52 8 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
phants, the riders of which had long ropes, with 
a noose at the end, in their hands. After many 
unsuccessful efforts, they succeeded at last in 
entangling the young elephant that was to be 
weaned, by the hind leg. This was a matter of 
great difficulty, for he was protected by the 
adroitness of the herd of female elephants which 
crowded round him for the purpose. When 
taken, he was a great deal more outrageous and 
obstreperous than the wild elephant caught yes¬ 
terday. The large mounted elephants had to 
beat him frequently; and I observed, once or 
twice, that they raised him quite off the ground 
with their tusks, without doing him any mate¬ 
rial injury. The cry which he emitted, on these 
occasions, differed in no way but in degree from 
the squeak of a hog that is in pain or fear. He 
was ultimately confined in a small pen beyond 
one of the doors of the paddock, where two of 
the male elephants continued to watch him. 
He was still very outrageous, and making vio¬ 
lent efforts to extricate himself, but all to little 
purpose. 
After some time we were summoned into the 
King’s presence, who was now on board of a 
large vessel chiefly constructed of bamboo, which 
is occasionally used by him as a bath. We 
found him here seated on a common gilded 
