THE ELEPHANT. 351 



But it is not for drawing burdens alone that 

 the elephants are serviceable in war ; they are 

 often brought into the ranks, and compelled to 

 fight in the most dangerous parts of the field of 

 battle. There was a time, indeed, in India, when 

 they were much more used in war than at pre- 

 sent. A century or two ago, a great part of the 

 dependence of the general was upon the number 

 and the expertness of his elephants; but of late, 

 since war has been contented to adopt fatal, in- 

 stead of formidable arts, the elephant is little 

 used, except for drawing cannon, or transporting 

 provisions. The princes of the country are pleas- 

 ed to keep a few for ornament, or for the pur- 

 poses of removing their seraglios ; but they are 

 seldom led into a field of battle, where they are 

 unable to withstand the discharge of fire-arms, 

 and have often been found to turn upon their 

 employers. Still, however, they are used in war, 

 in the more remote parts of the East ; in Siam, 

 in Cochin-China, in Tonquin, and Pegu. In all 

 these places, they not only serve to swell the 

 pomp of state, being adorned with all the bar- 

 barian splendour that those countries can bestow, 

 but they are actually led into the field of battle, 

 armed before with coats of mail, and loaded on 

 the back each with a square tower, containing 

 from five combatants to seven. Upon its neck 

 sits the conductor, who goads the animal into 

 the thickest ranks, and encourages it to increase 

 the devastation : wherever it goes, nothing can 

 withstand its fury ; it levels the ranks with its 

 immense bulk, flings such as oppose it into the air, 



