The British forces in India during a war rarely put elephants into the field for active service, the animals being too conspicuous, and too valuable to risk. But with the Burmese, this was different; they were prodigal of their elephants. During a Burmese war, a garrison of infantry and cavalry marched out with seventeen war elephants, fully caparisoned, and bearing a number of armed men. They advanced upon a fort amid a murderous fire, which killed the men upon them, and their mahouts; but in no case did an elephant lose its head. They stood the fire steadily until their mahouts were shot; and then, feeling themselves unrestrained, they slowly and calmly walked back to their fort, their bravery and courage being greatly admired by the opposing force. In the last half-century, in any revolt, or where Indian native troops have been brought against the English, elephants have been rarely used; experience showing that their slow movements render them unfit for valuable or active service in the field. Perhaps the last time they were seen in their former grandeur was in the war of Coromandel, when the British were fighting the native chiefs. The latter came out on some occasions equipped like the old Mogul emperors, to be described later on. The nabob of Arcot and his famous rival, Chundasaheb, both came upon the field on elephants; and had not a French bullet put an end to the former, a duel by these potentates would have been witnessed. As soon as the nabob caught sight of his rival’s elephant, bedecked with its owner’s standard, he became furious, and offered his mahout a valuable reward if he would make his elephant overthrow that of his enemy, who was the author of his defeat. The mahout was urging the elephant on, when a bullet struck the nabob in the heart, and he fell from the howdah. Soon after this tragic event, Nazir-jing, a son of the Mogul, entered the Carnatic with a most imposing force,—a battalion of thirteen hundred elephants, three hundred thousand soldiers, and eight hundred pieces of cannon. He, too, was shot from his elephant. An elephant duel was observed in the field between Murzafa-jing, the Soubah of the Carnatic, and the nabob of Canoul. The elephants of the rivals were urged toward each other by the mahouts; and Murzafa-jing raised his sword to strike, when his adversary thrust his javelin, which pierced his forehead, killing him on the spot. At the same instant, at least a thousand bullets were fired at the nabob, who also fell, mortally wounded, from his elephant.