From 1831 to 1837, inclusive, there were:-- Transported to Penang, &c. 1,059 Hanged 412 Imprisoned for life with hard labour 87 Imprisoned in default of security 21 Imprisoned for various periods 69 Released after trial 32 Escaped from jail 11 Died in jail 36 ----- 1,727 Made approvers 483 Convicted but not sentenced 120 In jail in various parts not yet tried 936 ----- 3,266 Added to the above, Captain Reynolds mentioned that, at the time he wrote, upwards of 1,800 notorious Thugs were at large in various parts of India, whose names were known; how many besides existed, it is impossible to conjecture. How enormous therefore must have been the destruction of human life and property in India before Thuggee was known to exist or was only partially checked! How many thousands must annually have perished by the hands of these remorseless assassins! Awful indeed is the contemplation; for, during the whole of the troublous times of the Mahratta and Pindharee wars, their trade flourished; nor was it till 1831 that their wholesale system of murder received any serious check: and after its general discovery, the countless and affecting applications from families to the officers of the department to endeavour to procure them some knowledge of the places where their missing relatives had been destroyed, that they might have the miserable satisfaction of performing the ceremonies for the dead--showed how deeply the evil had affected society. And not only as described in the following pages has Thuggee existed: since they were written, it has been discovered under several other forms and been found to be extensively practised on the Ganges by men who live in boats, and murder those passengers whom they are able to entice into their company in their voyages up and down the river. But the most refined in guilt are those who murder parents for the sake of their children, to sell them as household slaves, or to dancing women, to be brought up to prostitution.