130 TRAVELS IN 
powerful, that shame in the one instance, and indignation in 
the other, were impediments to their indulging, in a domesti- 
cated state, in the gratifications of love. Such-like hypothe- 
ses, founded on false suggestions of travellers, have of late 
been most completely set aside by facts performed in the 
presence of many hundred spectators. Several English gen- 
tlemen, resid-ent in the interior parts of India, have bred ele- 
phants. In a letter from one of these gentlemen to his friend, 
dated Tipperah, July 11, 1793, and now published, the whole 
process of courtship, consummation, and time of gestation, 
are minutely stated. From this letter the following are points 
that appear to be most unquestionably ascertained. 
First : That tame elephants will procreate in their domestic 
state, and perform the act of love without shame, and with- 
out feeling any sense of delicacy beyond other brute animals. 
Secondly : That the period of gestation is about twentj'- 
one months. 
Thirdly : That they copulate invariably in the same man- 
ner as a horse with a mare, but with much less vigor. And,. 
Fourthly,. That the female will again receive the male i-n five 
or six months after dehvery. 
A copy of the above-mentioned letter having been trans- 
mitted to the late ingenious Sir William Jones, the relation 
produced from the sportive fancy of that celebrated genius 
tke commencement of a mock-heroic poem, in which, thougli 
