3-021-123 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Embarking elephants at Bombay for the Abyssinian Expedition, 1868. Engraving of a sketch by Mr. Frank J. Capp, Bombay Staff Corps. 'A number of Indian elephants, with their keepers and drivers...were embarked on board the Compta...One of them weighed 4 tons 6 cwt...the first attempt to 'sling' the animal gave it the alarm and excited its resistance; but there was a puny human being sitting on the neck of the monster, with an unpleasant-looking hooked instrument in his hand...Once slung, the animal was helpless; but picture its rage when it felt itself rising slowly from terra-firma, which it had never left before! Its roars, its kicks, the furious twistings of its trunk, its whole body writhing under a violent effort to shake itself free, were quite indescribable. Its melancholy eyes seemed even to shed tears in its nervous agitation...notwithstanding all the animal could do, the power of machinery continued to hoist it up...Having been raised to a certain height, it was brought over the hold of the ship and gradually lowered, and while descending into that dismal abode it showed its fury afresh...Nineteen animals altogether were put on board...Each of them, we believe, is to be provided with 170lb. of hay and about 20lb. of grain daily'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.