THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE 
 
 % 
 
 OUT-STATION; 
 
 OR, 
 
 JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 BY JAMES WILLTAIS GRYLLS. 
 
 H 
 
 ' FOR LIBERTY ! 
 
 - Go seek the mountain tops, 
 Where with the crashing pines the North-wind revels ! 
 Go where the Eagle and the Mammoth dwell, 
 'Midst mightier elements : WHERE NATURE is, 
 AND MAN is NOT !" 
 
 Rienzi. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 186, STRAND. 
 
 1848. 
 
C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. 
 
TO 
 
 HUMPHRY WILLIAMS, ESQ., 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED, 
 
 AS 
 
 A TRIFLING ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 OF THE DEEP DEBT OF GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION 
 
 HIS MANY KINDNESSES 
 
 HAVE ENTAILED 
 
 UPON 
 
 THE AUTHOK. 
 
 M372605 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 NEVER for a moment dreaming of dipping into 
 a " PREFACE" myself, it would be a matter of 
 supererogation and inconsistency to inflict one, 
 could I not turn it to the delightful use of convey- 
 ing to WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH, ESQ., 
 my most sincere thanks for his kindness in per- 
 mitting a re-publication of the following little 
 sketches (originally deemed worthy of a place 
 in " ColbuniLS New Monthly Magazine"); and 
 furthermore, of making it the medium of im- 
 ploring the worthy Reader who may possibly 
 have been sent into the world endowed with the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 criticising temperament of a " FADLADEEN" to 
 bear in mind, that this, being the first bantling 
 I have ever palmed upon Public Charity, is 
 entitled to all the extra indulgencies usually 
 bestowed on the happy enjoyers of Primogeni- 
 ture, an attribute that, like Charity, is univer- 
 sally allowed to hide a multitude of sins. 
 
 Miners' Bank, 
 
 Camborne. 
 
 February, 1848. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. PAGE 
 THE MOUNTAIN-JUNGLE OF CEYLON 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 THE VEDDAH; OR, WILD MAN OF THE JUNGLE 14 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 DEALINGS WITH THE FIRM OF BRUIN AND Co 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 A MIDNIGHT MELE WITH THE " UNCLEAN" 34 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 AN "ESSAY" ON ELK 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A FORTNIGHT'S EXCURSION AMONG THE ELEPHANTS.... 55 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. PAGE 
 
 MAJOR TOM ROGERS OF OURS AND HIS EXPLOITS ...... 84 
 
 CHAPTER 
 MINOR DELECTABILITIES OF OUT-STATION LIFE ........ 100 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DlS AGREEABILITIES INCIDENT TO JUNGLE EXISTENCE ... 113 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 A "PLEASANT VOYAGE" ........................................ 128 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " WAR TO THE KNIFE" WITH THE PEARL OYSTERS OF 
 
 ARIPO ........................................................... 140 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 CONCLUSION ......................................... .. 152 
 
THE OUT-STATION; 
 
 OR, 
 
 JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN- JUNGLE OF CEYLON. 
 
 HAVE you not, times without number, most ami- 
 able and unsophisticated reader, alighted upon some 
 of the innumerable home-conceived fancies of the 
 Eastern jungle, imposed upon you through portions of 
 our " Annual" curiosities of literature ? and, conse- 
 quently, have you not had that interesting locality 
 daguerreotyped on your imagination, as being an un- 
 bounded ocean of solar-microscopically-magnified her- 
 bageeach blade of grass resembling that of a 
 gigantic broadsword with three or four palm, talipot, 
 or cocoa-nut trees (for all the world like parasols 
 with handles on the " malle elastique" principle), 
 thrown in by way of variety ; whilst the terrestrial 
 portion of the scene is garnished with the head of 
 a tiger, and set off with a rattlesnake's tail, by 
 way of excitement? all which original conception 
 
 B 
 
2 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 holds about as apt a similitude to the glorious reality, 
 as a pauper at a parish Union door to a Peri at the 
 gates of Paradise. 
 
 Let me proceed, therefore, in the first place, to 
 attempt the operation of a " dissolving view" on the 
 aforesaid mental daguerreotype ; and if a change does 
 not come over the ideas of my " compagnon tfaven- 
 ture" as we ramble together through the splendid 
 mountain scenery of Ceylon, it must either be attri- 
 buted to a deficiency in the descriptive faculties of 
 the operator, or the obtuse and unimaginative tem- 
 perament of the worthy reader's self. 
 
 To keep perturbed nigger spirits in proper awe and 
 subjection to her Majesty, and " those in authority 
 under her," for the consideration of " five shillings and 
 threepence" per diem, and to trust to Providence and 
 a double-barrel for one's daily bread, during two entire 
 years of mortal existence, is an event not reserved for 
 the 01 TroXXot of creation ; wherefore, having lately 
 undergone the ordeal with considerable credit to her 
 Majesty's service (although never actually congra- 
 tulated on such an event by the Horse Guards), I will 
 generously share the benefit of rny experience with the 
 reader, and doffing for the nonce the " regulation 
 harness," invite him to spend a month with me in the 
 jungle, undertaking to find him in unlimited 'rack 
 punch, and in cheroots grown under my own tillage, 
 and manufactured on my own gun-case ; and should 
 he decline to add his own contribution to the pea- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 
 
 fowl soup, the venison stew, or the snipe curry, I 
 further guarantee to keep him from starvation, on 
 condition that he puts up with the " cuisineries" of 
 my Malay factotum, and allows his lively imagination 
 to fancy he perceives in the " nigger's" desperate 
 attempts at stews, grills, and broils, the nascent genius 
 of a Soyer. 
 
 It is still night and darkness. Awaking to a 
 strong smell of coffee and a state of half-conscious- 
 ness, the first reflection that dawns on the intellect is 
 the insane resolve, over champagne and claret at mess 
 the previous night, to leave Kandy next day, at four 
 in the morning. 
 
 Around, the Coolies are fighting and scrambling 
 as to who shall carry the lightest package of the 
 commissariat department, and in a state of mind 
 any thing but angelic, having kicked the lazy, extor- 
 tionate convoy (did a real nigger ever yet go to 
 Heaven?) out of the house with their respective 
 loads, I swallow the milkless decoction (supposed to 
 be coffee), and lighting a cheroot to counteract 
 the effects of a dense fog, start on my first day's 
 journey through the precipitous scenery between 
 Kandy and Newera Ellia. 
 
 The plain to be traversed before getting out of 
 the town, was once the scene of the old Malabar 
 monarchs' ideas of regal pleasures and delectabilities. 
 B 2 
 
4 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 Seated in the balcony of the temple that stands on 
 it, their chief delight consisted in watching elephants 
 (who had been specially instructed for the purpose) 
 dissect some unfortunate law-breaker piecemeal, be- 
 ginning at the finger-joints ; in looking at mothers 
 cutting off their children's heads, and then pounding 
 them in a wooden mortar ; and other " eccentricities," 
 which are handed down to posterity by rude paintings 
 of the events on the inner walls of the temple. 
 
 There is another incident attached to this temple, 
 which is any thing but consolatory to an English- 
 man's amour propre. It is supposed that the drums 
 of her Majesty's regiment, taken by the Cin- 
 galese at a massacre of the British troops, are pre- 
 served in one of the rooms ; and, although the island 
 has been totally subdued since, no attempt has been 
 made to rescue the unfortunate drum-prisoners (whose 
 nerves by this time must be somewhat unstrung) 
 from their luckless fate ; except on one occasion by a 
 handful of private soldiers, who having more esprit 
 du corps (or, possibly, esprit & arrack) in them than 
 allowed by the rules and regulations of the Articles 
 of War, were doubtless regaled with a dose of extra- 
 drill afterwards for their too patriotic temerity. 
 
 The route now lies over a continual series of moun- 
 tain-passes through the interior, at the end of every 
 ten or twelve miles of which is erected a rest-house, 
 kept by some enterprising native, formerly most pro- 
 bably a mess-waiter, or butler under some English- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 5 
 
 man, whose tastes he is au fait at suiting ; conse- 
 quently, among his stock of rice-cakes, eggs, fowls, 
 arrack, &c., he not unfrequently is able to produce 
 that inestimable luxury, under such circumstances, 
 to the famished traveller a bottle or two of bitter 
 ale (surgit amari a-liguicT) ; and vastly do I com- 
 miserate the digestive powers of a man that do not 
 allow him an appetite at every ten miles, inhaling, 
 as he does, a fresh, fragrant, breeze that counteracts 
 the too powerful influence of a mid-day sun, and sets 
 into commotion a wilderness of foliage and lemon- 
 grass, whose rustling, added to the now swelling, now 
 scarcely audible, roar of the water-falls, as they leap 
 from rock to rock into the stupendous precipices 
 below, is the sole sound that disturbs the silence of 
 a scene as bright and cloudless as ever dawned on 
 Eden. 
 
 After passing through thirty miles of this wild and 
 beautiful scenery, Newera Ellia a plain on the sum- 
 mit of the highest mountains in Ceylon studded 
 with its " cottages orne"es," the property of the po- 
 tentates of the island's civil service, appears in sight; 
 an oasis in which one can revel in an English 
 climate, feel once more the comfort of a long-aban- 
 doned woollen wardrobe, and enjoy a bottle of wine 
 that has not undergone the refrigerating process for 
 two hours before dinner ; but our destination lies 
 beyond this, for although an elephant now and then 
 frightens the inhabitants of this rus in nube out of 
 
6 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 their propriety by paying them an angel's visit, yet it 
 is seldom that they intrude upon the ground where 
 their unceasing persecutor, man, has left his foot- 
 mark. 
 
 Leaving the plain, and passing through three or 
 four miles of forest, the most magnificent panorama 
 of explored creation bursts suddenly upon the view ; 
 plain, precipice, mountains, torrents, lying before, 
 below, and around, as far as mortal eye can pene- 
 trate. 
 
 In front, stretch the never-ending plains around 
 Wilson Bungalow (built by General Sir John Wilson, 
 from whom it derives its appellation), the walls of 
 which one can just perceive, glittering like a white 
 speck on the face of ocean. The vast plains around, 
 where many a " tantivy" has cheered on a pack of 
 English stag-hounds, having been the scene of some 
 of the happiest days of the exiled fox-hunter. 
 
 The waters of the Megaloia are roaring in the dis- 
 tance, whilst the hills, covered to their very apex 
 with apparently impermeable foliage, become a source 
 of wonderment and speculation as to how many hun- 
 dreds of hogs, deer, elephants, monkeys, snakes, and 
 buffaloes, their branches may shelter. 
 
 Groves of guava-trees line our road, and few things 
 in life do I know more delicious than a morning's 
 amusement among this most exquisite fruit, whilst it 
 is yet cold from the night air. The flavour is that 
 of every fruit of an English garden concentrated to 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 7 
 
 an essence, and many are the pet its verres that an 
 uncontrollable indulgence of these little irresistibili- 
 ties compel their suicidal victim to undergo before 
 breakfast. 
 
 Having arrived (after more perils by water than 
 by land, for there being few or no bridges, the tor- 
 rents must be forded as best they can, which feat is 
 generally performed on the back of one of the coolies, 
 whilst the horses are being swum across in some 
 deeper and smoother part) at the base of Kamouna- 
 kooli, whose summit stands 10,000 feet above the 
 sea's level, we pitch our tent, or rather take posses- 
 sion of a dilapidated habitation at the foot of the 
 mountain, every room of which presents umnistakeable 
 symptoms that the right to its occupation will, ere 
 long, be contested by disputants, winged, quadruped, 
 biped, and reptile. With this latter enemy a pitched 
 battle ensues on the spot, a long and undisputed 
 residence in the thatch of the house having given it 
 a " prior claim." 
 
 These nuisances, the ratsnakes, which generally 
 average from six to twelve feet long, are perfectly 
 innocuous, and live in the thatched roofs of almost 
 every Ceylon bungalow, which they keep clear of 
 rats by living on them ; but whether the remedy is 
 not worse than the disease is entirely a matter of 
 opinion or antipathy, for in pursuit of their game the 
 snakes not unfrequently miss their hold ; and, there 
 being no ceilings, they come down on one's head or 
 
THE OUT-STATION; OK, 
 
 bed without the least ceremony in the world; a pro- 
 ceeding considerably subversive to the philosophy of 
 the " lord of creation," and resulting in an immediate 
 onslaught on the aggressor, who, independently of 
 this, is no doubt the most incommoded party in the 
 first instance. 
 
 Should the natives of the country, however, (for 
 even in these mountains there are human beings 
 stowed away in some seemingly inexplorable and 
 invisible recess ; living without the assistance of the 
 " circulating medium," (and consequently little trou- 
 bled with "currency questions,") Heaven only knows 
 on what and how !) gain intelligence of the forth- 
 coming visit of an Englishman, the greatest com- 
 pliment they can show is to denude their own limbs 
 of their white sheets to hang round the walls of the 
 room, so that you only see the struggles of the fallen 
 viper at the top, where, hanging over you like the 
 sword of Damocles, he keeps you in a continual state 
 of perspiration, if not alarm. 
 
 To settle down to sleep for the first time in life, 
 surrounded only by savages and wild beasts of every 
 description, a hundred miles or more distant from 
 even the jungle-dwelling of a countryman, has more 
 excitement in it, than one who has never experienced 
 the situation would imagine ; and it is extraordinary 
 how the value of every thing bearing the remotest 
 vestige of civilisation, even down to the flavour of a 
 cigar, is enhanced thereby ; consequently, about the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 9 
 
 most difficult business of the twenty-four hours in a 
 jungle expedition consists in summoning sufficient 
 resolution to " turn in." Another jorum of arrack 
 punch, a fresh bottle of Lafitte, or "just one more 
 cigar," however delectable at the time, generally 
 entail an unpleasant re-action in the morning, when 
 the nigger, as in duty bound, awakes you at five A.M., 
 with the information that there is a herd of wild 
 elephants or buffaloes within half a mile of the house, 
 adding, by way of consolation, " plenty savage, 
 master !" 
 
 There are, however, other and more potent causes 
 that keep one under arms during the first night, or 
 at least the greater part of it ; for there being no 
 doors or windows, and the previous tenants, out for 
 the day, not yet being aware of a new occupant, it 
 might be attended with disagreeable results to be 
 caught napping by a bear with a sore head, or an 
 unamiable wild hog wrought into a determination of 
 going its whole self. 
 
 But now for the jungle and its denizens. 
 
 Carrying a double-barrelled gun, and my Malay 
 follower being armed with another, more for the sake 
 of protection than aggression (for the first day shall 
 be devoted to a specimen of the locale of our future 
 exploits), we commence our ascent up the mountain 
 before the sun has shed a ray upon its summit now 
 clambering up huge masses of rock between immense 
 banyan trees, whose branches, growing downwards 
 
10 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 again into the earth from their parent stem, prove 
 of no slight assistance in the ascent, now suddenly 
 emerging into open spaces of ground, covered at in- 
 tervals with lemon-grass reaching far above our heads; 
 all the while kept on the constant look-out for 
 squalls ; the screechings of the awakening animals 
 over head becoming more frequent as the twilight of 
 morning becomes more palpable. 
 
 A dark, indefinable patch, a few yards distant, just 
 appearing above the lemon-grass, is formed by a herd 
 of a dozen elephants, as noiseless and motionless as 
 the old blackened stumps of trees close to them, and 
 many an inexperienced hand has walked into an 
 animal's proboscis before discovering his mistake. 
 
 At the next step I incontinently break in upon the 
 slumbers of a noble elk, who, drawing himself to his 
 full height, stares for a moment at his intruder, and 
 then dashes down the steep as if it were a grassy flat. 
 
 Jungle fowl rise at my feet at every turning, whilst 
 above, an unceasing clatter of tongues and creak- 
 ing of branches, as the squatters thereon migrate from 
 tree to tree, give indication that our invasion of the 
 monkeys' territory is not viewed with any feeling of 
 hospitality by the tribe. 
 
 A " rogue" elephant, a rascal who has been driven 
 from his herd for habitual misconduct, and whose paw 
 is in consequence against man and beast, next makes 
 his appearance in front, sending us round some half 
 a mile out of the direct road, simply because I am 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 1 1 
 
 determined not to commence hostilities till the mor- 
 row (" Honi soit qui mal y pense"); and, after a two- 
 hours' pull, the welcome summit of the mountain is 
 reached, in time to behold the sun rise from the eastern 
 sea in " one unclouded blaze of living light." 
 
 Wiping the perspiration from my brow, I bring 
 myself to an anchor on the top of some inviting rock, 
 to contemplate a scene, the intense grandeur and 
 beauty of which would absorb every sense and feeling, 
 did not a huge cobra di capella at the moment, lifting 
 his hooded head from one of the fissures of my 
 adopted throne, send me sprawling among the grass 
 and brambles at its foot. A load of " No. 7 " shot 
 soon avenges my insulted dignity and interrupted 
 contemplation, and uncoils twelve feet of the deadliest 
 of the viper tribe. 
 
 At the report of the gun, flocks of diminutive par- 
 rots of every imaginable hue spring from the branches 
 below ; minute birds of Paradise, with their two 
 streaming tail feathers, whirl over head, and 
 
 Strange things come tip to look at us, 
 The monsters of the woods. 
 
 In such a scene miles and miles away from the 
 mark of human hand, where, perhaps, one can only 
 see in its full force the truth of 
 
 How beautiful is all this visible world, 
 How glorious in its action and itself, 
 
 where, a human speck, we stand alone amid the 
 
12 THE OUT-STATION; OB, 
 
 habitations of the hugest and deadliest of the brute 
 creation, who take no thought of the morrow, what 
 they shall eat or what they shall drink in such a 
 scene, I say, it is strange to recur for a moment to 
 the busy, idle, laughing, weeping, glittering, squalid, 
 hoping, despairing, struggling world of our father- 
 land ! 
 
 " Where is the world at eighty ?" says Young ; 
 where is it at eighteen? he might have asked, stand- 
 ing on the mountain jungle of Ceylon passed from 
 existence, almost from memory ! But " every man 
 his own philosopher" I won't apostrophise. 
 
 As the sun gets higher the signs of life gradually 
 disappear, till the parti-coloured lizards alone seem to 
 have it all to themselves. 
 
 Now and then a brilliant, harmless, snake rustles 
 through the dead grass, and at intervals, a peacock, 
 in all the majesty of a seven-foot tail, stalks out of 
 the skirt of the jungle ; but, by degrees, even these 
 vanish, until nothing is left to disturb the silence of a 
 tropical noonday, the intense stillness of which it is 
 almost painful to endure. 
 
 Such a picture of nature in its primal state, un- 
 ruffled by a breath, unclouded by a haze, admits not 
 of description. 
 
 But it is not always thus. 
 
 Dark, destruction-charged, and terrible, are the hur- 
 ricanes that sweep at times over the scene. Through 
 the deep ravines around, the gusts of wind, like yell- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 13 
 
 ing fiends, howl and shriek in dismal chorus, falling 
 on the ear with an ominous sound, woeful, unearthly, 
 and desolate, as of yore they struck upon the senses 
 of the lonely dwellers on Mount Ararat, seeming to 
 moan over the destruction of a world ! 
 
 At last comes night cloudless, brilliant, and fairy- 
 like in its moonlit existence. 
 
 The white mists rising in the valleys below, give 
 to the hill-tops that stretch above them the appear- 
 ance of a cluster of islands in a silvery sea. Myriads 
 of fire-flies glitter on every tree of the mountain, and 
 never did a glimpse of Paradise beam on the opium- 
 wrought visions of a fanatic in all the beau-ideal of 
 its blest tranquillity more serenely glorious than the 
 scene before me ! 
 
 At length a shriek from some dyspeptic baboon in 
 a nightmare recalls a sense of my position, and the 
 late hour of night ; and the last cheroot, 
 
 Like a saint of old, condemn'd and sold, 
 To death through suffering driven ; 
 
 having 
 
 Pass'd with a smile, from its funeral pile, 
 To become a bright cloud in Heav'n, 
 
 I retrace my steps to my mountain-home, and am 
 soon wrapt in a sleep as breathless as the air around 
 me, and dreamless as the sleep of death ! 
 
14 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE VEDDAH; OR, WILD MAN OF THE JUNGLE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH not strictly catalogued amongst jungle 
 game (inasmuch as they are human beings), I must 
 indulge the reader with my introduction to the Ved- 
 dah ? and the first interview with this wild man of the 
 jungle. 
 
 Not quite a century ago, when this tribe who 
 may be said to constitute the gipsies of Ceylon 
 became rather too numerous and predatory in any 
 particular locality, leave was always granted by the 
 reigning monarch to his subjects inhabiting the over- 
 run district, to have a month or six weeks' shooting 
 among these poor wretches (making game of them 
 with a vengeance); and even within the last dozen 
 years, a similar request was made to the then governor 
 of the island, Sir R. W. Horton, by a deputation from 
 the interior, and his refusal to support the " vested 
 rights" of these amiable niggers caused no small de- 
 gree of dissatisfaction amongst them. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 15 
 
 Without any other habitation than the thickset 
 branches of the nearest tree, the Veddah lives princi- 
 pally on wild honey and raw deer-flesh. In fact, 
 nothing comes amiss to its digestion : and whether it 
 really is a human being, or not, is with many an open 
 question to the present time; although the fact of its 
 constructing bows and arrows for the purpose of 
 slaughter, would argue in favour of the former sup- 
 position. 
 
 The bow they make use of never exceeds eighteen 
 inches in length, whilst the arrow scarcely exceeds a 
 foot, and with this dimunitive weapon, which is gene- 
 rally poisoned they pick off a deer at full gallop, 
 sending in the shaft behind the shoulder, and piercing 
 the heart; but more generally, ensconced in their 
 roosting-places, they await the arrival of the unsus- 
 pecting victim, to sleep or feed just beneath them, 
 and then quietly sending- a shaft into a vital part, 
 are stocked with venison for a week. 
 
 Clothes of any description they abjure, in place of 
 which both men and women are entirely covered with 
 pile, whilst the profuse locks of both sexes, reaching 
 below the knees, form a complete shelter to them 
 from rain or sun. 
 
 On what terms of intimacy and friendship they 
 stand with the next degenerated specimen in the 
 family of Creation the ourang-outang it was never 
 my good fortune to discover ; but often have I in 
 some of my jaunts in the jungle, in search of a dinner 
 
16 THE OUT-STATIOJS; OR, 
 
 or a pair of tusks, come upon a party of half-a-dozen 
 Veddahs, and sent them scampering off in mortal 
 dread of their lives, and chattering for all the world 
 like so many apes. 
 
 On one occasion, having penetrated further than 
 usual into the jungle, where I had followed the recent 
 track of a herd of elephants, I suddenly pounced upon 
 a party of Veddahs at feeding time. Having estab- 
 lished their " salle-a-manger" in a corner of a ravine 
 with high rocks all around them, except at the spot 
 where I made my unwelcome appearance, there was 
 no possibility of escape. 
 
 Entertaining for a moment a doubt on my own 
 part (in which my Malay gun-carrier evidently joined 
 me), whether it would not be more prudent to exercise 
 the better part of valour, and cut and run as fast as 
 my legs would carry me (after a very brief apology 
 for the intrusion), my resolution to remain was decided 
 by witnessing the superlative state of alarm into which 
 we . had thrown the dinner-party. Some began to 
 jabber and screech, others to bury their faces in the 
 grass, whilst one or two stared stupidly at us, think- 
 ing, no doubt, that their hour was come, and possibly 
 the arch-enemy also (for niggers always paint him 
 white) to square accounts with them. 
 
 There was one old fellow amongst them, whose 
 hairs were quite grey, and whose looks were more 
 pacific and less perturbed than the others, and to him 
 I first addressed myself by every imaginable sign and 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 17 
 
 gesture, but he either could not or would not under- 
 stand ; so the next resource I had recourse to was 
 turning out the contents of my pockets every body 
 knows the heterogeneous variety of merchandise con- 
 tained in a shooting-coat pocket and by dint of 
 coaxing the old man, and offering him one thing 
 after the other, I so far gained his confidence as to 
 get near him, although it was very much in the same 
 manner that one would approach a sulky mastiff ; 
 but, as luck would have it, the article that settled the 
 business, and gained us the whole tribe's good will 
 in a fixity of tenure, was the brass regimental whistle 
 and chain which the Malay a corporal in the Ceylon 
 rifles had luckily brought with him. 
 
 No sooner did the patriarchal Veddah understand 
 how to make it send forth a squeak, than his delight 
 became unbounded ; he grinned demoniacal gratifica- 
 tion, and the chief difficulty now seemed to consist in 
 ever getting him to leave off. 
 
 The others, gaining courage, one by one began to 
 gather round him, and, remaining at some little dis- 
 tance, I had a chance of thoroughly observing this 
 singular and outcast tribe of people, of whom there 
 were present four men and two women. 
 
 Whether it was the overpowering melody of the 
 screeching brass, or my own very amicable and 
 assuring demeanour, that imparted fresh courage, I 
 cannot say, but in a very short space of time the re- 
 maining five were all cringing round, and pawing us, 
 c 
 
18 THE OUT -STATION ; OR, 
 
 no doubt expressing their ardent desire to be straight- 
 way put in possession of a whistle apiece. 
 
 Now to let them off unsatisfied, particularly as I 
 wanted to make use of their services, was not the 
 policy to be pursued ; so one fellow was presented 
 with my powder-flask (first securing its contents 
 myself) which he forthwith commenced trying to 
 whistle through, and is no doubt trying it on still. 
 
 One of the "fair sex" had my neckerchief, and the 
 other my pocket-handkerchief, which, being of very 
 bright patterns, no doubt enthroned me in their 
 hearts for ever. 
 
 This was paying rather dearly, however, " for our 
 whistle." 
 
 One fellow, more importunate than the others, 
 finished the brandy flask, and got as drunk as an 
 owl ; and so after having received the most friendly 
 assurances from these foreign powers, I proceeded 
 to obtain all the information to be got out of them 
 relative to the locality of the elephants. 
 
 Pointing to the tracks of these animals, which 
 every here and there were fresh, and then lost among 
 the grass and underwood, I made them understand 
 what I wanted ; and although I was more than once 
 nearly led into a personal quarrel with the old gentle- 
 man, owing to whether the whistle should be blown 
 or Dot during our search for the animals, they accom- 
 panied or rather guided us so far that a crash of 
 breaking branches gave notice that we were close on 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 19 
 
 our game ; and the next moment our cicerones had 
 scampered pell-mell up into the nearest tree, where the 
 old brute immediately began whistling as loud as his 
 lungs would allow him, by which means I certainly 
 lost a first-rate chance of flooring a splendid tusk 
 elephant. 
 
 By a chance shot, however, I sent a ball into the 
 temple of the last of the fugitive beasts as he trotted 
 past, and without a struggle or a groan the monster 
 sank down silently, dead upon the grass, with an 
 ounce bullet in his brain. 
 
 It was some minutes before I could see any signs of 
 my new acquaintances, the Veddahs ; the contiguity 
 of the elephants, and the report of the gun, no doubt 
 kept them silent, but when they espied the prostrate 
 carcase, and the Malay and myself seated upon it, 
 they came forward with the most frantic yelling, and 
 grotesque dances imaginable ; in short, I would not 
 have given sixpence for Buddha's chance of notice, 
 had he put in a sudden appearance, so intense was 
 their adoration of us. 
 
 This was getting by degrees too enthusiastic to 
 be pleasant, consequently, as soon as we conveniently 
 could, we made our exit, leaving the Veddahs to the 
 dead elephant and their own excited imaginations. 
 
 Never having witnessed the Bosjesmans, or the 
 
 late enterprising Mr. Harvey Leach's personation of 
 
 "What is it?" I cannot say how nearly either of 
 
 them assimilated to the Veddah, but weighing these 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE OUT- STATION ; OR, 
 
 uncivilised beings with civilised baboons, they drop 
 prodigiously in the scale of " social etiquette." 
 
 Who is there that lived in Ceylon about the year 
 1832 that does not remember Esau? 
 
 Poor Esau ! at last a victim to civilisation and a 
 taste for cognac ! 
 
 Esau was a baboon, the property of Dr. , of 
 
 the staff. Although in height somewhat under the 
 military standard (being between four and five feet), 
 Esau gloried in scarlet and gold, and not unfre- 
 quently in a sword; but although he served, as will 
 presently be seen, to " point a moral," unfortunately 
 he could boast of no attribute whereby to " adorn a 
 tail." 
 
 This extraordinary animal received an education 
 that would have made him an ornament to society in 
 general if he held his tongue. 
 
 When Dr. dined at home, Esau invariably 
 
 sat down to dinner with him, helping himself to what 
 he preferred like a Christian ; and although at first a 
 strong innate conviction on his part that fingers were 
 made before knives and forks caused some slight mis- 
 understanding, Esau at last gave in, and used these 
 seemingly superfluous articles. 
 
 Ask Esau to take wine, and he would give you a 
 bow and grin worthy of a Gaul. 
 
 Now it is not likely that such an original and 
 entertaining character would be kept long out of the 
 congenial clime and company of a mess-room (Reader 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 21 
 
 in red ! don't think me personal) ; so Mr. Esau used 
 to come in with the dessert and go out with the small 
 hours. 
 
 At first he was contented with claret, but pro- 
 gressively advancing in the scale of sociality and 
 wisdom, he imbibed the same idea as that entertained 
 by respectable old Sam Johnson, that " claret was 
 made for boys, port for men, and brandy for heroes," 
 so to cognac he came, and as sure as the night arrived, 
 Mr. Esau was "as drunk as a lord." 
 
 To make an end of it. 
 
 Dr. 's surgery-door, as fate would have it, was 
 
 one day inadvertently left open, and in his pursuit of 
 knowledge under difficulties, Esau took advantage of 
 the circumstance to dip into the mysteries and hiero- 
 glyphics of pharmacy. 
 
 But man will err, and why not a monkey ? 
 Green, pink, blue, and crimson coloured bottles might 
 have excited curiosity, but they were left untasted. 
 One large plain glass bottle did all the mischief, it 
 contained a fluid resembling in colour British brandy, 
 and that was quite sufficient for Esau. 
 
 Without stopping to smell, the poor fellow finished 
 half the bottle at the first pull, and made his exit 
 from the troublous scene of life with half a pint of 
 laudanum in his interior ; leaving behind him a name 
 that will long be remembered by those that knew 
 him, and a moral to man and monkey to avoid British 
 brandy. 
 
22 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DEALINGS WITH THE FIRM OF BRUIN AND CO. 
 
 FOE my own part, I always entertained a very 
 decided penchant for the whole bruin family, indi- 
 vidually and collectively. 
 
 Whether it was the off-hand affectionate greeting 
 with which they were ever ready to welcome a stranger 
 (although, unfortunately, like that of the amiable 
 youth, Manfred, their " embrace is fatal"), or the 
 bluff, stolid, pig-headed, John Bullish way they pos- 
 sessed of " doing business," that won my affections, is 
 of no possible consequence to the reader. Suffice it 
 to say, that I own, unblushingly, the soft impeach- 
 ment ; and very seldom ever put myself out of the 
 way to murder in cold blood one of the innocents. 
 
 Our major abominated or, more bruinically speak- 
 ing, could not bear the bare idea of bears. 
 
 How far he was justified in his antipathy, remains 
 to be read, and, as it constituted my first expedition 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 23 
 
 against this " downy" tribe, is, perhaps, worth the 
 chronicling. 
 
 It was tiffin (i. e., luncheon) time in the garrison 
 
 of , in Ceylon ; that long anticipated glorious 
 
 hour of the twenty-four, which proclaims the eight 
 interminable ones following the morning's parade to 
 be knocked on the head for that day at least 
 those hours so vividly remembered, in which, like 
 miserable ghosts, the dwellers in barracks wander for- 
 lornly up and down the corridors, puffing Manilla 
 cheroots, desperately asking every body they mo- 
 mentarily encounter "what o'clock it is,"- and bully- 
 ing the messman because it is not an hour later ; 
 sighing for " two, P.M. ;" as if it were the moment 
 they had lived all their lives to survive and be 
 millenium-ized! 
 
 It was tiffin time, and a dozen of us had tallyho'd 
 the first mess-waiter with the first dish of curry into 
 the mess-room, when the major (who, bless his old 
 soul ! is now quartered in Heaven) made his appear- 
 ance at table among us (" his boys," as he used to 
 call us), bearing on his shoulders a physiognomy 
 
 Eheu ! tantum mutatus ab illo ! 
 
 in which he had left us the night before, as to make 
 it evident that there was a screw loose : and it was 
 not until the worthy old soul had drained a tumbler 
 full of " claret cup" at a draft (a compound, good 
 reader! of claret, mint, sugar, and nutmeg, iced 
 
24 THE OUT-STATION; on, 
 
 try it, if you are ignorant of the quality), that we 
 could get the remotest inkling as to how the jolly 
 countenance of that religious devotee to Bacchus 
 could be so " sicklied o'er with the pale cast of 
 thought." 
 
 But the major shall tell his own story the first 
 and last dealings he ever had with the Firm of Bruin 
 and Co. 
 
 " By Jove ! my boys ! it is a lucky chance you see 
 your old major among you again!" 
 
 " How so, major? Do tell us !" exclaimed a dozen 
 tiffin-eaters, in a voice as clear as consternation at the 
 prospect of so unwished for a consummation, and a 
 spoonful of doubled cayenned mulligatawney would 
 permit. " You look as if you had seen a spirit !" 
 
 " I tell you what, it's nothing to laugh at ! If it 
 had not been for a spirit of a very different descrip- 
 tion, I should have been as dead as that kabob curry ! 
 I started home last night" (the major's bungalow was 
 two miles distant from the mess-house), " or rather 
 this morning when was it, messman, you gave me 
 that bottle of brandy ?" 
 
 " Four 'clock 'morning, master !" answered the 
 messman, looking very tired, and a shade or two 
 blacker than usual. 
 
 " Pooh ! nonsense! Well, I had no sooner got out 
 of the fort gates than I knew something would hap- 
 pen to me. I never pass that clump of cocoa-nut 
 trees without a presentiment, and last night my worst 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 25 
 
 fears were realised. Before I had gone a mile, what 
 should I see standing directly in my way home, but a 
 huge brute of a bear ! half as big as an elephant, and 
 black as the devil himself ! Before I had time to run, 
 or to plan any mode of attack, he was upon me ! I 
 had no weapon of any kind near me except my fists, 
 so I was obliged to grapple him by the snout with 
 one hand, and punch him in the ribs with the other ; 
 but he was too much for me, I felt myself going, and 
 at the very moment that I thought 'twas all up, and 
 tried to remember some of my catechism, (God for- 
 give me !) I recollected the bottle of brandy I had in 
 my coat-pocket, carrying home with me ! 
 
 " By a desperate effort I got one hand free, and ma- 
 naged to extract the bottle; and with the last remain- 
 ing ounce of strength left in my carcass, I smashed 
 it over the head and eyes of the enemy ! By the 
 god of war, boys, you should have seen the fellow hop 
 about as the fiery liquid trickled into its eyeballs ! 
 
 " It saved my life : and saved you, you rascals ! a 
 funeral parade this evening! Claret, messman!" 
 
 " Time to think of one's bier when bruin hops!'* 
 exclaimed the most inveterate, irredeemable punster 
 of the regiment, whose diabolical sallies at wit were 
 invariably greeted with a yell of execration from the 
 auditory; in the present instance particularly loud 
 from the major; of whose story it had utterly de~ 
 stroyed the romance, as well as annihilating all sym- 
 pathy for the narrator. 
 
26 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 (By way of parenthesis, I must be allowed to relate 
 an anecdote of this same punning wag. 
 
 One of the big- wigs of the island passed half his 
 time in collecting antiquities (a sort of virtuoso was 
 he in every thing, from a starved fire-fly to a tri- 
 angular cocoa-nut), varied in their degrees of mouldi- 
 ness and curiosity. 
 
 One sanctum, and a tolerably large one it was, was 
 devoted to the purpose of an inanimate menagerie, 
 which one fine morning received an addition from our 
 friend in the shape of a "Muscovite" chair. 
 
 The donor was asked to dinners and suppers innu- 
 merable on the strength of the gift, and it was upwards 
 of a year before the old gentleman found out that the 
 only claim the chair could adduce to being a Mus- 
 covite, lay in the fact of its being a "Rush J un." 
 
 However, the perpetrator of the joke had not to 
 stand the brunt of the discovery, for he was 14,000 
 miles away, and of course the Rush'un soon found its 
 Siberia in the kitchen.) 
 
 But to return to our bears. 
 
 The seriousness with which our brother officer told 
 the bear story, left no doubt on the minds of any 
 present, that, at all events, it was " founded in fact," 
 and revenge and brandy-paunee simultaneously in- 
 flaming the party, it was agreed before 5 P.M., to 
 inflict summary chastisement on this ursine highway- 
 man, so away we sallied, armed with guns, rifles, &c., 
 headed by the major, with a brace of horse-pistols. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 27 
 
 Many of us had then never seen a wild bear, and our 
 excitement being- intense, we had invested the crea- 
 ture with a thousand more terrible attributes than ever 
 entered into the compositions of all the bears since 
 they disembarked after the Flood ; and if it had not 
 been for the extra glasses of "fire-water" that we 
 swallowed before leaving table, at the possibility of 
 falling a victim to bruin's killing affection, we cannot 
 possibly give a notion of what the state of our nerves 
 would have been, when the major, throwing up one 
 hand in the air (with the pistol in it) to enjoin silence, 
 came to a dead stop, and in a sort of articulation 
 between a whisper and a groan, ejaculated 
 
 " Here's the very spot !" 
 
 For hours did we in vain explore every hole and 
 corner, now looking up among the cocoa-nuts, and 
 then down into the rat and snake holes, but there 
 was not a vestige left, not even the ghost of a foot- 
 mark. 
 
 After a very considerable space of time, as we were 
 starting on our way back to barracks, one of the 
 party stumbled across the stump of an old tree, around 
 which a fire had evidently once been lighted, which 
 had left it perfectly black ; and between two small 
 branches, sticking invitingly out at the top, we un- 
 doubtedly did discover the neck of a recently-broken 
 black bottle, the other part of which lay in fragments 
 around. 
 
 The tree altogether had a disagreeably strong per- 
 
28 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 fume of cognac about it, and was terrifically mauled 
 and wounded where the bottle lay. 
 But we didn't find the bear. 
 
 It was some months after the event above narrated, 
 that I found myself brought into active service and 
 actual collision against bruin and his firm. 
 
 A Cingalese one day came to the bungalow with a 
 most lamentable tale about a bear having invaded the 
 generally peaceful neighbourhood of his habitation, 
 where it had devoured his tortoiseshell comb (an 
 ornament which all the natives, male and female, use 
 to keep up their " back hair," and on which they set 
 a high value), rooted up all his betel-nut, and finished 
 by gobbling down his remaining stock of rice and his 
 youngest boy. 
 
 Having at times experienced the hospitality of the 
 man when on a shooting excursion (and, moreover, 
 having a huge desire to send home a bear-skin rug 
 for the very prettiest and smallest foot in creation to 
 pillow itself upon), I resolved to start next morning 
 by daylight, and encounter the embrace of the ruffian, 
 or as domestic tragedy heroes say, " to perish in the 
 attempt/' 
 
 And now, courageous reader, I shall depend on 
 your company and assistance, and if you see me folded 
 in the animal's embrace, do not be in a hurry : 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 29 
 
 come close up to him quietly insinuate the muzzle 
 of your gun into his ear, or as near it as you like to 
 advance, and then pull steadily. 
 
 You may depend on my doing the same good office 
 for yourself, should he show a partiality for you. 
 
 Let me give you another hint. 
 
 As soon as he shows fight, and before he attempts 
 to hug you, he will get on his hind legs, and looking 
 you straight in the face, begin to grin and dance in 
 the most grotesque manner imaginable. 
 
 In this way he will approach you nearer and nearer 
 at every step, until he gets within closing distance ; 
 keep your charge till then ; and when he thinks he 
 has you in his arms, find your way to his heart 
 without a moment's delay. 
 
 Having thus far instructed you, let us put our 
 theory into practice. 
 
 Leaving our bed, and accompanied by a servant, 
 carrying breakfast, we depart to the scene of action. 
 
 Living as we suppose ourselves to do at an out- 
 station, we are soon in the wilderness of the jungle, 
 scrambling down mountain -roads, formed by sudden 
 torrents after heavy rains on the hills, and anon 
 reaching the shelving sands of some broad river, 
 whose clear and motionless surface induces us to take 
 a refreshing plunge before we go further, by way of 
 shaking off whatever drowsiness remains, and of giving 
 us an extra appetite for the morning's meal. 
 
 (Did you ever eat a bear's ham, by-the-bye ? Only 
 let us kill this fellow, and if we don't save his bacon, 
 
30 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 ay, and digest it too, and you don't afterwards con- 
 scientiously declare that you " never tasted any thing 
 half so delicious in all your born days," I say if you 
 don't say all this, word for word, I most sincerely 
 and charitably hope that you may one day perish of 
 starvation.) 
 
 At length our guide points out his dwelling-place 
 the scene of the invaded domestic felicity ; but strain 
 your eyes as much as you like, you cannot distinguish 
 it ; an Irish cabin would be a palace to it . 
 
 We have reached his coffee-garden, and shall soon 
 be upon the scene of action. 
 
 " Halloa ! did you hear that growl ? look out ! 
 (click ! click !) who on earth would have supposed it ! 
 Don't be in a hurry (or a c flustration')," but before 
 half of these words are uttered, head over heels 
 tumbles the breakfast carrier, and very probably your- 
 self, good reader, on the top of him, with merely the 
 basket of fresh eggs brought out for breakfast be- 
 tween your two carcases. 
 
 Bruin having perpetrated a charge worthy of 
 Waterloo, is toddling off as fast as a rather extensive 
 morning's repast will allow him. 
 
 Having made sure of whatever remains of the 
 wreck of eatables and drinkables by consuming them 
 on the spot, a proceeding that in a great measure 
 restores our philosophical equilibrium, we again sally 
 forth bent upon ursicide. 
 
 We are not going to be knocked over a second 
 time in so unceremonious a manner, so we pick our 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 3] 
 
 way through the underwood of the forest, as cautiously 
 and stealthily as possible, almost on our hands and 
 knees, our guns on full cock, and ready for another 
 charge as soon as the enemy chooses. 
 
 Confound those innumerable blue wood pigeons ! 
 how they frighten no, not frighten how they make 
 one start as they get on the wing every moment 
 around us ! but bruin has evidently cleared the jungle, 
 for here we are out of the wood in a large open space, 
 with shrubs scattered every here and there as regularly 
 as if they had been planted ; the turf under-foot is 
 like velvet, and flowers that would grace the choicest 
 rows in a hothouse, spring up wild and luxuriant in 
 every direction ! 
 
 Bearing a perfume more delicious than any cul- 
 tivated plants I have ever met with, here they bloom, 
 live their day or week, and die, without an eye to see 
 their beauty, or a nose (except a pig's in an attempt 
 to get at their roots) to appreciate the intense aroma 
 of their scent. 
 
 Here let us sit down for a while, and regale ourselves 
 with a diluted nip from our " pocket-pistol," whilst 
 we send our followers forward to that mass of rocks 
 ahead of us, and if we do not find the gentleman we 
 are in search of at home, in some snug cavern there- 
 abouts, I pledge myself to stand two dozen of " Moet's 
 best" on our return to head-quarters. 
 
 We are possibly engaged in the occupation of ex- 
 tracting innumerable diminutive harpoons from our 
 
32 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 legs, that we have collected in our way through the 
 jungle, when a cry of " The bear ! the bear !" from 
 the reconnoitering party certifies that I was not far 
 wrong in my surmises, and on arriving at the spot, 
 we are directed to an opening in the rocks, formed 
 by two masses of stone, having fallen against each 
 other, apparently scarcely large enough to admit a 
 cat, when on applying our eyes to the aperture, they 
 encounter those of the quarry, glowing like two illu- 
 minated saucers at the extreme end of the den. 
 
 The first question that naturally suggests itself is 
 how to get at the beast. 
 
 To shoot it " in its house," would be to lose it alto- 
 gether. We must persuade it to egress so draw 
 your ramrod, and whilst I probe it in some tender 
 part, you stand by to shoot it as it comes out. Now, 
 then, prong ! prong ! prong ! but it won't budge 
 an inch a sulky growl is all it deigns to vouchsafe 
 us. Ten to one it is a lady-bear with cubs ! 
 
 A sudden inspiration seizes us, viz., to make a 
 monster " black devil" (the component parts of which 
 Satanic preparation are gunpowder and water, as 
 every schoolboy knows, rolled into dabs between the 
 finger and thumb, whereon the effect of fire is a great 
 fizzing, a tremendous shower of sparks, and a most 
 abominable stench), and to hurl it into the retreat of 
 the bear ; then seizing our guns, we await the de- 
 nouement. 
 
 Presently out pops the snout of a youthful member 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 33 
 
 of the firm in a very asthmatical state ; another, 
 rather worse, soon follows; till the old dowager, 
 finding her offspring getting smaller and smaller by 
 degrees, condescends to look after them, and affords 
 us a chance of avenging the indignity of the 
 morning. 
 
 She no sooner perceives her intruders at such close 
 quarters, than she is on her hind legs in an instant, 
 dancing for all the world like a man in that execrable 
 " pas seul" in " La Pastorale," and making straight 
 up to the nearest person, which I will suppose is your- 
 self, fortunate reader ! she is soon within four or five 
 feet of your gun's muzzle. 
 
 Now put in your " one, two," as Mr. Jackson 
 would have said. 
 
 Bravo ! right through the heart ! and a noble 
 animal to boot ; six feet from stem to stern. 
 
 Reader, that skin is yours. The next time we go 
 on a bear excursion together, let me have a chance. 
 
34 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A MIDNIGHT MELEE WITH THE UNCLEAN. 
 
 HAVING (between us) avenged the demolition of 
 the " hope of the family," and of the tortoise-shell 
 comb, by the slaughter of the female victimiser, the 
 least we can do in common charity is to adopt her 
 orphan progeny. Consequently, tying a handkerchief 
 round the neck of each of the three half-smothered 
 juvenile bruins, we march them off in durance vile 
 to enjoy a state of civilisation for the remainder of 
 their ursine existence. 
 
 The sun beginning to get unpleasantly warm, 
 we adjourn to the jungle habitation of our host, 
 which the fair sex of the family (query, does a black 
 woman constitute one of the fair sex ?) during our 
 absence have put into a " company-expecting" state 
 for us, by festooning the walls with snow-white dra- 
 pery, and laying out a respectable spread of milk, 
 plantains, honey, and rice-cakes on the table (female, 
 unsophisticated, little niggers !) 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 35 
 
 But it is no easy matter to rest, even during mid- 
 day, in the jungle, where there are so many incite- 
 ments to sally forth and penetrate its depths, and 
 assert and prove the dominion of Man and Manton 
 over those who dwell therein. 
 
 To pass time, we have the defunct bear hauled into 
 the verandah, and there skin the lady, making the 
 delighted Native's sanctum very much resemble a 
 slaughter-house both in appearance and odour, and a 
 pretty mess of the business into the bargain. 
 
 This accomplished, and it is no slight labour (as 
 you may easily discover, reader, if you only try your 
 hand at skinning one of the three hundred and sixty- 
 five bears annually slaughtered at any barber's shop 
 in the whole of London), we take a stroll to the ad- 
 jacent "garden" lucus a non lucendo (as our senior 
 captain " unde derivatur-ed" the assistant-surgeon 
 of the regiment, who, not being over-brilliant in in- 
 tellectual powers, luxuriated in the patronymic of 
 Lucas), and assist the old " pater familias," who 
 never ventures abroad beyond, in planting his garlic 
 or betel-nut ; and although, in the extremity of our 
 officiousness and accommodating benevolence, we stick 
 half the plants in the ground with their heads instead 
 of their roots downwards, the native patriarch is so 
 overpowered at our condescension, that he gives us an 
 invitation on the spot to spend twelve months with 
 him at the very least (to begin with), if it be only to 
 murder some of the pigs that pay nightly visits to his 
 D 2 
 
36 THE OUT- STATION ; OR, 
 
 habitation, and that will, ten to one, speedily undo all 
 the work we have been attempting to accomplish in 
 such a masterly manner. 
 
 Just won't we stop, my dear reader, now that we 
 are here ? not twelve months, but twelve hours, and 
 see if we cannot polish off some of the "unclean" 
 (not meaning the "great unwashed," but speaking 
 Israelitishly) that intrude their snouts here, eradicating 
 every germ of vegetation in the garden, and of charity 
 in the heart of its cultivator. 
 
 The sun is setting bright and brilliantly ; every 
 fleecy cloud in the lately blue but now gray expanse 
 above us is tinged with a deep crimson glow, de- 
 creasing in lustre as the sun sinks further down, and 
 finally settling into a border as of burnished gold ; 
 till the Moon, getting jealous, pops its jolly round 
 face above the horizon, and before we have time to 
 say " What a glorious twilight !" the glare of day has 
 melted into the hallowed stillness and subdued beauty 
 of night and now is the hour for action. 
 
 Without loss of time we proceed to pitch our 
 bivouac (as some victim of poetic inspiration has im- 
 mortalised it, but whether on a similar occasion or not 
 we will not vouch), 
 
 By the moonlight, alone, 
 At the grove at the end of the vale. 
 
 And as we are to spend the night, or the greater part 
 of it here, we will take care, you may depend on it, 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 37 
 
 provident reader ! to be furnished with antidotes 
 against any of the rheumatically-charged airs of the 
 late hours. 
 
 Every step we proceed evinces in what numbers 
 the swinish multitude amuse themselves " pecrovvKTiais 
 noff copais," the ground being literally turned up in 
 all directions, as if it had been operated upon by one 
 of our modern patent subsoil excruciators in search 
 of what, Heaven and the pigs only know ! for often 
 have I dug there for hours, expecting to find a nest 
 of truffles, but might just as well have hoped, whilst 
 I was about it, to have harpooned a Chubb's patent 
 safe, full of old Roman denarii. 
 
 We are en route to a large open piece of ground 
 some mile or so off, so spacious that at least two 
 thousand porkers might go through Torrens's im- 
 proved system of drill thereon, without treading on 
 each other's heels or toes. 
 
 The still, stagnant pools (albeit looking clear in 
 the moonlight), that we every now and then come 
 upon, are on our close approach raised into a state of 
 sudden and tempestuous commotion by the plunge of 
 an alligator, whose calm imaginings on the bank our 
 advent has merged into more egotistical and selfish 
 considerations. 
 
 In other pools, we merely perceive the head of one 
 of these monsters appearing above the surface, star- 
 gazing, or on the look-out for some poor paddy bird 
 to alight on the water, in hopes of a quiet night's 
 rest and pleasant dreams. 
 
38 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 These rascals ("guanas" they are called in Ceylon), 
 are nothing in comparison in point of size to the 
 Egyptian crocodile, but they are the greatest draw- 
 backs to shooting with dogs, more particularly 
 spaniels, for as sure as a dog enters a pool after a 
 dead or wounded bird, so surely does he enter the 
 ravenous maw of an alligator, who, with two inches 
 of snout above the surface, seems all his life long to 
 be actuated by the old nursery injunction of " Shut 
 your eyes and open your mouth, and see what 
 Heaven will send you," formerly accompanied to our- 
 self, in pinafore days, with a huge lump of Spanish 
 liquorice, or some other (then adored) abomination, 
 until our confidence was destroyed by a huge dose of 
 rhubarb one evening, when we expected tamarinds at 
 the very least. 
 
 There is no use shooting these " guanas," as I have 
 been more than once tempted to do, by sending a ball 
 into their neck, for they only prove so much nourish- 
 ment to the other part of their family, and are soon 
 gobbled down by a bereaved and hungry circle of 
 acquaintance. 
 
 They will generally attack every thing, man and 
 beast, in their own proper element, water ; but meet- 
 ing a human being on land, they invariably " cut their 
 bamboos," and take to the nearest pool. 
 
 At last, we emerge into an open plain covered with 
 lemon grass about a foot in height, and bounded all 
 round by the jungle ; when following the directions 
 of our " indigenous" guide, we plant ourselves at an 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 39 
 
 opening through which the herd are expected to 
 make their appearance, stationed at such a distance 
 as to be able to keep up a cross fire without any 
 great chance of immolating one another ; and then 
 squatting on the grass, or perching ourselves on any 
 rock that may accommodatingly be in our neigh- 
 bourhood, we light a cheroot, the more effectually to 
 keep our mouths shut, and, like two Jobs in shooting 
 jackets, await patiently the first squeak or grunt of 
 the invaders. 
 
 Our guns are loaded with ball ; in addition to 
 which we carry a crease a-piece, which we have bor- 
 rowed from some of our Malays, with whom it is a 
 favourite weapon, and almost the only one in use, in 
 their own private quarrels or piratical crusades. 
 
 In the Ceylon Rifles, nine men out of ten, if en- 
 gaged in active service, carry their creases with them, 
 and during the Cingalese rebellion where the regi- 
 ment was employed, a hundred of the enemy were 
 found to have been " creased" to each one that was 
 shot ; and a singularly unpleasant sensation it must 
 produce ; being bad enough in all conscience to be 
 transfixed (at least so we should imagine) with a plain 
 straightforward bayonet, instead of one of those 
 zigzag, corkscrew- shaped things. 
 
 Back to our " cochons." 
 
 In any other place, perhaps, our patience might get 
 up a slight demonstration of mutiny and rebellion by 
 way of an interlude, but here we feel we could wait 
 all night, even though nothing turned up. 
 
40 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 Our cheroots are excellent our " pocket-pistol" 
 not likely to be exhausted and our train of thought 
 the most amiable possibly to be imagined. 
 
 Who could profane " the solemn silence of that 
 hour," by the explosion of villanous saltpetre? 
 Who, in this "stillness that leaves room for the 
 full soul to open all itself," could send to an untimely 
 grave even the minutest of Heaven's 
 
 By Jove ! was that a squeak ? Yes ! Hark ! 
 another, and another, and another ! here they come ! 
 hip ! hip ! (not loud but deep) hurrah ! 
 
 Ay, borne on the wings of one of those airy gusts 
 that fitfully eddy down the miniature valleys in the 
 jungle, comes the first quaint squeak of piggy on his 
 pilgrimage ! 
 
 Louder and louder swells the chorus! Grunts, 
 such only as can issue from porkers starving, or 
 deeply insulted, become fearfully distinct ; until, at a 
 swing trot, about two hundred fine savage swine 
 hog, sow, and progeny promiscuously blended burst 
 through the opening where we have been expecting 
 them on to the plain, and appear at one coup d'ceil 
 before us. 
 
 It is as light as day ; and the animals in the moon- 
 light look as white as if they had a prognostication of 
 the fate that awaited them. 
 
 Now they slacken their speed, and at once set about 
 the business of the night viz., grubbing. 
 
 We crawl on in the rear, about twenty yards 
 astern ; then dropping quietly on one knee, pour in 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 41 
 
 our four barrels ; seizing the spare guns from our 
 servants, we administer a second dose, our followers 
 reloading the discharged weapons in the interim. 
 
 The pigs are evidently staggered. It is too much 
 for their limited intellect to comprehend, and with the 
 exception of three dead, and two lying on their backs, 
 squaring away at the little of existence left (pardon 
 the cribbage, oh Boz !), the herd " form square," 
 getting as close to each other as possible, and turning 
 a front towards us as if determined to make a rush; 
 but before they come to any fixed resolution on this 
 point, they get a third volley, and then " every pig 
 for himself " away they toddle as fast as their trotters 
 will carry them. 
 
 Our wisest plan would have been to have provided 
 ourselves with two ponies, in which case we could 
 have followed them up until we had exterminated the 
 entire herd ; but having no such appliances at hand, 
 our only resource is to rattle after them on foot as 
 quickly as we are able ; of course they soon distance 
 us, but presently arriving at a convenient place for 
 another attempt at supper, they pull up and again 
 set to work. 
 
 Again we pepper away at them ; and one or two, 
 hit hard, make a rush at us ; this we avoid by quickly 
 making an echellon movement to the right or left, 
 for it is no joke to come in contact with one of these 
 wild fellows. 
 
 Their plan of attack is to rush at the legs of their 
 
42 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 adversary, and as they knock him over, to throw up 
 their heads at the same moment with fearful force, 
 inflicting a contused wound that would probably dis- 
 able the receiver for life : to say nothing of the gash 
 they are capable of inflicting with their tusks, which 
 are tremendously long and sharp. 
 
 Should we be rendered insensible by one, the 
 others would incontinently devour us, so it is not 
 altogether such child's play as may appear to the 
 reader on perusal. 
 
 Tired at length, and out of breath, we give up the 
 chase ; as for carrying the dead pigs away with us, 
 we would if we could, but they are too numerous 
 we have killed upwards of a dozen; so picking out the 
 plumpest, we sling him on a pole, soon cut from the 
 nearest bamboo tree, and placing either end of it on 
 two of our followers* shoulders, we trudge home to 
 quarters, calling in our way to pick up the bear 
 captives of the morning, and arrive in time to " turn 
 in" just as our little bantam greets the opening day 
 with his first " cock-a-doodle-doo !" 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN "ESSAY" ON ELK. 
 
 TURNING out somewhat late in the day after our 
 midnight excursion, and discussing a light dejeuner^ 
 consisting of a pine -apple and a bumper of diluted 
 claret (the former article heing wrenched out of the 
 nearest hedge, and the latter subjected to an external 
 application of saltpetre, which does duty in the jungle 
 for the more extravagant luxury of ice), the next 
 " divertissement" in out-station life is a demonstration 
 of valour in the shape of an undress parade, at which 
 we rout an imaginary unoffending enemy by twenty 
 rounds of blank cartridge to each man, frightening 
 the adjacent niggers and their poultry -yards out of 
 all the little wits they possess between them, and, as 
 in duty bound, doing " all our little possible" in 
 keeping up the glorious taxes of Old England by a 
 huge waste of gunpowder. 
 
 But however bloodless all this " pomp and circum- 
 stance of glorious war" is to the invisible foe, it is 
 
44 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 not so to us ; there is not a blade of grass on the 
 whole parade ground that is not the local habitation 
 of a leech ; not content with the grass, they patronise 
 the trees, and drop down into one's neck and hair 
 without number, and so small are they, that they in- 
 sinuate themselves through the button-holes in one's 
 dress, and the slightest puncture in the world makes 
 the victim aware when each young blood-sucker has 
 set to work. 
 
 As to detaching them at the time, that, not con- 
 stituting one of the new drill manoeuvres, is totally 
 impracticable ; and often have I, on reaching the 
 bungalow, after smarting for an hour or two under 
 their tender mercies, rushed into my bedroom and 
 removed from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 of the bloated rascals from my neck, arms, and legs, 
 which of course were streaming with blood. 
 
 However, as the district surgeon consoled me with 
 the information that they tended in a great measure 
 to regulate the corporeal thermometer, I made up my 
 mind, after a time, to bear all their blood-thirstiness 
 patiently ; although when some fellow, presuming on 
 my forbearance, gave a nip that made me start again, 
 I own it was not without "malice prepense" that I 
 inflicted such a kick on the particular spot of my leg 
 on which I supposed him to be located, with the heel 
 of the other foot, as almost sent me on my knees in 
 the midst of some very complicated light infantry 
 tactics. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 45 
 
 But during all this interesting interlude, we will 
 suppose yourself, my dear reader, to be charitable 
 enough to be cleaning our guns, and cutting chops 
 out of the murdered pig that hangs in the verandah, 
 whereon we may enjoy a late dinner, and secure our- 
 selves the moral certainty of such a night-mare as will 
 cause us no want of inclination to jump out of bed 
 next morning with the first peep of daylight, and to 
 see if we cannot vary the day's " carte" by a venison 
 dinner, although you must excuse its being unattended 
 by the customary confectionery satellites ; had the 
 interior economy of the " genus cervus" been left to 
 our simple construction, I dare say we certainly 
 should, by a special dispensation of our own, have 
 endowed each animal with a receptacle for currant 
 jelly among some of its other numberless, and to all 
 culinary intents useless, interior appendages. 
 
 There is no such variety among any one tribe of 
 animals in the whole brute creation, that I am aware 
 of, as there exists among the deer of Ceylon. 
 
 First and foremost, we have the noble and beautiful 
 elk, standing fourteen hands in height, its antlers 
 branching some six feet above its front, its dark full 
 eye and bright silky coat, the exceeding elegance of 
 its long and taper understandings, the fine drawn 
 tenuity of which you would imagine that the weight 
 of its carcase in its bounding leaps from rock to rock 
 would snap like a reed ! 
 
 To see one of these noble creatures in its own 
 
46 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 peculiarly wild and almost inaccessible lair, is one of 
 the finest sights in nature ; and it is singular that 
 an animal endowed with such strength and fleetness, 
 living in such a state of savage hardihood as the elk 
 does, and defending itself, when attacked, with such 
 determined courage and resolution, should be the last 
 animal in the jungle to act on the offensive, and the 
 first to take to flight on the approach of man. 
 
 Taking it for granted that our first day's excursion 
 over the mountain has not entirely passed away from 
 the reader's recollection, we will once more make it 
 the scene of action, and if between us both we do 
 not bring down a noble elk (although we may go a 
 hundred times over the mountain and not see one) to 
 end its mortal career in the inglorious precincts of a 
 stew-pan, there will be numberless wild minor com- 
 modities to fill our game-bag, and to amply repay 
 if not our disappointment at least our toil. 
 
 But we will not be disappointed this time, at all 
 events, for, although it only once fell to my good 
 fortune to bring down an elk, I will proceed to shoot 
 him over again in the companionship of the reader, 
 for his special (the reader's, not the elk's) grati- 
 fication. 
 
 Summer or winter, there is little difference in the 
 hour that it is necessary for one to sally out in the 
 morning to enjoy the best part of the day, being that 
 one immediately preceding sunrise ; although it is by 
 no means an uncommon occurrence to be awakened 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 47 
 
 considerably earlier by the sound of an elephant 
 pulling and tugging away at one of the verandah 
 posts, the denouement to which amusement there is 
 every reason to believe that five minutes more in- 
 dustry will most satisfactorily (on the animal's part) 
 accomplish. 
 
 This may be more exciting than agreeable ; for, if 
 one remains in bed, the chances are twenty to one 
 that the whole roof will incontinently come down 
 upon him ; and should he summon courage to go out 
 in the dark in hopes of a random shot, the chances 
 are just as great that he takes the place of the before- 
 mentioned persecuted verandah-post, or perpetrates a 
 nocturnal elopement to the jungle in an elephantine 
 embrace. 
 
 There is a peculiar wildness of fragrance about the 
 jungle at the first break of day; the heavy dew of the 
 night standing in large drops on every atom of foliage 
 seems to distil the very essence of the herbage on 
 which it has alighted, and as the sun evaporates the 
 dew, the fragrance it has absorbed appears to be let 
 loose on the atmosphere ; the lemon-grass is parti- 
 cularly oppressive in this way, being more like 
 essence of verbena than any thing else I can just now 
 remember. 
 
 The route that we take to-day differs from our 
 previous one up the same mountain, for, being in 
 search of elk, we must explore the more precipitous 
 and craggy localities ; therefore, diverging at once 
 
48 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 from the ghost of a path we have been following, we 
 are immediately afterwards crawling and scrambling 
 as best we can, up sharp and almost perpendicular 
 rocks, our gun slung over our shoulder by a leathern 
 strap, whilst we employ both hands in holding on at 
 every diminutive tuft of verdure that pops its unsus- 
 pecting little existence out of the fissures of the pre- 
 cipice ; till, reaching an inviting-looking apex, we 
 probably find we have to slide down a declivity equal 
 in length to the one w T e have surmounted, with 
 another and more difficult ascent on the opposite 
 side. 
 
 These places swarm with hares (which, by-the-by, 
 are much more like rabbits), and innumerable are the 
 jungle fowl that get up on all sides of us ; these birds 
 resemble in a great degree our domestic fowls, ex- 
 cepting that they possess a remarkably wild game-y 
 flavour, and their plumage is considerably handsomer ; 
 that of the jungle cock is magnificent. 
 
 I used to constitute these birds the chief article of 
 my larder, and the way I always managed to secure 
 a fowl-curry when I wanted it, was in this wise 
 
 (" Foul" play, I dare say you will call it, reader !) 
 
 I had a perfect trump of a little bantam-cock that 
 I used to tether about ten yards from the skirt of the 
 jungle, in the dusk of the evening, and ensconcing 
 myself in the boughs of some sturdy tree about twenty 
 yards distant, I waited patiently the result. 
 
 The decoy would presently set up a most deter- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 49 
 
 mined hulla-baloo, at which the hens, overcoming 
 their maiden modesty, would sally forth to offer 
 their services ; whilst the cocks, than whom a more 
 pugnacious race never existed, had only to hear the 
 crowing of one of their brethren, than they would, 
 with brotherly love, immediately come to a pitched 
 battle with him. 
 
 Of this part of the fun, however, I disappointed 
 them, by taking the fighting part of the business on 
 myself ; for, as soon as they were well clear of the 
 jungle, I sent a load of shot at them, and rarely ever 
 missed so inviting an object. 
 
 In this manner I have shot upwards of twenty 
 jungle-fowl of an evening, or by moonlight; and I 
 really believe the decoy at last understood and en- 
 joyed the sport as much as myself, except when he 
 came in now and then for a stray pellet of shot in 
 a tender part. 
 
 To describe every minutise of the perilous ascents 
 and descents over the mountain after elk, however 
 exciting they may be in reality, when we are one 
 moment swinging our bodies over ghastly-looking 
 bottomless pits scraping the bark off our shins and 
 carrying away all the "behind" of our "un-hint- 
 at'em-ables" in undertaking a gradual descent on 
 the broad-guage principle, by bringing the widest 
 portion of our entity to bear on the greatest possible 
 surface of rock, is a very tame piece of work when 
 merely transcribed on paper to be read and "poohed" 
 and " pshaw-ed" by some jolly fat old gentleman in 
 
 E 
 
50 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 a morocco arm-chair, as devoid of sympathy (the 
 occupant, not the chair) and compassion for our perils, 
 as he is full of contempt for our fool-hardiness, or of 
 delight at the prospect of our broken collar-bone. 
 
 However, it happened one fine day, after I had 
 spent about half-a-dozen hours in scrambling over 
 the hardest rocks that I ever came in contact with 
 in my life, that on reaching the summit of my ambi- 
 tion, I was met face to face by the most magnificent 
 elk I had ever encountered, standing on the same 
 ridge of rock as myself so sudden and so electrify- 
 ing was his noble appearance, that we stood gazing in 
 mute astonishment at one another for a very consider- 
 able time ; how long, it is impossible to say. 
 
 Every idea of having a gun in my possession, and 
 of the " mission" on which I was engaged, had oozed 
 out of my composition, and which was the most as- 
 tonished of the two is not a matter that can ever 
 be very satisfactorily proved, but the elk was the first 
 to regain his reasoning faculties. 
 
 Throwing up his head into the air, he gave a 
 half-neigh, half-scream, like that of a frightened 
 horse, which also had a revivifying effect on myself 
 in making me unship the double-barrelled rifle, still 
 slung behind me, and take advantage of the instant 
 left to commence the fight. 
 
 In a second he had made a bound to an adjoining 
 ledge of the precipice, to gain which he must at the 
 very least, have cleared ten yards of space, when 
 without taking aim, or even having time to bring the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 51 
 
 gun to the shoulder I pulled the trigger, determined 
 not to let him off without a random shot, and in 
 this instance it was as efficacious as a more deliberate 
 one would have been, for the ball striking him in the 
 back bone, I could see his spring was broken before 
 he reached the ridge he sprang for. His fore legs 
 alone reached the rock, and his hind legs would even 
 then have found a leverage below to have carried him 
 on, had not his hind quarters become perfectly power- 
 less. 
 
 Clinging on by his two fore hoofs, he struggled for 
 upwards of a minute with most desperate energy, till, 
 slowly and by degrees, the little hold he had got 
 gradually became less and less, until he had receded to 
 the very edge of the rock, there hanging on for a 
 moment in agony, he lifted up his head as if in one 
 imploring look for help from heaven, and nature re- 
 linquishing the struggle, the next moment saw him 
 bounding from crag to crag into the ravine below, 
 his whole frame appearing at each bound to crash 
 into a pulp, or a million fragments ! 
 
 But he was gone! irredeemably lost to me and my 
 heirs for ever ! What would not I have given for his 
 antlers, and for his skin ! 
 
 If ever I felt inclined to the melting mood (except 
 the perspiring one) it was at that identical moment. 
 To have squatted down then and there, and, digging 
 my knuckles into the corner of my eyes, to have 
 given way from sheer vexation and rage to the in- 
 E 2 
 
52 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 fluence that is said to possess such magic effect on 
 the overwrought feelings of the softer sex, on far more 
 trivial occasions, would indeed have been a luxury ; 
 but I did not do so at least, if I remember rightly 
 I did something much more irreligious, or if I did not, 
 Echo did it for me, and another more distant Echo, 
 like a kind-hearted, sympathising fellow, immediately 
 manifested that he entirely coincided with my senti- 
 ments, and the mode of expressing them. 
 
 But there is no peace for the wicked! I had 
 scarcely discovered the loss of the elk than I had a 
 very strong perception of the loss of myself; not having 
 the remotest idea of the way I had ascended, nor of 
 north, south, east, or west ; in short, about as small 
 a notion at that particular moment of the cardinal 
 points as I had of the cardinal virtues. 
 
 Always accommodating myself to existing circum- 
 stances, I at once commenced feeling for the softest 
 rock on which I might pass the night, when the 
 recollection of what a "feather-bed in such a predica- 
 ment the elk's carcase would have formed, made my 
 loss doubly mortifying ; in the next place, philosophi- 
 cally lighting a cigar, the clouds of discontent began 
 gradually to disperse (much against my own inclina- 
 tion, however), until getting as fleecy as the fumes 
 that befriended them, they took advantage of an 
 unguarded moment to amalgamate, and to vanish 
 (like all ghosts do), in a wreath of blue smoke. 
 
 Finding that three hours of daylight yet remained, 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 53 
 
 I thought the best plan would be to gain the summit 
 of the mountain, and then return on the next morn- 
 ing by the first day's route ; the first part of the 
 work was at last accomplished, and having- dedicated 
 an hour to cutting all the grass I could find on the 
 place to do duty for a mattrass on the top of the 
 rock, I left the full moon standing sentry directly 
 above me, and was soon once more amid the scenes 
 of childhood, surrounded by all I loved and left in 
 Fatherland ! 
 
 The following morning's work was easy. At ten 
 A.M. I had reached the bungalow at the base, loaded 
 with a plentiful supply of feathered game, and never 
 shall I forget the delight I experienced, when in stroll- 
 ing over the space before what was once a door, now 
 covered with jessamine and briars promiscuously, I 
 pounced upon half-a-dozen over-grown beds of mag- 
 nificent ripe strawberries ! 
 
 The fact of the matter was, that the bungalow in 
 question had been built as a country residence some 
 years before by a gallant commandant of the district, 
 who, taking advantage of the mildness of the cli- 
 mate, had laid out the grounds in as English a 
 fashion as was possible ; but contending in vain 
 against his forest neighbours, he at last relinquished 
 gardens, house, and all, in despair. 
 
 However, when the strawberries became invisible 
 from being concealed by a complete covering of 
 
54 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 brambles and underwood, there was a cbance of their 
 escaping the ravenous maw of a pig, or the coveting 
 propensities of a baboon ; and thus, after many a 
 long year's waste of sweetness, they once more re 
 turned, like blushing prodigals, to the uses ordained to 
 them at their first debut into existence. 
 
 (But on my hands and knees, reader, let me veil 
 myself from your sight for an hour.) 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A FORTNIGHT'S EXCURSION AMONG THE ELEPHANTS. 
 
 AFTER having allowed yourself, like a good, do- 
 cile, and accommodating reader as you are, to be so 
 incontinently dragged, on our last excursion together 
 after elk, over a wilderness of hard-hearted crags and 
 yawning chasms, to the serious abrasion of your 
 shins and the deterioration of your nether habili- 
 ments, you shall now have your reward by an in- 
 troduction to the monarch of the forest the leviathan 
 of creation the Elephant; and, in its slaughter, to 
 the " crack sport of the Ceylon jungle.' 7 
 
 There is something indescribably soul -stirring and 
 exhilarating, however much we may be hacknied in 
 the sport, when we see one of the kings of the jungle 
 (which the elephant decidedly is, and the lion a mere 
 pitiful usurper) sink dead upon the ground at the feet 
 of such a speck on nature's face as man in compari- 
 
56 THE OUT-STATION; OK, 
 
 son to the monster against whom, single-handed, he 
 enters the arena. 
 
 It is not the mere ordinary pleasure that one ex- 
 periences in sport generally, such as running into a 
 fox after a forty minutes' chase (and there are few 
 excitements more enlivening or heart-thrilling than 
 that), or the self-satisfied complacency that one feels 
 on the eve of a first of September, when the spacious 
 pockets are relieved of some thirty brace of birds; 
 but it must be the consciousness of the power of man 
 over every beast of the field, and the pride of wield- 
 ing it, that causes one to feel such intense gratifi- 
 cation when an elephant is brought down in the midst 
 of its own native wilds ! 
 
 To such perfection has elephant shooting been 
 carried in Ceylon, that I fear every reader who had 
 never visited those shores would consider the " Jaunts" 
 far too " Munchausenish" if I related every anecdote 
 connected with the slaughter of the elephant that has 
 fallen under my own immediate observation in 
 short, it is much better to keep all matters of wonder- 
 ment to oneself rather than lose irretrievably a repu- 
 tation for truth by being the unlucky possessor of the 
 knowledge of some extraordinary feat that could only 
 produce incredulity in ninety and nine readers out of 
 every hundred; in illustration of which I will relate 
 an anecdote that actually occurred at a well-known 
 club-house in London not very many years ago, where 
 foreign sports becoming the topic of conversation 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 57 
 
 and amongst the rest elephant-shooting an officer, 
 just returned from Ceylon, ventured to assert that, to 
 his own individual knowledge, a brother officer had 
 slain with his own gun alone fourteen hundred 
 elephants ! 
 
 This was too much to be endured, and the whole 
 room, taking it as a joke, burst into a roar of laughter, 
 which increased in proportion with the vehemence of 
 the unhappy sponsor of the assertion, who forthwith 
 offered to bind himself by any quantity and quality 
 of affidavits the company might choose to impose, as 
 to the truth of what he adduced. 
 
 Whilst in the midst of his discomfiture and indig- 
 nation at his word being doubted, General C en- 
 tered the room, who had also lately returned from the 
 same place (and to whom the fact was perfectly well 
 known, and to whom it had been well authenticated). 
 
 " And now," exclaimed the discredited one in a 
 "blaze of triumph,'' " if you do not believe me, here 
 
 is General C , who will vouch for the truth of the 
 
 fact." 
 
 The question was accordingly put to the General, 
 who was about forthwith to answer in the affirmative, 
 when a second burst of laughter at such an improbable 
 and Major Longbow-ish event indicated to him the real 
 state of things, and, with the greatest composure and 
 nonchalance in the world, he at once not only avowed 
 himself perfectly ignorant of the marvellous occur- 
 rence, but further expressed his entire disbelief in it ! 
 
58 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 Poor , at being so unexpectedly left in the 
 
 lurch, to stand the brunt and reputation of being gifted 
 with certain inventive faculties (vulgarly called lying), 
 endeavoured to mend matters by seizing his hat. 
 rushing straightway to his chambers, and then and 
 there concocting and transmitting a hostile billet-doux 
 to the General for not supporting him in what he 
 knew to be a fact. 
 
 The answer to this pugnacious missive followed 
 immediately in the appearance of the General's good- 
 humoured physiognomy, and on being upbraided for 
 his treachery in thus " backing his friend," he replied, 
 
 " Pooh, pooh ! my dear fellow, don't be so savage ! 
 I am well aware that what you said was perfectly 
 true, but seeing that every body in the room was fully 
 persuaded that you were telling a falsehood, I had no 
 ambition to appear in the same light!" 
 
 Captain never showed his face again at that 
 
 club during his furlough in England, but his story 
 was perfectly a matter of fact, and the gentleman 
 who had shot that amazing quantity of elephants was 
 the commandant of that particular district of the 
 jungle in which I was myself located, one of the most 
 excellent men that ever lived, whose exceedingly 
 polished and unassuming manners would rather in- 
 dicate him the destroyer of fourteen hundred hearts 
 than the same number of elephants ! 
 
 If you ever had, Reader, the good fortune to make 
 the acquaintance of poor Tom Rogers, Major in 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 59 
 
 her majesty's Ceylon Rifles, you know the man al- 
 luded to. 
 
 These pages, I regret, can never reach the eye that 
 never missed its aim, for after having escaped (how 
 miraculously ! Heaven alone knows) for twelve years, 
 every danger of the jungle, in one continued war 
 against the elephant tribe, he was, not long ago, struck 
 dead by lightning when engaged in his favourite 
 pursuit ! (A glorious day that, in the elephantine 
 calendar !) The fate of one whom the united brute 
 creation could not touch, the flash of the mountain- 
 storm, as if jealous of his supremacy, at last accom- 
 plished ! A small black spot on his foot, and the lost 
 lustre of that soft blue eye as he sank upon the 
 mountain, alone indicated the finale to the existence 
 of the most extraordinary elephant slayer that ever 
 lived on the earth ! 
 
 The fate of the unfortunate brute that was shot 
 some years since at Exeter 'Change, when half an 
 army was drawn up to pepper away at its carcase for 
 hours, is certainly sufficient to make one sceptical on 
 the point that one little ounce ball, properly ad- 
 ministered, will as effectually demolish an elephant 
 as it will a bluebottle, but so it is ; the animal's skull 
 in some particular spots is not much thicker, if at all, 
 than that of a man, and the brain is quite as ac- 
 cessible, (much more so than some men's) and 
 should any of the tribe hereafter take it into their 
 heads to take leave of their senses, I hereby most 
 
60 THE OUT- STATION ; OR, 
 
 disinterestedly and charitably offer my services to the 
 whole imported fraternity from the Drury Lane 
 Jenny Lind downwards, to put them out of their 
 misery with a single shot, or to keep them in rum 
 and rice for the remainder of their natural lives. 
 
 To make certain of accomplishing this feat only re- 
 quires a certain degree of practice and a thorough 
 knowledge of the internal formation of the animal's 
 head, which must be acquired by splitting one trans- 
 versely, and thoroughly anatomising the numerous 
 honeycombs or square receptacles of which it is com- 
 posed. 
 
 But now Hey for the Jungle ! 
 
 Although the information of the vicinity of a herd 
 of elephants to one's bungalow (particularly if there 
 happens to be a tusker among them, the posses- 
 sion of whose "ivories" will compensate a man for 
 his risk and trouble by furnishing him with the 
 means of procuring two excellent fowling-pieces 
 ivory fetching, I believe, five shillings a pound), in- 
 duces one to sally forth at all times to enter the lists 
 single-handed against the invaders, still to enjoy the 
 sport of elephant shooting in perfection, it is neces- 
 sary to form a party of four or five people (quite a 
 sufficient number for comfort and safety) and these 
 jungle re-unions are principally concocted at head- 
 quarters, from which place intimation is sent to the 
 out-station nearest to which the anticipated campaign 
 is to be carried on constituting no small treat to the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 61 
 
 lonely dweller thereat, as he then comes in for a share 
 of all the good things furnished from a more civilised 
 part of the globe than that in which he himself 
 vegetates. 
 
 A party having been made up for a fortnight's 
 shooting, in the first place about twenty coolies are 
 collected together, and are forthwith laden with every 
 imaginable article, edible and potable, that can be 
 had for love or money rounds of beef, hermetically 
 sealed soups, hams, concentrated vegetables, buffalo 
 humps, biscuits, and bread ad infinitum, added to 
 each fellow's particular preference in the cellar depart- 
 ment, constituting the commissariat. 
 
 The individual fancies of this latter delectability 
 are in no slight degree varied par exemple: A jolly 
 John Bull of the party fancies he may again relish 
 in the jungle the potent flavour of a full bodied port 
 another person prefers a six dozen case of Chateau 
 Margaux whilst a third, with a longer stretch of 
 imagination and purse, declares nothing will go down 
 with him but Moet's sparkling Champagne, which, 
 occasionally diluted with soda-water as a refresher 
 after the toil and slaughter of the day, he has a very 
 strong idea cannot easily be surpassed. 
 
 On the subject of pale ale every body agrees, ditto 
 on brandy pawnee and cheroots, so that when we 
 commence unpacking the articles at their final desti- 
 nation, there really is every ostensible inducement to 
 forego the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, 
 at least until we are starved back to them again. 
 
62 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 The dweller at the out-station, from his situation, 
 is always provided for by the others, and to do him 
 justice, he certainly makes the most of his time in 
 laying- in a stock to last (or at least the remembrance 
 of it) till he is again summoned to the well-supplied 
 board of another elephant party, and what is more 
 delectable than all this, is the revived companionship 
 of our old friends and associates, whose vivid recitals 
 of what is going on "in the world" makes one 
 emulous of again shuffling off the coil of jungle-life 
 of exchanging the companionship of monkeys. for 
 that of men the wilderness for the world and of 
 henceforth pursuing a Beauty instead of a Beast. 
 
 Although there are very many localities in different 
 parts of Ceylon well adapted for a crusade against 
 the elephants, the preference is usually given to a 
 place called Neilgella, on the eastern part of the 
 island, but nevertheless, some distance inland. 
 
 Neilgella is an extensive, undulating plain of many 
 miles in circumference, bounded on all sides by moun- 
 tains covered to their summit with verdure, whilst 
 the ground itself is ornamented at regular distances 
 by large clusters of forest trees, which in their regu- 
 larity so perfectly resemble those of an English do- 
 main, that the place has long since been dignified by 
 the soubriquet of " the Park." 
 
 At some seasons of the year the elephants (in for- 
 mer times) used literally to swarm here, whilst the 
 myriads of red deer with which it abounds make it 
 the scene of the ne plus ultra of the deerstalker's 
 enjoyment. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 63 
 
 The park was first discovered by the above-named 
 officer, Major R., during one of his many rambles 
 after elephants, and so supernaturally wild and beau- 
 tiful was its appearance as it suddenly burst upon him 
 after an uninteresting scramble through a monotonous 
 description of jungle, that, to use his own words, he 
 remained some minutes as if spell-bound, nor would 
 he have been more entranced had he discovered a 
 colony of those little demi-immortals, that came in and 
 went out with the " Arabian Nights," in comfortable 
 possession of the scene. 
 
 It was many years after its first discovery that I 
 had an opportunity of visiting the place, and any 
 thing more beautiful I certainly never beheld ; its 
 extent was incomprehensible to the eye, and one 
 might wander on on on from morn till eve, still 
 there was the same view before him, with the tall 
 blue mountains in the distance ; but if the prospect 
 alone produced such an agreeable surprise to the dis- 
 coverer, judge of his amazement and delight, when, 
 on penetrating further into it, he found it actually 
 dotted in all directions by innumerable herds of ele- 
 phants ; some reclining under the shade of the forest 
 trees, whilst others were laving their huge carcases 
 in a broad river that ran through the place. 
 
 " Here will I build unto myself an habitation," 
 was his first ejaculation ; and on that spot does the 
 house stand to this very hour (that is to say, if the 
 elephants have not wreaked their revenge on it since 
 
64 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 my departure), free and open for every person living 
 in the island to make use of as his abode, as long as 
 it is dedicated to the uses intended it by its proprietor, 
 viz., a shelter for the " enemy of the elephant ;" 
 so to this primitive abode, my dear reader, I will now 
 conduct you, and promise you that you shall return 
 from it both a wiser and a browner man. 
 
 The head-quarter party having picked us up at 
 our out-station, some thirty or forty miles from the 
 park, our route for the rest of the journey lies through 
 the mountains, and we have no slight trouble to reach 
 our destination by the following afternoon, just in 
 time to arrange matters comfortably, both of a do- 
 mestic and of a warlike nature, before darkness covers 
 the scene. 
 
 Threading our way through the lemon -grass, and 
 starting herd upon herd of wild deer in every di- 
 rection as we advance, we at last perceive in the 
 distance the white-washed walls of a bungalow, about 
 a mile a-head of us, welcome enough to us at present, 
 although looking wretchedly cheerless and uninviting 
 in itself. 
 
 On approaching nearer, unmistake-able symptoms of 
 the continual visits it is in the habit of receiving from 
 buffaloes and elephants do not impart to it a more 
 hospitable appearance, nor does the interior tout 
 ensemble promise much in the way of ease and 
 luxury, as we desolately gaze on the rude, solitary 
 table, whose legs are formed from the uncarpentered 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 65 
 
 branches of a bamboo the three "condemned hos- 
 pital-looking stretchers, made of the same material, 
 and held together by a net -work of coarse coir rope 
 and the two crazy chairs with one seat between them. 
 
 A couple of hours industriously spent, however, 
 furnish it with a very materially improved appear- 
 ance, the nakedness of the stretchers being hidden 
 by the mattrasses that we have brought with us, and 
 these drawn close to the table on either side make 
 a luxurious imitation of ottomans, whilst a gun-case, 
 laid across the two seatless chairs, is pressed into 
 doing the extra duty of a form or a side-table. 
 
 But whilst we are driving our wits to the very fur- 
 thest verge of their inventive extension, a new visitor 
 makes his appearance amongst us, a personage of no 
 little consequence to us in our anticipated excursions. 
 
 He is the Genius of the place, the only human 
 dweller in all that vast and glorious wilderness, and 
 well does his appearance harmonise with the roman- 
 tic character of the scene. 
 
 His long hair, perfectly white from age, is tied up 
 in a knot at the back of his head ; whilst, in front, a 
 snowy beard undulates half way down his breast. 
 His only covering is a white linen girdle round the 
 loins, and his only defence against all the wild beasts 
 that surround him, is the peeled willow wand that 
 he carries in his hand. 
 
 In that old jungle-patriarch, reader, you see our 
 " Elephant-finder." 
 
66 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 He is personally acquainted with every herd of 
 elephants encamped within a dozen of miles of us at 
 that moment. 
 
 They, unsuspecting innocents, little dream of the 
 treacherous part he acts towards them, or that slender 
 willow wand would not so easily effect a lane through 
 the centre of a herd for him to pass on his course. 
 
 But he has no fear, never having heen harmed or 
 attacked by an elephant in his life, although he has 
 lived all his days in the very centre of their haunts ; 
 and whilst he enjoys the sport of seeing them shot, 
 I doubt not but he is not a little astonished and amused 
 at all the pomp and circumstance attending their 
 destruction at the hands of the "white man." 
 
 Formerly, an elephant -finder's services might have 
 been dispensed with, but so numerous and frequent 
 have been the invading parties on this territory, 
 engaged in that animal's destruction, that they have 
 in a great measure been scared away from the plain 
 to the denser parts of the jungle. 
 
 We are forthwith put in possession of a statisti- 
 cal account of the enemy, the exact spot each herd at 
 that moment is in possession of, the length of time 
 they have been there, and the advantages of the 
 locality for our taking up a good position. 
 
 If there is a tusker among any of the numerous 
 herds in the vicinity, the old man is entitled to a con- 
 siderable addition of good things from the lucky fellow 
 who brings him down. There being only about one 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 67 
 
 elephant in every two thousand in Ceylon that 
 possesses tusks, they are considered a great rarity ; 
 and such a distinguishing mark of beauty are they 
 regarded by the animals themselves, that on the 
 approach of danger, the " tusker" is invariably sur- 
 rounded by the remainder of the herd, and, thus 
 forming literally a body-guard, they protect him 
 until the danger is over, or until each elephant 
 has been shot down dead as he stood. 
 
 Five o'clock the following morning is the hour 
 fixed upon for commencing hostilities, and the old 
 native, having been constrained to drink our healths 
 in a bumper of brandy-pawnee (a proceeding, 
 though hostile to his creed, apparently not by any 
 means so to his personal feelings) is allowed to de- 
 part to acquire fresh information of recent arrivals, 
 whilst for our own part, having put our house in 
 order, we turn our attention to assisting the cook in 
 getting ready the " feed" for the evening ; nor on 
 such an occasion did I ever know the old adage to 
 hold good, of " too many cooks spoiling the broth," 
 as every body has a great idea of culinary art in the 
 jungle, and much latent gastronomic talent is therein 
 developed ; besides, as every-orie concocts a hash of 
 his own, he is obliged to praise and eat it in self- 
 defence, so the whole party is pretty sure of being 
 satisfactorily accommodated. 
 
 If one could but virtuously and determinedly resolve 
 on going to sleep as soon as dinner was over and 
 F 2 
 
68 THE OUT- STATION ; OR, 
 
 digested (that is to say, about nine, P.M.), how clear 
 would be the head and steady the hand the next 
 morning at five, A.M. ; but whether it is the ever- 
 lasting rule of contrariety that regulates human 
 nature generally, or the idea that we may possibly 
 not survive to pass another evening in the same 
 agreeable manner, that invariably makes the claret 
 more fruity, the beer more malty, the cognac more 
 seductive, and the cheroots more aromatic, is a ques- 
 tion I would at present rather not undertake to pene- 
 trate into the depths of ; but certain it is, that in 
 nine cases out of ten the slightest ghost of a head- 
 ache, and the pop of a soda-water cork at our neigh- 
 bour's bed-side the next morning, brings remem- 
 brance and repentance at the same moment into our 
 hearts. 
 
 This being our first excursion, however, the excite- 
 ment consequent thereon leaves little room after a 
 few minutes for other reflections ; we are about to 
 encounter a wilderness of monsters, the slightest con- 
 tact with the weakest of whom would leave difficult 
 work for mortal experience to remedy ; and after all, 
 there is a mighty small degree of Kvdos attached to 
 being crunched like a beetle under the feet, or within 
 the proboscis of an offended elephant ; such were the 
 thoughts that, no doubt, preponderated in the minds 
 of the party generally as we sallied forth for the first 
 time from the bungalow into the plain. 
 
 Leading the van, marched the old Elephant-finder, 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 69 
 
 having most emphatically enjoined the strictest silence 
 on our part wherever we followed him ; then came the 
 firing party, ourselves, walking in Indian file ; and 
 lastly, our attendants, carrying one or two spare guns 
 each, brought up the rear. 
 
 Having gone about half a mile from the house, the 
 guide came to a dead halt, and plucking a handful of 
 grass, threw it into the air to discover in which direc- 
 tion the wind blew, for it is necessary to approach the 
 animals against the wind, their power of scent being 
 so strong that they would be aware of our presence 
 several hundred yards off, and keep at a most respect- 
 ful distance for the remainder of the day. 
 
 Finding we are in the right direction as far as this 
 is concerned, we are given to understand that we 
 are within a quarter of a mile of the nearest herd, 
 consisting of about thirty animals. 
 
 We then divide into parties of two, accompanied 
 still by our spare gun carriers the elephant-finder 
 taking under his especial patronage the most inex- 
 perienced duo of the party ; in this manner we are 
 enabled to attack the enemy both in front and flank; 
 and all the necessary instructions having been im- 
 parted, we proceed forward as noiselessly as possible ; 
 you and myself, reader, forming a party of ourselves, 
 and patronised in the present instance by the guide, 
 who almost frightens us out of our wits at the savage 
 contortions he makes at us when we unhappily chance 
 to snap a withered twig in our progress, as we wind 
 
70 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 our way like two boa-constrictors through the under- 
 wood, in any thing but a delectable state either of 
 mind or body. 
 
 Look sharp, now ! Up goes the old man's hand in 
 the air, and at the signal down we drop as mute and 
 motionless as a pair of oysters, expecting the next 
 moment to have the whole of the herd on the top 
 of us. 
 
 Leaving us in this position for a minute or two 
 (it seems an hour) the finder crawls forwards on hands 
 and feet, every now and then peering above the 
 branches to get a view of the quarry. 
 
 A slight beckon with his hand, without a turn of 
 his head, releases us from our uncomfortable position, 
 and again we are creeping slowly towards him. 
 
 He points forward, whispering at the same moment 
 " Ellia !" (the elephants !) 
 
 We are at the extremity of a patch of jungle, and 
 the animals are located in an open spot about twenty 
 yards ahead, but still we are unable to perceive them, 
 so silent are they, and so exactly do their bodies resem- 
 ble in their hue the natural appearance of the jungle 
 itself. 
 
 A sudden report of a gun on our right alters the 
 scene entirely. It is as if a stone was hurled into a 
 wasp's nest. 
 
 In another second we burst into the open space, and 
 find ourselves in the centre of about forty wild ele- 
 phants, all running here and there, wheeling and 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 71 
 
 counter-wheeling, in an agony of apprehension and 
 alarm ; each expecting his neighbour to lead the way 
 off, and each having apparently lost every tittle of 
 instinct ; and now is the exciting moment the mo- 
 ment to try what a man's nerve is made of, as well 
 as to test his coolness and presence of mind. 
 
 It is useless to fire away right and left in the hopes 
 of a random shot bringing an elephant down. Your 
 life depends on your loaded barrel ; and ensconcing 
 yourself near a corner, you wait patiently until an 
 animal marks you out for a charge and comes directly 
 at you, or, in passing in front of you, presents an op- 
 portunity that you cannot forbear taking advantage of. 
 
 Still, if it is possible, one should always have a 
 barrel loaded, but if all happen to be discharged, 
 keep a look-out for a neighbouring tree or rock, 
 around which you can dodge the animal, for if 
 you can do this, you have a decided advantage over 
 him. 
 
 When the elephants are thus attacked in front 
 and flank by experienced hands at the work, they are 
 dropping thick and fast. Escape in the rear is pre- 
 vented by the nature of the ground, and as they 
 wheel round in confusion on receiving the fire of one 
 party, they receive that of the other. 
 
 No person ever thinks of firing at an elephant at 
 a greater distance than a dozen paces, so if one has 
 the faculty of remaining cool and collected, it is not 
 very easy to miss the vital spots in the head, which 
 
72 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 are the hollow part in the centre of the forehead, 
 about as large as a dessert plate, and two similar 
 places, of a corresponding size, just immediately be- 
 fore the ears ; a bullet penetrating either of these 
 parts must find its way to the brain. 
 
 The excitement that the novice experiences on 
 bringing down his opponent apparently with so much 
 ease, ^albeit he has previously had a dozen shots 
 Without any visible results following), is apt to 
 make him headstrong and careless, and numberless 
 and providential have been the escapes caused by 
 too great self-confidence and foolhardiness in this 
 respect. 
 
 I well remember the first shot that I was fortunate 
 enough to obtain at an elephant, and its consequences. 
 The brute was within six yards of me when I sent a 
 ball at his temple not then knowing the exact spot 
 that was mortal, I happened to hit him about an inch 
 too high, and divided an artery, on which a stream of 
 blood spouted out like a jet of water from a fire- 
 engine, giving me as complete a drenching as if I 
 had been soused in the Red Sea, completely blind- 
 ing me for some minutes, and leaving me in a 
 vastly pleasant predicament to continue the morning's 
 work. 
 
 A fearful crash of branches on all sides, as I 
 retreated into the jungle to rinse the blood out of 
 rny face and clothes indicated the final rush and escape 
 of the remainder of the herd. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 73 
 
 Driven at last to desperation by stray shots from 
 the tyros of the party, one prevailing sentiment 
 seemed to animate the wounded wretches, and sauve 
 qui peut became the order of the day, leaving us 
 in possession of the slain, which amounted to about 
 eight or ten elephants. 
 
 Having satisfactorily arrived at the conclusion as 
 to who was the slayer of each particular animal a 
 matter not very easily accomplished, where every one 
 is so anxious for " the honour of the thing" (a point, 
 however, generally conceded by the veteran to the 
 more inexperienced), we proceed to congratulate each 
 other on the event, whilst our servants are engaged 
 in amputating the extremities of the animals' tails 
 (the trophy we preserve of our victims), which, being 
 covered with long black bristles, have been made use- 
 ful and ornamental by some enterprising elephant 
 shot, by being highly polished, and turned into 
 bracelets six bristles kept apart at regular distances 
 by small bars of gold, making a very unique and ex- 
 ceedingly pretty ornament. 
 
 But whilst we are quietly contemplating the afore- 
 said process of amputation, one of the fallen monsters, 
 whose turn it has come to be operated upon, suddenly 
 springs up into life, having been merely stunned, 
 and makes us look out for ourselves ; a general 
 volley is showered at his head, and he gets off or 
 falls for the last time, as his stars have ordained it. 
 
 After undergoing a scraping, added to an ablution 
 in an adjacent muddy pool, during which time the 
 
74 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 remainder of the party have secured their tro- 
 phies, and refreshed themselves (with, I am afraid, 
 something stronger than tea- water, even at that 
 early hour), away we proceed after the next nearest 
 herd. 
 
 In some cases, perhaps, we attempt to pursue the 
 fugitives, but this is, in general, lost labour, for, as 
 the " burnt child dreads the fire" (a proverb, a Mile- 
 sian brother officer of mine improved into " It's the 
 drowned child dreads the water"), they are no sooner 
 out of the reach of our balls, than they are " over 
 the hills and far away," and it is truly astonishing 
 to witness the rate they go at, when they settle down 
 into one of their swing trots; I believe it would puzzle 
 a horse to keep up with them even for the distance 
 of a mile. 
 
 To see the remainder of a herd that has been 
 attacked charge through their opponents, and then 
 rush headlong through the jungle, hearing down 
 in their course every opposing obstacle (like a pack 
 of hounds running through a field of standing corn), 
 is a spectacle to be viewed to admit of any adequate 
 imagination of it. 
 
 The next herd that we find is, probably, located in 
 a totally different position, and we form our tactics of 
 attack accordingly; always remembering it is totally 
 impossible to attack them in an open space, as they 
 seldom ever act on the offensive, or even on the de- 
 fensive, until they are forced to. 
 
 On this second occasion I was more fortunate than 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 75 
 
 on the previous one, for having "tasted blood" in 
 more than a figurative sense, I was determined to be 
 revenged, and found that now the first excitement 
 was over, and I better understood how to set about 
 the business, it was quite as easy to take the matter 
 coolly as not, and one obliging animal guessing my 
 wishes at the moment, and anxious to put my abilities 
 to the test, singled me out for a victim. 
 
 Curling his proboscis up under his head (not flour- 
 ishing it in the air as all illustrations represent an 
 elephant when rushing at an object) and bending its 
 head half way down to the ground a world of mis- 
 chief peering out of that wicked little swinish eye 
 on he came at a quick trot at me. 
 
 He was soon within eight or ten paces my gun 
 had been at my shoulder covering the fatal spot from 
 the moment he commenced the charge, and when 
 another second would have brought him bodily on the 
 top of me, one touch of the forefinger sent an ounce- 
 ball crashing through his skull, and down he sunk 
 without a struggle or a groan, his trunk nearly touch- 
 ing my feet. 
 
 The fall of the elephant is almost noiseless; instead 
 of coming down like a house, plump on its side at 
 once, with a concussion that one would suppose 
 enough to cause a diminutive earthquake, it sinks 
 gradually down, first on its knees, then on its belly, 
 and, finally, rolls over as unconcernedly and gracefully 
 as if it were going through some civilised evolu- 
 tions under the managership of Mr. Hughes, or be- 
 
76 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 fore the enraptured audiences at Astley's " Cirque 
 Olympique." 
 
 Sometimes, however, this operation is unhappily 
 reversed, and instead of the animal rolling over, as 
 in the present case, it falls to the lot of the aggressor, 
 not only to roll over, but to be afterwards knelt upon 
 (the favourite mode with the elephant decidedly a 
 "knee plus ultra" one of putting an extinguisher 
 on his foe), or torn limb from limb asunder. 
 
 These accidents, fortunately, are not frequent ; 
 and the only wonder seems to be how they are 
 not so, when so many inexperienced youngsters ven- 
 ture out against wild elephants ; the animals are 
 extremely short-sighted, and when they charge down 
 on a person, after having once marked him out, I 
 believe they generally close their eyes, for it is very 
 easy to jump on one side, and as the tiger never 
 returns from his first spring, so do these animals 
 keep charging ahead until they are again lost in the 
 jungle. 
 
 The fate of the unfortunate Major Haddock, of 
 the 97th Regiment, was a melancholy proof of the 
 power and revenge of an elephant. 
 
 Having wounded one, and his barrels being all 
 exhausted, his best chance of escape from the animal, 
 which had now turned upon him, lay in dodging him 
 round a small patch of jungle. 
 
 For half-an-hour this hide and seek game was kept 
 on, until the major, imagining the elephant had at- 
 tempted a ruse by doubling round in the opposite 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 77 
 
 direction, also changed his course, and ran directly 
 into the brute's clutches ! 
 
 Poor fellow ! he was dissected limb from limb, even 
 to the smallest joint in his fingers, but not a bone, I 
 believe, was broken. 
 
 An intimate young friend of mine was slaughtered, 
 not many years ago, in consequence of his gun miss- 
 ing fire in the face of a magnificent tusk elephant. 
 He was only nineteen years of age, and having passed 
 a first- rate examination at Sandhurst, had come out 
 under promise of being speedily gazetted to a regi- 
 ment in the colony : he was first knelt on, and 
 then transfixed by the animal's tusks. 
 
 Some others have likewise been killed by these 
 monsters ; many I know have been horribly wounded, 
 and experienced most fearful and providential 
 escapes. 
 
 By the time that we have finished our second en- 
 counter, a feeling, if not of fatigue, at least of the ne- 
 cessity and agreeability of breakfast, forces itself most 
 obtrusively on our imagination ; and as we have wan- 
 dered some five miles away from the bungalow during 
 our excursion, and the sun is already high up over 
 the mountains, and beginning to bring our garments 
 into an unpleasant and dampish contiguity with our 
 skin, it is straightway put to the vote whether another 
 herd be attacked, or a retreat for that day be beaten 
 to our jungle home. 
 
 Some fire -eating, never -satisfied youngster of the 
 party forms probably the inglorious " minority of one" 
 
78 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 for carrying on the sport ail day, aad leaving bodily 
 comforts till the morrow ; but as his views happily 
 are singular, we make the best of our way homewards, 
 each of our bearers carrying his master's trophies, of 
 which he is quite as proud as if he had won it from 
 the quondam owner himself. 
 
 A fine broad river, some twenty yards in width, 
 runs about half a mile in rear of the bungalow; and, 
 oh ! the luxury of plunging into its depths, 
 
 Patulae sub tegmine bamboo, 
 
 when the dangers and toils of the morning are over, 
 and before commences the onslaught on the contents 
 of the huge packages that probably formed our bed- 
 stead on the previous night! and afterwards, as we 
 toddle home, enveloped in our kaleidoscopic dress- 
 ing-gowns, to be met half-way by the matter-of-fact 
 odour of fried eggs and bacon, beefsteaks, and coffee, 
 is an extremely delicious treat under such circum- 
 stances, and well worth the reader's while (if he will 
 only believe me) to start by the next overland mail, 
 and experience it all in propria persona. 
 
 After breakfast commences the misery of the day, 
 and happy is the man who can bring himself to sit 
 down and read until dinner-time. 
 
 For my own part I used to endeavour to kill the 
 time by sleep, but no sooner had I arrived at the 
 wished-for state of unconsciousness, than all the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 79 
 
 ghosts of all created elephants commenced wreaking 
 summary vengeance on my body by every kind of 
 horrible and incomprehensible means ; finally winding 
 up their sports by a game of battledore and shuttle- 
 cock (which latter little article was personated of 
 course by myself), until a smart concussion between 
 the table and my head, accompanied by a violent fit 
 of sneezing (caused by some ruffian having gratui- 
 tously administered a considerable quantity of " Irish 
 blackguard"), would release me from the clutches of 
 my elephantine inquisitors. 
 
 When the evening arrives, and it is again cool, 
 the old man makes his re-appearance, and we either 
 devote the remaining daylight to elephant-shooting 
 or deerstalking, the place literally swarming with red 
 deer, so much so, that sitting in the verandah of the 
 bungalow, about dusk, one may kill as much venison 
 in an hour or two as would keep him from starving 
 for a twelvemonth. 
 
 A more amusing sport with these animals is 
 coursing them with greyhounds (although this is ex- 
 celled on the continent of India, where they are 
 coursed with cheetahs), but as this carries us off our 
 present subject, we must postpone it to a future 
 chapter. 
 
 One day's elephant shooting varies so little from 
 that of another, except in variety of escapes that we 
 experience, that it would be an unfeeling action to 
 drag the reader through a second day's labour; suffice 
 
80 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 it to add, that when the fortnight has come to a con- 
 clusion, as well as the provisions, we are not loth to 
 return once more to a more civilised existence, congra- 
 tulating ourselves on doing so in a whole skin, and on 
 our possession of a huge display of the trophies of our 
 prowess. 
 
 What becomes of the dead elephants no one appears 
 to know, for although parties have followed parties 
 without a week's intervention, the carcases of the 
 slain have never been met with : but as the place is 
 frequented by innumerable packs of jackals, it is not 
 improbable that these lucky rascals come in for the 
 most profitable part of the business, and clear off the 
 mortal remains of the Monarch of the Jungle. 
 
 Elephants, being generally used throughout the 
 island in the place of horses, for such purposes as they 
 can be made available, such as government works, 
 road and bridge-making, &c., are every now and 
 then captured in what is denominated " a Kraal," 
 which is accomplished in this manner. 
 
 A particular spot of the island is selected where 
 the kraal is to be erected, and a party of ladies 
 and gentlemen, generally honoured by the presence 
 of the governor, is invariably formed to witness this 
 interesting proceeding. 
 
 A large space of ground is enclosed in a circle by 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 81 
 
 natural trees (if it is possible to get them so situated), 
 or by high poles, driven to a great depth into the 
 ground ; the intermediate spaces are then filled up 
 by branches interwoven together so closely that it is 
 impossible to see daylight through them. An aper- 
 ture is left at one part, formed on the principle of 
 that in a wire rat-cage, very easy to enter, but the 
 reverse to get out at. 
 
 When all these arrangements are completed, the 
 party ascend the neighbouring trees, where platforms 
 are erected, furnished with chairs, from whence the 
 spectators can view the whole proceedings unmo- 
 lested. 
 
 A well-trained elephant is then conducted by its 
 keeper into the kraal, and, on a given signal it com- 
 mences a series of the most pitiful moanings and 
 screechings imaginable ; presently, out trots an 
 elephant from the jungle, and holds a viva voce inter- 
 course with his fellow in distress. This makes the 
 decoy double his lamentations, until the victim, per- 
 ceiving the spot from whence the wailings proceed, 
 at last discovers the aperture, and the next moment 
 is in the trap. 
 
 One by one at first, but eventually in a string, the 
 animals emerge from the jungle, and follow each 
 other like a flock of sheep into the kraal. 
 
 As soon as this is full, the miserable traitor desists 
 from his yellings, and then a number of natives, accus- 
 tomed to the work, and furnished with coils of strong 
 rope, enter amongst the captives, and tie the legs of 
 
 G 
 
82 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 two or three brutes together, whilst in a supreme state 
 of alarm they remain huddled together in a heap, and 
 apparently looking to each other for some luminous 
 explanation as to where on earth they have got to. 
 It never enters their heads to break down the kraal, 
 which they might very easily accomplish. 
 
 The party located in the trees sometimes take their 
 guns to get a shot at the animals before they enter 
 the kraal, but this is not legitimate sport. 
 
 When each animal has been bound with cords to 
 his next neighbour, other trained elephants are con- 
 ducted to the scene of action, and one of these is in- 
 trusted with the tutelage of two or three of the 
 recently captured ones, whom he immediately leads off 
 into captivity captive ; should they show any obsti- 
 nacy or disinclination to accompany their new tutor, 
 he inflicts such a belabouring on the miscreants with 
 his proboscis, as soon makes them roar for mercy. 
 The same means are adopted to teach them to work, 
 except that one pupil is then placed between two 
 preceptors, by which means he gets a double dose of 
 correction administered, and a most amusing sight is 
 it to witness this teaching their young ideas to work 
 at the hands of their own species. 
 
 After having been properly trained, the cost of an 
 elephant is, on the average, about 30/. The Ceylon 
 elephant is considerably smaller than its African 
 brother, nine or ten feet being the extreme height of 
 the former. 
 
 I could fill an entire volume with anecdotes of these 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 83 
 
 animals, that I have myself become acquainted with 
 in my " Jaunts in the Jungle," but not wishing to 
 stretch the indulgent reader's patience or credulity to 
 a greater extent than it can conveniently bear, I will 
 now make a most humble salaam, hoping that he 
 may one day gain a better idea of the sport by prac- 
 tical experience than I have been able to convey to 
 him on paper. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE OUT- STATION; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MAJOR TOM ROGERS OF OURS ; AND HIS EXPLOITS.* 
 
 HAVING patronised the elephants to such a con- 
 siderable extent, perhaps the reader would now have 
 no objection " audire alter am part em," and spend half- 
 an-hour in company with their bitterest antagonist, 
 listening to a few of his personal anecdotes connected 
 with the everlasting warfare he waged against the 
 tribe. 
 
 That these brief sketches may meet the eye of 
 many now living in Ceylon that knew our hero well, 
 as also of those of his brethren in arms since scat- 
 tered over the face of the globe, is not improba- 
 
 * The above story (or something not unlike it) I published 
 some years since in the " Sporting Magazine," the editor 
 whereof has kindly allowed me to re-use it, on acknowledg- 
 ing its former locality. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 85 
 
 ble who will each in his turn, exclaim on perus- 
 ing it, 
 
 "Why was not such and such an escape, such 
 and such a feat, such and such a daring act re- 
 corded ?" 
 
 Most exemplary Reader ! I can only say that of the 
 multitude of anecdotes that I have eargerly listened 
 to by the hour as I sat tete-a-tete at the dinner- table 
 of poor Rogers (where, after a hard day's work, he 
 would recount over claret and cheroots, the perils he 
 had undergone, by far the greater part have escaped 
 my recollection, solely from the fact of their being of 
 such frequent occurrence that no ordinary memory 
 could by any possibility have treasured them all up 
 without adventitious aid ; and little did I then think 
 that the narrator was so soon and untimely to be 
 taken from the scenes of his exploits, or many a 
 daring act (the knowledge of which has sunk into 
 the tomb with him) should have been noted down, 
 and handed through these unpresuming little pages 
 to posterity, as a memento of the extraordinary 
 courage and the almost supernatural coolness in dan- 
 ger, of the subject of my present theme. 
 
 It would have puzzled a physiognomist to have 
 looked in that pale pensive countenance, and to have 
 read in those extremely mild, though manly, features 
 the daring spirit that made its owner exclaim with 
 Titus, " PERDIDI DIEM," unless his existence had 
 been risked at all events once in the twenty-four 
 
86 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 hours, and to have discovered the characteristics of a 
 temperament that, found beneath a few heaped-up- 
 logs of wood, the roof of a native hut, or not unfre- 
 quently the branches of a banyan tree, a more wel- 
 come resting-place (particularly if indulged with the 
 screeching serenade of a herd of elephants), than 
 any luxurious establishment which his position in 
 Ceylon would easily have enabled him to have in- 
 dulged in ; and no less singular was it, that, living as 
 he did, he should have retained such a uniform suavity 
 of manners and disposition that distinguished him 
 above all other men I ever knew. 
 
 The former were, I may almost say, ladylike : nor 
 even was this extreme polish (although utterly devoid 
 of foppishness) the least tarnished when in the depths 
 of the jungle to what it was when called into play 
 in the drawing-room, and so richly was the cream 
 of human kindness instilled into his disposition, that 
 I really believe he would have been glad to have 
 begged an attacking elephant's pardon should he have 
 happened by any mischance to have put him to a mo- 
 ment's more additional pain than necessary. 
 
 Moreover, being one of those persons who never 
 could make an enemy, with the general, the sub, and 
 the private, Tom Rogers was universally admired, 
 beloved, and almost worshipped. 
 
 The opinion of him entertained by the elephants 
 might have been in a directly inverse ratio. 
 
 His habitation was unique, particularly his dining- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 87 
 
 room. This he built himself at the distance of about 
 twenty yards from his dwelling-house ; and it con- 
 tained most of his trophies. 
 
 It was a large square building : on either side of 
 the doorway stood two huge elephants' heads, 
 bleached as white as rain and sun could make them, 
 and no doubt a source of terror to the unsophisticated 
 little Niggers of the neighbourhood. 
 
 The interior was fancifully decorated with twelve 
 pair of splendid elephants' tusks ; whilst the tushes 
 formed various useful articles of furniture for keeping 
 the doors open, or keeping down in its place a 
 mosaic of carpeting of the skins of elk, deer, and 
 bears ; and then the elephants' tails (that in the 
 absence of tusks had been brought home as trophies) 
 which lay in admired confusion, here, there, and 
 everywhere ! verily they would have re-tailed a 
 "wilderness of elephants !" 
 
 But to see that room in its glory, when a party, 
 having reached so far on their journey to or from the 
 chief scene of elephant slaughter, had arrived to 
 spend a day or two with its owner before or after 
 they took him as their guide and participator in the 
 object of their pursuit ! 
 
 We have perhaps experienced in merry England 
 (would it were merrier !) the inexpressible delight we 
 feel at the hospitable board of a fellow sportsman after 
 a good day's work ; but it is nothing to what we feel 
 when in the companionship of those with whom our 
 
88 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 life has been again and again in jeopardy some, 
 whose existence our own nerve has perchance saved 
 in the " very nick of time ;" others, to whose unerring 
 aim we owe the very possibility of our being then and 
 there participators of the scene. 
 
 And mark the very cuisine that hare, now diluted 
 into " potagt," at the head of the table, passed through 
 no gameseller's hands, I warrant ; neither did those 
 jungle fowl, nor the venison cotelettes, nor the par- 
 tridges, nor that undeniable snipe curry ! the furnisher 
 of the feast has procured them " without money and 
 without price" (barring the cost of powder and shot) : 
 and as we make an attack on the "haunch," how 
 vividly we recollect the onslaught made on us by a 
 herd of elephants that our firing at that particular 
 deer had frightened from their lethargy and as, in 
 that moment of self-gratulation, we take off the 
 remainder of our glass of cold claret at a draught, 
 we may almost fancy ourselves to have reached that 
 state said to be denied to miserable sinners in this 
 world, viz. that of supreme, unalloyed happiness, 
 where the " trail of the serpent" has so considerately 
 exceptionised our especial pathway of existence, that 
 if it has left a mark, it is so slight that we perceive it 
 not. 
 
 Reader, if I wander from my subject, forgive me ; 
 but the very thought of the interior of that room 
 has diverted my ideas into the channel of " auld-lang- 
 syne," and to the companionship of many a noble 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 89 
 
 fellow, whose society, like his of whom I write, is lost 
 in death for ever ! 
 
 On such occasions as Rogers would go on an ele- 
 phant hunting expedition alone, he would merely 
 mount his horse and gallop off into the jungle, leav- 
 ing directions for his two servants (one a Cingalese 
 and the other a Malay) to follow him to a fixed des- 
 tination with his four guns ; but it more generally 
 happened that some "head man" of the district 
 had arrived with the tidings of the propinquity of 
 the elephants, and on such occasions the habitation of 
 the Nigger would be arranged in his best style for 
 the reception of his guest ; this adornment usually 
 consisting, as I before mentioned, in hanging the sides 
 of a room with white drapery, so that a man was 
 always " between the sheets" day and night. 
 
 I shall never forget Rogers returning home one 
 evening from the " Park" to his quarters accom- 
 panied by every substantial trophy, in the shape of six 
 young elephants as prisoners of war, the smallest 
 about two feet in height, and the largest about four. 
 These he occasionally allowed to have a run, when 
 the young rascals would invariably toddle off to the 
 old fruitwomen in the market, and a pretty havoc soon 
 ensued amongst the plantains, oranges, and betel-nut. 
 
 They would go round levying black-mail; and woe 
 betide the unfortunate vendor that did not suffer him 
 or herself to be victimised to the heart's content of 
 the depredator ! 
 
90 THE OUT- STATION; OR, 
 
 However, their owner suffered most for these 
 freaks, for he always made good the damages, which 
 were generally multiplied, I expect, to rather an en- 
 ormous extent. 
 
 I caught two of the animals one day in my bed- 
 room, with an almost bran-new twenty-guinea rifle 
 jacket in their clutches ; one of them at one arm, 
 and the other ripping off the braid by the yard to 
 its inexpressible delight and self-gratification. 
 
 (Didn't they just catch it?) 
 
 I must relate an anecdote told me by Major R 
 
 of a laughable circumstance that once befel him when 
 elephant shooting in the North-west part of the 
 Island. 
 
 He had accepted the invitation of a brother officer 
 living thereat, to try a few days' hostilities against 
 the elephants of that neighbourhood, and had arrived, 
 after a hard day's sport, to within a mile or two 
 of the bungalow where his host and hostess were 
 awaiting his arrival, and where the dinner was either 
 getting cold or exceedingly over-dressed, when, pass- 
 ing by a delightfully cool-looking river, he thought a 
 plunge would be the most renovating luxury in ex- 
 istence ; so a plunge he determined to take, sending 
 on his servants with his guns, and an intimation that 
 in ten minutes he would be at home. 
 
 Stripping and placing his things very carefully on a 
 stone, he began to luxuriate in the water. He was a ca- 
 pital swimmer, and had swam to some distance, when to 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 91 
 
 his horror and dismay, on looking to the place where he 
 had left his habiliments, he perceived a dozen monkeys 
 " overhauling" his entire wardrobe ! one was putting 
 its legs through the sleeves of his shirt ; another, 
 cramming its head into his trousers ; a third trying 
 to find out if any treasure was concealed in his boot ; 
 whilst the hat formed a source of wonderment and 
 amusement to some two or three others who were 
 endeavouring to unravel its mystery by unripping 
 the lining and taking half-a-dozen bites out of the 
 brim. 
 
 As soon as he regained his mental equilibrium (for 
 the thing was so ridiculous as to make him laugh 
 heartily, notwithstanding his disgust at seeing his 
 garments turned to such vile uses), he made with all 
 haste for the shore ; but judge of his horror when he 
 saw these " precious rascals" each catch up what he 
 could lay hold of, and rattle off full speed into 
 the jungle ! not leaving poor Rogers even the ves- 
 tige of an article of raiment wherewith to cover him- 
 self ! 
 
 All he heard was a glorious chattering as they one 
 by one disappeared, the last one lugging off his shirt, 
 which, being rather awkward to carry, was continually 
 tripping it up by getting between its legs. 
 
 Here was a pretty pickle for a Christian to be in 
 under a broiling sun ! and here he was obliged to 
 remain till the inmates of the bungalow, beginning 
 to suspect some accident, came out in search, and 
 
92 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 found poor Rogers sitting up to his neck in water, 
 in a frame of body and mind which we may conclude 
 to be "more easily imagined than described." 
 
 It was in the noviciate of this extraordinary 
 sportsman that the following occurrence took place 
 in the neighbourhood of Trincomalee. 
 
 A frigate had arrived at the station, and as a matter 
 of course its officers were feted as well as the garrison 
 would permit ; and it was finally arranged that the 
 captain and as many as could get away on leave 
 should make an excursion a few miles inland, in 
 hopes of seeing some sport among the elephants, 
 accompanied by many crack elephant-shots as a safe- 
 guard to the more inexperienced. 
 
 The important morning arrived, and a party of 
 about twenty sallied forth to a place called Cottiar, 
 which is generally a resort of all kinds of animals, 
 and as hot and unhealthy a place as can well be found 
 beneath the sun. 
 
 Elephants were soon found in all directions, so the 
 party, to avoid spoiling each other's sport, by degrees 
 began to separate into smaller parties of three or 
 four, as the elephants became more plentiful. 
 
 About mid-day, Rogers found himself heading a 
 party of half-a-dozen young " reefers," as well as 
 the captain of the frigate ; and by the trumpetings 
 and screechings of elephants in a small patch of 
 jungle a-head, there was evidently good sport in 
 store, by using caution and not being too much in a 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 93 
 
 hurry. This was no easy matter to accomplish, how- 
 ever, with a parcel of jolly sailors ; no sooner did 
 they get sight of the stern of an elephant, than a 
 most promiscuous volley was showered into the heads 
 and tails of the astonished quadrupeds, without doing 
 very material damage, for the next moment there was 
 a simultaneous rush from the jungle, and away 
 rattled the whole herd with the exception of one, 
 which rushed straight at the captain of the frigate, 
 and, seizing him in its trunk, made off round the 
 plain ! 
 
 It was the work of a moment ; and had any one 
 attempted to fire, the chances were greater in favour 
 of his killing the man than the elephant. All looked 
 on in dismay and horror, as they saw the old ele- 
 phant pull up in its course every now and then, and 
 seemingly attempt to crush its victim by kneeling on 
 him ; then holding him up in mid-air again, it 
 would apparently exult in its conquest, and contem- 
 plate its prey with very much the same feelings as a 
 cat does a disabled mouse. 
 
 Some pursued the animal, though that was per- 
 fectly useless, and might have only hastened the fate 
 of the unfortunate man already in the jaws of death, 
 when a miracle (for it can be deemed little short of 
 one) saved his life when it was not worth an instant's 
 purchase. 
 
 At this moment the elephant had got into a corner 
 of the plain and was preparing to deal the death- 
 
94 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 blow, when Rogers perceived a young elephant 
 emerge from the same patch of jungle as the others 
 had previously done; and the evident uneasiness of 
 mind that the young one evinced by its antics and its 
 trumpetings soon made him suspect that it must be 
 the calf of one of the animals that had started away, 
 or, by no means an unlikely event, that it was its 
 own mother that had, perhaps in defence of this very 
 youngster, attacked Captain G . 
 
 His plans were formed in an instant ; and the 
 stratagem showed the extraordinary presence of mind 
 that never forsook him under the most trying circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Placing his two barrels within a foot of the young 
 elephant's neck, he sent in both balls; then seizing 
 another gun he planted one in the proboscis and 
 one behind, so that neither hit any vital part. 
 
 Immediately that the youngster began to feel the 
 smart, it set up the most awful yelling that ever 
 mortal heard ; it might have been audible for miles ; 
 indeed, the wonder was that so much noise could 
 come from so small a compass. Another moment, 
 and the victim would have been torn limb from limb, 
 but before the elephant had succeeded in falling on 
 him the fearful meanings of its young one struck its 
 ear. 
 
 Dropping its victim "like a hot potato," it rushed 
 furiously to where its offspring was still making the 
 welkin ring with the most hideous yells, but before 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 95 
 
 it had reached it, a ball from Rogers's gun had laid 
 it dead at his feet ; and then reloading, he at once 
 put the young one out of its pain by sending a ball 
 through its brain. 
 
 G was still lying on the ground to all appear- 
 ance dead ; but on reaching him, he was found to be 
 only insensible, and most probably from the fearful 
 revulsion of feeling when he found he had escaped 
 such an imminent death. A little bran dy-and- water 
 soon revived him, but two broken ribs and a jungle fever 
 (that confined him for weeks to his bed, and was as 
 nearly putting an end to his existence as the ele- 
 phant) gave lasting evidence of the treatment he had 
 received when in the animal's power. 
 
 This, I believe, was one of Rogers' s first adventures. 
 The gentleman who acted the principal part is, to 
 the best of my belief, now alive, and an Admiral in 
 Her Majesty's Service. 
 
 The other occasion on which he was the means of 
 saving a fellow creature's life happened some time 
 
 after the event above narrated. Captain M , of 
 
 the Regiment, was one of an elephant party, 
 
 made up, if I recollect rightly, for the amusement 
 of the then Governor of the Island, Sir Edward 
 Barnes. 
 
 A magnificent " tusker" was the object in view, 
 who was guarded by the rest of the herd until every 
 animal was shot down with the exception of itself, 
 when the " tusker," thinking he might as well die 
 fighting as standing still, rushed at M , and very 
 
96 THE OUT- STATION; OR, 
 
 soon had him in his proboscis. He then carried him 
 off to some little distance, and, pinning him to the 
 ground, attempted to crush him by kneeling on him. 
 This his tusks (being very long) prevented him from 
 doing, neither could he manage to transfix him with 
 his tusks. It was almost an impossibility to get a 
 shot at his head, being so close to M , there- 
 fore, several of the party, in hopes of getting the 
 animal to turn round, fired at its body. 
 
 This but enraged it the more ; arid after nearly 
 five minutes had elapsed, when nothing could save 
 the almost lifeless captain but a coup-de-main, 
 Rogers walked up to within two yards of the ele- 
 phant, and lying down by the side of M , placed 
 
 the muzzle of his gun within an inch of the animal's 
 forehead, and brought him down dead, almost on the 
 top of its exhausted victim, who never recovered the 
 shock, for he died very shortly after of a fever brought 
 on in consequence. 
 
 On one occasion our hero had enjoyed some 
 splendid sport with a herd of these animals ; his 
 four guns had all been discharged when an unseen 
 elephant made a charge at him from the skirts of 
 the jungle. There was no help for it, except to run, 
 and for one hundred yards and upwards Major 
 Rogers kept just a-head, feeling at every step the 
 animal's trunk trying to insinuate itself round his 
 loins. 
 
 A turn round a tree gave him a momentary 
 advantage, which he made the most of by springing 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 97 
 
 up into the branches (he was as nimble as a cat, and 
 as strong as a lion). One foot higher I and he 
 would have been out of the elephant's reach ; but 
 before he had time to draw up his legs, the elephant 
 had got one of them firmly clenched in the coils of 
 his proboscis. Still Rogers pulled against him, think- 
 ing it better to have his leg wrenched from the 
 socket than to fall back bodily in the animal's power. 
 The struggle, however, did not last long, for, to 
 the delight of the pursued and the chagrin of the 
 pursuer, the Wellington boot that the former wore 
 slipped off, extricated the leg, and saved the life of 
 the wearer. (Heaven save us from such a boot-jack /) 
 
 The dilemma, however, did not end here ; for the 
 elephant finding itself balked of its prey, after des- 
 troying the boot, took up its quarters beneath the 
 branches, and kept its expected victim in the tree 
 for twenty-four hours, when the tappal, or country 
 postman, happening to pass by, Rogers gave him 
 notice of his position, and on this being intimated to 
 the nearest village, the elephant was frightened away 
 by tom-toms, and yellings. 
 
 Had this occurred in a deserted part of the jungle, 
 poor Rogers would indubitably have been starved to 
 death in the tree ! 
 
 Having given the reader one escape out of 
 many, I may mention one anecdote to prove his 
 perfect confidence in himself against this forest 
 
98 THE OUT -STATION; OR, 
 
 At a dinner enjoyed by a party of sportsmen at 
 WILSON BUNGALOW (among whom was the governor 
 of the Island, the late Sir Robert Horton), the con- 
 versation turned upon elephant-shooting; when, to the 
 astonishment of the company, Rogers backed himself 
 at odds to kill two elephants with one ball at one 
 discharge ! 
 
 This being deemed impossible, was taken up all 
 round the table, but the bet was gallantly won on 
 the following day in this manner. 
 
 Rogers, knowing that an elephant invariably fell 
 towards the side it was shot at (instead of away from 
 the ball, as a person would naturally suppose), got in- 
 formation of the locality of several female elephants 
 with their calves, who keep by the sides of their mothers 
 in the same manner as we see foals at home ; and 
 placing himself in such a position as to get the calf 
 between himself and the elephant he aimed at, he 
 discharged the gun that under his steady eye and 
 hand never failed to do its duty, when the old lady 
 fell like a house on its progeny, crushing it to death 
 under its own already lifeless mass of flesh, and every 
 man who bet against the event saw it accomplished ! 
 
 I will now conclude these anecdotes with quoting 
 a portion of the contents of a note lying by me from 
 Major Macready, who was at the time I was in the 
 island, aidecamp to General Sir J. Wilson, and almost 
 as staunch and gallant a foe to the elephantine race 
 as Rogers himself : his few expressive words may tell 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 99 
 
 more than all the foregoing pages. He says ? " I re- 
 member perfectly the style in which he floored (speak- 
 ing of an expedition on which he accompanied 
 Rogers), each by single shot, five out of six of a 
 herd that he and I followed together, taking them so 
 cleverly as each turned, and at the same time so 
 quickly > that I was not able to fire a single shot, till, 
 luckily, the two last that were left came round toge- 
 ther ; but this was nothing to him. 9 ' 
 
 The last accounts I heard of this extraordinary 
 elephant slayer, previous to his lamentable end before 
 narrated, were, that he had numbered TWO THOU- 
 SAND elephants, slain by himself, and in future had 
 made up his mind to keep no continued account. 
 (For further particulars inquire of any officer of any 
 regiment that has ever served in the island.) 
 
 Reader ! such is a specimen of the once mighty 
 Nimrod of Ceylon. Perhaps you were yourself for- 
 tunate enough to know the subject of the sketch; in 
 such case you also know too well how unworthy a one 
 it is. 
 
 Light be the turf on thy grave, poor Tom ! and 
 may a long and worthy monument to thine excellent 
 qualities survive thy existence in the hearts of thy 
 fellows, who knew and loved thee! 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE OUT- STATION; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MINOR DELECTABILITIE8 OF OUT-STATION LIFE. 
 
 AND now, most worthy reader, before I chaperon 
 you among the scenes of the Pearl Fishery where, 
 under the protecting shadow of a huge talipot um- 
 brella, we will recline in amicable vicinity, and gently 
 insinuating ourselves (after the way of the world) 
 into the individual affections of a vast pile of oysters 
 heaped up within our reach, will soon become masters 
 of the treasures 
 
 Embalm'd in the innermost shrines of their hearts, 
 
 and afterwards be " shellfish" enough ourselves (that's 
 right, button up your pockets ! *) to leave their plun- 
 dered remains unburied on the plain. I say, before 
 
 * Could you, oh far-sighted reader! (or any body else) 
 ever see the drift or wit of the extremely sapient saw of that 
 lumbering old humbug, Dr. Johnson, "that a man who 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 101 
 
 we do all this, you must mount your Arab, and join 
 me in a rattling scurry after the spotted deer over the 
 same plains on which we killed our elephants in the 
 last chapter ; and also add all your little available in 
 the way of lungs in making the Pusilarva hills resound 
 with a louder echo to our " tantivy " as we view the 
 stubborn old hog -deer chevying away before a pack 
 of English foxhounds then, having sent a ball 
 through the brain of a buffalo intent on your de- 
 struction, we will leave this locality of the island to 
 the next comers ; and, changing the scene, 
 
 We'll dive where the gardens of coral lie darkling ; 
 
 that is to say, we won't dive in propriis personis, but 
 whilst the Malabar professionals execute that part of 
 the business, we will be found ready to relieve them 
 of their pearly spoils the moment they pop their heads 
 out of water. 
 
 Deer coursing is a sport very little pursued in Cey- 
 lon, being, I suppose, voted " tame," after elephant 
 shooting ; still, in its way, it is a most exciting and 
 pleasurable pastime, and, at all events, affords scope 
 for a ride at racing pace over an uninterrupted plain. 
 
 Major R , the celebrated elephant shot mentioned 
 
 in my last chapter, was particularly fond of this amuse- 
 
 would make a pun would pick a pocket?" Don't you vote 
 
 it a most illiberal 
 
 Compounding for sins he was inclined to, 
 By damning those he had no mind to? 
 
102 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 ment, and the dogs he used were a species of lurcher 
 (half staghound, half greyhound, in appearance), and 
 many a deer have I seen pulled down by them in the 
 course of a couple of hours. 
 
 Mounting our horses as soon as it was light, we 
 would start in any direction we choose, being certain 
 of finding as many deer as we could possibly desire ; 
 in short, the chief difficulty consisted in getting the 
 hounds to settle down to one deer out of a herd of, 
 probably, several hundreds. The only plan of doing 
 this was by sending a man forward after we had 
 viewed a herd, to head them when we had once started 
 them, and so, by being thrown into confusion, we 
 might by chance get one fellow to " take a line of his 
 own," and then let slip at him. 
 
 It is a beautiful sight to behold herds upon herds 
 of these graceful animals wandering forth, by the 
 first light of morning, in quest of their daily food, 
 some bounding at full gallop, of their own free will, 
 over the plain, bound on some private pilgrimage of 
 their own ; whilst others are strolling heedlessly about, 
 or quietly grazing, until the rushing past of another 
 herd arrests their attention, and as they stand with 
 ears pricked and head erect, we take advantage of 
 their abstraction to "bear down upon them/ 7 and 
 away we go ! horses, riders, dogs, and deer, at a rate 
 that would soon " put a girdle round the earth, " if 
 kept up till that event the niggers following as fast 
 as they can on foot ; and, to do them justice, I must 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 103 
 
 say I never saw more long-winded, enduring- fellows 
 in my life, than the mountain population of the island. 
 
 I remember on one occasion being left in rather an 
 awkward predicament with Major Rogers, during one 
 of these deer-coursing expeditions. 
 
 We had started a splendid red deer, and had kept 
 him going for three or four miles, apparently straight 
 ahead, at racing pace, not even the obstacle of a bro- 
 ken bough intervening in our path to slacken our 
 speed; when R , with his better experienced eye, 
 perceived that the deer was about to make a turn off 
 to the right, and, by way of "jockeying" me, he also 
 made an echellon movement in the same direction ; 
 to complete which, however, to perfection, he had to 
 pass beneath the branches of a large forest-tree. 
 
 Unfortunately, he miscalculated their height. 
 
 Still at a splitting gallop, he neared the lowest 
 branches ; there was no time for pulling up ; so throw- 
 ing himself flat along the neck of his horse (the only 
 chance he had of escape), onwards he went. 
 
 I could see the horse, as he sprang under, dip to 
 the utmost of his power, as if aware of the emergency; 
 and, at the same moment, the lowest branch, which 
 was about the thickness of my body, shaving R, 's 
 hunting-cap, by the eighth of an inch, caught him 
 across the shoulders just below the nape of the neck, 
 as he lay along the horse's mane, and brought horse 
 and rider to the ground with a fearful, stunning 
 crash ! 
 
104 THE OUT-STATION; OK, 
 
 In a moment I was by his side, but not a groan 
 could I hear, or any thing to indicate the least sign of 
 life ; his pulse had ceased, and, of course, I concluded 
 he was as dead as Demosthenes ! 
 
 Not a soul either was within sight, and we had 
 wandered into the most remote part of the plain, 
 from which it would take a very clever person to 
 retrace his steps to any particular point. 
 
 It was as awkward a predicament as ever I was 
 in during the whole of my jungle experience. To 
 lose one's way with a living man is bad enough; 
 but imagine yourself, reader, lost to every trace of a 
 civilised world, and left in a pathless wilderness, a 
 lonely watcher of the dead ! Till you have experi- 
 enced such an ordeal (which I hope you never may) 
 you can never have an idea of the awful, wild excite- 
 ment of such a catastrophe. 
 
 Every thing that I could imagine, that might recall 
 the vital spark, was tried, but in vain; and I might, 
 as likely as not, have perished of starvation by the 
 side of the lifeless man, or in the further wilderness 
 of the plain, had not one of our dogs luckily dis- 
 covered the spot where we were lying, and presently 
 set up such a yelling and barking, as brought two of 
 our followers to the spot. 
 
 Lifting the body, that we still supposed to be soul- 
 less, across the horse, we were guided back to the 
 bungalow; and never felt I such pleasurable sensations 
 in my existence as the first faint sigh that broke from 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 105 
 
 the breast of the noble fellow whose supposed remains 
 I was watching ! 
 
 I had despatched a man forty miles for a sur- 
 geon, and in the evening of the second day he 
 arrived to find the sufferer's collar-bone smashed, 
 but the back-bone miraculously preserved. By care- 
 ful treatment he in time perfectly recovered ; but I 
 think he abjured deer coursing afterwards one thing 
 I am very certain of, which is that /did. It's no joke 
 watching dead men in a wilderness where you've lost 
 your way, with the prospect of a three days' stock of 
 carrion to live on, and then to lie down and die, and 
 perhaps, never have the satisfaction of being picked up 
 and owned afterwards ! 
 
 The " neatest" sport I ever witnessed in pursuit of 
 deer, is that followed on the sandy plains, on the 
 Madras side of India, by the principal natives ; viz., 
 running down the antelope by means of cheetahs. 
 
 The cheetah, which is half leopard, half tiger, is 
 reared tame in most cases, and is as docile and play- 
 ful as a kitten. 
 
 It has generally the full run of the house where it 
 is brought up, running and frisking about all day, 
 and knocking over the juvenile little niggers that 
 come in its way, with the most supreme good nature. 
 
 Having expressed a wish to a native potentate to 
 see his animals exhibit in the field, the following day 
 was appointed for a chase. 
 
106 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 About five o'clock in the morning, three queer- 
 looking vehicles were drawn up at the door (some- 
 thing like our wains for carrying hay, only not so 
 large), each being a platform of board, without sides 
 of any description, mounted upon two wheels, from 
 which a pole, fitted into a light kind of yoke, was 
 attached to two bulls. 
 
 Presently out walked three cheetahs, each in charge 
 of a keeper, and were forthwith severally located on 
 the platforms, to which they were secured by a small 
 dog chain. 
 
 My host then mounted the second car, leaving me 
 to share the third with one of our feline companions, 
 whilst our horses were led slowly behind. 
 
 In this way we proceeded about a mile, when I was 
 obliged, in self-defence, to yell out to halt, as the con- 
 tinual jolting of the vehicle (it having no springs) had 
 almost shaken my head off my shoulders ; in addition 
 to which, whenever I lay flat along the platform to ease 
 myself, the cheetah would at at once commence in- 
 flicting such a dose of licking on my face, to his 
 nigger-keeper's most ineffable gratification, as well 
 nigh suffocated me; so, to the " big man's" great 
 astonishment, who was quietly sitting on his cart 
 smoking his hookah all the while, I mounted the 
 Arab he had furnished for my use, and proceeded for- 
 wards a great deal more at home, and with a chance 
 of retaining my teeth in my head, and my head on 
 my shoulders. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 107 
 
 Before arriving at the plain, we halted to place a 
 hood over the heads of the cheetahs, after performing 
 which we again moved on, and were soon on the vast 
 range of sands. 
 
 Straining my eyes till they were nearly a quarter 
 of an inch out of their sockets, in a vain attempt to 
 catch the outline of some antelopes, that I was in- 
 formed were just disclosing their antlers some mile 
 ahead, I was told to make ready for a burst, if I 
 wanted to be " in at the death." 
 
 At the same moment, one of the bandages was 
 taken off a cheetah's eyes, when, drawing himself up 
 on his platform, he took a deliberate look round the 
 far horizon ; at last, his head was fixed, his eyes were 
 lit up with the most vivid glare, and, with a bound, 
 he was at once upon his errand. 
 
 Setting off at a gallop close behind him, I was 
 presently saluted with a quiet sort of a growl, by way 
 of admonition that I was to keep my distance ; so 
 falling into the rear about a quarter of a mile, I 
 had an opportunity of watching well the tactics of 
 the aggressor. 
 
 Instead of continuing on at the same pace at which 
 he started, the nearer he approached the antelope, 
 the more he slackened his pace, until, at length, he 
 settled down into a slow, crouching walk, keeping 
 his eyes still fixed on one point before him. 
 
 There was a small ridge of rising ground between 
 us and the deer, and on reaching this he came to a 
 
108 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 dead stop, then sinking on his belly, he reconnoitred 
 the herd, possibly picking out a fat fellow, before he 
 made an attack on any of them singly. 
 
 In a second the heads of the antelopes were erect, 
 sniffing the breeze ; they evidently smelt mischief, 
 for the next moment away bounded the herd with 
 the cheetah at their heels (my Arab keeping up as 
 best he could), at a rate that I have never before 
 or since seen any thing equal, except a swallow. 
 
 The locomotive platforms, that had followed us 
 hitherto with their loads, were now disburdened of 
 the cheetahs, whose hoods were removed, and them- 
 selves let loose after the flying foe. 
 
 It was a splendid sight, seeing the three animals in 
 full chase together, after a herd of about twenty an- 
 telopes, although out of these twenty only three were 
 fated as the cheetah, after fixing his eye on one, 
 never exchanges his object. 
 
 The chase did not last long ; I could plainly per- 
 ceive the antelopes struggling to keep up the running 
 through that wilderness of sand, in which their legs 
 sank deeper than their fetlocks at each stride, whilst 
 the full, flat " pud" of the cheetah gave him a treble 
 advantage, until, by degrees, they had receded within 
 the reach of the nearest pursuer. 
 
 Without any apparent stopping or effort, the cheetah 
 sprang on the neck of the animal he had marked out, 
 who forthwith sank to the ground with its living 
 burden. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 109 
 
 It was a magnificent spring ! for he was running 
 directly in the victim's rear at the time he made 
 the bound, consequently he cleared the whole length 
 of the back of the antelope before he alighted on the 
 fatal spot ! 
 
 One of the attendants coming up, plunged a knife 
 into the neck of the fallen quarry, which the cheetah 
 immediately took advantage of by thrusting in his 
 nose, and taking an apparently most gratifying and 
 luxurious draught of the warm blood that had so 
 lately animated the still gasping deer. 
 
 After this repast was finished, the gentleman was 
 reconducted, in a very plethoric state, to his carriage, 
 where having left him, wrapt in the intensest state of 
 somnolency, we proceeded to look after the other 
 animals, each of which we found in possession of an 
 antelope, quietly keeping guard until its keeper 
 should arrive, and reward its fidelity with the antici- 
 pated sanguinary draught. 
 
 The hog-deer derives its appellation from its cha- 
 racteristic attributes of that porcine quadruped. 
 
 It is a large, ungainly, savage brute, with a humped 
 back, and carrying two tremendous tusks in its jaw, 
 similar to those of the wild boar. 
 
 Whether it is really a breed of itself, I cannot say ; 
 but it is singular, though nevertheless true, that in 
 
110 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 all my jungle excursions among the brute creation, I 
 have invariably seen the connecting link between ani- 
 mals of an entirely different species, and most perfectly 
 pourtrayed from man downwards ; that is to say, I 
 have frequently met men (the Veddahs, for instance, 
 mentioned in the second chapter of the " Jaunts"), 
 that I should not have known from monkeys, and 
 monkeys that more closely resembled men. 
 
 The reptile link has an immediate connexion with 
 the quadruped in the crocodile, and so one can go 
 on, ad infinitum. Where reason ceases, and mere 
 instinct begins, I leave to metaphysicians, who have 
 more spare time on their hands than I have, to deter- 
 mine. 
 
 The principal scene of my hostilities against the 
 hog-deer was among the magnificent passes on the 
 road from Kandy to Newera Ellia, near a place 
 called Pusilarva, where I happened to have a brother- 
 officer stationed in charge of a company of Caffres 
 engaged in road-making. 
 
 The climate here was delicious, nor did its sultri- 
 ness entail a turning out in the middle of the night, 
 in order to comfortably enjoy the sport of the morning, 
 but it enabled one to lay in a substantial breakfast 
 before undertaking whatever might be the order of 
 the day. 
 
 Furnishing ourselves with a long, stout, pole a piece, 
 to help us through the ravines and over the cataracts, 
 we set out, accompanied by two couple of dogs (a 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. Ill 
 
 remnant of the foxhounds that in days of yore had 
 been imported by some exiled Nimrod, but which 
 were now scattered throughout the island, in the 
 habitations of the different dwellers at out-stations), 
 and sending them in at the upper part of the mountain, 
 to turn out any thing they might come across, we 
 would keep up with them as best we could. 
 
 It would not be long before they scented a hog- 
 deer, and a beautiful run would take place through 
 the forest down to the valley ; now and then lost to 
 view, at other times seen tumbling headlong over 
 rocks and broken ground, straight onwards sprang 
 the deer, with the hounds in full cry in his wake ; 
 making the hills echo for miles with their deep-toned 
 voices, whilst the sounds of our cheers, joining in 
 chorus, must have slightly astonished every living 
 thing within the range of hearing. 
 
 It was certainly rather astounding to view afterwards 
 in cold blood the stupendous heights that we had 
 dropped ourselves down from, in the ardour of the 
 chase ; and chasms over the water-falls, that looked 
 but as a gutter when we were in full pursuit, sent us 
 round half a mile out of our way, on our return home- 
 wards. 
 
 I once saw a hog- deer at bay, and I never saw a 
 more awkward customer in my life. 
 
 When the first hound attacked him he merely gave 
 a supercilious toss of his head to all appearance, but 
 in so doing he had ripped the dog open from the 
 
112 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 shoulder to the flank as if it had been done by a 
 scythe. 
 
 The others springing simultaneously upon him, 
 revenged the death of their comrade, although each 
 dog was more or less lacerated. 
 
 The best plan, when going in pursuit of this ani- 
 mal, is to arm oneself with a pair of holster pistols, 
 as they are just as likely to attack their human pur- 
 suer, as they are their canine enemies ; besides which, 
 when the dogs have brought the hog-deer to bay, it is 
 much the more economical plan to put a ball through 
 his head at once than to have a hospital full of 
 wounded hounds to look after for the next month. 
 
 In this latter case there may be also a chance of 
 saving the carcase of the animal for table, a proceed- 
 ing I never saw accomplished yet for the hounds, 
 having once brought their quarry to the ground, never 
 leave it while there is an ounce of flesh on its bones, 
 from which circumstance I have no doubt that it pos- 
 sesses a peculiar delicacy, and I have frequently looked 
 on in speechless grief at the demolition of the haunches 
 by the dogs, knowing at the same time, that to inter- 
 fere with their enjoyment of the repast, would in all 
 probability be to subject myself to the same unsatis- 
 factory process of becoming invisible. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 113 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DISAGREE ABILITIES INCIDENTAL TO JUNGLE EXISTENCE. 
 
 To give an unprejudiced opinion of which was the 
 most dangerous animal to fall in with in the jungle I 
 should decidedly say it was the buffalo. 
 
 These brutes are very plentiful in all parts of the 
 island, hut particularly so in the neighbourhood of 
 Trincomalee, where shooting parties are sometimes 
 got up for their destruction. 
 
 They are found lying in pools of stagnant water, 
 with only their nostrils above the surface, or standing 
 in the skirts of the jungle, and they do not always 
 wait to be attacked before they commence hostile 
 operations. 
 
 One person would have little chance against two or 
 three buffaloes combined against him, as they offer no 
 opportunity of getting a shot at them in their charge. 
 
 Springing out of the water as soon as they are 
 aware of the vicinity of an enemy, they pick out the 
 nearest stranger, and poking their noses straight for- 
 
114 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 ward, so that it is impossible to get at the forehead, 
 they bear down upon him, and it requires a person to 
 have all his wits about him to avoid coming in con- 
 tact with their horns; which appendages I have fre- 
 quently seen ten and twelve feet from tip to tip, and 
 they are the only articles in the buffalo's possession 
 worth shooting him for, the meat being coarse and 
 unfit for table. 
 
 If you happen to have a friend you can depend 
 upon in an engagement with a buffalo, your best plan 
 is to stand the charge as courageously as you can, and 
 thus give your comrade, who is at some little distance 
 on your flank, a chance of a side shot just behind the 
 animal's shoulder, which will, if fired by an expe- 
 rienced hand, find its way directly through the heart, 
 and bring the adversary dead to the ground. 
 
 In excursions after elephants I have more than 
 once had one of my followers ripped completely open 
 by an unseen buffalo in the jungle, and when they are 
 found singly they are more like mad brutes than any 
 thing else, having most probably been driven from 
 their herds for some reason, and henceforward doomed 
 to the life of an outcast and an exile. 
 
 In self-defence I have shot many of the animals, 
 but it became latterly a favourite trick of the natives 
 when any one shot a buffalo to charge the person so 
 shooting him with destroying his (the nigger's) pri- 
 vate property; and in some parts of the island it is not 
 a very easy matter to know a tame from a wild buffalo. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 115 
 
 How they are caught and tamed I am not aware, 
 but it is certain that in some places they are so far 
 half tamed by the natives as to be applicable to farm 
 purposes, drawing carts, ploughing, &c. ; and after 
 their work is done, they are let loose to graze in the 
 jungle, where they are joined by their brethren in a 
 wild state, whom they sometimes retain in their com- 
 pany for their master's use, or re turn again themselves to 
 a jungle life, till an industrious fit comes into their heads, 
 and they think it time to patronise their owner's yoke. 
 
 It was on one of my excursions in pursuit of a 
 dinner, that I had a very narrow escape from being 
 ripped open by a buffalo. 
 
 Having shot a snipe close to the skirt of a wood, I 
 went forward to pick him up, when out rushed a huge 
 brute at me. Before I had time to put my gun to 
 my shoulder, I had him on the top of me. 
 
 Pulling the trigger at random, we were the next 
 moment rolling over each other on the ground an 
 amusement at which I certainly got second best off. 
 Fortunately the charge (which was only No. 7 shot) 
 had blown his eye in, and penetrated at once to the 
 brain. With a few gasps he rolled over dead. 
 
 I had just picked myself up, and was congratulating 
 myself on the narrowest escape I ever had in my life, 
 when I perceived a party of men approaching me, 
 headed by an Adigar, or chief man of the district. 
 Never imagining their errand, 1 stayed still in hopes 
 of further congratulations ; which hopes were, how- 
 i 2 
 
116 THE OUT- STATION ; OR, 
 
 ever, soon dispelled by the Native beginning a most 
 lugubrious tale, that I had killed his only buffalo, the 
 support of himself and family, with a long rigmarole 
 of its genealogy, &c. 
 
 It was in vain I explained to him I had shot the brute 
 to save my life ; nothing would do but he must have 
 twenty rix- dollars for the executed hope of the family, 
 which of course I as strenuously resisted, and, to cut 
 the matter short, trudged off as fast as I could. 
 
 The fellows followed me, however, and by their yel- 
 lings had congregated the population of every village 
 (one would imagine from the numbers) within a dozen 
 miles ; when finding they were now about two hundred 
 to one, they took courage and stopped me. 
 
 Seeing that further resistance would only result 
 in being thrown into the river adjoining, or mur- 
 dered by the ruffians, I gave the Chief what money I 
 had in my pocket, amounting to six or seven rix- 
 dollars (a rix -dollar being one shilling and six- 
 pence), but this would not satisfy the fellow, so he 
 proposed taking my gun till I redeemed it by paying 
 the remaining seven dollars. This also I was forced 
 to agree to, and then proceeded homewards as fast as 
 possible the safety valves of my temper, too, being 
 " tied down," gave a stronger impetus to my pro- 
 gress. 
 
 As soon as I reached the bungalow, I threw the 
 saddle across my horse, and in less than two hours 
 had armed myself with a warrant from the nearest 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 117 
 
 government agent, as well as furnished myself with a 
 mounted messenger of the court to execute it. 
 
 It was night before I got back to quarters, so I 
 reserved my revenge till the next day. 
 
 In case we might be resisted, six of the Malays 
 accompanied us, armed with their rifles and creases, 
 and in this way we set out for the Adigar's abode. 
 
 The first intimation that we had of our vicinity to it, 
 was the continual popping of fire-arms ; presently the 
 beating of tom-toms became audible ; and as we 
 came in view of the house, we perceived a large party 
 around it heartily enjoying themselves. 
 
 It was evident the old brute was giving a feast on 
 the occasion of the slaughter of the buffalo, and the 
 lucky consequences following thereon to himself. 
 
 I could distinctly perceive him loading my own gun 
 to celebrate his triumph ; so, waiting till he had dis- 
 charged both barrels, I jumped unexpectedly upon him, 
 and, having secured the gun, his Adigarship found him- 
 self immediately afterwards in the middle of an exten- 
 sive bowl of curry, just served up, when the court mes- 
 senger who accompanied me having picked him out and 
 scraped him, produced the document in which the 
 words " WILLIAM IV." bore a prominent part ; and 
 the day after I argued my cause in court with the 
 genius of a Cockburn, as will be allowed from the fact 
 that I got back my own money, succeeded in getting 
 the Adigar fined two hundred rix-dollars, and deprived 
 of his rank for two years, which, in addition to his 
 
118 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 carrying his nose in a sling for a month or six weeks, 
 gave him such a practical lesson in natural history (as 
 far as knowing a tame buffalo from a wild one) as will 
 no doubt last him until Buddha relieves him from all 
 his earthly cares. 
 
 There were times, however, when it was neither a 
 very easy nor agreeable matter to take a stroll for a 
 few miles by way of bringing home any delicacy one 
 might fancy for the important service of the day's 
 meal, and particularly so during the south-west mon- 
 soon, or rainy season, when for weeks together nothing 
 appeared to be visible but one incessant torrent of 
 rain one everlasting drip, drip, drip, from the ve- 
 randah roof, every now and then (by way of variety) 
 carried by an occasional gust of wind into the sitting- 
 room (there being no such luxuries as windows at out- 
 stations) and splashing one all over ; during the 
 middle of which, that " three gentlemen in one" (the 
 cook, butler, and footman) would poke his head 
 looking blacker than ever through the half-opened 
 door, and add to one's happy frame of mind by the 
 intelligence that 
 
 " Master no got dinner !" 
 
 Now there is something absolutely appalling 
 terrific dumb-foundering in such words at such a 
 season ! It pictures desolation doubly desolate ! 
 
 The cry of " house on fire !" or the information that 
 the wife of your bosom the sharer of your joys, sor- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 1 19 
 
 rows, and bread-and-butter had tumbled down the 
 well would be trifling indeed in comparison ! 
 
 In the former case one might jump out of window, 
 and inflict his agreeable companionship on the neigh- 
 bour that was lucky enough to live nearest to him ; 
 whilst in the latter case he might, if of a philosophic 
 turn of mind, console himself with the reflection that she 
 the sposa ought to have " let well alone ;" but 
 however great a philosopher he may be, I doubt if any 
 quantity or quality of his stock-in-trade would ever 
 satisfactorily incorporate an imaginary dinner. 
 
 My own stock of the commodity never would, but 
 invariably sent me out in a most unenviable plight, 
 and trying to twist into a tune old Horace's 
 
 Jam satis terris nivis atque dirae, &c., 
 
 by way of keeping my spirits up. 
 
 Every diminutive rivulet, that yesterday a bird of 
 Paradise might have walked across without holding 
 up its tail, is now a roaring, boiling torrent! every 
 mountain ravine, delivering its flood of water into the 
 valley beneath, seems to indicate the inevitability of a 
 second destruction of the world ! whilst every symptom 
 of life appears to have become suddenly extinct; until, 
 possibly, a poor half-drowned missionary is spied, strol- 
 ling along the banks of some flooded nullah, evidently 
 on the same errand as myself, namely, that of obtain- 
 ing the luxury of a dinner under difficulties ; when 
 plunging into the flood, and making way against it as 
 
120 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 best I can, the distance between us is soon reduced to 
 within gun-shot, and then steadily sending into him 
 the contents of both barrels, I am furnished with a 
 hash for that day at least ! 
 
 Christian reader ! do not imagine me an ecclesias- 
 tical homicide ! The " missionary" of Ceylon (known 
 by no other name than I am aware of) is a bird about 
 the size of a turkey, but rarely made use of at table, 
 except in case of dire necessity, as the present ; but 
 why it should not be generally eaten I do not know, 
 for it is excellent in my own case, the sauce it was 
 eaten with, namely, the condensed appetite of a dozen 
 wolves, may certainly have had something to do in 
 flattering the imagination during a trial of its quality 
 but after all, what necessity is there for any body 
 but the cook ever knowing of what hashes are com- 
 posed, provided there exists the third part of a bottle 
 of port, and the slightest dash of Worcestershire sauce 
 in their conformation ? 
 
 But to digress for a while from the artificial to the 
 natural from the precincts of the frying-" pan" to 
 those of its sylvan namesake. 
 
 Will nobody ever have the enterprise to indulge 
 the public with the " Illustrations of Ceylon," instead 
 of eternally immortalising, over and over again, every 
 ditch in Switzerland and pool in Westmoreland ? 
 
 If there is such a public-spirited individual, let him 
 start at once for the heights of Hima-letta-wella be- 
 fore it is turned into a huge coffee garden for the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 121 
 
 splendid pass of Kadaganarva, before they run the Cey- 
 lon Railway up it (at a gradient of two feet in one), and 
 a thousand other places, whose precipitous grandeur, 
 covered to the very apex with the most luxuriant and 
 varied foliage imaginable, makes them more beautiful 
 than any hitherto-explored scenery transmitted to 
 us through continent tourists and copper-plate. 
 
 A series of Ceylon views would doubtless be an "im- 
 mense hit," and I hereby (at the risk of advertise- 
 ment duty) take the opportunity of offering my ser- 
 vices to do all the " statistical, political, social, and 
 moral" part of the business, for the consideration of 
 half the profits of the work. 
 
 It must have been its picturesque scenic beauty that 
 originally impressed people with the belief that Ceylon 
 was the veritable site of the "real original" Garden 
 of Eden, which is perpetuated by all the remarkable 
 places being christened after our first mortal parent, 
 such as "Adam's Peak," "Adam's Bridge/' &c. 
 How far the geographical part of the theory holds 
 good, I never sought to inquire. 
 
 The variety of the scenery makes it remarkably 
 striking. 
 
 Lying at the foot of the most precipitous moun- 
 tains are numerous plains, divided by streams, or 
 ranges of cocoa-nut or palmyra- trees, and studded at 
 intervals with the large forest or banyan-tree, as 
 regularly as an English domain might be under the 
 hands of the most tasteful artiste. 
 
122 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 Unfortunately, there are no fish in the rivers ; or, 
 if there are, the water-fowl monopolise them (an ex- 
 ceedingly scaly proceeding on their part), for it never 
 fell to my lot to catch or cook one. 
 
 The cocoa-nut trees are besieged night and morn- 
 ing by a party of Cingalese, who manage to extract 
 what they call " toddy" from the cocoa-nut, in large 
 earthenware pitchers which are hung up during the 
 night to catch the exuding fluid ; and this, after being 
 fermented, becomes arrack Ceylon arrack a most 
 miserable substitute for execrably bad whiskey, at the 
 very best. 
 
 However, they manage to get drunk on it, so it 
 answers the desired end. 
 
 The pine -apples are the greatest luxury of all the 
 indigenous wild fruit of the jungle, their flavour being 
 excellent, and the cost of the fruit only the trouble of 
 twisting it out of the ground. If they are bought out 
 of the bazaar (or market), however, they are of a 
 superior sort, and reach the price of two or three pice 
 (about a penny), their value being also materially en- 
 hanced by the additional advantage of a "polish" 
 from the vendor's head-gear, or petticoat, but never 
 even with this additional lustre do they rise higher in 
 the scale of worth than the unpresuming " murphy" 
 in the neighbouring basket. 
 
 The roads through the interior of the island, where 
 they form the principal thorough-fare, are generally in 
 tolerable travelling order, except that every now and 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 123 
 
 then after very wet weather, a land-slip takes place 
 here and there, leaving a chasm of some twenty feet 
 in the roadway of which some bullock-cart, loaded 
 with baggage or merchandise, takes advantage when 
 travelling by night, to make a short cut to the bot- 
 tom, carrying its driver (who is most probably snoring 
 in the interior) along with it. The whole concern, as 
 a matter of course, being completely " pulpified" on 
 reaching the bottom. 
 
 From Kandy to Colombo there is a so-called 
 "mail-coach," and the rate at which the horses trot 
 down the Kadaganarva Pass, with a precipice on one 
 side of at least a thousand feet, without the slightest 
 fence of any sort, makes one cling on to the sides of 
 the vehicle with most affectionate tenacity. 
 
 After all, the pleasantest and most independent way 
 of travelling, when subject to such jungle casualties, 
 is on foot ; and I would gladly take the reader back 
 to head-quarters through a hitherto almost unex- 
 plored country, did I not suspect he has had a sufficient 
 dose of the jungle, at least for the present season. 
 
 Having visited the summit of Hima-letta-wella 
 (where, if he prefers, he may remain till the end of 
 his days lost in admiration of the scenery), we will 
 retrace our steps homewards. 
 
 On the top of this mountain, standing about 8000 
 feet above the level of the sea, is a small military out- 
 post ; and as it was but eight miles from the fort where 
 
124 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 my out-station experience was gained, I used in a 
 manner to make it a country-seat, by spending therein 
 all my unoccupied time. 
 
 The view from the summit was not to be equalled 
 even in Ceylon for extent or magnificence. 
 
 The two or three forts in sight in the distance ap- 
 peared like so many pill-boxes, although the area of 
 each was in reality large enough to have contained 
 two or three thousand soldiers ; and the idea, as one 
 looked down upon them and reflected that they were 
 inhabited by human beings, imparted a very con- 
 temptible notion of the pigmy race of man. 
 
 It required no great stretch of fancy in the be- 
 holder parva solens componere magnis to make 
 the scene before him appear a perfect world in minia- 
 ture, or to imagine himself a second Gulliver among 
 the Lilliputians, when he considered that the invisible 
 " dots" within the said pill-boxes were placed there 
 (dressed in red cloth) to keep in order other little dots 
 (whose original fatherland it was) if they became ob- 
 streperous, or expressed the slightest desire of possess- 
 ing and governing the territory allotted to them from 
 the beginning of creation, or, at least, since its distri- 
 bution, and then the mind would extend the simile 
 to the world, and laugh to think it under the domi- 
 nion of these less than mites even through a telescope 
 to think that similar " dots" were hanging other 
 "dots" -big "dots" bullying little " dots" " dots" 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 125 
 
 in trowsers making themselves agreeable " dots" to 
 "dots" in petticoats whilst various industrious 
 " dots" were hard at work writing magazine articles 
 for other more favoured " dots" to read ! 
 
 The idea may appear ridiculous enough on paper, 
 but if the reader has ever surveyed his species through 
 a " minifying" glass, and allowed his imagination (if 
 he has any) to run riot for a while, I have no doubt 
 he has. moreover, been rewarded by a spontaneous 
 and hearty " guffaw" at its ludicrous conjurations. 
 
 How much altered the scenery may have been, since 
 the importation of a herd of coffee-planters, I luckily 
 did not stay long enough to observe ; but I can fancy 
 what the ineffable ecstasy of the monkeys will be, 
 when they find themselves enveloped in a wilderness 
 of red coffee berries ! 
 
 Our near approach to civilisation is invariably indi- 
 cated by the appearance of the Cingalese pedlars, 
 known by the appellation of " moormen," a fine, 
 handsome race of copper-coloured fellows in appear- 
 ance half Arab, half Parsee, who spend their whole 
 existence in hawking about for sale precious stones, 
 such as sapphires, rubies, garnets, rnoon-stones, cin- 
 namon-stones, &c. ; and remarkably cheap they sell 
 them ; where they obtain them from, I was never 
 inquisitive enough to ascertain, always concluding, as 
 a matter of fact, that they stole them ; if, however, 
 I libelled the worthies by the supposition, they have 
 
126 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 had their revenge by pretty considerably cheating me 
 in extreme youth. 
 
 The first day's return to head-quarters was with 
 me, I well remember, a marked one in life's calendar, 
 by involving myself in rather an awkward predica- 
 ment, owing to my sight -seeing propensities ; it gave 
 me an opportunity, however, of witnessing how apa- 
 thetically the Cingalese (who, in minor points of 
 view, are such arrant cowards) could make their exit 
 from the world. 
 
 Hearing that there were two natives to be hanged, 
 (and always being myself of aphilanthropic disposition, ) 
 I naturally expressed a desire to view the ceremony, 
 which was instantly gratified by the regimental sur- 
 geon saying that his carriage was at the door, and as 
 he was going to the spot, I might accompany him ; 
 so we started together. 
 
 We soon reached the outskirts of the crowd, and 
 perceived the scaffold at some distance, erected in the 
 centre of the market-place. 
 
 At last I ventured to hint that we were quite close 
 enough to the scene of action to be altogether agree- 
 able, and begged and entreated the doctor to stop, 
 but all to no effect ; and I need not attempt to de- 
 scribe the intensity of my horror, as we "pulled up" 
 at the very steps of the gallows ! 
 
 I now discovered that my chaperon had come on 
 duty, to see that the fellows were sus. per coll. until 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 127 
 
 defunct ; and fain would I have beaten a most inglo- 
 rious retreat, if there had appeared the slightest loop- 
 hole of escape ; but I was completely hemmed in, and 
 on the platform before well aware of it. 
 
 Trying, by every possible means, to screw my 
 courage to the sticking-point, I conjured up in my 
 mind's eye all the fellows I had seen killed by wild- 
 beasts, &c., in the jungle ; but it oozed out of my 
 fingers' ends faster than it entered my heart. 
 
 Shortly, a murmur and motion in the crowd beto- 
 kened the advent of the murderers (father and son) 
 and, seated in a cart covered with black cloth, I pre- 
 sently perceived the two criminals, grubbing away at 
 curry and rice, out of two large bowls, as if their lives 
 depended on the issue ! 
 
 Even when arrived at the foot of the drop, they 
 did not budge until they had finished the last morsel, 
 and when this was accomplished, they looked as if 
 they had consummated a most glorious action ; and 
 
 then all I remember is, trying to look desperately 
 
 savage, and that I did not faint ; but if ever I go 
 an inch hereafter to see my worst enemy throttled, 
 may his ghost 
 
 But, no ! I am no Jephthah I hate rash vows . 
 
128 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A "PLEASANT VOYAGE." 
 
 I HAD long looked forward with a large stock of 
 anticipated delight to the coming of my u tour" of 
 duty to accompany the detachment annually sent for 
 the protection of the oysters to Aripo, the scene of 
 the pearl fishery, in the northern part of Ceylon ; and 
 tremendously Cleopatra-ish were the ideas my simpli- 
 city had imbibed of the profusion of pearls with which 
 every spare receptacle I possessed was to be loaded on 
 my return to head-quarters. 
 
 How far my expectations were realised may be 
 conjectured, in some measure, by the assurance 
 on my part that rather than undergo such an 
 ordeal again, I would comfortably sit myself down 
 and behold, with the most genuine unconcern, all 
 the oysters that dwell beneath the waters under the 
 earth deliberately walk from their deep sea home, and 
 incontinently cast their pearly treasures into the face 
 of each individual " swine" in Christendom, before I 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 129 
 
 would budge one inch in the direction of Aripo, to 
 avert such a precious calamity, or such a porcine insult. 
 
 Commenced with starvation, succeeded hy shipwreck, 
 and concluded by a fever two months of my life were 
 victimised for the sake of these ungrateful shell-fish, of 
 which months the reader shall have a passing view, 
 lest he, too, in some unguarded hour, should be 
 tempted to risk his life and health by a voluntary visit 
 to the Sierra Leone of Ceylon. 
 
 Ten o'clock on a very dark night saw me, ac- 
 companied by a brother officer and thirty men of 
 Ceylon Rifles, safely lodged on board a schooner 
 bespoken for our voyage to Aripo ; the time of ac- 
 complishing which journey was supposed to occupy 
 about two days at the utmost and at eleven p. M. 
 we were going through the water gloriously ; al- 
 though, apparently, directly into an American whaler 
 that was lying at anchor in unconscious innocence 
 just a-head of us. 
 
 In another second there was a crash, but immedi- 
 ately after away we went again, rather curiously 
 decorated with a flying jib-boom and its appendages, 
 doing duty at our foremast-head for a pendant. 
 
 The Yankees had not observed us, so we made our- 
 selves as happy under the circumstances as we could. 
 
 It was about two hours afterwards that we were 
 alarmed by some bideous shouts, apparently issu- 
 ing from the sea under our taffrail, as, the wind 
 having died away, we were slowly progressing through 
 
130 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 the water, which presently manifested their origin in 
 a boat-load of Yankees, come to look after their 
 missing jib-boom. 
 
 It soon became a matter of difference of opinion 
 between their boat's-crew and ourselves as to whe- 
 ther we should "back our fore -topsail/' and let 
 them overhaul us or not, and considering it af- 
 forded a special demonstration of juvenile valour 
 (being then hardly eighteen) and of displaying it to 
 the troops in charge, 1 soon had thirty rifles, with 
 bayonets fixed, on deck, to dispute any interference 
 with the "oyster guard," whose honour, as forming 
 a part of her majesty's service, I felt myself bound to 
 protect; so that the reader will not wonder, that, 
 when the Yankee mate had reached the main-chan- 
 nels of our vessel and got a footing there, he dropped 
 " like a hot potato" back again into his own boat, and 
 gave orders for an instant retreat ; whilst we, catch- 
 ing at the moment the land wind, which then came 
 off shore, toddled away fike a crab in a hurry, making 
 two miles to leeward to every one we made a-head. 
 
 We did not know this at the time, fortunately. 
 
 I say fortunately ', as, had we been aware of it, we 
 might have prevented it, and thus have come in for an 
 action for damages laid at our door for a forcible ex- 
 pulsion of our midnight visitors, who after waiting ten 
 days for us, and then feeling satisfied we had gone to 
 the bottom (at which, no doubt, they were almost as 
 delighted as if they had secured their damages), 
 thought it no use wasting any more time, and left the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 131 
 
 case till they should revisit the island when I hope 
 they may get it. 
 
 Awaking at daylight next morning, great was the 
 surprise of every one to find himself out of sight of 
 land! 
 
 On we went all through the day, yet no shore be- 
 came visible. 
 
 At last, it was supposed we had got round Cape 
 Comorin, and were drifting off into the South Pacific; 
 a very pleasant prospect for a Christian with two days' 
 provisions on board ! 
 
 On the following morning we were exactly in the 
 same predicament ; and to make matters worse, at 
 noon one of those intense, breathless, calms came on, 
 that one sees nowhere but in the tropics, stagnant and 
 death-like whilst the rays of the sun, from overhead, 
 came down with the intensity of being concentrated 
 into a focus ; actually boiling up the tar between the 
 deck planks, and flaying the skin completely off our 
 faces and arms, it being impossible to go below, and 
 equally impossible to bear any thing in the shape of 
 clothing (except necessaries) on account of the stifling 
 sultriness of the atmosphere. 
 
 Not a breath of wind was stirring, 
 Dread the hush as of the grave 
 
 In the weary waste of waters, 
 Not the lifting of a wave ! 
 
 Our crew consisted of the captain, a seaman, and 
 a boy; and on the evening of the second day the latter 
 was seized with cholera. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 He lived in tortures for about twelve hours, and as 
 soon as the breath was out of his body (cholera then 
 becoming- infectious), we fastened a bolt of pig-iron 
 to his corpse, and launched him over the gangway. 
 
 In a second, the water that had been so deadly 
 calm before, was broken into a perfect whirlpool of 
 foam, and the sharp dorsal fins of a wilderness of 
 sharks, fighting for the prize, soon pointed out to us 
 the dead boy's destiny. 
 
 In the morning of that day, the soldiers of their 
 own accord had put themselves on quarter rations of 
 rice there was no want of water at present; but as 
 for the commissariat of my brother officer and myself, 
 it had entirely vanished ; leaving us only a pound or 
 two of brown sugar, and a bottle of pickled onions to 
 live on, till we were rescued from our present position. 
 
 It was now apparently a matter of difficulty to 
 work the ship with so few hands ; and I was not a 
 little surprised when the native officer of the men on 
 board came up, and informed me that at least twenty 
 out of the thirty soldiers, were as much in their ele- 
 ment afloat as on the parade-ground, having been 
 pirates in the Straits of Malacca during their earlier 
 years ! 
 
 Only too glad to secure their continued good-will and 
 allegiance, I let them take the helm, make sail, and 
 manage the vessel; and if they had not done so, Hea- 
 ven only knows what would have been our end. 
 
 As soon as the funeral was over (and a most unce- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 133 
 
 remonious one it was), we had a puff of wind (enough 
 to keep up the favourite superstition of sailors) but at 
 night it died away again, and two days and nights had 
 lapsed lingeringly into the grave of Time spent by 
 all in an agony of suspense, starvation, and pain 
 before a black cloud burst over us, and cooled our 
 burning and bursting veins ; during this time the men 
 had about three thimblesful of boiled rice each day, 
 whilst we tasted nothing but the brown sugar and 
 pickles. 
 
 It was now the fifth day, and things were begin- 
 ning to assume a most serious aspect ; so, holding a 
 council of war, we determined to turn the vessel's head 
 directly north, and the first land we saw to run for ; 
 then, disembarking with loaded rifles, to plunder the 
 place of all that was to be found therein, and having 
 found out our locality, to put to sea again. 
 
 At last the south-west monsoon began to creep to- 
 wards us over the waters, till catching our sails, we ran 
 along before it at the rate of about six knots an hour. 
 
 At noon there was a cry from the foretop- mast- 
 head of " land right ahead!" and in half an hour 
 every man was on deck and accoutred in readiness for 
 an expedition. 
 
 The land lay so exceedingly low that at the time it 
 was first seen we must have been within six miles of 
 it, and as we neared it quickly and silently not a breath 
 or sound was heard on deck from a man on board ; 
 each stood fixed and noiseless as a statue, straining his 
 
134 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 eyes to catch the sight of a dwelling or any living 
 thing, but in vain. 
 
 A sharp, harsh, grating sound, as if our chain -cable 
 had run out by accident, a fearful shock, and a rush of 
 waves astern, was the event of a moment, and we 
 were stranded on a coral reef ! 
 
 Luckily, we had one nut- shell of a boat, which was 
 at once got out, and the land being little more than a 
 mile ahead, the first party pulled off for it. 
 
 At times I could see them get out of the boat on 
 to the reef, and lift her over the shallows (so little 
 water was there on their summit) and as they lowered 
 her again she would be in forty or fifty fathoms. 
 
 We soon ascertained our position to be such that it 
 was impossible for us to sink ; we had run into a per- 
 fect channel, or bed of coral, to the whole length of 
 our keel, so it was some consolation to know that we 
 might yet live to be hanged, although our chance of 
 getting off after the plunder that we anticipated, was 
 most completely knocked in the head. 
 
 After landing the men in six journeys, I found my- 
 self on shore, on a low sandy island, covered with a 
 few shrubs only, and which might have been circum- 
 ambulated in a quarter of an hour. 
 
 This was another poser, for had it been one of the Can- 
 nibal Islands themselves, I doubt if the adage of " dog 
 not eating dog" would be longer tenable, nor would I 
 have given much for the pickings of his majesty's bones, 
 after we had been allowed a first attack on him. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 135 
 
 Taking my gun, I commenced a survey, sending 
 the men in all directions to hunt for any living thing 
 they might find. 
 
 At last I discovered a house in the very centre of 
 the island, and made my way straight for it ; but on 
 arriving at it, found it was only a temple, most pro- 
 bably erected by some shipwrecked fishermen or 
 sailors out of the coarse timber of their wreck, &c., 
 and after feeling the images carefully, to ascertain if 
 they might chance to be constructed of any thing 
 edible (how we wished even to find a gingerbread idol 
 amongst them ; wouldn't we have gobbled down his 
 godship ?) we took our departure in sorrow and 
 despair. 
 
 Two very lean sparrows flitted across our path, but 
 they looked so wretchedly poor that I let them depart 
 in peace. 
 
 On arriving at the beach where we had landed, I 
 was nonplus-sedby observing all the Malays stretched 
 out in skirmishing order along the shore on their 
 hands and knees, and apparently digging some hidden 
 treasures from under the sand, which operation was 
 presently elucidated by observing several forage caps 
 full of cockles by the sides of some of the soldiers. 
 
 As the landing from the ship had taken up many 
 hours, it was now beginning to grow dark, so the 
 bugle sounded the retreat, and every man brought 
 in his cap, handkerchief, and hands, full of these shell- 
 fish (not a man, I firmly believe, having himself eaten 
 
136 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 one, until his share was afterwards doled out to him), 
 and having piled them in a heap on the sand, they 
 formed a circle around, and chaunted a hymn to 
 ALLAH, before commencing the repast. 
 
 The moon had risen above the waters in one round 
 ball of fire, apparently of double the size that it as- 
 sumes in our own hemisphere, and as its beams fell 
 on the white sails of the stranded ship in the distance, 
 and illumined our shipwrecked group in their adora- 
 tion of the Prophet, it left an impression on my mind 
 that a thousand years of earthly vicissitudes could 
 never efface. 
 
 I could not help imagining, however, how different 
 might probably have been the scene, had I been 
 thrown in such a situation with the denizens of more 
 civilised nations, with whom, I am much inclined to 
 believe, Allah would have been far less noticed than 
 the cockles, and when again, I fear, it might have 
 been said with truth, " There are not found that re- 
 turn to give glory to God, save this stranger." 
 
 For the following two days and a half I was as 
 staunch as a Mahornmedan (barring the giving up of 
 wine), as ever dreamt of the black eyes of a houri. 
 
 The hymn over, the men were ranged in a row, 
 and about a quart of cockles dealt out to each (I 
 see, my dear reader, you are dying to perpetrate a 
 pun, and to affirm that there could be no more appro- 
 priate food for " muscle-men" than cockles) ; and 
 for my own part, I candidly own to have never en- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 137 
 
 joyed a repast so deliciously as I did that hatful of 
 raw shell -fish, every one of which was swallowed alive 
 of course, after being wrenched open by being placed 
 back to back with its neighbour, and slightly twisted 
 round a proceeding that at once revealed the plump 
 interior of both at the same time. 
 
 We had brought a large barrel of water ashore with 
 us, so, having made the most sumptuous repast we 
 had tasted for many a day, we were proceeding to 
 lose sight of our troubles in sleep, when the cry of 
 " a sail" brought us at once to our feet again, and 
 sure enough our hymn was not unheeded, for scarcely 
 three miles off was a schooner scudding past the 
 island at the rate of six or seven knots an hour ! 
 
 In a second I had the rifles, which were already 
 loaded, unpiled and, at the word of command, thirty 
 reports rang simultaneously through the still night 
 air, followed by a cheer that might vie in extent of 
 sound with the preceding explosion, and which we 
 soon had the unspeakable gratification of seeing an- 
 swered by a blue light on board. 
 
 Continuing to fire off rifles at intervals, we gave 
 notice of whereabouts we were located, and the 
 schooner having come as close to the land as she 
 safely could, sent a boat on shore to see who we were, 
 and what was the matter. 
 
 She proved to have been one of the last vessels that 
 had proceeded upwards with troops, now on her re- 
 turn ; but so devotedly were we all engaged with our 
 
138 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 treat at the time she was passing, that it was next to 
 a miracle she had not sailed by unnoticed. We 
 moreover learnt that we were on one of those very 
 small islands at the head of the Gulf of Manarr, and 
 not six hours' sail from our destination. 
 
 As it was too late to embark at once, owing to the 
 dangerous nature of the coast and our ignorance of 
 the tides, we waited until daylight before the first 
 boat-load put off, and at 10 A.M. we were on our way 
 once more to the fishery, leaving the Bassein Mer- 
 chant (for such was the title of the tub that had got 
 us into this scrape), on the reef; but whether the 
 " merchant" ever resumed business, or became a 
 bank -(of coral)rupt, I neither know nor care. 
 
 At five o'clock that evening we were received in the 
 open arms of our more fortunate comrades, who had 
 long given us up as having gone to the bottom, and 
 the feeling of delight at our preservation was such as 
 I never saw equalled ; the English soldiers vying with 
 the Malays as to who could show most attention to 
 the rescued Riflemen, and if the seductive voice of 
 John Bull, in the proffer of his wine-cup that night, 
 did cause certain transgressions of the commands of 
 " Allah," ah 1 I can say is, that Allah must be a much 
 more unforgiving and stubborn old deity than I take 
 him for, if he did not forgive the offence in respect of 
 the occasion. 
 
 Reader, my good fellow, would you enjoy a dinner 
 in perfection ? if so, I'll give you a never failing re- 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 139 
 
 ceipt, viz., lock yourself up for a week with a quart 
 bowl of brown sugar and a jar of pickled onions as 
 your sole companions, and if on the seventh day you 
 don't become aware of the enjoyment of a Christian- 
 like feed, all I can say is that you will be a great deal 
 better out of this world than in it. 
 
140 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 " WAR TO THE KNIFE" WITH THE PEARL OYSTERS OF 
 ARIPO. 
 
 BUT now for the oysters. 
 
 From the dirty little village of Aripo (which is only 
 populated, I believe, during the pearl fishery, and 
 which seems to be founded entirely upon monstrous 
 oyster shells), about two hundred boats start out to 
 sea every morning, each boat carrying two divers, two 
 assistants, and a Malay rifleman with loaded arms, 
 to protect the oysters from being robbed of their 
 treasures before they have reached the shore. 
 
 When this fleet has arrived at its destination, about 
 four miles from land, the diving commences ; and as 
 there is always an armed vessel stationed in the neigh- 
 bourhood for the protection of the oyster boats, a per- 
 son may look on from under an awning therein, and 
 enjoy the whole scene in a very dolce far niente sort 
 of way. 
 
 To enable the divers to reach the bottom of the sea, 
 which is from ten to twenty fathoms in depth where 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 141 
 
 the oysters are found, a long rope is woven round a 
 pulley at each boat's cross-trees, to the end of which 
 is attached a large stone, weighing two or three hun- 
 dred weight ; this stone is poised over the side of the 
 boat, and the diver standing upon it, and taking with 
 him a basket (also attached on board by a rope), gives 
 the word to " let go," and at once sinks with the 
 stone to the bottom. 
 
 This is again wound up, and the diver is left below 
 to scrape as many oysters as he can into the basket 
 during his submarine sojourn. 
 
 When this is accomplished, he loosens his hold of 
 the rock or sea- weed that he clings on to below with 
 one hand whilst he fills the hamper with the other, 
 and immediately shooting up to the surface is again 
 taken on board, the hamper or basket full of oysters 
 being hauled up at the same time. Then the second 
 diver goes down, and so it goes on till 4 o'clock P.M., 
 when the boats return with their freights. 
 
 Being personally acquainted with the gentleman 
 who had the management of the fishery in the year I 
 was stationed there, I used, when off duty, to go out 
 in the government boat, which was fitted up with 
 every convenience in the way of awnings, &c., and 
 taking every necessary luxury with me, in addition to 
 a diver, I divided the day between feasting and hunt- 
 ing for pearls in the oysters which were brought up 
 by this man especially for my own use, and many a 
 lucky prize I sometimes came across. 
 
142 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 When the fishery was nearly over for the day, we 
 used to give prizes to the man who would remain 
 longest under water, and on one occasion I knew a 
 man to remain below for one minute and fifty -eight 
 seconds, but he was so exhausted when he reached 
 the top, that it was a long time before he could be 
 brought to. 
 
 All these divers were Malabars, and brought up to 
 the habit of diving from their infancy, so I doubt if 
 they are to be surpassed anywhere, although I well 
 remember reading, in my younger days, in a standard 
 work which, I believe, was an " Encyclopedia" in 
 about thirty volumes, that it was usual for pearl divers 
 to remain twenty minutes under water without in- 
 convenience! an assertion that, for the benefit of 
 others who may be impressed with the same idea 
 imbibed from the same source, I should wish the pro- 
 mulgator to be requested to prove in his own person. 
 
 What makes me so well remember the circum- 
 stance, was my standing out at the time, single- 
 handed, in all the obstinacy of ten summers, against 
 the " Encyclopedia," on the point ; a piece of temerity 
 that was chastised by a two hours' earlier dose of bed 
 than usual, to my utter disgust. 
 
 As soon as the boats are sufficiently loaded with 
 oysters, a sailing match takes place for the shore 
 among them, and a very good idea of a monster 
 regatta it gives one. 
 
 The troops on duty are now drawn out on the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 143 
 
 beach, to see that the oysters are not appropriated by 
 any one, before being sold by auction, or placed in 
 the government store. 
 
 This is a large quadrangular space, guarded by four 
 lofty walls ; the floor being an inclined plane, intersected 
 with numerous gutters, through which small streams 
 of water are continually running from a reservoir, in 
 which the oysters, not sold by auction, are placed to 
 rot and open. 
 
 As soon, however, as the oysters have been landed, 
 as many as possible are put up in small lots and sold; 
 and a very amusing part of the business it constituted, 
 being a complete lottery, as one might purchase five 
 pounds' worth of oysters without being recompensed 
 by a single pearl, whilst the private soldier investing 
 his penny or twopence in the purchase of half a dozen, 
 might find a prize valuable enough to purchase his 
 discharge, and keep him in clover for the remainder 
 of his existence. 
 
 I recollect one man (an English corporal) coming 
 to me with a pearl he had extracted from his penny- 
 worth of oysters, which was as large as a cherry- 
 stone, and for which he asked me five shillings. As 
 I believed I could get the owner at least 500/. for it, 
 I persuaded him to forthwith accompany me to a pearl 
 merchant in the bazaar, who, on examining it, offered 
 forty rupees (4Z.) for it. Unfortunately, it was a 
 black, discoloured, pearl, although perfectly round. 
 Had it been white and transparent, he said he would 
 have caught at it for 10,000 rupees (1000/.), so much 
 
144 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 depends on the shape and transparency of a pearl in 
 its value. 
 
 But determined to make a profit or loss in our own 
 private dealings, each officer might be seen sitting 
 outside his barrack-room every morning with about a 
 couple of hundred oysters piled on one side of him, 
 and a bucket of water on the other, backing his lot, 
 to the amount of his day's pay, to contain more pearls 
 than that of his neighbour, while the witnessing the 
 avidity with which every one wrenched open his 
 oyster, in hopes of treasure, was most amusing. 
 
 Formerly the government used to keep all these 
 oysters itself, and have them opened in the store by 
 men chosen on purpose, instead of selling them by 
 auction; but these fellows got so expert, that even 
 although they were closely watched, they would 
 manage to jerk a pearl from the oyster-shell into their 
 mouths without being, detected, and swallow it ; a 
 proceeding, however, if discovered, that entailed a 
 very summary mode of punishment under the hands 
 of a native doctor. 
 
 The oysters that are not sold are placed in 
 the reservoir before-mentioned that stands in the 
 store, and here they die and open of themselves. 
 The pearls then immediately drop from them, and 
 are carried by the water continually flowing through 
 the reservoir into the gutters, until they are caught 
 by a small gauze network, through which the water 
 passes, leaving the pearls behind, and they are then 
 picked up in large quantities. 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 145 
 
 Very few of these pearls, I understand, are sent 
 home, all finding a sale on the coast of India, among 
 the richer class of natives. 
 
 When the fishery is about half over, the nuisance 
 commences. 
 
 All the oysters that have been placed in the go- 
 vernment store to open, begin to putrify under the 
 rays of a burning sun, and the stench surpasses any 
 pestilence ever inflicted on the earth. Then com- 
 mences fever, cholera, dysentery, and all the conco- 
 mitant ills of foul air, filth, and heat. 
 
 For miles and miles in the jungle will the disgusting 
 effluvia be carried in the direction of the wind, and 
 to prevent being too nearly exposed to it, the barracks 
 are situated at a distance of two miles from the place, 
 yet even there it is at times intolerable, particularly 
 at night. 
 
 Had the oysters been eatable, we might have as- 
 sisted to lessen the number left to decay, but they never 
 are eaten by natives or English, being very dissimilar 
 to our own oysters, and few of them being smaller 
 than a dessert-plate, so that one oyster, if a man 
 were bold enough to make a trial, would make half a 
 dozen pates, or an entire " scallop" of itself. 
 
 Our mess-room consisted of a tent erected on the 
 sands, not at a great distance from the surf ; and 
 there being a tolerable supply of game in the neigh- 
 bourhood, no sooner was the arduous morning occu- 
 pation of pearl-hunting over, than an early "tiffin" 
 L 
 
146 THE OUT-STATION ; OR 3 
 
 would follow, and every one would sally forth in 
 pursuit of adding some little delicacy to our table in 
 the evening. 
 
 But, talking of delicacies ! I made a discovery 
 there, that had I done the same at home, and been 
 born a cook instead of an ensign, Careme himself 
 would have done homage to me. 
 
 It happened one day, after having been out and 
 finding nothing for several hours, that on tumbling 
 up over some rocks to get a good view of the sea, I 
 came upon an animal never encountered before in all 
 my excursions, and which, at first, rather astonished me. 
 
 The first thing I did was to drop in a bullet over 
 the shot already in the gun, and shoot him. 
 
 On coming up to the animal, I found, to my 
 horror, that I had shot my own crest (a most unlucky 
 omen, I should fancy), and a " Porcupine," in all the 
 fretfulness of a hundred quills, lay dead before me. 
 
 However, I absolved my conscience for the mur- 
 derous deed, by considering what an appropriate 
 addition it would make, after being stuffed, to a 
 family lobby ; arid advanced to lift him up to carry 
 home for this purpose, a proceeding I found easier to 
 imagine than to perform ; until, by tying his legs 
 together, and in this way slinging him across my 
 gun, I managed to get along pretty comfortably, with 
 the exception of a sharp prick or two now and then. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that I unluckily 
 fell in with a large shooting party, and my stagger- 
 ing along with a porcupine on my shoulders formed a 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 147 
 
 source of caricatures and jokes that never left me 
 whilst I remained in the island. 
 
 A luminous idea now struck me, that, instead of 
 having him stuffed, I would most decidedly eat him, 
 (metamorphosing him from stuffee to stuffer\ so en- 
 sconcing myself in a quiet nook of the Jungle, I soon 
 stripped him of his quills, and having gained the 
 cook's affection by a present of two rix-dollars, \ve 
 put him into a pie, and served him up that night 
 at mess ! 
 
 I had the " helping" it, and passed it off as veal- 
 pie (as it most resembled that in appearance), and all 
 I know is, that I began to be very much afraid I 
 should have none left for myself, as every body 
 present became a customer ; at last, I did secure a 
 morsel, and nothing more exquisitely delicious did I 
 ever taste in my life so excellent was it, that had 
 there been a pie apiece, I believe they would have 
 all been demolished for the major, who was our 
 commandant, and a great gourmand, immediately 
 asked the mess-cook where he got his meat, which 
 
 worthy immediately pointed at me, and said, " G , 
 
 saib, give it, present." 
 
 Of course every one looked to me for an explana- 
 tion ; as, how I could get better veal than any one 
 else was a mystery. 
 
 I then told the party that it was " the porcupine ;" 
 and never shall I forget the horror depicted in most 
 of their faces : some turned as pale as ghosts, and 
 
148 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 
 
 yelled for petits verres of cognac, whilst others tried 
 to laugh at and disbelieve it. 
 
 However, so excellent was it, that I was determined, 
 if possible, to have another pie, and the next day I found 
 a nest of porcupines in the neighbourhood of the scene 
 of the former one's destruction ; and although, on the 
 second production of the dish, 1 was only joined in the de- 
 licacy by a very "green" ensign, still, before a fortnight 
 
 was over, one by one became a convert, and " G 's 
 
 dish," or " porcupine pie," got to such a premium 
 the demand exceeding the supply that the animals 
 became exhausted ; and no more " materials" could 
 be got within a dozen miles, the " fretful" animal 
 having become, no doubt, too "crusty" to show out 
 with only the prospect of a pie before him. 
 
 I here had an opportunity, one morning, of prac- 
 tically deciding the truth of the opposite theories, 
 entertained by the celebrated Buffon and the show- 
 man of Bartholomew Fair notoriety,* as to the power 
 of the porcupine of harpooning a distant object with 
 his quills ; and 1 would just as soon stand as target 
 for a toxopholite society, as I would before a society 
 of porcupines, barring the distance. 
 
 A brother officer of mine had a spaniel completely 
 
 * For the benefit of the reader unacquainted with the 
 view of the case held by this worthy, it may be as well to 
 set it forth in his own eloquent and expressive words. 
 Speaking of the porcupine he is showing, he says, " Buffoon 
 says the little animal shoots his quills ; but Buffoon is a 
 fool and a liar. He no more shoots his quills than I my 
 arms nor legs." 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 149 
 
 transfixed with a porcupine's quill ; and, although I 
 did not personally see the quill shot, I saw the dog- 
 lying dead in the same place that it was shot at, with 
 the quill driven about eight inches in, behind the 
 shoulder, and completely drilling a hole through the 
 heart, as it afterwards proved on dissecting the dog. 
 
 It was perfectly impossible that the quill could 
 have been thus forced into the body of the dog with- 
 out being shot at him with very considerable force ; 
 and my friend, who was close by the animal at the 
 moment, asserted that the dog was at least a couple 
 of feet off from the porcupine at the time, and that 
 three or four quills flew off in different directions at 
 the same instant. 
 
 As this is a matter finding more infidels and 
 heretics than true believers, I have thus particularised 
 it, and am ready to uphold my case (by " y e wager 
 of battel," if he chooses) with any sceptical heathen in 
 Christendom. 
 
 The country in the vicinity of Aripo is flat and 
 uninteresting, although in penetrating it to the ex- 
 tent of two or three miles there is no lack of game, 
 such as hares, partridges, snipes, &c. 
 
 Crocodiles poked their noses out of every pool one 
 came across, but they would never attack one, and if 
 a shot was sent at their heads they would merely 
 disappear altogether until the danger was passed. 
 
 Tortoises in dozens used to cross our path, but 
 they were very small and perfectly useless. 
 
150 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 
 
 A few miles further inland is a celebrated monkey 
 territory, where the tribe grow to a larger size than 
 anywhere else, and where a story is told, and I be- 
 lieve truly, of a certain functionary in the island who 
 had the misfortune to fire at one of the animals in 
 hope of carrying home his carcase to be stuffed. 
 
 He had no sooner fired than the whole forest rang 
 with the most heart-piercing cries, and in a very 
 short space of time he saw an army of monkeys, some 
 standing nearly five feet in height, arrayed against 
 him, whilst some attended to their wounded brother. 
 
 Of course he lost no time in beating a retreat, but 
 was soon overtaken by the exasperated animals, one 
 of whom walked deliberately up to him, and took 
 away his gun, and having thus punished him, allowed 
 him to depart in a whole skin, which was more than 
 he deserved, for there is something so cold-blooded, 
 so useless, so uncalled-for a slaughter of the prototype 
 of man in a poor defenceless monkey, that a person 
 ought at least to be half hanged for such an act. 
 
 (If you happen to know any Ceylon man, my dear 
 reader, mention the story to him, and he will tell you 
 the person's name if you are inquisitive.) 
 
 The oysters at last coming to an end or, being 
 tired of a game at which there was no reciprocal fun 
 having issued marching orders to all that survived, 
 the place is again deserted by every one except the 
 troops, who remain till the last captured oyster is 
 thoroughly decomposed, and then, in case they (the 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 151 
 
 troops) are not in the same state themselves, are per- 
 mitted to quit the scene until their tour of duty comes 
 round again ; but as soon as the fishery is over the 
 most dangerous time begins, for the putridity of 
 millions upon millions of oysters impregnates the air 
 to such a degree, that I would defy the most obsti- 
 nate limpet that ever clung on to a rock to escape 
 going into hospital, owing to the effluvia. 
 
 Men drop dead on duty from its effects ; shrubs are 
 entirely withered ; and, as in 
 
 The Dead Sea air, 
 Nothing lives that enters there ; 
 
 Consequently, whilst yet it wanted a week or ten 
 days to the expected recall of the troops, I found 
 myself carried over the waves in one of the native 
 catamarans in the direction of home, with as respect- 
 able a specimen of a jungle-fever on me as one might 
 be contented with for the remainder of his life ; and 
 after having undergone three months' suspension be- 
 tween two worlds, my ghost was at length allowed 
 to revisit the mess-room of the regiment, where, by 
 dint of making itself perfectly at home, it in time 
 assumed a more tangible and corporeal substance, 
 which, it is happy to say, it now enjoys, and means 
 to retain as long as it possibly can. 
 
152 THE OUT- STATION ; OR, 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 READER ! our " Jaunts in the Jungle" are at an 
 end at all events, for the present and their existence 
 would have terminated with the last chapter, had not 
 my publishers "begged to decline the honour of 
 chaperoning such a ninety-nine legged centipede as 
 an eleven Chapter-ed book," whilst my exemplary 
 printer (already worked into a state of desperation by 
 "proof" persecution), intimates "that rather than 
 allow this enfant terrible to issue from his nursery 
 curtailed of its fair proportions, he would (on his 
 honour, as a component part of that mighty engine, 
 6 the press,') incontinently pack up his carpet bag, 
 and undergo a private ' Jaunt' of his own, against 
 any wild animal hitherto invented." 
 
 Under such circumstances (having struggled des- 
 perately, yet vainly, to make the PREFACE do duty 
 for Chapter XII.), I can only constitute you, my 
 excellent Reader (if you have already waded so 
 far), a scapegoat on the present occasion, and making 
 
JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 153 
 
 my lowest salaam, beg to suggest how much more 
 gratified I should have been, had you corporeally, as 
 well as mentally, accompanied me throughout our 
 little forest-pilgrimage. 
 
 And this for two reasons charitable, and selfish. 
 
 In the first place charitably YOU, wise as you 
 may be already, wf uld doubtless be a still far wiser 
 person in your generation, and not half so apt, as you 
 are, to " pooh-pooh," and disbelieve all the tales, 
 which not having been a witness of yourself, you 
 are inclined to attribute to the inventive faculties 
 of your poor erring brother mortals whilst in the 
 second, or selfish place I (delightful idea!) can half 
 imagine the agreeable acquaintanceship I should have 
 formed the pleasure with which in these cold win- 
 try times and scenes we might toast our toes over 
 a roaring Christmas fire, remembering our tropical 
 actions at "just this time" so many years ago re- 
 counting our escapes reslaying our forest foes and 
 congratulating one another that we were now as we 
 are enjoying the "mens sana in corpore sano" the 
 faculties of youth in a frame unscathed and at- 
 tributing thereof the cause that 
 
 We've trusted aye to PROVIDENCE 
 And sae will we yet ! 
 
 C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. 
 
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