x Introduction 



of servant and friend to man should receive 

 due recognition before the spread of civilisa- 

 tion, absorbing the waste lands and primeval 

 forests of the East, shall result in finding for 

 him no more use and therefore no more 

 room. 



The record of the elephant is in no way 

 inferior to that of the horse or dog. In 

 agriculture and commerce he has, like them, 

 been used in tilling the soil and in transporting 

 merchandise ; and, like them, also has carried 

 out this work in conditions which have made 

 him almost indispensable. 



In the field of sport he has proved his 

 value ; and in real warfare, from the period 

 when, covered with chain armour, he bore the 

 castellated howdah into battle, or battered in 

 the great gates of a citadel, to the time when 

 he dragged the siege guns into position, he 

 has never, when ridden by a trusty driver, 

 flinched from wounds or death in the service 

 of man. Of the horse and dog as well as of 

 the elephant it may be said that they have 

 failed at times in moments of difficulty. So 



