Augustus himself now stepped ashore with all the dignity of a monarch returning from exile to his dominions, amidst the bows and prostrations of his rejoicing subjects. Great were the salaamings, and manifold the signs of life, which his arrival caused in the group. The syces tightened the girths of the horses; two stately greyhounds rose from a recumbent posture, whilst a couple of little pepper and mustard terriers ran yelping and wagging their tails to greet their master; the _mahout_ dug his _ankous_, or goad, into the elephant’s head, to rouse him from his drowsy state of abstraction, exciting a loud trumpeting scream, as he drove down towards the boat. The gomastah, or manager, a Bengalee, in flowing muslin robes, now advanced with dignified salaam, and made a report of how things had gone on in his absence, whilst a Portuguese, of the complexion of charcoal, with a battered hat and white jacket, named Alfonso da Silva, also had a great deal to say touching the recent operations connected with the manufacture of his master’s indigo. “Now, Mr. Gernon,” said Augustus, “these matters settled, which are you for, a gallop, or a ride on the elephant? take your choice.” “Oh! the elephant,” said I, “by all means. I have never ridden on one, and long to be on that noble fellow, who looks like a moving mountain.” “Then,” said my kind-hearted host, “let us mount. I see they have put the guns in the howdah, and we may have a shot at something as we go along. I must give you a lesson in shooting off an elephant, which is no easy matter to a young hand. Here, _hauthee laou_ (‘bring the elephant’).” Another dig and another startling blast, and the leviathan was alongside of us. “_Buth! buth?_” said the driver, and down knelt the docile beast to receive us. The coolie, or attendant, now applied the ladder, to his side; Augustus ascended, and I followed him. Here, then, was one of my Oriental day-dreams realized, and I fairly boxed up on “the elephant and castle.” ’Tis a fine thing to be mounted on a gallant charger, to spurn the sod, and, catching all his fire, to feel yourself “every inch” a hero; or to dash away in a brave ship over the blue billows with a spanking breeze, as free as the winds that propel you; but I doubt if even they can impart such sensations as you experience when towering aloft on the back of an elephant, nine feet high, moving, with majestic and stately stride, through palmy scenes of orient beauty, you find yourself raised far above the humble pedestrian, and taking in the whole country as with an eagle glance.