Page:Deplorable effects of heathen superstition.pdf/20

 consecrated by custom; I mean the of. His Lordship had been informed that it had been a custom of the Hindoos to sacrifice children in consequence of vows, by drowning them, or exposing them to sharks and crocodiles; and that twenty-three persons had perished at Saugur in one month (January 1801) many of whom were sacrificed in this manner. He immediately instituted an enquiry into the principles of this ancient atrocity ; he heard patiently what Natives and Europeans had to say in defence of the custom, and then passed a law, “declaring the practice to be murder punishable by death.”—The law entitled “A regulation for preventing the Sacrifice of Children at Saugur and other places ; passed the Governor-General in Council on the 20th of August, 1802.”—The purpose of this regulation was completely effected. Not a murmur was heard on the subject ; nor has any attempt come to our knowledge since. It is impossible to calculate the number of human lives that have been saved, during the last eight years, by this human law of the Marquis.

The following relation, in the words of the same author, will shew what human nature can believe and perpetrate, when destitute of the light from Heaven.

Among the Hindoo tribes called the, in the provinces of and  in the west of India, it is a custom to destroy female