3 go 
JOURNAL OF THE EMBASSY 
men, and myself among the rest, were attacked with violent 
dysenteries and fluxes while we encamped here. 
25th. Sent back two companies of the Malays to relieve 
the Sepoys who had been left to cover the guns. A detach- 
ment of the other troops and the corps of pioneers returned 
with them to assist in the difficult work of getting the ar- 
tillery forward : for although each gun had a number of bul- 
locks yoked to it, they required a number of men to enable 
them to make their way through the ravines and steeps. 
In the Carnatic and different parts of the continent of India, 
elephants are employed to obviate any difficulties of this sort 
which may arise on a march. It is astonishing to observe 
the sagacity of those animals, who, on observing a gun stuck 
fast in a rut, or a stop made on meeting with a difficult 
ascent, will come and render their assistance, by lifting up the 
wheel with their trunk, or by placing their forehead to the 
hinder part of the carriage and pushing it along. Such 
assistance was very much wanted on our piesent march, as 
the bullocks of Ceylon are much inferior both in size and 
strength to those of the continent, nor can the united force 
of a number of those smaller animals be applied so as to 
produce an effect equal to a few of these larger and better 
trained oxen. About two o’clock the artillery came up and 
formed on the right of the tents occupied by the European 
troops. The weather for the last two days was uncommonly 
hot, the thermometer being to day as high as 102° at noon. 
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