ELEPHANTA, 
23 
A short time after, we visited Elephanta. On reaching the island, 
our boat was surrounded by the inhabitants, who brought a rude sort 
of palanquin to convey us on shore. It was composed of a chair, to 
which were fastened two long bamboo poles, and borne by four men on 
their naked shoulders. The first object which strangers visit on land¬ 
ing, is the stone elephant, which gives its name to the island, and 
stands on an eminence not far from the beach. It has undergone a 
visible decay since I first saw it, which is about two years and a half 
ago. The fore part of the back was falling in, and the right fore-leg 
was almost separated from the body. Several symptoms of decay were 
also remarkable in the caves, and the same has also been noticed of 
those of Kanareh. 
The first thing we perceived on entering the great cave was the 
Persian Ambassador, with a most serious and collected air, pacing its 
length with all the gravity of an antiquary, whilst his companion, a 
Persian merchant, whose calculations never went beyond the profits of 
his goods, was observing him in great astonishment. He seemed quite 
wrapped up in wonder at what he saw, and said that the ruins of Per- 
sepolis were not to be compared to it. He could only have caught tliis 
spirit of investigation from us, for before he left Persia he used to ridi¬ 
cule the pains which we took in the search for antiquities; and this 
pliability in adopting the customs and manners of thought and action of 
other people, justifies an opinion often formed of the Persians, that if 
they had enjoyed all those advantages of situation and converse with 
Europeans which the Turks possess, they would have been I'ar more 
than their equals in all the arts of war and peace, and would have had, 
in consequence, a much larger influence on the politics of Europe. 
The same general resemblance of feature which, in my first visit to 
India, I had noticed between parts of the architecture of Elephanta, 
and of tlie ai’chitectural orders of Greece, particularly of the Doric, 
struck me with renewed force upon a second visit to these celebrated 
caves. By whatever means such a resemblance may have been pro¬ 
duced, whether by chance, or more probably by a chain of connection, 
now imperceptible, between the two countries, it would perhaps be im- 
