INGRATITUDE OF THE ASSAMESE 465 



been there more than once and had always paid their own 

 prices with my own hand to prevent peculation by our 

 servants. They also knew Seetaram and Sookur well ; but 

 the Assamese are only fit to be slaves, and will do nothing 

 unless driven. 



April 19. We started very early for the Manass, for 

 Matagoorie. I rode to-day a very old Muckna elephant 

 belonging to the 43rd A.L.I. He was half blind I think 

 quite deaf but very steady; nothing in the world would 

 make him go more than about two to two and a half miles an 

 hour. To be on his back with a wounded beast in front was 

 heart-breaking ; but in a scrimmage he was invaluable, for he 

 would not move. We changed our minds, and put off going 

 to Bagh Dooar till the morrow got nothing but three deer for 

 camp use. 



April 20. This time we started in earnest. We went a 

 long way. I shot a couple of swamp deer, both bucks, but 

 the horn had not formed, so the heads were useless. We 

 then came upon fresh rhinoceros tracks and followed them 

 up. We found one asleep in the bed of a nullah, without 

 even a blade of grass to screen him from the sun ; probably 

 it was only a siesta, and that he would have retired to a 

 heavier jungle later on. He looked for all the world like a 

 huge pig. I was the nearest to him, but did not like to fire as 

 there was no vital spot visible. Sookur had the sense to 

 whistle, which awoke the sleeping beauty, and Jackson and 

 I fired at his chest. He was on his legs in a second and 

 came at us open-mouthed, but before he could climb up the 

 bank he fell back dead our battery was too much for him. 

 We then shot a couple of buffaloes with good heads, which 

 Jackson wanted. We breakfasted, rested half-an-hour, and 

 then resumed our journey. Jackson then shot a stag. We 

 were within sight of Matagoorie, and were going along the 

 left bank of the Manass, when I saw a huge rhinoceros 

 standing under a monarch of the forest. Its head and 

 shoulders were protected by the trunk, but I could see its 

 shoulder, and my first shot with the 2-groove rifle knocked 

 it over. I fired two more shots as it lay struggling on the 

 ground, but it recovered its legs and went off at a slow trot. 



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