EXCURSION TO FIXTURE A. 137 



elephant loaded with a tent arrived at the 

 place a short time before me; it happened 

 to be on a market day, and I was informed 

 that three or four thousand people were as- 

 sembled, when my elephant appeared; at the 

 sight of it, they all decamped, so that at the 

 time of my arrival, there was not the least ap- 

 pearance of a market; the head man of the 

 place came to me and begged that I would 

 not be alarmed at the circumstance, observing, 

 that they had ran away from the supposition 

 that a battalion of soldiers were approaching, 

 and that he could not persuade them to the 

 contrary ; that he was obliged to send off an 

 express to the Rajah at Palcote about sixty 

 miles distant, to explain the particulars, or 

 the market people would give him false infor- 

 mation and drive him from his residence into 

 the thickest jungles ; for such was his dread 

 of the English Lascar [troops] that he had 

 made a vow to his father never to see an En- 

 glishman ! the cause of it was well known to 

 the inhabitants and commonly talked of, but 

 as it is not my intention to enter into any poli- 



