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ever, as the day dawned, we saw the former galloping after us. They were mounted on very tolerable horses, and armed with sabres like the suwarrs of the Company's magistrates, but extremely ill-dressed, and more like thieves than peaceofficers or soldiers. The Aumeen and Mr. Ricketts's servant had, they said, gone on to prepare things for our reception at the encampment, where we arrived about eight o'clock and found it in a grove of trees, as usual, near a half-ruined village, but surrounded with a greater extent of well-cultivated ground than we were prepared to expect in this neighbourhood.

The Aumeen here called on me, and offered his nuzzur. He was a decent elderly man, looking like an Arab merchant, and was attended by two of the king's chobdars, also respectable men, and Mr. Ricketts's servant, one of the tallest and most powerful men I ever saw. They were followed by a troop of country people with the usual supplies, which were, however, yielded very grudgingly, and with bitter lamenta tions, all the crowd, particularly the women, declaring that they were fleeced to the last penny. They were apparently well satisfied, and certainly a good deal surprised, however, on my telling them that I should pay for the fowls and milk, and give a gratuity of two rupees among the wood and grass cutters; the whole expense only came to three rupees and a half, so cheaply may a great deal of oppression be remedied in this country!

Nothing remarkable occurred during our continuance here, except the care with which the sarbans, and saeeses, brought all the animals, and every thing which could be stolen, immediately under the eye of the sentries. On my observing this circumstance, the reply was immediate, "We are in the Nawab Vizier's country." Hardly any, even of his own people, call him king, and I must say his name seems to be treated very disrespectfully under all denominations.

The waters were so deep a few days ago in the rivers which we had passed during this day's march, that palanquins were floated over by the help of kedgeree-pots, eight of which were competent to support the vehicle, with its contents. It was, however, no very agreeable way of passing a pool of deep water, pushed on by people swimming.

October 20.-The journey this morning was of seven very long coss, through bad roads, with a deep river, and several gullies made by the recent rain. Our station was a large walled village, with gates, and a bazar in a much handsomer style than usual, but the walls bearing marks of decay, and many of the houses roofless, though the shops were neat, and the appearance of the people comfortable and thriving. All was

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FALLEN ELEPHANT.

quiet when we arrived; but the servants who had gone on before with the breakfast tents, had found the place in a state of siege. A large sum of money, said to be 30,000 rupees, on its way to the treasury at Lucknow, had attracted a number of the neighbouring peasantry, who were assembled outside the walls, with their weapons, waiting for the departure of the treasure, while sentries were posted by the escort on all the old towers, and the gates were fast closed. One of our servants applied for a passage in vain; the warders were civil, but peremptory, pointing to the lurking enemy, and asking how they should endanger the treasure of " the refuge of the world."" At last, on more of our sepoys coming up, and finding that we were strong enough to protect them, they gladly opened their gates, and the armed peasantry dispersed themselves. Our camp was fixed beyond the town, near a large pool of water, amid some tall trees, and having at a little distance a grove surrounded by a high wall with a gothic gateway, the garden, as we were told, of a former minister of Oude, named Nawall Sing, who had built the village, and from whom it derived its name.

Ano

Adjoining the pool we saw a crowd of people assembled round a fallen elephant; apprehending that it was one of our own, I urged my horse to the spot. On asking, however, whose it was, a bystander said it belonged to "the asylum of the world," and had fallen down from weakness, which was not surprising, since, instead of an allowance of twenty-five rupees a month, necessary for the keep of an elephant, I was told that these poor creatures, all but those in the immediate stables of his majesty, had for some time back, owing to the dilapidated state of the finances, and the roguery of the commissariate, received only five! They had now given the wretched animal a cordial, and were endeavouring to raise it on its legs, but in vain. It groaned pitifully, but lay quite helpless, and was in fact a mountain of skin and bone. ther elephant of very large size, and in somewhat better plight, was brought to assist; and I was much struck with the almost human expression of surprise, alarm, and perplexity in his countenance, when he approached his fallen companion. They fastened a chain round his neck and the body of the sick beast, and urged him in all ways, by encouragement and blows, to drag him up, even thrusting spears into his flanks. He pulled stoutly for a minute, but on the first groan his companion gave he stopped short, turned fiercely round with a loud roar, and with his trunk and fore feet began to attempt to loosen the chain from his neck. In fact his resistance and refusal to sanction their proceedings were so decisive, that an immediate cry arose of "le-jao," take him away, in which I

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very cordially joined. I asked them if they could get nothing which the fallen animal was likely to eat, urging that, weak as he was, even if they did get him to rise, he would certainly fall again. They seemed sensible of this, and two of them ran for a great bundle of greens and a pot of water; the greens he ate readily enough, but refused the water, which they accounted for by saying he supposed it was physic. He was said to be very old, which the size of his tusks confirmed. Among the group thus assembled were some of the tallest and finest men I have ever seen here, or indeed in Europe. All the crowd were civil and communicative, and I could not help thinking that the peasants of Oude, in every thing but honesty, bore a high rank among those of their own class throughout the world.

In the course of the day a messenger, mounted on a fast trotting camel, (a style of conveyance for couriers very usual in these provinces,) arrived from Mr. Ricketts, his saddle perched high on the top of the hump, his carbine and sabre hanging down on each side, and guiding the animal not with a bridle, but with a small cord fastened to a ring through his nostrils. The message from Mr. Ricketts was that his own aide-de-camp, with one of the king's, would meet me next morning at about six miles from Lucknow, and that if I chose they would bring with them spare elephants for our party. This was fortunate, since on inquiry we found that we had still nearly ten coss between us and the Residency, a greater distance than our animals or foot attendants could get through without some rest, or before the middle of the day. Mr. Rickett's offer, however, made the arrangement easy.

October 21.-We set out at half past three o'clock, and for some time lost our way, there being no other road than such tracks as are seen across ploughed fields in England, the whole country being cultivated, though not enclosed, and much intersected by small rivers and nullahs. The king's suwarrs were, I found, for show only, since they knew nothing about the road, and as for defence I should have been very sorry to be obliged to rely on them. I was pleased, however, and surprised, after all which I had heard of Oude, to find the country so completely under the plough, since were the oppression so great as it is sometimes stated, I cannot think that we should witness so considerable a population, or so much industry. Yet that considerable anarchy and mis-rule exist, the events of yesterday afforded a sufficient reason for supposing.

The bulk of the population is still evidently Hindoo. All the villages have pagodas, while many are without mosques; by far the greater part of the people who pass us on the road,

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have the marks of caste on their foreheads, and it being now a Hindoo festival, the drumming, braying, and clattering of their noisy music, was heard from every little collection of houses which we passed through. At length, and sooner than we expected, we saw a considerable Suwarree," or retinue, of elephants and horses approaching us, and were met by Captain Salmon and the king of Oude's officer, the latter followed by a train of elephants splendidly equipped with silver howdahs, and sufficient to accommodate more than three times the number of our party. A good many suwarrs, in red and yellow, followed Captain Salmon, and a most irregular and picturesque body of infantry, with swords and shields, long matchlock guns, and other guns of every sort and size, spears like spits, composed, sheath and all, of iron, and some silvered over, large triangular green banners, and every thing most unlike the appearance of European war, made up the cortege of Meer Hussun Khan. The whole formed a stage procession of the most interesting and showy kind, in which there was no regularity and little real magnificence, for the dresses of the men and trappings of the elephants were all the worse for wear, and the silver howdahs did not bear a close examination, but were flowing and picturesque dresses, glowing colours, numbers; and the majestic size of the noble animals which formed the most prominent part of the group, produced an effect more pleasing in the eye of a poet or an artist, than the sprucest parade of an English review.

While I was changing elephants, a decent looking man stepped up to me, and begged to know my name and titles at full length, in order, as he said, "to make a report of them to the asylum of the world." I found, on inquiry, that he was the writer of the court circular, a much more minute task, and one considered of far more importance here than in Europe. Every thing which occurs in the family of the King himself, the Resident, the chief officers of state, or any stranger of rank who may arrive, is carefully noted and sent round in writing. And I was told that the exact hour at which I rose, the sort of breakfast I ate, the visits I paid or received, and the manner in which I passed my morning, would all be detailed by the King's chobdars, for the information of their master, whose own most indifferent actions, however, are with equal fairness written down for Mr. Ricketts's inspection. As I mounted my new elephant, the same sort of acclamation of "Bismillah! Ullah Acbar! Ullah Kureen!" was made by the attendants, as I had heard by the Nawab of Dacca's arrival and departure. It is, I find, the ancient Mussulman fashion, and during their stay in Luck

now, my chobdars and bearers learnt it also from those of the King and the Resident. How long they will continue it I do not know. It seems a very pious custom, and one which I should not wish to check, though I certainly should not allow them to adopt the proclamation, which followed on this occasion, of my name and title, so mangled as never name was before.

We now proceeded, three elephants abreast, that on which Mr. Lushington and I rode in the centre. Meer Hussun Khan on the right, and Captain Salmon on the left, with the motley multitude before and the spare elephants behind. The Corries had fallen back, being unable to keep up with us. We thus advanced into Lucknow, through a very considerable population, and crowded mean houses of clay, with the filthiest lanes between them that I ever went through, and so narrow that we were often obliged to reduce our front, and even a single elephant did not always pass very easily. A swarm of beggars occupied every angle and the steps of every door, and all, or nearly all the remaining population were, to my surprise, as much loaded with arms as the inhabitants of the country, a circumstance which told ill for the police of the town, but added considerably to its picturesque effect. Grave men in palanquins, counting their beads and looking like Moullahs, had all two or three sword and buckler lacquies attending on them. People of more consequence, on their elephants, had each a suwarree of shield, spear, and gun, little inferior to that by which we were surrounded, and even the lounging people of the lower ranks in the streets and shop doors, had their shields over their shoulders, and their swords carried sheathed in one hand.

I recollected Sir W. Scott's picture of the streets of London in "The Fortunes of Nigel," but I should apprehend that Lucknow offered at this moment a more warlike exterior than our own metropolis ever did during its most embroiled and troublesome periods. As we advanced, the town began to improve in point of buildings, though the streets remained equally narrow and dirty. We passed some pretty mosques and some large houses, built like the native houses in Calcutta, and the bazars seemed well filled, so far as I could distinguish from the height at which I sat, and the general narrowness of the area. At last we suddenly entered a very handsome street indeed, wider than the High-street at Oxford, but having some distant resemblance to it in the colour of its buildings, and the general form and gothic style of the greater part of them. We saw but little of it, howe ver, as we immediately turned up through some folding-gates into a sort of close, with good-looking houses and small garVOL. I.

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