'A voyage from England to India, in the year 1754, and an historical narrative of the operations of the squadron and army in India, under the command of Vice-Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive, in the years 1755, 1756, 1757 ... Also a journey from Persia to England by an unusual route. With an appendix, containing an account of the diseases prevalent in Admiral Watson's squadron, etc.' [‎58] (87/562)

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r - their oxen one day during our (lay at Trinconomale, and the weight of the
^ whole amounted but to 714 pounds. One of them weighed only 70 pounds.
How different were thefe little, defpicable animals, from the oxen which
we flaughtered at Madagafcar, each of which weighed from 6 to 700
pounds and upwards ? But however fmall and contemptible the breed
of bullocks may be on this ifland, nature Teems to have made her full
amends in the ftupendous fize of her elephants, which are faid to be the
largeft of any in the known world *.
The Elephant is certainly the moft extraordinary of all animals, and
well merits a particular defcription. His body is heavy and grofs, gene
rally of a dark, dirty colour •, and though, when arrived at full growth,
he is from twelve to fourteen feet high, and from eighteen to twenty in
circumference, yet his head is Hill larger in proportion; and what is
more extraordinary, his eye is no bigger than that of an hog, which it
exadly refembles. His legs are like four large columns, rather long than
fhorc, and jointed like a cat's juft above the feet, which are round at their
bottoms, and do not Ipread much beyond the bulk of the legs. His ears
are flat, hanging down, and furprizingly large; the tail is fmall, but
long, with a few briftles at the end. At the two corners of his mouth
grow two large tuiks or teeth, which are what we call ivory; thefe
are fix or feven feet long in the male elephant \ in the female they
are feldom half that length. But the moft extraordinary part of this
animal is his frobofcis or trunk, which is long and hollow like a trumpet,,
and ferves him inftead of a hand -f- to feed himfelf, being able to
move it with incredible agility and ftrength, and to take up therewith
the fmalleft thing from the ground, by means of a little point, which
he can twift round it. His common food is leaves of trees, grafs, corn,,
and fugar-canes, of which laft he is particularly fond. Notwithftanding
the unwieldinefs of this beaft, his motions are very alert, and he walks
with great eafe, fait enough to keep a man on a good run. Many
incredible ftories are related by ancient authors of the docility and inge
nuity of this half-reafoning animal. They are faid to be fufceptible of affec
tion, fondnefs, gratitude and modefty. There is nothing but they may be
taught: Arrian, an author of veracity, relates, that he had feen an elephant
dance with two cymbals fattened to his legs, which he touched alternately in
cadence with his trunk, and that many others of the fame fpecies gambol'd
round him, keeping time with an aftonifhing exa&nefs.
Pliny too, fpeaking of the elephant which carried Poms in the battle he
fought againft Alexander the Great, tells us, that perceiving his mafter
quite finking under the wounds which he had received, he lowered him-
* Elephantas ii multo majores erant quam quos fert India. Plint us,
t Manus data elephantis, quia propter magnitudinem corporis difficiles aditas habebant
ad galtum., Cxc. de Nat, Dm. lib, 2. », 123.
felfj,