only about a mile and a half from this Temple of Juggernaut. As I passed through the multitude, I met several persons having the printed papers of the missionaries in their hands. Some of them were reading them very gravely, others were laughing with each other at the contents, and saying, 'What do these words mean?'"*

IMMOLATION OF FEMALES.

There is another sanguinary rite of the Hindoo superstition, the Female Sacrifice. The Female Sacrifice is of two kinds. The first is the sacrifice of women who are burned alive on the funeral pile of their husbands. The second is the murder of female children. The report of the number of the women burned within thirty miles of Calcutta, from the 15th of April, to the 15th of October, 1804, was one hundred and fifteen. "The above report," Dr. Buchanan observes, "was made by persons of the Hindoo cast, deputed for that purpose, under the superintendence of the Professor of the Shanscrit and Bengalee languages, in the College of Fort William. They were ten in number, and were stationed at different places, during the whole period of six months. They gave in their account monthly, specifying the particulars of each immolation, so that every individual instance was subject to investigation, immediately after its occurrence.

"By an account in 1803, the number of women sacrificed during that year, within thirty miles round Calcutta, was two hundred and seventy-five.

• These extracts are made from Christian Researches in Asia, from the 18th to the 44th page, though with omissions.

"In the foregoing Report of six months, in 1804, it will be perceived, that no account was taken of burnings in a district to the west of Calcutta, nor further than twenty miles in some other directions, so that the whole number of burnings, within thirty miles round Calcutta, must have been considerably greater than is here stated."

SACRIFICE OF THE KOOLIN BRAHMIN'S THREE WIVES.

"Calcutta, Sept. 30, 1807.

"A horrid tragedy was acted on the 12th instant, near Barnagore (a place about three miles above Calcutta.) A Koolin Brahmin, of Cammar-hatti, by name Kristo Deb Mookerjee, died at the advanced age of ninety-two. He had twelve wives; and three of them were burned alive with his dead body. Of these three, one was a venerable lady, having white locks, who had been long known in the neighbourhood. Not being able to walk, she was carried in a palanquin to the place of burning, and was then placed by the Brahmins on the funeral pile. The other two ladies were younger; one of them had a very pleasing and interesting countenance. The old lady was placed on one side of the dead husband, and the two other wives laid themselves down on the other side; and then an old Brahmin, the eldest son of the deceased, applied his torch to the pile, with unaverted face. The pile suddenly blazed, for it was covered with combustibles; and this human sacrifice was completed amidst the din of drums and cymbals, and the shouts of Brahmins. A person present observed, 'Surely, if Lord Minto were here, who is just come from England, and is not used to see women burned alive, he would have saved these three ladies.' The Mohammedan governors saved whom they

pleased, and suffered no deluded female to commit suicide, without previous investigation of the circumstances, and official permission."*

"HINDOO INFANTICIDE, OR MURDER OF FEMALE CHILDREN.

"This may be considered as consisting of two kinds, the one general, and the other particular, as restricted in a great measure to some particular tribes. When a woman gives birth to twins, one of the infants is generally sacrificed to the goddess Gonza, in acknowledgment of her bounty. Besides, numbers of women and children are every year cast into the rivers as offerings to the same goddess."t

66

Among the Hindoo tribes called the JAREJAH, in the provinces of Cutch and Guzerat, in the west of India, it is a custom to destroy female infants. In defence of this practice, these tribes allege, that the education of daughters is expensive; that it is difficult to procure a suitable settlement for them in marriage; that the preservation of female honour is a charge of solicitude to a family; and that when they want wives, it is more convenient to buy them, or solicit them from another cast, than to breed them themselves.

"Indeed this unnatural custom seems to have subsisted for more than two thousand years; for both Greek and

"An inquiry was lately instituted by the Marquis Wellesley, with respect to the number of women annually burnt in India, with the bodies of their husbands, and, horrid to relate, the fact is established, that they are above 30,000." Adam's Religious World Displayed, Vol. 1, p. 134.-The extract is from Christian Researches-p.p. 39, 40, 41, 42, and 43.

† Do.ibidem.

Roman historians mention it, and refer to those very places where it is now to be found. The number of females who were thus sacrificed in Cutch and Guzerat alone (for it is practised in several other provinces) amounted, by the very lowest computation, (in 1807) to three thousand annually. Other calculations vastly exceed that number.

"Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Walker had first the honour of appearing before this people, as the advocate of humanity. He addressed them in his official character, and, as ambassador from the British nation, he entreated them to suffer their daughters to live. It seems that they had means of appreciating the private character of this officer, and they respected his virtues; but in regard to this moral negociation, they peremptorily refused even to listen to it."*

"That excellent man, Colonel Walker, however, persevered, till he obtained a victory over their ferocious prejudices, and in 1808, the chiefs bound themselves by a solemn engagement to discontinue the practice. About the end of the year 1809, many of the Jarejah fathers brought their infant daughters to Colonel Walker's tent, and exhibited them with pride and fondness. Their mothers and nurses also attended on this interesting occasion. True to the feelings which are found in other countries to prevail so forcibly, the emotions of nature here exhibited were extremely moving. The mothers placed the infants in the hands of Colonel Walker, calling on him to protect what he alone had taught them to

• Christian Researches, p.p. 46, 47, 49, and 53.

preserve. These infants, they emphatically called His children."*

With respect to the state of morals among the Hindoos, it is easy to imagine what it must be, from the horrid rites of their religion. Mr. William Smith, M. P., in his speech in the House of Commons, on the question of sending missionaries to India, states a fact of the most horrible kind, an account of which, he says, was then in the hands of many members. "A poor wretch, destined to be burnt on the funeral pile with the dead body of her husband, took occasion to disengage herself from the corpse, and to flee to a neighbouring thicket; but it being discovered that there was but one body on the pile, she was sought after, and brought back to the barbarous sacrifice, from which her agonies had driven her; and dreadful to relate, her own son was foremost to force her back to this horrible immolation. She entreated to be excused; but so strong was the influence of cast, that the very son forced back his mother to the pile from which she had escaped, exclaiming, that he or she should die; and aided by the ministers of this pure and holy religion, he bound his own mother, hand and foot, and threw her on the pile, on which she was burnt to death! Now, this was not a mere chimerical speculation; it was a well-attested fact, and one of many that were within the knowledge of living witnesses."†

Governor Holwell thus draws their character-" A race of people, who from their infancy are utter strangers to the idea of common faith or honesty."—"This is the situ

Moore's Hindoo Infanticide, p. 308.

Christian Observer for August, 1813, p. 404.