whose title has long been a "household word” in the res gestæ of the East.

Sir Lionel, the distinguished son of the once celebrated Charlotte Smith, who was at that time lieutenant-colonel of the 65th regiment, was also president of the "Bobbery Hunt." Under his auspices Í became a member of that famous sporting club, whose celebrity has long since spread from the eastern to the western hemisphere-though whether it still survives the chance and change of time I am unable to inform the curious reader.

At that period we had not subsidized the Mahrattas, nor sent the Peishwa to keep company with other ex-potentates at Benares, as Voltaire sent his dethroned kings to the carnival of Venice. Having, consequently, no territory on the continent, our hunting was entirely confined to the original donation which Charles II. made to the Company, having no use for it himself; or rather to that small portion of it called Colabah. This being a space of not more than five or six miles in circumference, it will be readily imagined that our sport was of avery limited character, especially as the whole of our hunting-ground was nearly covered with soldiers' barracks and officers' bungalows.

We made desperate attempts, however, to persuade ourselves that we were actually hunting; and great was our glorification when we had the good fortune to start a jackal for our English foxhounds. Then, indeed, the members turned out in full score, attired in the handsome uniform of the hunt; while crowds of the uninitiated followed in the rear, and every description of quadruped appeared upon the field, from the high-caste Arab down to the humble tattoo. Then, indeed, we made the welkin ring with our clamorous shouts ; hunting the poor animal in and out of compounds and barrack-yards, taking flying leaps over guns and tumbrils, and scattering drill squads immersed in the mysteries of goose-step. Sometimes a portly Brahmin got enveloped in the mazes of the chase, and invoked the wrath of Mahadeo on our sacrilegious heads; sometimes a palanquin was upset, and its wealthy occupant scattered about on the dusty road, to the uproarious amusement of the mad hunters; sometimes a whole pack of pariah-dogs would fly before us, yelping, howling, snapping at, and biting bewildered foot-passengers in the madness of their fright; while fish-wives, pedlars, and other old women, would scatter their commodities to the winds, to avoid being trampled to death, as we swept along, like the wild huntsmen of German romance, over fence and furrow, through garden and flower-plot-riders tumbling in one direction, horses making summersaults in another-till, at last, weary and worn out, panting with heat and fatigue, we retired to the refreshing bath, to prepare for the enjoyment of the night. Then, after a late dinner, in our splendid club-room, when the social claret-jug circulated round the table, which was loaded with the riches of the eastern Pomona, and the sea-breeze, redolent of health, played refreshingly through open door and window, we recounted our individual exploits, and laughed at the mishaps of our neighbours; or else we woke the night-owl with a catch that would draw three souls out of one weaver,” cheerfully welcoming the small hours, and thus bringing to a happy close the labours of the day, and the glories of the Bobbery Hunt,

CHAPTER L.

A DAY IN THE JUNGLE.

HAVING furnished myself with a stout, active country horse, about fourteen hands high, and undergone a week's drilling with the boar spear, under the tuition of Croker, during which we slaughtered sundry tame porkers that came in our way, without any remorse of conscience, we started about four o'clock one morning for Salsette, to have a day or two in the jungle. Our train consisted of our ghorawallas and grass-cutters for the use and behoof of the nags, our maty-boys for our own especial comfort, each with a brandy-bottle and a goglet of fresh water, three or four coolies with spears and rifles, some others with the dogs, and a couple of bangy-wallas, with basket-boxes, containing some creature comforts and changes of linen slung on bamboos across their shoulders: our respective dubashes had been sent on the evening before, to prepare breakfast for us.

As we rode across the Esplanade, the Parsees were already congregating to prostrate themselves on the first appearance of their god, as the glorious luminary rose above the horizon; but, though anxious to witness this novel and interesting sight, we were obliged to hurry on, for, as Croker remarked, we had eight or nine miles still to cover; and though the scent lies well before daylight, it evaporates very rapidly after sunrise.

We accordingly pushed on through Black Town, and past Byculla and Parel, the governor's residence, till in due time we arrived at the shallow strait that separates Bombay from Salsette, across which Governor Duncan had recently thrown a causeway; but, as we cantered our nags over his excellency's road, we little dreamt that some forty years later, even while I pen these lines, the same narrow opening would be spanned by a railway, and the crowning triumph of British science, capital, and skill exhibited for the first time to the wondering eyes of thousands upon thousands of our sable fellowsubjects.

But hark to cover! The sun is just tipping the lofty pinnacles of the Western Ghauts, whose magnificent range extends on our right beyond the Tannah river; while on our left are the rocky ridges of Salsette, crowned with hanging woods and matted jungle, interspersed with richly-cultivated fields, hamlets, and cottages; the road, as we proceed, becoming embowered under lofty trees, and discovering many a vista of some of the most magnificent scenery in the world.

We soon came to a small choultry in the wood, where we found a host of peons, shikarees, and beaters, armed with latties, or long bamboos, rusty matchlocks, hunting-spears, and tulwars, under the command of the jemmadars of some neighbouring villages, who all salaamed profoundly to the great Croke Sahib, as they called him,

*Messengers and hunters.

by whose orders they were assembled. We also found our dubashes getting breakfast ready; and as this meal had to be despatched before we commenced business, we hurried them in their preparations.

While these were in progress, a horde of fifty or sixty wild-looking savages, all naked but the langooty, rushed down upon us from every opening in the jungle; and, drawing up in front of the choultry, saluted Croke Sahib as they would have done Nimrod, or Nadir Shah, or any other mighty hunter of biped or quadruped. These were charcoal-burners, fellows that dwell entirely in the woods, and hold no other communion with their civilized brethren of Bombay than by the silent interchange between their charcoal and such commodities as they may require from the market. On the present occasion, it seems, they volunteered their services, and those of twenty or thirty pariah dogs that accompanied them, to the great Croke Sahib; and the latter, having addressed a few sentences to them in their own dialect, which appeared to give general satisfaction, they all squatted down on the greensward, and awaited further orders with the most exemplary patience.

Croker now held a conference with the jemmadars and shikarees, and a plan of operations was laid down; in pursuance of which they, and the beaters and charcoal-burners, with all their pariah dogs, who, having excellent noses, are very useful on such occasions, set off to take up good positions for beating an extensive sugar-plantation, in which a sounder, or herd of hogs, had been marked down by the shikarees the evening before.

They were also attended by several horn-blowers and tomtombeaters, it being necessary to muster on that side of the plantation as powerful a concert of diabolical sounds as possible, to interrupt the repose of our swinish enemies.

We then sat down to an excellent breakfast, at which, in addition to other good things, we were regaled with the bumbalo, a superior sort of sand-eel, served up with kedgeree, a dish consisting of boiled rice and split pease, enriched with butter, and coloured with turmeric. We had also the pomfret, a flat fish that abounds at Bombay, of so exquisite a flavour that a celebrated gourmand swore it was worth a voyage to India to enjoy it. In spite, however, of all these viands, we hurried over our morning meal; Croker from constitutional eagerness to be at the sport, and I from an ardent curiosity to witness, for the first time, this boasted Oriental pastime.

Our horses, having been well groomed and fed in the interim, were also eager for the field; and as I sprang on the back of mine, he bounded forward as if he actually shared in the excitement of the chase; while I firmly grasped my spear, a bamboo about nine feet long, with a glittering blade of eight inches, which Croker had sharpened on a hone for me, till its double edge was like that of a

razor.

"Now rein in a little, Percy," said my friend, "and take my advice: fair and easy goes far, you know, and that shall be my motto; but you, I see, are full of tuzzy-muzzy, and all the rest of the balderdash."

"You wouldn't have me go to a hunt," I said, "as I would to a funeral."

"By no manner of means," replied Croker; "but you'll have occasion for all your horse's mettle when the boar is at speed." "Speed!" I exclaimed; “ha, ha, ha! The speed of a pig! That's capital!

Laugh, and welcome," said Croker; "but take a fool's advice. Keep your horse well in hand, and look to your seat, which I see is that of a foxhunter; but you'll find the ground about here full of man-traps, and now and then a bowlie,* half full of water, that may bring you up in spite of the proverb."

66

Ha, ha, ha! very good," I replied; " I replied; "the morning air has sharpened your wit, Croker."

Now then," he continued, "you and I will take our places on one side of the sugar-cane piece as silent as the grave, while the beaters make the devil's own row at the other. Then, when the hog bolts out, let us start fair for the first spear in him; keep you to his left side, and when you deliver your spear right behind the shoulder, file off to your left, to make way for the next comer."

I promised to observe all his directions, and we proceeded accordingly to take up our ground.

But don't forget," said Croker, reining back, "that the boar's tusk is six inches clear of the jaw, and that if he gives you or your horse a rip, he will fit you for Padre Burrows's godown."+

"I'll keep a steady eye on the gentleman," I said.

One word more," said Croker: "the boar always rips, and the sow always bites; so take care of your toes from the female salute." We at length took up our respective positions, about one hundred yards apart, on one side of a fine sugar-cane plantation, surrounded by fields of wheat, barley, and other grain. On the opposite side of the plantation our beaters were ranged, about five or six feet distant from each other, waiting for the signal to begin. This being given by Croker, they advanced regularly, beating the canes with their latties, or long bamboos, shouting with all their might, sounding horns and beating tom-toms; which, added to the yelping and barking of two dozen dogs, made such an infernal din as might have scared all the boars in the jungle.

Meanwhile, we were as silent as the grave, eagerly expecting the outburst of the foe; while our horses, pricking their ears, and occasionally shuddering, seemed to anticipate the advent of some terrific monster. My own mind, I frankly confess, began to be somewhat disturbed at being so long kept on the rack of expectation; for, though a daring horseman after the hounds, and generally in at the death wherever I hunted,-in Ireland, in Leicestershire, and in the Peninsula, yet the situation in which I now stood was so perfectly novel, and the nature of the game was so avowedly savage and ferocious, that I may well be excused for not feeling quite at home, any more than Peter the Great himself did, in this the first of my fields.

* A well.

+ The churchyard, or "storehouse," of the Reverend Mr. Burrows, at that time garrison chaplain at Bombay.

My courage, however, had not time to ooze out at my fingers' ends, for the canes_suddenly crashed, and were rent asunder within ten yards of where I stood; then forth rushed, with a horrible grunt, a huge black monster, larger than the largest pig I had ever seen, with long tusks, bristles erect, and champing his foaming mouth, while his fiery eyes glared around with unmistakable fury.

My horse gave a sudden spring, then stood trembling, as if rooted to the spot, till Croker shouted "charge!" when, driving the spurs into his flanks, I dashed madly after the flying foe, followed by Croker, and all the dogs in full and glorious cry.

But if the size and ferocity of the monster had surprised me, I was perfectly astonished at his fleetness. It was somewhat early in the season; and he had not been feeding long enough on the luxuriant crop of canes, which are so nutritive and fattening, to become indolent and fleshy; he therefore sprang through the wheat with a rapidity which at one time actually distanced us all. We had to pass through some paddy-fields, however, which, being deep and muddy, apparently distressed him, and we evidently gained upon the chase; till, at last, as we tore away over some broken ground, interspersed with rocks and low jungle, I came within a reasonable distance, and delivered my spear with all the force and velocity of which I was master. Unluckily, however, a large pariah-dog had at the moment seized the boar by the left ear, which, causing him to swerve a little to the right, my spear pinned the dog to the earth, and the liberated savage rushed on again with fresh rapidity.

"Way there!" shouted Croker, just at my horse's crupper; and spurring out of his path, I turned off to seek another spear. With this I was soon furnished by my ghorawalla, a very active fellow, who had nearly kept up with us; and, resuming the chase, I went full tilt after Croker.

Being a heavy rider, from his unwieldy stature, my friend lacked the speed with which I had opened the chase, but he made up for this by superior experience; and, just as I was coming up with him, hand over hand, he darted his spear right through the body of the boar. Not being struck in a vital part, however, the monster still kept on his way towards a jungle copse that would have effectually screened him from our pursuit; but, ere he had gained this friendly shelter, I plunged my spear into him just behind the left shoulder, and as pierced his heart he instantly fell dead. I had thus the honour of killing the first game; though Croker had the still greater glory of delivering the first spear, and drawing the first blood.

Several of our attendants now came up, and innumerable praises were showered upon us, while the panting dogs and horses rested after their severe and heavy run. We then wended our way back to the plantation, which some of our most experienced shikarees assured us still contained more of the sounder, or herd; and having sent our beaters off to their former post, we took up our stations as before. But this time we were left waiting a much longer period; for the game kept so close, that it was not in the power of voice or tomtom to dislodge it from the dense and almost impervious cover. It was in vain that the beaters thrashed the canes unmercifully: equally