been my detesta-
tion--a crafty, stealty, willy, malicious lit
tie demon, who was perfect Thug in his
nature, without any religious basis to his
Thuggeeism, pitied Potts for being the
father of such son / could not let the
little devil live in my hCuse; his cruelty to
animals which he delighted to torture, his
thieying propensities, and his internal de-