18 HUNTING AJ) VENTURES. 



success, as his numerous army could enclose a much greater 

 space than all the Indians whom the Spanish viceroy could 

 muster. The East Indian princes still show the same inclination 

 to the chase ; and Mr. Blane, who attended the hunting excur- 

 sions of Asoph Ul Dowah, Vizier of the Mogul empire, and Nabob 

 of Oude, in 1785 and 1786, in the time of Hyder Ali, gives the 

 following account of the method practised on this occasion. 



The time is about the beginning of December ; and the diver- 

 sion is continued till the heats, which commence about the begin- 

 ning of March, oblige them to stop. During this period a circuit 

 of between four and six hundred miles is generally made ; the 

 hunters bending their course towards the skirts of the northern 

 mountains, where the country is wild and uncultivated. The 

 Vizier takes along with him not only his Court and seraglio, but 

 .a great part of the inhabitants of his capital. His immediate 

 attendants amount to about two thousand ; but he is also followed 

 by five or six hundred horse, and several battalions of regular 

 sepoys with their field pieces : four or five hundred elephants 

 also accompany him; of which some are used for riding, others 

 for fighting, and some for clearing the jungles and forests of the 

 ame. About as many sumpter horses of the beautiful Persian 

 and Arabian breeds are taken with him. 



A great number of wheel carriages, drawn by bullocks, likewise 

 attend, which are used chiefly for the convenience of the women ; 

 sometimes also he has an English chaise or two, and sometimes a 

 chariot ; but all these, as well as the horses, are merely for show, 

 the Vizier himself never using any ofher conveyance than an 

 elephant, or sometimes, when fatigued or indisposed, a palanquin. 

 The animals used in the sport are principally about *hree hundred 

 greyhounds, two hundred hawks, and a few trained leopards for 

 hunting deer. There is a great number of marksmen, whose - 

 profession it is to shoot deer ; with many fowlers, who provide 

 game ; as none of the natives of India know how to shoot game 

 with small shot, or to hunt with slow bounds. 



A vast number of matchlocks are carried along with the com- 

 pnnv. w'th many English pieces of various kinds, 40 or 50 pairs 



