purpose of
getting up public stores. I was up early, and saw them off; and it was a
most terrific sight to see the cavalry hanging, apparently on the craggy
cliff. Strange to say, elephants ascended carrying up their usual
enormous loads; but the time occupied by these animals was considerable,
from their trying to step one after another, and never venturing without
first being well assured of the solidity of the ground. This reference
to the extraordinary sagacity of elephants reminds me of two or three
other anecdotes of these huge animals, which may be interesting to the
reader.

In the year 1804, when we were in pursuit of Holkar, there was, in our
encampment, a very large elephant, used for the purpose of carrying
tents for some of the European corps. It was the season in which they
become most unmanageable, and his legs were consequently loaded with
huge chains, and he was constantly watched by his keepers. By day he was
pretty passive, save when he saw one of his own species, when he roared
and became violent; and, during those moments of ungovernable frenzy, it
was dangerous for his keepers to approach him, or to irritate his
feelings by any epithets that might prove repugnant to him. On the
contrary, every endearing expression was used to soothe and appease him,
which, with promises of sweetmeats, sometimes succeeded with the most
turbulent to gain them to obedience, when coercive measures would have
roused them to the most desperate acts of violence. By night, their
extreme cunning told them that their keepers were not so watchful or
vigilant. The elephant here alluded to, one dark night broke from his
chains and ran wild through the encampment, driving men, women,
children, camels, horses, cows, and indeed everything that could move,
before him, and roaring and trumpeting with his trunk, which is, with
elephants, a sure sign of displeasure, and that their usual docility has
deserted them. Of course, no reasonable beings disputed the road he
chose to take. Those that did soon found themselves floored. To record
the mischief done by this infuriated animal in his nocturnal ramble,
would fill a greater space than I can afford for such matter. Suffice it
that, in his flight, followed by swordsmen and spearsmen shouting and
screaming, he pulled down tents, upset everything that impeded his
progress, wounded and injured many, and ultimately killed his keeper by
a blow from his trunk. He was speared in some twenty pl