Dillon, who went in search of La Perouse, men tions that the women of Tucopia were at least treble the males; all the male children, except the two eldest, being strangled on their birth, while all the girls were allowed to live.
When Captain Wallis visited Otaheite and the neighbouring,islands in the South Sea, the practice was unhesitatingly avowed by the lascivious Eerceoie societies in these islands.
Dr. Bennett tells us (i. p. 122) that infanticide was practised by the women of Australia and New Zealand, on infants born after a severe labour, and on half-caste infants.
Infanticide of female infants has been practised in'India from unknown times amongst the ancient Gakkar race in the Panjab, and it has been a constant custom, and has continued in several parts of India down to the latter third of the 19th century. It was long supposed to have been confined to the clans of the Rajkumar or Raja vansa tribe, who inhabit districts in the neighbour hood of Beuares ; but a larger knowledge disclosed the existence of a similar practice among several tribes in Gujerat, all through Rajputana, also in the N.W. Provinces, in Oudh, Cutch, and west of the Indus in Baluchistan. Mr. Duncan was the first who brought the prevalence of infanticide to the notice of the British rulers of India. lie became acquainted with its existence in 1789 while at Juanpore, and he induced the Rajkumar tribe, who practised it, to enter into a covenant to dis continue the horrid practice, which the covenant recognised to be condemned in the Brahma 13ywar Purana as a great crime. The races with whom it has been customary to sacrifice their female children, are the Jut or Jat, the Rahtor Rajputs of Jeypore and Jodhpur, the Jahreja Rajputs of Cutch, and the Rajkumar race, the Sourah of Ganjam, and the polyandric Toda race on the Neilgherries.
The Rajkumar and Rajavansa, in a portion of the territories of Oudh and the adjoining pro vinces, and the Jahreja, in the countries of Cutch and Gujerat, on the western side of the Peninsula of India, alleged that the practice of female infanticide had existed for 4900 years ; and the late General Walker, in an account' published by Major Moor early in the 19th century, estimated the number of 'deaths of female children annually, in Cutch and Gujerat only, at no less than 30,000.
The Government of India, during the Marquis Wellesley's administration, in 1802, declared it to be punishable by law. But this proclamation was only partially successful.
In 1821, all surplus of fines levied on the Katty awar chiefs, was thrown into a fund to provide dowers for unmarried girls, and this was followed by the Gaekwar in 1825. Little success resulted ; and in 1834, Mr. J. P. Willoughby arranged to take a census and to put in force measures to prevent the Jahreja and others from destroying their female infants. The practice as a recognised custom ceased, the last conviction having been in 1854, and in 1872 there were in Kattyawar 10,461 males to 9513 females.
After the conquest of the Panjab by the British, Mr. C. Raikes called a public meeting of the sirdars and chiefs at Amritsar ; the meeting recognised as the causes for killing their female children, the expenses of marriage, for dowers, and for the ex actions for the Bhat, the Rai, the Dut, the Bhand, the Nai, the Merasi, and other beggars ; and the meeting resolved to discontinue and suppress the practice. Indeed, among the many pressing mea sures of reform stopped by the mutiny, was the passing of an Act, actually draughted, to prevent and punish the crime of female infanticide. In 1856, Mr. Moore, a special commissioner, had made the most startling revelations as to the prevalence of the crime in the Busti district. The subject was overlooked till 1867, when Mr. Hobart was sent into the same district to report whether, as was supposed, the practice had abated since 1856. Instead of this he discovered that the houses of certain Rajput clans were floored with skulls, and the tanks choked with infants' bones. Sir William Muir at once put repressive measures in force, and applied to the Government of India for immediate legislation. Mr. (Sir John) Strachey accordingly moved for leave to introduce a Bill.