"During the seige of Bhurtpore, in the year 1805, when the British army,
with its countless host of followers and attendants, and thousands of
cattle, had been for a long time before the city, the approach of the
warm season and of the dry hot winds caused the quantity of water in the
neighbourhood of the camps to begin to fail; the ponds or tanks had
dried up, and no more water was left than the immense wells of the
country could furnish. The multitude of men and cattle that were
unceasingly at the wells, occasioned no little struggle for priority in
procuring the supply, and the consequent confusion on the spot was
frequently very considerable. On one occasion, two elephant-drivers,
each with his elephant, the one remarkably large and strong, and the
other comparatively small and weak, were at the well together; the small
elephant had been provided by his master with a bucket for the occasion,
which he carried at the end of his proboscis; but the larger animal
being destitute of this necessary vessel, either spontaneously, or by
desire of his keeper, seized the bucket, and easily wrested it away from
his less powerful fellow-servant. The latter was too sensible of his
inferiority openly to resist the insult, though it is obvious that he
felt it; and great squabbling and abuse ensued between the keepers.

"At length, the weaker animal, watching the opportunity when the other
was standing with his side to the well, retired backwards a few paces,
in a very quiet unsuspicious manner, and then rushing forward with all
his might, drove his head against the side of the other, and fairly
pushed him into the well. It may easily be imagined that great
inconvenience was immediately experienced, and serious apprehensions
quickly followed, that the water in the well, on which the existence of
so many seemed in a great measure to depend, would be spoiled by the
unwieldy brute which was precipitated into it; and as the surface of the
water was nearly twenty feet below the common level, there did not