r examining this evidence, be tolerably well
satisfied that the said tiger had really been killed at the time and
place, and by the persons mentioned by A and B; but, to establish the
fact judicially, it would be necessary to bring A, B, C, D, E, and F,
the Nawab of Rampur, the minister of the King of Oudh, and the
goldsmith to the criminal court at Meerut, to be confronted with the
person whose interest it was that A and B should not be believed.
They would all, perhaps, come to the said court from the different
quarters of the world in which they had thought themselves snugly
settled; but the thing would annoy them so much, and be so much
talked of, that sporting gentlemen, nawabs, ministers, and goldsmiths
would in future take good care to have 'forgotten' everything
connected with the matter in dispute, should another similar
reference be made to them, and so A and B would never again have any
chance.

Thug approvers, whose evidence we required, were employed in all
parts of India, under the officers appointed to put down these
associations; and it was difficult to bring all whose evidence was
necessary at the trials to the court of the district in which the
particular murder was perpetrated. The victims were, for the most
part, money-carriers, whose masters and families resided hundreds of
miles from the place where they were murdered, or people on their way
to their distant homes from foreign service. There was no chance of
recovering any of the property taken from the victims, as Thugs were
known to spend what they got freely, and never to have money by them;
and the friends of the victims, and the bankers whose money they
carried, were everywhere found exceedingly averse to take share in
the prosecution.

To obviate all these difficulties separate courts were formed, with
permission to receive whatever evidence they might think likely to
prove valuable, attaching to each portion, whether documentary or
oral, whatever weight it might seem to deserve. Such courts were
formed at Hyderabad, Mysore, Indore, Lucknow, Gwalior, and were
presided over by our highest diplomatic functionaries, in concurrence
with the princes at whose courts they were accredited; and who at
Jubbulpore, were under the direction of the representative of the
Governor-General of India.[l9] By this means we had a most valuable
species of unpaid agency; and I believe there is no part of their
public life on which these high functionaries look