A Popular Account of Thugs and Dacoits, the Hereditary Garotters and Gang-Robbers of IndiaHutton, James
History
A Popular Account of Thugs and Dacoits, the Hereditary Garotters and Gang-Robbers of India
Hutton, James
Dacoits; Thugs (Indic criminal group)
A bolder exploit was performed towards the close of that year. Two
skilful leaders, having collected some forty followers and distributed
among them ten matchlocks, ten swords, and twenty-five spears, waylaid
a treasure going from the native Collector's treasury at Budrauna to
Goruckpore. The prize consisted of £1,200, and was guarded by a Naïk,
or corporal, with four sepoys and five troopers. It had to pass
through a dense jungle, and it was settled--said one of them in after
years--"that the attack should take place there; that we should have
strong ropes tied across the road in front and festooned to trees on
both sides, and, at a certain distance behind, similar ropes festooned
to trees on one side, and ready to be fastened on the other, as soon as
the escort of horse and foot should get well in between them." Having
completed these preparations the gang laid down on either side of
the road patiently awaiting their prey. "About five in the morning,"
continued the narrator, "we heard a voice as if calling upon the
name of God (Allah), and one of the gang started up at the sound and
said, 'Here comes the treasure!' We put five men in front with their
matchlocks loaded not with ball but shot, that we might, if possible,
avoid killing anybody. When we had got the troopers, infantry, and
treasure all within the space, the hind ropes were run across the road
and made fast to the trees on the opposite side, and we opened a fire
in upon the party from all sides. The foot soldiers got into the jungle
at the sides of the road, and the troopers tried to get over the ropes
at both ends, but in vain." The corporal and a horse were killed,
two troopers wounded, and the treasure carried off in spite of a hot
pursuit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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