they are within reach of him, that
they never fail; so that they strangle him in a trice.' (English
transl., 1686, Part III, p. 41.)

After the capture of Seringapatam in 1799 the attention of the
Company's government was drawn to the prevalence of Thuggee. In 1810
the bodies of thirty victims were found in wells between the Ganges
and Jumna, and in 1816 Dr. Sherwood published a paper entitled 'On
the Murderers called Phansigars', _sc._ 'stranglers', in the _Madras
Journal of Literature and Science_, which was reprinted in _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. xiii (1820). Various officers then made
unsystematic efforts to suppress the stranglers, but effectual
operations were deferred until 1829. During the years 1881 and 1832
the existence of the Thug organization became generally known, and
intense excitement was aroused throughout India. The Konkan, or
narrow strip of lowlands between the Western Ghats and the sea, was
the only region in the empire not infested by the Thugs. (See H. H.
Wilson in supplement to Mill, _Hist. of British India_, ed. 1858,
vol. ix, p. 213; Balfour, _Cyclopaedia of India_, 3rd ed., 1885,
_s.v._ Thug; and Crooke, _Things Indian_, Murray, 1906, _s.v._
Thuggee.)

The records summarized above prove that the Thug organization existed
continuously on a large scale from the early part of the fourteenth
century until Sir William Sleeman's time, that is to say, for more
than five centuries. In all probability its origin was much more
ancient, but records are lacking. It is said that a sculpture
representing a Thug strangulation exists among the sculptures at
Ellora executed in the eighth century. No such sculpture, however, is
mentioned in the detailed account of the Ellora caves by Dr. Burgess.

The magnitude of the organization with which Sleeman grappled is
indicated by the following figures.

During the years 1831-7 3,266 Thugs were disposed of one way or
another, of whom 412 were hanged, and 483 were admitted as approvers.
Amir Ali, whose confessions are recorded in Meadows Taylor's
fascinating book, _The Confessions of a Thug_, written in 1837 and
first published in 1839, proudly admitted having taken part in the
murders of 719 persons, and regretted that an interruption of his
career by twelve years' imprisonment in Oudh had prevented him from
completing a full thousand of victims. He regarded his profession as
affording sport of the most exciting kind possible.