partment” was Colonel Williams—he whom Government employed to take the evidence of the Cawnpore Massacre. A number of ladies, among whom was Mrs. Havelock, the General's sister-in-law, expressed a desire to visit the Taj that afternoon. The courteous Colonel offered to escort us, and on our return casually remarked, as we crossed the road from the Taj, “Come, and I will show you something else.” So he turned down an ominous-looking portal, and we followed him through the guarded gate into a square with high walls, and thence by a gloomy passage into another inclosed court, where were a group of some of the most awful-looking men that I had ever seen. The Colonel coolly remarked, “These are some of my pets.” In a moment we realized where we were standing, three gentlemen and a party of ladies unguarded, in the very presence of nearly two hundred Thugs! It made one's flesh creep. The feeling was dreadful, and the situation was not at all relieved, when, in retiring again through the long, dark passage, a number of these wretches came clanking close after us, to plead in the outer court for some concession from the Colonel. The ladies of the party could hardly forgive our gallant escort for the trick he played upon them in leading them into such a presence, and that, too, after coming out of the Taj. It seemed like leaving paradise and descending into hell among those who, in chains and darkness, await the judgment of the great day!
The Colonel permitted a photograph to be taken of some of the most notorious of his collection. They were unshackled, and brought into the parlor of the prison for the purpose. He pointed out one man (the one in front, on the left hand in the picture) who had confessed to having committed thirty murders, and who had given him the details of each! And yet every one of these heartless villains were let loose upon society when the Sepoys rose, and since the suppression of the Rebellion the Thuggee Department has had a busy time in ferreting them out and recapturing them.
Sixty years ago these men plied their dreadful trade almost unmolested. The native Governments could not cope with them.
