WANT OF DISCIPLINE. 105 



gesticulated to them to clear the side towards which we wished to make the 

 elephants break, shaking my fist at them in a fury. The villains redoubled 

 their cries, beating their sticks with heavy thuds on the ground ; they 

 thought I was angry at their not exerting themselves sufficiently ! Talking 

 was useless ; a trombone could hardly have been heard in that din ; so arm- 

 ing my gun-bearers with rattans, I sent them amongst the rascals, whom they 

 quickly dispersed, and most of them bolted, and, happily, did not appear again. 



I now made the best re-disposition I could of the Morlaptes, and we 

 managed at last to start a number of the elephants on the right road. Some 

 of the best men and I pursued them, determined to catch even a small 

 number rather than fail altogether, and they were going fast and straight 

 for the crossing, when, just as they reached it, we at their tails, a sudden 

 shot in front saluted them. A momentary halt and crush ensued ; the 

 leading elephants turned, the others followed, and back they came, heads 

 down, tails twisted, going their best, and evidently oblivious of us and 

 everything in their path. The river-bank was close at hand on our left, 

 the channel on our right, whilst the herd almost filled the intervening 

 space. I was maddened by the ill-luck and failure of our measures, and I 

 determined if the elephants got back now it should be over my body ; so, 

 shouting to the men not to give way, I fired at and floored one elephant in 

 the front rank. The beaters with me behaved very pluckily, some even 

 throwing the blankets which they carried rolled up on their backs into the 

 elephants' faces before making off. The fall of the leading elephant acted 

 as a momentary check on the others, but they were resolved to be back to 

 the thick cover they had left ; so, swerving to their left, they bustled across 

 the channel in mad haste, and with a prodigious amount of splashing)^ 

 struggling, and roaring, gained the far side, and continued their flight, the 

 wounded elephant amongst them. 



The fatal shot that had turned the elephants, in the moment when 

 success was all but grasped, had been fired by my trusty friend at the 

 gate, who must have become frightened at their rapid advance. But the 

 exact circumstances of the case are involved in mystery, as, when I went to 

 have a little conversation with him, I found he had left his gun against a 

 tree and had bolted, and I have never seen his face from that day to this ! 



The Morlayites now lost their heads, as every one else appeared to do 

 on that memorable occasion. They pursued the retreating elephants with 

 shouts and brandishing of clubs, and as the huge beasts again shufiied across 

 the Honglewaddy channel to regain the cover, some of the boldest actually 

 struck at them from the bank with their long bamboos, the blows sounding 

 loudly on their broad croups. The elephants might have turned and rent 



