"The leopards are each accommodated with a flat-topped cart, without
sides, drawn by two bullocks, and each animal has two attendants. They
are loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back of the vehicle,
and are also held by the keeper by a strap round the loins. A leathern
hood covers their eyes. The antelopes being excessively timid and
wild, the best way to enjoy the sport is to sit on the cart alongside
the driver; for the vehicle being built like the hackeries of the
peasants, to the sight of which the deer are accustomed, it is not
difficult, by skilful management, to approach within two hundred yards
of the game. On this occasion we had three chetahs in the field, and
we proceeded towards the spot where the herd had been seen, in a line,
with an interval of about one hundred yards between each cart. On
emerging from a cotton-field, we came in sight of four antelopes, and
my driver managed to get within one hundred yards of them ere they
took alarm. The chetah was quickly unhooded, and loosed from his
bonds; and as soon as he viewed the deer he dropped quietly off
the cart, on the _opposite_ side to that on which they stood, and
approached them at a slow, crouching canter, masking himself by
every bush and inequality of ground which lay in in his way. As soon,
however, as they began to show alarm, he quickened his pace, and was
in the midst of the herd in a few bounds.
"He singled out a doe, and ran it close for about two hundred yards,
when he reached it with a blow of his paw, rolled it over, and in an
instant was sucking the life-blood from its throat.
"One of the other chetahs was slipped at the same time, but after
making four or five desperate bounds, by which he nearly reached his
prey, suddenly gave up the pursuit, and came growling sulkily back to
his cart.
"As soon as the deer is pulled down, a keeper runs up, hoods the
chetah cuts the victim's throat, and receiving some of the blood in
a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope
is then dragged away, and placed in a receptacle under the hackery,
whilst the chetah is rewarded with a leg for his pains."[1]
[Footnote 1: A pair of fine Chetahs, or Hunting Leopards, may be seen
in the Gardens of the Zoological Society.--ED. M.]
An Alligator in the Ganges.
"A beautiful specimen of an alligator's head was here given by Mr.
Alexander to Lord Combermere. He was rather a distinguished monster,
having carried off at different occasions, six or eight brace of men
from an indigo factory in the neighbourhood. A native, who had long
laid wait for him, at length succeeded in slaying him with poisoned
arrows. One of these notoriously ghaut-frequenting alligators is well
nigh as rich a prize to the poor native who is fortunate enough to
capture him, as a Spanish galleon is to a British frigate; for on
ripping open his stomach, and over-hauling its freight, it is not
unfrequently found to contain 'a choice assortment'--as the Calcutta
advertisers have it--of gold, silver, or brass bangles and anklets,
which have not been so expeditiously digested as their fair owners,
victims of the monster's voracity. A little fat Brahminee child,
'farci an ris,' must be a tempting and tender _bonne bouche_ to these
river gourmands. Horrific legends such as the above, together with a
great deal of valuable advice on the subject, were quite thrown away
upon me; for ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, and the enticing blueness
of the water generally betrayed me into a plunge every evening during
my Gangetic voyage."
Nocturnal Bathing.
"On the occasion of a grand nocturnal bathing ceremony, held at the
great tank called the Indra Damân, I went with a party of three or
four others to witness the spectacle. The walls surrounding the pool
and a cluster of picturesque pavilions in its centre were brilliantly
lighted up with hundreds of cheraugs, or small oil-lamps, casting a
flickering lustre upon the heads and shoulders of about five hundred
men, women, and children, who were ducking and praying, _à corps
perdu,_ in the water. As I glanced over the figures nearest to me,
I discovered floating among the indifferent bathers two dead bodies,
which had either been drowned in the confusion, or had purposely
come to die on the edge of the sacred tank; the cool and apathetic
survivors taking not the slightest notice of their soulless
neighbours."
King John at the Cape.
"The largest house in Simon's Town, and, indeed, the greater part of
the town itself, belongs to an Englishman of the name of Osbond,
who, however, is more generally known by the dignified title of 'King
John.' He was carpenter on board the sixty-gun ship Sceptre, which was
wrecked off this coast some yearn ago. Like Juan, he escaped the sea,
and like Juan he found a Haidee. Being well-favoured and sharp-witted,
he won the heart and the hand of a wealthy Dutch widow, whose dollars
he afterwards, in some bold but successful speculations, turned to
good account. He is said to have laid out ten thousand pounds on
these--to every one but himself--_inhospita littora._ King John is
much respected."
Population of Cape Town.
"The variety of nations, and the numerous shades of complexion
among the people in the streets of Cape Town, are very striking to
a stranger. First may be remarked the substantial Dutchman, with his
pretty, smiling, round-faced, and particularly well-dressed
daughter: then the knot of 'Qui hi's,' sent to the Cape, per doctor's
certificate, to husband their threadbare constitutions, and lavish
their rupees: next the obsequious, smirking, money-making China-man,
with his poking shoulders, and whip-like pig-tail: then the
stout, squat Hottentots--who resemble the Dutch in but one
characteristic!--and half castes of every intermediate tint between
black and white. These are well relieved and contrasted by the
tall, warlike figures and splendid costume of his Majesty's 72nd
Highlanders, who, with the 98th regiment, form the garrison of Cape
Town."
Visit to the Residence of Napoleon at St. Helena.
"We soon came in sight of the level plateau of the Longwood estate,
the residence of the late emperor, and six miles from Plantation
House. Here the country gradually assumes a more desolate and a wilder
look; and the English visitor arrives at the unfortunate and unwelcome
conclusion, that the best part of the island was not given to the
illustrious captive. One cannot avoid agreeing with Sir W. Scott, that
Plantation House should have been accorded to him, in spite of the
detering reasons of its vicinity to the sea, and its sequestered
situation. Longwood, however, has better roads, more space for riding
or driving, and in summer must have been much cooler than the less
sheltered parts of the isle. As we turned through the lodges the old
house appeared at the end of an avenue of scrubby and weather-worn
trees. It bears the exterior of a respectable farm-house, but is now
fast running to decay. On entering a dirty courtyard, and quitting
our horses, we were shown by some idlers into a square building, which
once contained the bed-room, sitting-room, and bath of the _Empereur
des François._ The partitions and floorings are now thrown down, and
torn up, and the apartments occupied for six years by the hero before
whom kings, emperors, and popes had quailed, are now tenanted by
cart-horses!
"Passing on with a groan, I entered a small chamber, with two windows
looking towards the north. Between these windows are the marks of a
fixed sofa: on that couch Napoleon died. The apartment is now occupied
by a threshing machine; 'No bad emblem of its former tenant!' said
a sacrilegious wag. Hence we were conducted onwards to a large room,
which formerly contained a billiard-table, and whose front looks out
upon a little latticed veranda, where the imperial peripatetic--I
cannot style him philosopher--enjoyed the luxury of six paces to and
fro,--his favourite promenade. The white-washed walls are scored with
names of every nation; and the paper of the ceiling has been torn off
in strips as holy relics. Many couplets, chiefly French, extolling and
lamenting the departed hero, adorn or disfigure (according to their
qualities) the plaster walls. The only lines that I can recall to
mind--few are worth it--are the following, written ever the door, and
signed '---- ----, Officier de la Garde Impériale.'
"'Du grand Napoléon le nom toujours cité
Ira de bouche en bouche à la postérité!'"
The writer doubtless possessed more spirit as a sabreur than as a
poet.
"The emperor's once well-kept garden,
"'And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,'
"is now overgrown and choked with weeds. At the end of a walk still
exists a small mound, on which it is said the hero of Lodi, Marengo,
and Austerlitz, amused himself by erecting a mock battery. The little
chunamed tank, in which he fed some fresh-water fish, is quite
dried up; and the mud wall, through a hole in which he reconnoitered
passers-by, is, like the great owner, returned to earth!"
Captain Mundy's volumes are illustrated chiefly with sketches of
Indian sports from the master-hand of Land-seer; and for spirit of
execution they deserve to rank among the finest productions of this
distinguished artist.
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